Open Banking has revolutionised the payments sector in recent years and we’re in an exciting period for FinTech innovation. Set up to facilitate the vision of PSD2 in the UK, the Open Banking organisation encourages the use of APIs to access data from the UK’s main banks to provide innovative financial products and services for consumers and businesses. In this blog, we explore how these APIs are driving a new era of instant payments.

 
In today’s digital payment age and Open Banking era, consumers and businesses increasingly demand fast, simple and error-free payments. Financial institutions and PSPs know that ‘friction’ is a bad word when it comes to the payment process and they are very keen to improve straight-through processing. So, how can companies reduce payment errors and ensure that their payment process is seamless?

 
Our Founder and CEO Mark Bradbury, a Fintech Finance video regular, joined Accuity’s David White on the first of Fintech Finance’s “Virtual Arena” video series, sparked by the current lockdown restrictions, to discuss Accuity’s recent acquisition of Apply Financial.

Check out the video and listen to the guests talk to FF’s Ali Paterson about how the FinTech acquisition came about, what the key reasons were for the move and what it means for the industry. Plus, our blog contains the key takeaways from this intriguing interview.

In today’s fast-changing digital payments space, how can you ensure that you stay compliant with new rules and regulations for payment data sharing and processing? Real-time payments, Open Banking, PSD2, SCA - there are a lot of factors impacting the Financial Services sector. In this blog, we look at how to remain PSD2 compliant in this modern banking era.

 
In today’s modern payments space and Open Banking era, businesses need to ensure that they remain compliant with new payment services regulations. The new Directive on payment services (PSD2) was introduced to standardise communication between banks and third-party service providers (PISPs and AISP) while harmonising and bolstering the authentication process.

 
In a fast-evolving Financial Services industry, APIs are becoming the go-to solution for many banks and payment service providers. FinTech companies are developing APIs for various purposes, but with the overall mission of improving the speed, efficiency and accuracy of the payment experience. With Validate API, Apply Financial offers next-gen payment validation solutions which support these improvements, whilst bolstering compliance with global payment regulations.

 
As anyone who was at Sibos 2019 in London will testify, it is an exciting time to be in FinTech, especially as a service provider in the UK. London, in particular, has become a leading hub of FinTech innovation. FinTech collaboration is key, and we recently partnered with fellow London-based payment technology provider Currencycloud. In this blog, we discuss how our cloud-based solutions combine to help improve cross-border payments.

 
At Apply Financial, we’re really excited that Sibos is coming to the UK this year. Sibos is the world’s premier annual Financial Services conference and networking event, organised by SWIFT. For the first time, the Sibos conference will be hosted in London, in the ExCel Centre. The Apply team will be there. Here’s our preview of Sibos 2019.

 
Next week is the ACT Annual Conference 2019 in Manchester and the Apply Financial Team is looking forward to another action-packed event. This key topic for ACT 2019 is “Embracing Disruption - Dare to Think Differently”, and within an ever-changing digital landscape, it’s not surprising that the focus is on innovation and change.