The most striking development came on Wednesday when the US downed an Iranian submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka — the first time since 1945 that a US submarine has used a torpedo to sink an enemy combatant vessel, according to General Dan Caine, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff.

The immediate market impact was sharp. Brent crude settled at $82.60 per barrel, while US WTI crude closed at $74.66 — its highest level since June for the second consecutive day, having surged approximately 11% in the two prior sessions. Over the past seven days, WTI climbed 14.28% and Brent 15.15%, with the Strait of Hormuz closed to shipping for a fifth day, cutting off critical oil and gas flows to Europe and Asia.

Equity markets offered a mixed picture. On Wednesday, stocks rallied after reports that Iran had signalled a willingness to negotiate, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.29%, the Dow Jones rising 0.49%, and the S&P 500 adding 0.78%, Exante said. However, the broader weekly picture remained negative, with the S&P 500 down 1.10% over the past seven days and European indices faring worse — the pan-European Stoxx 600 falling 3.28% over the same period.

In the US, economic data remained broadly resilient. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index climbed to 56.1 in February, well above the 53.5 consensus and the highest headline reading since August 2022, Exante noted. Private payroll data from ADP also beat expectations, with 63,000 jobs added versus a forecast of 50,000, the strongest figure since July.

Despite these positives, the inflationary implications of elevated energy prices are beginning to weigh on rate expectations. The probability of a Federal Reserve rate cut at the June meeting has dropped to just 35.5%, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

In Europe, the energy price shock is complicating the ECB’s path. Money markets are now pricing in roughly a 30% chance of a rate hike by year-end.

For more insights, read the full report here.

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From endless approval chains to repetitive manual tasks, these inefficiencies quietly erode productivity, frustrate employees and chip away at the customer experience.

SS&C Blue Prism argues that understanding where these problems originate — and tackling them at the root — is the first step toward building a leaner, more resilient operation.

At its core, operational inefficiency occurs when a business expends more time, money or resources than a task actually warrants. According to SS&C Blue Prism, the problem often hides in plain sight: workflow delays caused by unclear ownership, tasks bottlenecked waiting on a single approval, duplicated effort and decisions stalled by inconsistent or missing data. Left unaddressed, these issues compound into significant organisational waste.

A common mistake, SS&C Blue Prism notes, is that most teams focus on the symptoms — missed deadlines, rising error rates, sluggish turnaround times — rather than the underlying causes, Blue Prism explained.

Outdated process steps, siloed departments and systems that cannot communicate with one another are frequently the true culprits. Techniques such as process mapping, which visually charts how work actually moves through an organisation rather than how it is theoretically supposed to, can help surface these hidden inefficiencies. Direct feedback from employees and customers is equally valuable, often highlighting friction points that management may not have considered.

Once root causes are identified, the question becomes how to fix them. SS&C Blue Prism outlines a progression in automation technology that reflects how the industry’s thinking has matured considerably over recent years. Robotic process automation (RPA) was an early solution, digitising rule-based manual tasks such as data entry. Effective within its limits, RPA nonetheless struggles with complexity and edge cases. Intelligent automation — which combines RPA with business process management and artificial intelligence — extended those capabilities to cover end-to-end workflows.

The latest development is what SS&C Blue Prism describes as agentic automation: the deployment of AI agents that, rather than following rigid rules, are given a goal and empowered to determine the best path to achieving it.

These agents can handle unstructured data and exceptions, and operate with minimal human intervention, freeing staff to focus on more strategic, higher-value work. Underpinning all of this is workflow orchestration, which connects people, systems, applications and APIs so that information moves seamlessly across the business in real time.

The business case for addressing inefficiency extends well beyond operational tidiness. SS&C Blue Prism highlights that poor processes inflate labour costs through rework and extra manual steps, slow down product development and create openings for competitors to capitalise on missed opportunities. Employee burnout is a tangible risk, with staff spending their days navigating broken workflows rather than contributing meaningfully. Customer satisfaction, too, takes a hit — slower responses and inconsistent experiences translate directly into reputational and revenue damage.

