How to verify customer affordability after a car accident or when a car hire is needed? DirectID knows the answer, and its affordability suite backed by open banking technology is gaining momentum. As informed by the DirectID team, the affordability assessment solution was chosen by Exclusive Law Group, a law firm specialising in personal and criminal injury claims, dealing also with motor accident claims. The technology provided through DirectID’s open banking API helps the company assess the income of an individual and prove the customer’s affordability to process a claim.

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That’s a pretty impressive start of a crowdfunding campaign! The UK startup Tred needed only one day to raise more than £500K on the crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, significantly exceeding the target amount of £500K… and that’s only the beginning. It seems like the investors loved the idea behind Tred: a mobile banking app that actually fights climate change by tracking the carbon footprint. What is more, Tred will offer a debit card made from recycled plastic waste and promises to use the profit to plant trees. This news proves that sustainability is a growing trend in FinTech. If you want to learn more about the topic, I recommend reading this article about green FinTechs to watch in 2021.

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This new FinTech on the block wants to transform the landscape of international business payments with the global platform Sokin Enterprise. Faster and more convenient payments and FX services provided by Sokin will be available starting from 16th April in the UK and Europe, with further plans to roll out the platform in Canada and other countries this year. The company already announced that it’s working on several new features: from products for sole traders and SMEs to an Embedded Finance platform.

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Finally, after a year full of online conferences and meetups, face-to-face events are slowly coming back to the old venues. The CEO of FinTech Week London, Raf de Kimpe, confirmed that the event will take place offline at Barclay’s Rise on 12-16 July 2021, being the first such in-person FinTech event organised in the City post-pandemic. The event will gather 2,000 attendees. Key topics of the conference include open banking, banking-as-a-service, financial inclusion, and cybersecurity.

Read more about the top FinTech events to attend in 2021

Another news, another green solution. This one is a result of the collaboration between Mastercard and Swedish FinTech Doconomy that worked together to create a carbon footprint calculator. The tool is offered to banks worldwide and can be integrated into banking apps through an API in order to show customers the amount of emissions generated by their purchases. The calculations can be accompanied by relatable equivalents, for example, the number of trees needed to compensate for the CO2 emitted. The two companies hope that their invention will help shoppers make more informed and eco-friendly choices.

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