The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | May 27th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

SMEs: Backbone of the UK economy

Capital on Tap, the small business credit card and spend management platform, has expanded its partnership with Plaid to the United Kingdom. This builds upon the two companies’ partnership in the US, which began in January 2023.

Capital on Tap will now be able to leverage Plaid’s open banking infrastructure to provide UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with more efficient access to funding.

“SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy,” said Brian Dammeir, Head of Europe at Plaid. “We are delighted to play our part in helping Capital on Tap make it easier for SMEs to seek mission-critical funding”.

Spanish banking giant BBVA has teamed up with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, to provide generative AI tools to its workforce.

BBVA has begun rolling out 3,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses to employees in its central services in Spain, aiming to enhance productivity and process efficiency while fostering innovation across the organization.

The bank plans to eventually distribute licenses to employees in other key countries, ensuring that all departments have access to ChatGPT. This will enable licensed employees to collaborate on various projects with their colleagues.

Ricardo Martín Manjón, BBVA’s global head of data, stated that this partnership will revolutionize customer support and personalized services, while also boosting creativity among employees.

Payment Service Operator

Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Ltd. (RIDBL) has announced a strategic partnership with 1LINK, Pakistan’s Payment Service Provider / Payment Service Operator.

The signing ceremony took place at the 1LINK Office in Park Towers, Karachi and was attended by the senior management of both organizations, symbolizing their dedication to innovation with excellence.

A distinguishing feature of RIDBL will be its status as a Shariah compliant and purely digital entity, eschewing traditional brick-and-mortar branches in favour of a streamlined, mobile-first approach.

Mastercard and Payment24 have extended their engagement across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) to help bolster security and drive innovation within the fleet and fuel payment industry.

This partnership not only drives innovation in the fleet and fuel payments sector but also aims to speed up the transition to the secure EMV standard and help fleet operators reduce the risk of fraud associated with magnetic strip fleet cards.

“By combining Mastercard’s leading payment technology with Payment24’s innovative and proven fuel payments platform, we deliver a solution for the region that enhances security and adds significant value and convenience for customers,” said Clyde Rosanowski, Senior Vice President of Commercial Solutions, EEMEA at Mastercard.

What is the buzz

Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML) has been fined £61.6 million by UK regulators due to problems in its trading systems and controls. The penalty includes £33,880,000 from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and £27,766,200 from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The FCA reported that in 2022, CGML’s system failures caused the accidental sale of $1.4 billion in European equities, resulting in a brief drop in several European indices.

In a statement Citi commented: “We are glad to resolve this issue from over two years ago, which was caused by an individual error quickly identified and fixed. We have since improved our systems and controls and are committed to full regulatory compliance.”