SS&C Blue Prism makes the case that modern automation, particularly AI-enhanced intelligent workflow tools, offers a more dynamic and scalable solution.

For more insights, read the full story here.

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As financial institutions and other regulated organisations increasingly rely on chat-based communication tools, the need to supervise and archive conversations effectively has become more urgent, claims Theta Lake.

The persistent nature of chat, combined with the integration of AI-powered features, has significantly increased the complexity of monitoring digital communications in a compliant manner, particularly as regulators intensify scrutiny of electronic communications.

Supervising AI-powered chat presents several operational and regulatory challenges for organisations. One of the most immediate issues is the sheer volume and variety of messages that compliance teams must monitor.

In many organisations, millions of chat messages circulate daily across multiple channels. These messages are no longer limited to text; they also include audio files, hyperlinks, images, GIFs, emojis and reactions, all of which must be captured, stored and analysed to meet compliance requirements.

The persistent nature of chat further complicates supervision. Files, links and attachments can remain accessible long after a conversation has ended, increasing the risk that confidential or sensitive information could be exposed or misused. Even if content is shared innocently, the ability for messages and attachments to remain stored within platforms can create lasting vulnerabilities for organisations managing confidential financial data or client information.

Another challenge lies in chat’s inherently shareable nature. Information can easily be distributed both internally and externally through simple actions such as forwarding messages, sharing files or taking screenshots. This ease of sharing increases the likelihood of accidental disclosures as well as deliberate misconduct.

At the same time, reconstructing the full context of chat conversations can be extremely difficult. Discussions often occur over multiple days and across various participants, and may include edited or deleted messages, reactions or external content shared through services such as OneDrive or SharePoint. Without the ability to capture these contextual details, organisations risk failing to meet regulatory requirements during investigations or audits.

The boundaries between professional and personal communication are also becoming increasingly blurred. As remote and hybrid working models continue to evolve, employees frequently send messages outside standard working hours. This shift creates additional compliance concerns, as off-hours communication may increase the risk of inappropriate behaviour, data leakage or the sharing of restricted information.

These challenges are compounded by strict regulatory obligations governing electronic communications. Frameworks such as MiFID II and SEC Rule 17a-4 require organisations to retain and provide rapid access to communications data for regulatory supervision, customer complaints and legal investigations. Failure to meet these requirements can expose firms to significant regulatory penalties and reputational damage.

Many organisations continue to rely on legacy archiving systems or fragmented point solutions that struggle to keep pace with modern communication technologies. Without direct integrations with unified communications and collaboration vendors, these systems often fail to capture complete data records.

Incomplete data capture can create downstream issues for legal teams, compliance supervisors and investigators who depend on reliable communication archives. In addition, rigid rule-based monitoring systems frequently generate large volumes of false positives, forcing compliance teams to spend valuable time reviewing alerts that ultimately pose little risk.

To address these issues, organisations must adopt a more comprehensive approach to chat compliance. A core requirement is comprehensive capture, ensuring that all communication channels are recorded, including group chats, private conversations and in-meeting messages. This capture must extend beyond text to include emojis, GIFs, attachments, edited or deleted messages and shared files in order to maintain a complete compliance record.

Automated risk detection also plays a critical role. Modern compliance systems rely on specialised classifiers and compound detection infrastructure to identify potential risks across multiple formats. These technologies can detect signals related to misconduct, collusion, inappropriate communication, sensitive data sharing or missing regulatory disclaimers within conversations.

Prioritisation and workflow capabilities are equally important. When risky communications are identified, they must be routed quickly to relevant compliance supervisors through structured review workflows. These workflows allow organisations to track investigations and maintain clear audit trails of how potential compliance risks are handled.

