Níamh Curran - Community Author: Finextra Research

The Spring Budget: How does it impact fintech?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

The Spring Budget: How does it impact fintech?

Jeremy Hunt, UK chancellor of the exchequer, presented his Spring Budget to a raucous House of Commons earlier today. It has been speculated this is the last budget this government will present, with the potential of a UK General Election looming. From a fintech perspective, Hunt said the UK is on track to become the world’s next Silicon Valley. Th...

06 March 2024 /regulation

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What’s happening at Temenos?

Temenos shares dropped on 15th February after Hindenburg Research published a report with damning allegations which claimed the company had major accounting irregularities and failed products. Temenos has refuted the allegations made in the report, stating that the claims are inaccurate and false. Here is a recap on the players involved in this sto...

27 February 2024 /retail

The FinCrime outlook 2024: Money mules, AI, and new PSR rules

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

The FinCrime outlook 2024: Money mules, AI, and new PSR rules

Financial crime is on the rise every year, as criminals hone their tools with new technologies and find more ways to circumvent controls. As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, users should be aware of the threats they pose. So what kind of developments might we expect from the coming year, and what have we learned from the mistakes made in 2...

22 February 2024 /crime

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is Faster Payments?

TCS emerged as a leading contender earlier this week to take over the running of the UK’s Faster Payments Service, according to Sky News. This would mean they take over from the previous operator Vocalink, owned by Mastercard. My colleague Dom previously covered what instant payments are, but here I’m going to look at the UK Faster Payments schem...

08 February 2024 /payments

Labour’s Financial Services Review: Everything fintechs need to know

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

Labour’s Financial Services Review: Everything fintechs need to know

The UK’s Labour Party published its Financial Services Review this week and highlighted fintech as the future of financial services in the UK. The Review has been released ahead of a potential election later this year. The foreword of the report said: “We believe a strong financial services sector will drive investment in jobs and new industries....

01 February 2024 /regulation

What is the SEPA Payment Account Access Scheme?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is the SEPA Payment Account Access Scheme?

Truelayer became the first participant in the SEPA Payment Account Access Scheme (SPAA), building on open banking initiatives. The SPAA programme goes beyond PSD2 compliance and creates further opportunities in open banking. Yet not much has been discussed on what this scheme’s intentions are and what impact It might have on the open banking mark...

18 January 2024 /devops

What is an ETF? All you need to know after the US SEC approves Bitcoin spot ETFs

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is an ETF? All you need to know after the US SEC approves Bitcoin spot ETFs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced its approval of 11 bitcoin spot ETFs, allowing for trading to begin as early as today. There has been a lot of buzz and build-up to this outcome, not least because the SEC’s X account was reportedly hacked resulting in their determination being tweeted a day early. For many, this is the...

11 January 2024 /crypto

Are stablecoins the next opportunity in payments?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

Are stablecoins the next opportunity in payments?

In 2023, we have seen stablecoins - cryptocurrency designed to have a relatively stable price, typically by being pegged to a commodity or fiat currency – being embraced by some of the biggest payment players like Visa and PayPal. Despite being less than a decade old, more than 11 trillion in stablecoins were settled on-chain in 2022, accountin...

09 January 2024 /crypto

Who benefits from cutting interchange fees?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

Who benefits from cutting interchange fees?

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has recommended a cap on cross-border interchange fees after its market review into the fees. This is not the only interchange fees story to hit the headlines this week. Earlier this week, the Canadian government came to an agreement with Visa and Mastercard to lower their interchange fees. From next Autumn, sm...

14 December 2023 /payments

Generative AI cannot replace branch banking – Niamh’s hot take of the month

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

Generative AI cannot replace branch banking – Niamh’s hot take of the month

NatWest announced in November 2023 that they were integrating generative AI into their chatbot tool Cora, which saw the launch of Cora+. Generative AI has been one of the hottest topics throughout 2023, and that is only likely to continue into 2024 as companies like OpenAI expand their products and capabilities. The technology offers a lot of ...

13 December 2023 /inclusion /ai

OpenAI: What just happened to the CEO Sam Altman?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

OpenAI: What just happened to the CEO Sam Altman?

Sam Altman is being reinstated as the CEO of OpenAI after unexpectedly being removed from the position by the board last Friday. OpenAI is responsible for the creation of ChatGPT and recently announced a new product which will allow companies to create custom versions of AI chatbots, which the company has called GPTs, without any coding. However, ...

23 November 2023 /startups /ai

What is a DDoS attack and what impact do they have on financial services?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is a DDoS attack and what impact do they have on financial services?

ChatGPT saw an outage last week which has been blamed on a Distributed Denial-of-Services (DDoS) attack. DDoS attacks are nothing new within the financial cybersecurity world, the first is believed to have occurred in 1999, commonly known as the Mafiaboy attack against the University of Minnesota, but there were similar instances that predate this....

16 November 2023 /crime

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