Welcome to our weekly news roundup, of headlines which we thought would be beneficial to our readers. We’ll bring you a weekly dose of some of the most interesting titles which have surfaced, with a particular focus on the topics of instant savings accounts, blockchain technology in Africa, anti-scam technology in Australia and beyond.
This week’s roundup will feature titles on digital currency, investment in stocks and cash protection. Join us and Unlimit BaaS’ Managing Director, Jovi Overo in the exploration of some of the biggest headlines of our industry.
- Germany-based digital bank, N26, has announced an instant savings account in Spain, offering eligible customers interest on deposits. Clients with a Spanish IBAN will receive a 2.25% AER interest on deposits, with no minimum deposit amount required, no additional fees or permanency clauses. [source: The Paypers]
In our cost of living crisis, we’ve seen financial and non-financial institutions launch new ways to help people spend and save efficiently to keep our economies afloat. The benefits of the N26 Instant Savings account creates accessibility to the Spanish market, and will hopefully influence other European markets to follow suit. The aim for many providers is to create simplified, fast and accessible services for customers to remain abreast of competition and offer digitally-savvy financial welfare; and it seems that this opportunity could make positive strides towards that. – Jovi
- DeFi platform Empowa has set a goal to use NFTs and blockchain technology to revamp the African loan system to build decentralised funding models. The goal is to enable 1 million African families to own climate-smart homes by 2030. [source: Crypto News Flash]
Empowa’s mission shows how decentralised finance and innovative technologies can truly revolutionise our way of life. Whilst the mission is ambitious, there is nothing to say that it is not achievable – bringing financial release against the high African mortgage rates, low levels of investment and high interest rates. Where many people in Africa remain underbanked or unbanked completely, the possibility of obtaining a home without a traditional mortgage through a decentralised model could close the gap on financial inclusion radically. – Jovi
- Australian banks have launched a digital platform, Fraud Reporting Exchange, to report fraudulent payments enroute or transferred to another bank, in efforts to disrupt payment scams. [source: Finextra]
With cybercrimes and fraudulent activity on the rise, the use of a live platform to report transactions in near-real time could help save banks thousands of dollars and immeasurable amounts of time. And the collaboration of banks will allow a sharing of knowledge to develop anti-scam initiatives to deter criminals from the onset. But the greatest benefit will be the growing relationship between banks and their customers, as they place their trust back into the institutions because they see active steps being taken with technology to protect consumer interests. – Jovi
See you next week, back in the blog for your next weekly news roundup.
