Every Wednesday, we delve into the latest fintech updates from across the UK. This week sees Starling Bank sign up three Lionesses; while Chase bank launches its refer-a-friend scheme throughout the UK.
Lionesses join forces with Starling Bank
As part of Starling Bank’s sponsorship of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, one former and two current England players have signed deals to be the faces of this campaign. The UK based challenger bank has launched its campaign titled ‘Our Time’ which aims to highlight the barriers that continue to be (and still can be) overcome in women’s football.
Manchester City midfielder Jill Scott (currently on loan at Aston Villa), Manchester City winger Lauren Hemp and former Arsenal forward turned TV presenter, Rachel Yankey are the three women to sign deals and head the campaign. The trio will feature in an ad campaign that will feature most prominently in London and Manchester; through both traditional ‘out of home’ campaign mediums and in various videos and blogs featuring the three exploring their experiences in women’s football.
Jill Scott said “there’s so much anticipation surrounding the Women’s EURO 2022 tournament and even more momentum being made for the women’s sport. For women players like myself, it really is Our Time.”
Chase launches its refer-a-friend scheme
Digital bank Chase has launched its UK-first refer-a-friend scheme which will allow its customers to earn £20 per member of friends and family that they successfully refer. This can be done with up to twenty new members that use their unique referral code; meaning that each customer can earn up to £400 solely through referrals.
The scheme also tries to encourage new customers to open and deposit money into Chase accounts themselves. The newly referred customer can earn £20 by proving eligible to open an account and depositing £20 within 30 days. The news follows the launch of the new Chase Saver account with a 1.5 per cent AER interest rate.
Chase’s chief marketing officer, Deborah Keay, explained “The new refer-a-friend offer is just a small token from us to reward our customers and make it easy for them to share and recommend the Chase experience to their family and friends.”
ID-Pal officially launches in the UK
Identity verification provider ID-Pal officially launched in the UK this week. The Dublin-based company supports businesses of all sizes across Ireland, the US, the EU and the UK. ID-Pal aims to put a stop to rising levels of financial crime which has been causing monetary and reputational damage to companies.
The rise in these crimes has been accelerated by the push to move many aspects of business online due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Colum Lyons, founder and chief executive officer of ID-Pal said: “Our unique blend of ID checks, all powered by a completely technology-first process, means multi-layered verification takes place on any ID document in real time. Using AI and machine-learning offers greater accuracy in correctly classifying a document and reduces the margin for error and need for manual intervention.”
Tide and Sage partner to launch Tide Accounting
Business financial platform Tide has announced a new partnership with Sage to create an end-to-end accounting and tax solution specifically for small businesses. The launch of the new Tide Accounting comes as a result of this partnership. It enables Tide customers to benefit from automated accounting and bookkeeping services from within their bank account.
Tide stated that the platform will offer its users real-time insight into their business, updated reports when a new transaction has been processed and will be simple to use with automated accounting.
“Most business owners find accounting a daunting task and struggle with being compliant, they need a solution that simplifies it for them.” said Tide’s CEO, Oliver Prill, “Through Tide Accounting, small business owners will get access to a simple and more affordable accounting software tailored to their business.”
Fineco Bank continues strong UK growth
Trading and investment bank Fineco announced a strong start to 2022 in the UK, with its client numbers rising above 20,000; having acquired almost 2,000 of these in the first four months of this year.
The bank offers a premium trading and investing platform to its customers and has expressed a strong desire to only attract experienced and loyal traders.
Paulo Di Grazia, the deputy general manager and head of global business at Fineco bank said “Our offering in the UK is proceeding in the right direction: we are attracting experienced traders, who are loyal and looking for a combination of best-in-class price and quality. We are targeting a quality cluster of clients as we are not focused on ‘hit-and-run’ highly speculative and volatile customers.”