Capital One must take steps to address shortcomings in its cloud risk operations plan after being hit with an $80m fine for a 2019 data breach that affected 106 million customers in the US and Canada.

A consent order issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said the company engaged in “unsafe and unsound practices, including those relating to information security” and failed to “establish effective risk assessment processes” before migrating its IT systems to the cloud.

This allegedly paved the way for an unauthorised third party to gain access to the social security numbers of 140,000 of the firm’s credit card customers, plus the bank account details of 80,000 people.

The consent order said: “In or around 2015, the bank failed to establish effective risk assessment processed prior to migrating its information technology operations to the cloud operating environment, including appropriate design

Edgardo Savoy, CTO of money transfer service TransferGo, admits he repeats himself a lot at work. “I spend a lot of time thinking about things in my head,” he says. “I sometimes omit details that are essential.”

Repetition is very important for Savoy, in helping people to understand what he is thinking about. “It’s like a drum beat – to reinforce and connect dots,” he says, which allows people to understand his strategy on a daily basis. “You forget very quickly that people are not on the same page,” he adds.

Savoy started programming when he was just 14 and was drawn in by the idea of the logic patterns in code, which could be written down and turned into something that could be run on a computer. “C programming is like the Latin of computer programming languages,” he says. Not only has C been the code behind operating systems

UK citizens who are “terrified” by the potential impact of a second wave of Covid-19 infections are turning to mobile money management apps to help them get their finances in order.

The use of mobile money management apps has accelerated during the lockdown as people prepare for the worst, according to research commissioned by global innovation foundation Nesta.

The research found that more than half (54%) of Brits now regularly use mobile apps to manage their money after take-up increases during the lockdown boosted confidence and trust.

According to the survey of 2,000 people carried out by Opinium, 36% now feel more comfortable using banking and money management apps and 23% trust online banking more since lockdown.

“With many struggling financially, the use of these apps is important to help people make the most of their money,” said Nesta.

The survey found that 39% of people are terrified about the

Google’s banking strategy continues to evolve through a deal with eight US banks that will see accounts delivered through Google Pay sitting on top of the established infrastructure of the banks.

The mobile first current accounts will offer customers the functionality they demand from modern digital bank accounts through Google, with the security and regulated engine from the bank underneath.

The accounts, expected to launch next year, will be co-branded between the banks and Google. The eight banks include BBVA USA, BMO Financial Group, First Independence Bank and SEFCU.

The new platform will pair Google’s expertise in creating intuitive user experiences with the security of reputable banks to provide a new way for customers to manage their money with financial insights and budgeting tools.

Felix Lin, vice-president of payments ecosystems at Google, said: “We believe we can use our technology expertise to benefit users, banks and the entire financial ecosystem.”

The European Central Bank (ECB) will focus on how well equipped banking boardrooms are to understand and control risks emanating from IT operations.

Calls for senior IT executives to join the board are not new, but the latest report on IT risks from Europe’s banking regulator adds a strong voice to them.

In its annual report on banks’ IT risk assessments, the regulator said it would look more closely at the IT expertise of board members at banks, which are increasingly reliant on IT as they digitally transform.

The report, following self-assessments by banks, found that organisations that have a higher number of board members with IT expertise displayed positive characteristics. “These institutions report higher expenditures in terms of IT innovation and closer monitoring of IT risks,” it said.

It added that self-assessments from banks with more IT expertise at board level were more realistic, as “they report their bank’s

Investment in UK financial technology (fintech) firms plummeted 30% in the second quarter of this year, with early startups hit hardest by the decline.

According to figures from fintech trade body Innovate Finance, a total of $760m (£590m) was invested in UK fintech in the second quarter of this year, compared to more than $1.2bn (£940m) in the same period last year.

The quarter has fallen with the global economic slowdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic slowdown it caused.

In the first quarter, where the Covid-19 slowdown affected the economy for a few weeks, total investment was $1.08bn, compared to $1.75bn in the first quarter of 2019.

Overall venture capital investment totalled $1.84bn in the first half of 2020, with 167 deals, compared to $3bn in 263 startups in the same period in 2019.

More established fintechs fared better, with digital payments and banking startup