Instant Payments Regulation: Facing the Skeletons in the Closet
Joining the FinextraTV Studio during EBAday 2025 were Serge Wagener, Member of the EBA Board and Chair of the EBA Practitioners Group on Instant Payments and Annick Moes, Head of Industry Issues, Cooperation Initiatives and Communications, EBA. Both Wagener and Moes pointed out ongoing challenges in implementing the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), such as delivering Verification of Payee for bulk payments. Referencing their newest publication, they stressed how EBAday gave experts the opportunity to bring out the skeletons from the closet and discuss their implementation concerns with peers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Finextra
an hour ago
- Finextra
UK digital wealth platform Sidekick launches
Sidekick, a new UK digital wealth platform built to serve six-figure earners who've outgrown basic financial products but don't have the millions needed to access private banks, has launched. 0 Sidekick is one of a number of entrants targeting the mass affluent market, using technology to offer products and services once reserved for the super rich. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Matthew Ford (CEO) and Peter Townsend (CTO). Ford previously founded the mobile banking platform Pariti, where Townsend was CTO, which was sold to Tandem Bank in 2018. 'People in this bracket often don't realise how inefficient their finances are until it's too late,' says Ford. 'They're hit with 60% tax rates between £100,000 to £125,000 earnings, they're sitting on idle cash, or they're overexposed to their own company without even realising it.' Among Sidekick's offerings is access to private equity-style investing for just £10,000. Eligible individuals can get access to a regulated Long-Term Asset Fund, which allows clients to invest in high-growth private companies through a professionally managed fund without needing the six-figure minimums usually required. Beyond investments, users get access to an account that automatically spreads deposits across a panel of UK-regulated banks behind the scenes, enabling up to £255,000 of FSCS protection - all through a single interface. And, for higher target returns, its Smart Cash product invests short-term funds into actively managed money market instruments, designed to outperform traditional savings rates while keeping funds accessible. Says Ford: 'People earning six figures today still get offered the same tools as someone just starting out - and that's wrong. You shouldn't need a UBS account to access smarter ways to build wealth. With Sidekick, we're saying: you've worked hard, now your money should work just as hard for you.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The critical undersea cables at the mercy of Chinese and Russian saboteurs: Fears UK is 'woefully' unprepared for threat of coordinated attacks by 'shadow fleets' on vulnerable Western infrastructure
This is the network of critical underseas cables at the mercy of Chinese and Russian saboteurs - and the multiple ways they could be attacked. A new report has warned Britain remains 'woefully' underprepared for the threat of strikes on its maritime infrastructure in the face of growing aggression. The China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) looked at 12 incidents of alleged undersea cable sabotage between January 2021 and April 2025 in Europe and Taiwan. Out of the 10 cases where a suspect vessel was identified, eight were linked to China or Russia by flag or ownership. Report author Andrew Yeh said the involvement of Chinese ships in cable breakages in Europe and Russian ships in those near Taiwan indicated 'plausible' coordination. The Institute identified the UK as a 'likely target' for future Chinese-Russian 'grey zone' operations - a term used to describe the state between peace and open war. This map produced by MailOnline shows the dizzying extent of the UK's network of cables, which are used to transmit data used for everything from online shopping to banking, personal messages and government communications. As the term 'grey zone' suggests, acts of cable sabotage are usually intended to be deniable, and usually involve ships dragging their anchors or deploying fishing nets. But more aggressive methods are available, including the use of divers or remote-operated subs to lay explosives fitted with timers. The UK is the landing point for at least 60 undersea cable systems, including nine of the 15 undersea cables that link Europe to North America. Mr Yeh wrote in his report: 'Undersea cables underpin economic security and global prosperity in the digital age, carrying 99 per cent of intercontinental data traffic. 'Undersea cables are vital for both civilian and defence infrastructure, including future AI-powered technologies. 'As a key hub in Euro-Atlantic cable infrastructure, the UK is a likely target for future Russian and Chinese grey-zone operations – posing a new and complex challenge for its maritime defence and surveillance systems.' The analyst called for the UK to be 'clear-eyed and proactive' in addressing grey-zone threats to undersea infrastructure. He called for increased surveillance over critical cables, the publication of a blacklist of suspect vessels and the stockpiling of cable parts to allow for rapid repairs following acts of sabotage. The issue of undersea cables was mentioned in the recent Strategic Defence Review. It stated: 'Undersea pipelines and data cables are critical for sustaining daily national life. The maritime domain is increasingly vulnerable. 'The Royal Navy must be prepared to deter maritime incidents similar to the sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the cutting of undersea data cables in UK and international waters.' Since October 2023, at least 11 subsea cables in the Baltic have been damaged in suspected attacks. Last year, Finnish authorities took the unprecedented step of intercepting one of these ships, the Eagle S, and taking it back into its territorial waters. Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands but has been described by Finnish customs officials as part of Russia's shadow fleet of fuel tankers that state-run companies have used to circumnavigate sanctions. Its anchor was accused of causing damage to the Estlink-2 power cable, which takes electricity from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, after it went down just after noon on Christmas Day. Further incidents in the North Sea have seen cables running on the seabed damaged, while separately, Russian spy ships - including one called the Yantar - have been intercepted in the Channel while hovering over the communication lines. At a parliamentary committee hearing last month, MPs were warned that Britain had forgotten how important deep sea cables are to modern society. Military chiefs and political leaders were accused of putting a greater focus on 'distant wars' in recent years than protecting this crucial infrastructure. It comes as British defence experts revealed a new undersea robot that is designed to protect cables against sabotage attempts. Video footage shows the device, which is adapted from a commercially available remotely operated vehicle (ROV), approaching and blasting a simulated target. The robot will help deal with sabotage threats and clear unexploded ordnance, doing jobs that would normally put both divers and their vessels at risk. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), part of the Ministry of Defence, has made the device with industry partners in an aim to save lives at sea. Experts have incorporated or developed systems so the ROV can detect unexploded ordnance and remotely place explosive charges to enable safe neutralisation. Trials for the project funded by the Royal Navy have already taken place at Horsea Island in Portsmouth, Portland Harbour in Dorset, South Wales and in Norway.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Willingness to switch to EVs fades faster in Europe than US, Shell survey shows
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Drivers are becoming more reluctant to switch to electric vehicles from combustion engines and the trend is more pronounced in Europe than in the United States, a survey published by Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab on Tuesday showed. The main obstacle is cost, according to the survey of 15,000 drivers across the world, including Britain, China, Germany and the United States. "Europe surprised us," said David Bunch, Shell's chief for mobility and convenience. "The single biggest barrier to entry is the cost of the vehicle. Range anxiety is still there but it's diminishing." Electric vehicles are on average up to 30% more expensive than internal combustion engine cars. This year, 41% of respondents in Europe said they would consider switching to an electric car compared with 48% last year, while in the United States the number fell three percentage points to 31%, the survey showed. In terms of the pace at which the charging experience is improving, only about half of European drivers said public charging had improved in the last year, below China's 74% and 80% in the United States. Only 17% of European drivers asked said public charging offered value for money, compared with 69% in China and 71% in the United States. Shell runs 75,000 charging points and focuses its EV strategy on fast, on-the-go charging points rather than home-charging. Its core EV markets are China, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States.