Swift remediation is another essential component. Compliance teams must be able to remove or redact sensitive content quickly across platforms to prevent further exposure of confidential information. At the same time, legal hold and e-discovery capabilities are necessary to support investigations, regulatory reviews or litigation. These systems enable organisations to rapidly identify and preserve relevant communications across platforms, ensuring that data remains accessible for compliance and legal processes.

Theta Lake has developed solutions designed to address many of these challenges by focusing on comprehensive data capture, unified supervision and AI-powered risk detection. The platform enables organisations to capture and reconcile communications across multiple unified communications platforms and modalities, including chat, voice and video. Through direct integrations, organisations gain visibility into data reconciliation reports, global routing and platform health checks.

The company also provides unified search and replay capabilities that allow investigators to review conversations spanning multiple communication channels. By combining voice, video and chat into a single conversation view, compliance teams can reconstruct the full context of interactions more effectively. This unified perspective is particularly important when communications move between different tools or formats during a conversation.

AI-powered risk detection capabilities are another key component of the platform. Purpose-built classifiers and compound detection infrastructure enable organisations to identify compliance risks while reducing false positives. By offering transparency and explainability features alongside AI-powered detection, the platform aims to help organisations maintain compliant collaboration while reducing the operational burden of digital communications governance.

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The collaboration comes in response to growing demand for seamless and contextual insurance experiences delivered directly at the point of sale. By joining forces, Willis and Qover aim to provide businesses with a product-agnostic solution capable of launching tailored insurance programmes quickly and at scale. The partnership is designed to support innovation, sustainability initiatives and the evolving expectations of clients seeking more integrated insurance options within digital customer journeys.

Unlike traditional insurance distribution models, the partnership has been developed specifically for the embedded and affinity insurance market. This approach enables companies to integrate insurance products directly into customer experiences across sectors such as financial institutions, retail, automotive and membership organisations, helping businesses provide protection offerings within existing platforms and services.

Willis operates as part of WTW and specialises in insurance broking, advisory services and risk management solutions for businesses worldwide. Through its GB Affinity unit, the company works with partners to develop customised insurance programmes designed to complement existing products, brands and services. Willis also brings advanced analytics and pricing capabilities through its Radar technology platform, helping organisations design and distribute insurance solutions more efficiently.

Qover, meanwhile, focuses on embedded insurance orchestration, offering a technology platform that enables companies to integrate insurance products into digital ecosystems. Its infrastructure includes application programming interfaces (APIs), real-time dashboards and AI-enhanced claims handling capabilities designed to streamline insurance distribution and improve operational efficiency for partners.

Together, the companies aim to provide UK businesses with the tools needed to deliver flexible and scalable insurance offerings. By combining Willis’ insurance expertise and market access with Qover’s digital orchestration platform, the partnership seeks to support organisations looking to embed insurance products into customer journeys while maintaining speed to market and operational flexibility.

Qover’s platform already supports millions of users across more than 30 European markets, adding further scale and technological capability to the GB Affinity ecosystem. The partnership reflects Willis’ broader strategy to invest in scalable and sustainable insurance infrastructure that can support businesses operating in diverse industry sectors.

Willis head of affinity, GB Anthony Borgman said, “Strengthening our ecosystem is a core part of how we continue to meet the evolving needs of our GB Affinity clients and deliver agile distribution capability. Partnering with Qover enhances the connected infrastructure behind our propositions – giving us greater flexibility, improved speed to market and more ways to support clients’ brands operating in a wide range of industry verticals. It’s an important step in our journey, and there’s more to come on this in the year ahead.”

Qover CEO & co-founder Quentin Colmant said, “Insurance experiences must be seamless, contextual and simple. We’re excited to support Willis’’ GB Affinity ambitions as they continue to build the next generation of partner solutions.”

