EMEA Daily: Norway’s Visma Acquires Danish Firm Acubiz, JPMorgan’s British Retail Bank Chase Expands Staff

In today’s top Europe, Middle East and Africa news, Norway’s Visma acquires Danish expense management solution Acubiz and J.P. Morgan’s British retail bank Chase expands its staff and its product suite. Plus, Klarna teams with GoCardless for its U.S. expansion, the European Union may regulate how gig platforms use algorithms, and Moneyhub and BR-DGE collaborate on open banking.

Norway’s Visma Acquires Danish Expense Management Solution to Drive Enterprise Market Growth

In a move to accelerate its growth within the human resources and payroll services sector, Norwegian software service firm Visma has announced the acquisition of Danish FinTech company Acubiz.

Integrated into Visma Enterprise’s Human resource management in Denmark, Acubiz is one of Scandinavia’s leading suppliers of expense management, with a market share of 20% in Denmark and a growing foothold in emerging markets.

JPMorgan’s British Retail Bank Chase Expanding Staff, Product Suite

J.P. Morgan’s British retail bank Chase is continuing to expand its staff as it strategically moves into investment and savings services by integrating acquired digital wealth manager Nutmeg and rolling out its consumer lending product suite.

Hundreds of people will be added to the staff next year, taking its workforce over 1,000.

Klarna, GoCardless A2A Pact Spotlights BNPL’s Continued Traction Over Bank Rails

For the continued uptake of buy now, pay later (BNPL), it’s the rails that will make the difference for debit. Against that backdrop, Klarna is enabling account-to-account payments via bank rails for their purchases, in a bid to make further inroads against credit cards.

On Tuesday (Dec. 14), the Swedish company said that U.S. users of its BNPL app can pay installments through direct transfers from their accounts, in collaboration with GoCardless.

Klarna Teams With GoCardless for US Expansion

BNPL platform Klarna on Tuesday (Dec. 14) announced that it has teamed up with account-to-account payment company GoCardless to roll out bank debit payments to more than 21 million customers across the U.S. for its Pay in 4 offering and its financing solution.

“The U.S. is a key market for Klarna, and we continue to see strong growth, doubling our customer base to over 21 million from last year,” Koen Köppen, chief technology officer at Klarna, said in the joint announcement.

Ukrainian TASCOMBANK Will Test Digital Currency on Stellar Blockchain

The Ukrainian commercial bank TASCOMBANK is working with the FinTech Bitt to issue an electronic hryvnia — the country’s national currency — on the Stellar network.

The bank announced the pilot program Tuesday (Dec. 14), saying the program would involve testing the electronic currency’s payroll capabilities, peer-to-peer payments and merchant payments.

UK Regulator Advocates Change to Google, Apple’s ‘Vice-Like Grip’ on Mobile App Ecosystems

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published an interim report on Tuesday (Dec. 14) that found Google and Apple “exercise a vice-like grip over mobile devices.”

Andrea Coscelli, head of the regulator, is concerned that this duopoly over how people use mobile phones is “causing millions of people across the U.K. to lose out.”

EU May Regulate How Gig Platforms Use Algorithms

On Dec. 9, the European Union announced a legislative package with proposals to improve the working conditions of people using digital labor platforms.

While many platform workers are truly self-employed as defined by the new proposed rules, there are an estimated 5.5 million people working in the EU through digital labor platforms who they believe may be incorrectly classified as self-employed.

CM.com to Acquire AI Firm Building Blocks

Dutch conversational commerce cloud software company CM.com has begun negotiations to acquire the consumer artificial intelligence firm Building Blocks.

On Tuesday (Dec. 14), CM announced the planned acquisition on its website, saying that Building Blocks’ combination of data science software and services allows customers to “build more relevant and personalized interactions across their businesses.”

Moneyhub, BR-DGE Collaborate on Open Banking

Open data and payments platform Moneyhub and the payment orchestration service BR-DGE announced Tuesday (Dec. 14) that they have joined forces.

According to the two companies, BR-DGE will integrate Moneyhub’s open banking tech into its platform, which offers one point of integration for several payment options.

Calling for New Regulatory Framework, BoE Governor Says Crypto Becoming Threat to UK Financial Stability

Cryptocurrency is growing fast enough that it may soon become a systemic risk to U.K. financial stability, the Bank of England (BoE) warned in a report released on Monday (Dec. 13).

The BoE’s Financial Stability report for December focuses on four areas of risk: COVID-19 and the economy, bank resiliency, mortgage measures and crypto-assets.