As Finextra pulls the shutters down on 2018, we take a look back at our most popular news items and community engagement activities over the course of the past year. The site will re-open for business on 2 January 2019.
Top new stories of 2018
January
Standard Chartered establishes fintech innovation and investment unit
Standard Chartered has created a new business unit, SC Ventures, to invest in promising fintech startups and accelerate innovation initiatives across the group.
February
Banco Santander prepares for Q1 roll out of personal payments via Ripple
Banco Santander has set a Q1 2018 launch date for the introduction of same day mobile international payments for personal customers using Ripple's distributed ledger technology.
March
EBAday agenda to spell out new payments paradigm
Innovations in technology and practitioner insights into payment trends will top the agenda at EBAday 2018, Europe's leading payments and transaction banking conference, which is being staged this year at the ICM-Internationales Congress Centre in Munich.
April
TSB customers rage as migration to Sabadell platform goes awry
Some customers of UK bank TSB are reporting serious data breaches after the bank's online and mobile channels were cobbled as it migrated accounts from a legacy Lloyds platform to the Proteo4 system from new owner Banco Sabadell.
May
HSBC launches Connected Money app
HSBC has taken another step into the open banking era through the launch of its Connected Money app, enabling customers to see account information from all their providers in one place.
June
10,000 jobs could be lost to robots says Citi
US bank Citi has warned that it could shed half of its 20,000 tech and ops staff in the next five years due to the rise of robotics and automation.
July
Starling Bank flips the debit card on its head
Starling Bank is working to upend the payments card, flipping the card to a vertical axis and doing away with embossed numbering in an effort to more accurately reflect the way people interact with plastic at ATMs and checkout counters.
August
Starling to help RBS develop digital bank
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reportedly enlisted the help of challenger bank Starling in its efforts to develop a digital bank of its own.
September
HSBC aims to dodge the iceberg with digital-only banking project
HSBC is reportedly building a stand-alone digital banking startup for small business customers in an attempt to fend off competition from app-based challenger rivals.
October
Most banks will be made irrelevant by 2030 - Gartner
Within 12 years time, 80% of financial firms will either go out of business or be rendered irrelevant by new competition, changing customer behaviour and advancements in technology, according to forecasts by Gartner.
November
Costa Coffee launches contactless reusable cups
Barclaycard has joined forces with UK chain Costa Coffee to launch a reusable coffee cup with integrated contactless payments technology that enables users to pay for their caffeine with a wave of their mug.
December
Currencies Direct switches on xCurrent from Ripple for Indian remittances
Currencies Direct is to open a new real-time cross-border remittance corridor to India using Ripple's xCurrent payment protocol.
Most commented
UK Finance proposes payments tax to compensate fraud victims
Mastercard enlists Worldpay to push Vocalink's Pay by Bank app
Cash is the enemy
Deutsche Bank teams with airlines on new payments model
How Open Banking will blow core systems out of the water
Blogs
Collaboration: The key to customer stickiness
Blockchain World Wire: should Ripple worry?
SWIFT GPI vs Ripple Payments
Cryptocurrency - so, the bitcoin bubble is bursting - what next?
Blockchain for trade finance: a network business