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Humans have a natural advantage when it comes to interpreting nuanced language, while machines can process information at speeds that are simply beyond human capacity. Research from LSEG Data & Analytics highlights how recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) and high-performance computing are not only widening the processing speed advantage held by systematic traders, but also dramatically narrowing the gap between human and machine comprehension of text data.

The pace of progress in deep learning has been nothing short of remarkable. Artificial, convolutional, and recurrent neural networks have become standard tools in many high-performing funds, consistently outpacing traditional statistical and machine learning approaches. At a broader level, large language models (LLMs) have moved to the forefront across a wide range of industries. Generative models — with GPT leading the charge — are being rolled out at an unprecedented rate, while discriminative LLMs have made equally significant, if less publicised, strides.

Google’s BERT model has established itself as a leading transformer architecture for sentiment analysis, it said. According to LSEG Data & Analytics, BERT has demonstrated double-digit performance improvements over previous state-of-the-art models in the General Language Understanding Evaluation (GLUE) benchmark — a significant leap that opens new doors for systematic traders seeking to extract greater value from text data.

Crucially, beyond its strong baseline performance, BERT can be fine-tuned using relatively modest amounts of labelled data, making it highly adaptable to specialised domains with technical jargon or non-standard language use.

From an execution standpoint, accessibility is one of BERT’s most compelling attributes. Training an LLM from scratch is an enormous undertaking — the base BERT model alone carries 110 million trainable parameters, requiring vast quantities of data to develop effectively. However, because many of these models are open-sourced, traders and institutions can instead focus on fine-tuning pre-existing models for their specific use cases, considerably lowering the barrier to adoption.

LSEG Data & Analytics points to the practicalities of deploying these models in live data pipelines. Using Hugging Face’s FinBERT, a single CPU thread running at 2.3GHz can process approximately 20 pieces of text per second in a base configuration. Switching to a faster tokeniser — achievable with a single line of code change in Python — yields roughly a 74% improvement in throughput. Moving to GPU infrastructure takes this further still: a 9.1 TFLOP GPU pushes processing capacity to around 261 predictions per second, more than a tenfold increase over the CPU baseline. Cloud providers today offer compute power that exceeds even this level of performance.

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The partnership will allow firms using WealthAi’s OS to access Stratiphy’s managed portfolio strategies within a single integrated platform. These portfolios are delivered via bank-issued certificates, offering a flexible investment structure designed to give firms access to tailored strategies more efficiently.

The collaboration already has live clients using the Stratiphy managed portfolio service (MPS) through WealthAi, with further clients expected to go live in the coming months.

The tie-up brings together WealthAi’s AI-powered OS with Stratiphy’s portfolio construction within a synthetic certificate, simplifying how asset managers and family offices design and deliver customised portfolios. The partnership aims to allow smaller firms to access institutional-style portfolio tools and deliver personalised investment strategies at scale, without the need to build and integrate those systems independently.

WealthAi provides an OS that allows wealth management firms to onboard clients, manage workflows and integrate key services in one place. The platform orchestrates services including Morningstar for data, connectivity to brokers and custodians, and now Stratiphy for managed portfolios, bringing portfolio construction, data and execution together in a single environment.

WealthAi co-founder and CEO Jason Nabi said, “External Asset Managers and Family Offices are increasingly looking at how AI can help deliver better investment performance and more personalised portfolios. The challenge is doing this while managing rising operational and technology costs.

“By working with MPS providers like Stratiphy and bringing these capabilities together on a single platform, WealthAi makes it far easier for firms to run integrated portfolio management, compliance, reporting and custody systems without the fragmented platforms and heavy manual processes that many firms struggle with today.

“Stratiphy is a genuine innovator in applying AI to portfolio construction. The performance of their portfolios shows how powerful AI-driven MPS can be, particularly for smaller firms that want access to sophisticated managed portfolios and modern technology infrastructure without having to build and integrate those systems themselves.”

