By Amelia Isaacs on Wednesday 28 December 2022
Take a look at the AltFi stories that captured your attention this year as we head into 2023.
It’s been a pretty rocky year across the board for consumers and companies alike, and fintech has been no exception.
Still, there have been some major ups among the downs, and over the next few days we’ll be taking a look back at the biggest news of the year, kicking off with our most-read stories.
Here are the most popular stories on AltFi from 2022, from No.10 to No.6.
After hitting No.5 on last year’s most-read stories list, the news of HSBC’s ‘vertical’ card design snuck in again this year at No.10.
The change echoed Starling Bank's decision in 2018 to switch from a traditional ‘horizontal’ card layout to a ‘vertical’ one, replacing all of its UK cards with a more accessible design.
It adopted the ‘dot and notch’ system to help customers with visual impairments distinguish between debit and credit cards and increased font size in contrasting colours.
Nationwide also debuted its new cards in August last year – hopefully we’ll see more banks following suit and prioritising accessibility in 2023.
Read more: HSBC joining the bank card accessibility push with new ‘vertical’ designs
After extending the deadline to file its much anticipated 2021 accounts, Revolut delayed its results again, this time to early next year, AltFi exclusively revealed just a few days ago.
According to the company, the accounts have been finalised and it expects to confirm the news that it is profitable – something CEO Nikolay Storonsky has been saying since September – despite missing its first and second deadlines to file.
It has been a big year for the company – with more to come on that later – but following reports that the regulator described accountancy firm BDO’s previous auditing as “inadequate”, the figures have reportedly been under higher levels of scrutiny.
Stay tuned for the latest on the company’s accounts next year.
Read more: Exclusive: Revolut’s results delayed until early 2023
Ahead of the curve with its bet on crypto, in May this year Revolut teased the launch of its own token focused on customer loyalty dubbed “Revcoin”.
AltFi’s editorial director Daniel Lanyon reflected on the potential of harnessing loyalty for fintech challengers, suggesting that Revolut’s offering could even exceed the most successful loyalty scheme: Tesco Clubcard.
While 20 million people actively use their Clubcards in the UK, Revolut exceeded 25 million retail customers last month and has seen a sharp growth trajectory, adding five million customers to its user base in just four months.
Revolut is well known for its desire to become a super app, and it is constantly launching new features, and if it could harness its rapidly growing customer base when “Revoin” does launch, it could be on track to becoming the most successful loyalty scheme…ever.
Read more: Revolut’s ‘Revcoin’: the new Tesco Clubcard….on steroids?
After four years as top dog at the British Bank Awards, Starling was pipped to the post by Monzo this year.
As well as winning the coveted Best British Bank award for the first time, Monzo also won Best Business Banking Provider and Best Banking App.
Starling did hold onto its Best Current Account Provider award though, and took home the Best Children’s Financial Provider award too.
The high street banks were absent from the awards again this year, but it was a successful year for fintechs across the board, including Allica Bank, Chip, Freetrade and Ziglu, with all the awards chosen solely by consumers.
Read more: Monzo dethrones Starling at the British Bank Awards
Revolut’s very first announcement of 2022 saw the launch of the app as a bank in another 10 European countries.
Customers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden became able to upgrade their accounts, which brought the total number of countries where Revolut operates as a bank to 28.
“Launching the bank in ten new European markets will provide an even greater level of security and confidence for our customers, and will enable us to launch a host of new products and services in the near future,” Revolut Bank CEO Joe Heneghan said at the time.
Now all that remains is for Revolut to secure its UK banking licence.
Read more: Revolut launches as a bank in 10 more European countries
Want to know what the top five most-read stories of 2022 were? Find out in Part 2 here.
