In Europe, Cross-Border FinTech And FI Efforts Eye Speed And Remittances

In Europe, cross-border payments are heating up, with cross-border efforts between tech-nimble FinTech firms and more traditional financial services players.

In one example, Zurich-based financial startup Numbrs has linked with German insurer Allianz to develop a finance app, which will offer a Numbrs app in an insurance solution offered by the German firm. That comes, reported finews.com, as the FinTech previously inked a deal with AXA’s German business. The FinTech offers a personal finance app, used in Germany and the U.S., and consumers are able to pick banking and insurance apps from partner firms.

Separately, LHV said it will be providing FinTech clients with the ability to make payments in pounds, beginning in June. Per reports, the company has an account already established with the Bank of England, and is joining the Faster Payments scheme. The LVH Connect offering, thus, will be the only banking API to offer FinTech firms a connection to the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and pound-based payments. The connection will let FinTech firms make real-time pound and euro payments. The Faster Payments scheme also allows for transactions with a value up to £250,000 (more than $317,000 USD) per payment.

Faster Payments aims to reduce payment times between different banks’ customer accounts. Times for transactions to be settled will be whittled down from the standard three working days with the Bacs system to a few seconds, according to reports.

Andres Kitter, head of LHV’s U.K. branch, said, “Going live with Faster Payments through our LHV branch in the U.K. is very exciting for us, as we’ve been working toward this moment since we expanded to London just over a year ago. Despite the turbulent times resulting from Brexit, our inaugural year in the U.K. has been hugely successful — we’ve more than doubled our existing client base, and reached profitability well ahead of schedule.”

Separately, Ripple-backed InstaReM, the cross-border border payments firm, is setting its sights on remittances. As reported by AMBCrypto, the company announced plans to improve financial inclusion in a way that also boosts remittances. In the wake of IntsaReM closing a $41 million funding round, the company is linking with Thailand’s Kasikornbank for cross-border bank clients. InstaReM helps facilitate remittances for a number of Asia’s top banks and financial institutions.