Stratiphy founder and CEO Daniel Gold said, “For years, innovation in wealth management has largely focused on reducing costs through ETFs and model portfolios. The next wave will centre on personalisation.  WealthAI’s vision to use modern techniques such as AI and automation to serve the traditional wealth management industry aligns strongly with our own approach at Stratiphy. They are on an exciting trajectory with their recent injection of capital plus customer traction – the opportunities in this space are vast and we have found the perfect partner to realise them.”

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According to Financial Reporter, the 250-page report argues that lawmakers must “reclaim its role” in shaping the direction of financial regulation, concluding that the country’s framework for supervising financial conduct is in urgent need of structural reform.

According to the APPG, the problems facing the system are not limited to isolated incidents but stem from deeper weaknesses embedded in the regulatory architecture itself.

Drawing on a broad body of evidence, the report compiles findings from a nationwide public survey, a decade of Parliamentary debates, independent reviews assessing the performance of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and testimony from both victims and whistleblowers. It also includes analysis of several financial scandals that have shaken confidence in the UK’s oversight regime.

The APPG warns that the government’s current policy approach of “deregulate for growth” could risk worsening these systemic problems. According to the report, weakening consumer protections in pursuit of economic expansion may create conditions that allow further misconduct to occur, particularly when existing safeguards are already viewed as inadequate.

Rather than being a series of unrelated failures, the report argues that recurring scandals highlight a deeper structural issue in the way financial regulation is organised and enforced. The APPG states that repeated breakdowns across different cases demonstrate that the underlying system itself requires comprehensive reform.

To address these concerns, the parliamentary group has proposed establishing a Royal Commission into UK financial conduct regulation. Royal Commissions represent one of the most powerful forms of public inquiry within Commonwealth countries such as the UK, Australia and Canada. They operate with significant investigative authority, including the ability to summon witnesses under oath, compel evidence and deliver policy recommendations, although they cannot pursue criminal prosecutions.

The APPG believes that only an inquiry with such extensive powers would be capable of examining the full scale of the structural challenges identified in the report. The group points to Australia’s experience with a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking sector as an example of how such investigations can drive significant reform.

APPG chair John McDonnell said, “This report brings together one of the most comprehensive bodies of evidence ever assembled on the failures of financial conduct regulation in the United Kingdom.

“Scandal after scandal has been treated as an isolated event, yet the same warning signs are ignored, the same regulatory failures occur, and the same devastating consequences are suffered by ordinary people. That is not coincidence – it is the product of structural weaknesses in the system Parliament created.

“The evidence presented here makes the case for a Royal Commission, or something similar, that can undertake a genuine root-and-branch review of financial regulation. Parliament must reclaim its role in defining what fairness means in financial services and ensure that the institutions responsible for protecting consumers are not just capable of delivering it, but are also motivated to do so in an unconflicted manner.

“We must also be clear that weakening consumer protections will not deliver growth. It will deliver more scandals, more victims, and deeper distrust. A strong regulatory framework is not the enemy of economic success – it is one of its essential foundations.”

Associate professor Andy Schmulow, a volunteer member of the APPG secretariat, added: “The catalogue of consistently poor conduct regulation performance in the UK is akin to what happened in my own country of Australia, where we eventually decided a structural overhaul of the regulatory framework was needed, by way of a Royal Commission.

“Whether Brits have a Royal Commission or use some other Parliamentary device is a matter for discussion; but what isn’t a matter for discussion is the need for an holistic, macro, tenacious endeavour to properly fix what’s wrong with your conduct regulation. If anybody’s in doubt of that, read the APPG’s report – the evidence from a wide range of stakeholders couldn’t be more conclusive.

“I recall the current CEO of the FCA responding to a question I once put to him about what the FCA was doing to combat the risk of regulatory capture. His response convinced me that financial conduct regulation in the UK is in need of as much scrutiny and accountability as Australia’s – you’ve got exactly the same structural issues that we have been wrestling with.

