Apply Financial Blog

 
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.

Round Table Report – Challenges, disruption and opportunities in an instant payments world

Discussion hosted by Inbound FinTech, led by Apply Financial, Ebury Group, Form3 and Railsbank, on 28^th February 2019

To the end-user, the advent of instant payments is an overdue recognition by banks and the broader payments industry of new realities and expectations in the digital economy. To payments providers, especially long-established players, the pros and cons are less clear cut. Instant payments can be viewed as both an exciting opportunity to deliver new services and a potentially terrifying existential threat.  

 
When the digital age gives us the power to make every-day commercial and financial decisions at the touch of a screen, we expect payments to be executed in real time too.

At the retail level, great strides are being made to deliver a truly seamless real-time user experience. In the B2B payments space, the needs and challenges are slightly different, with transparency and security often regarded as important as speed. But the opportunities are no less exciting and transformational – if the industry can work together to put the necessary building blocks in place.

What does SEPA stand for?

The Single Euro Payments Area allows people and businesses throughout Europe to process and receive credit transfers, Direct Debits, and card payments just as easily as they would domestically.

The payment or transaction page is the most important interaction many businesses can have with their customers. It might be their only interaction, but it might also be the start of a long relationship, and this can depend on how easy and secure the payment process is.

80% of internet users own a smartphone, which means a large portion of online activity happens on a smaller screen. This doesn’t just mean ecommerce sites need to make sure they’re catering to mobile customers, banks are also focusing more on this particular part of their customers’ experience.