Her ring of choice was the ‘Knight Finger’ ring created by fashion activist B. Åkerlund for Klarna

In the ultimate act of female empowerment, pop phenomenon Lady Gaga has put a ring on her own finger to celebrate that we are all free to propose to anyone at any time.

The ‘Knight Finger’ ring was recently launched by Klarna, together with fashion activist Bea Akerlund, to give the finger to outdated traditions. This year being a leap year – is when according to tradition it is only then acceptable for women to propose to their partner on February 29. Klarna believes that everyone should get what they love, and not have their decisions dictated by rules or outdated traditions.

Lady Gaga responded to Klarna’s message of empowerment by saying ‘yes’ to herself with her 180 million followers on social media as witness.

In an exclusive comment for Klarna, Lady Gaga explains:
“For my entire career, I’ve taken pride in using my voice to stand up for what I believe is right. So, I am excited to work with my friend B. and Klarna to celebrate how far we’ve come as a culture and call out the work we need to continue to do. The idea that a woman can only propose to a man one day every four years…

 By Roberts Lasovskis, investment platform lead at peer-to-peer lender TWINO

From Brexit to the rise of nationalist governments across the continent, Europe has demonstrated an increased appetite for political protectionism. However, despite this trend of countries moving away from globalisation towards a more inward-looking focus, if Europe’s fintechs want to successfully compete with US and Chinese counterparts, they must continue to look internationally both within and outside of Europe.

A new generation of European fintechs are already heading in this direction. UK challenger bank Monzo has achieved significant success over the last year, with plans to expand to North America as well. Similarly, many fintech businesses are creating multi-market strategies right from the outset. In addition to plans to branch out their portfolios and product offerings, the most successful fintechs are developing a global outlook as geographical diversification becomes more important.

Security first

Growing across different markets brings with it a huge number of additional operational challenges and considerations. Where investor capital is concerned, data security is always the top priority – the international investment community has become far more aware of the risks of data breaches and the importance of cyber-security, but each country has its own specific requirements and regulations for protecting customer data and capital.

The widely varying requirements make it more challenging for some fintechs to expand operations internationally. Take the peer-to-peer lending market – as it stands, there is currently no unified reporting metric for the lending market. The peer-to-peer lending…

By Reece Mennie is the CEO of Hunter Jones 

Tell us about yourself and what Hunter Jones does:

 My name’s Reece Mennie. I’m the CEO and Founder of Hunter Jones, a London-based company that I set up back in 2013. Between then and now, we’ve built up a strong reputation as a specialist introducer of property bonds and have raised over £50 million for a range of SME businesses.

 What exactly does it mean to be an introducer and what are property bonds? 

In a nutshell, an introducer can either be one person or a whole organisation hired to introduce alternative investment opportunities on behalf of their clients. As for property bonds, which are also known as loan notes, these are a form of alternative investment issued by property developers to raise funds for the land purchasing and construction costs involved with a planned development. They’re generally issued for a fixed term and set for a time period that allows the developer to complete construction and generate the returns owed to the investor.

How do property bonds work? 

Once the bonds are issued, they’re secured against the property or land with a legal charge to protect the investors’ capital against loss. These charges provide both collateral and security to investors and become registered on the property title at the Land Registry Office. The investor will be paid a rate of interest over an agreed period of time – usually between two and five years – after which…