“It is noteworthy that prior to the establishment of Australia’s Royal Commission, the banks and their lobbyists, sections of the media and civil society, and the then Turnbull-Abbot government argued forcefully that a Royal Commission was not needed, would produce no discernible results, would be superfluous to the at least six major inquiries that had already been conducted into industry misconduct, would be a waste of money, would scare away investors, would lead to a diminution of trust in the industry in the minds of the public, would place an unnecessary administrative burden on regulated entities, would be excessively costly to the taxpayer, and so on. But in the aftermath of our Royal Commission, those who had opposed it uniformly agreed that the inquiry had been necessary, sobering, and cathartic.”

The APPG report ultimately argues that restoring public trust in financial services will require a deeper reassessment of how the UK defines fairness, accountability and consumer protection within its regulatory system.

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The acquisition brings Billhop’s licensed payments infrastructure — holding licences in both the UK and Sweden — into the Ramp ecosystem, enabling the company to directly onboard businesses headquartered in the UK and EU for the first time. Ramp will also open its first international offices in London and Stockholm as part of the deal.

Ramp already counts thousands of US businesses among its customers that manage spend and payments across Europe. The company currently supports international operations across more than 180 countries each week, with local currency cards and payments available in Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Singapore. The Billhop acquisition is intended to deepen that regional capability rather than establish it from scratch.

Beginning this summer, UK- and EU-headquartered businesses will be able to use Ramp directly, with a waitlist now open.

The company has also announced plans to grow its European team across go-to-market, partnerships, and operations, with the UK headcount set to more than double within the next 12 months.

Ramp is a financial operations platform founded in 2019 that combines corporate cards, payments, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping.

The company reports that its median customer saves 5% and grows revenue by 16% in their first year. Ramp powers over $100bn in purchases annually and says its customers have collectively saved more than $10bn and 27.5 million hours to date.

Ramp co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman said, “We’ve spent years building Ramp into something the most ambitious US companies rely on. This summer, for the first time, companies headquartered in the UK and EU will be able to use Ramp directly,” said Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp. “In their first year, the median Ramp customer saves 5% and grows revenue 16%. Europe is home to extraordinary companies. We can’t wait to get to work.”

Billhop CEO Niklas Bothén said, “Our mission at Billhop has always been to remove friction from B2B payments and make it easier for businesses to manage their spend,” said Niklas Bothén, CEO of Billhop. “Joining Ramp allows us to realise that vision at a much larger scale. Together, we can help companies move money across countries and currencies faster, more intelligently, and with less complexity.”

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The figure represents the highest annual total ever logged by the database and marks a 6% increase compared with 2024.

The scale of fraudulent activity continues to intensify, with Cifas members reporting more than 1,200 incidents every day. Despite the rising threat, organisations using the NFD were able to prevent an estimated £2.4bn in fraud losses. The report highlights that identity-related crimes remain the dominant threat, with 72% of all recorded cases linked to identity fraud or facility takeover.

The data underscores how criminals are increasingly exploiting stolen or compromised personal information as a gateway to financial crime. Advances in artificial intelligence and generative technologies are enabling criminals to produce convincing impersonations, synthetic identities and forged documents more quickly and at greater scale than before.

Fraud activity is also becoming more sophisticated and international in nature. Organised crime groups are operating across borders and targeting multiple industries simultaneously, complicating detection efforts and making coordinated responses more essential.

Cifas CEO Mike Haley said, “Our data and intelligence show how fraud is being industrialised, with AI accelerating crime that is increasingly digital, organised and international. Fraud must be treated as a national enforcement priority. Closing the gap requires decisive action, robust disruption of criminal networks, and greater sharing of cross-sector data and intelligence to stop fraud at the source.”

One area experiencing sustained growth is facility takeover, where criminals gain unauthorised control of existing accounts. More than 78,000 such cases were recorded in 2025, representing 18% of all filings in the National Fraud Database and a 6% rise year-on-year. The majority of incidents were linked to mobile phone products, online retail and personal credit cards, which together account for around 90% of takeover cases.

Unauthorised SIM swap incidents in particular rose sharply, increasing by 38% as criminals capitalise on the availability of stolen personal data and automated attack methods. Fraudsters are also increasingly deploying AI tools to improve phishing attempts and automate credential attacks, while adopting stealthier tactics such as disabling security alerts or gradually altering account details to avoid detection.

Identity fraud remains the single most prevalent category despite a slight decline in recorded cases. More than 242,000 incidents were reported in 2025, accounting for 54% of all fraud-risk cases logged in the database. Although this represents a 3% decrease from the previous year, the report suggests the drop reflects a shift in criminal tactics rather than a reduction in activity.

Notably, identity fraud involving bank accounts increased by 10%, with more than 63,000 cases recorded, while incidents linked to the insurance sector rose by 26%, exceeding 16,000 cases. Criminals are increasingly targeting telecom services and mobile phone products as a stepping stone to broader financial fraud.

Another significant trend is the sharp rise in misuse of facility cases. The database recorded more than 106,000 such incidents in 2025, representing a 43% surge compared with the previous year. These cases involve individuals misusing financial products such as bank accounts, credit cards and money transfer services.

More than 22,000 cases were also recorded under a newly introduced category covering money mule activity. Criminal networks continue to recruit individuals through social media using tactics such as job scams, business opportunities or offers to overpay for items on online marketplaces.

Cifas director of intelligence Stephen Dalton said, “Rising cases reflect both the scale of offending and improved reporting by organisations. Criminals are shifting to more subtle methods such as credential stuffing, SIM swaps, and gradual profile changes, to evade detection.

“We anticipate more use of AI to personalise attacks and build credible, long-term profiles – reinforcing the need for cross-sector collaboration to spot patterns earlier.”

Authorities say the scale of the challenge continues to grow. Nick Sharp, deputy director of fraud at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said fraud now represents nearly half of all crime in England and Wales.

Sharp said, “Fraud now makes up 45% of all crime in England and Wales and we are all too aware of the devastating harm it causes to victims. This is why it is recognised as a National Security and Serious Organised Crime risk in the UK.

“The NCA is continuing to strengthen its leadership and response to the threat of fraud, with convictions by UK law enforcement up 27% since 2022 and increasing examples of international engagement helping increase our ability to tackle the problem when it comes from overseas.

“Fraudscape continues to be an invaluable source of information and intelligence that helps us maximise our understanding of the threat and where we can best direct our operational efforts.”

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The expanded collaboration introduces a unified, API-driven acceptance layer aimed at simplifying integration for acquirers while helping merchants improve authorisation rates, reduce fraud and deliver seamless customer experiences.

By combining Visa’s front-end authorisation capabilities with Fiserv’s acquiring and processing infrastructure, the two companies are delivering a cloud-based acceptance solution that supports intelligent routing, enhanced data and embedded value-added services.

Acquirers will be able to access Visa’s acceptance services through a single, API-first integration embedded directly within Fiserv’s acquiring environment. This approach is designed to reduce the need for multiple connections and bespoke development, while enabling greater scale and flexibility across markets.

Fiserv SVP and head of merchant product EMEA Paul Adams said, “This partnership with Visa marks a significant advancement in delivering value to our clients. 

“By embedding the Visa Acceptance Platform into our merchant acquiring and processing solutions, we simplify payment acceptance, enhance digital capabilities and accelerate time to market for acquirers and merchants across the region.”

Visa Europe head of acceptance sales Dan Parsons said, “I’m really excited about the evolution of our partnership with Fiserv. Together, we are giving acquirers a simpler operating model that helps improve authorisation rates and reduces fraud and chargebacks. For merchants, that translates into richer data and higher approval rates, making it easier to deliver the new experiences their customers now expect – whether that’s shopping online, in store or tapping to travel – with speed and confidence.”

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