Technology

New FCA-Authorised Credit Broker Gemini Launches to Bridge the UK’s Small Loans Gap

Published

2 months ago

April 18, 2026

Bolton-based Gemini.co.uk goes live with a full suite of short-term loan products and a free 28-guide financial education library, targeting the millions of UK consumers left underserved by mainstream lenders

BOLTON, England, April 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Gemini, a new FCA-authorised credit broker, today officially launches at Gemini.co.uk, offering UK consumers access to short-term loans from £100 to £5,000 alongside one of the most comprehensive free financial guidance resources available online.

“We are proud to be launching a product that genuinely puts the customer first, backed by FCA regulation and consumer protections that people deserve.”

Operated by Swift Money Limited, a company with an established track record of helping over one million UK residents access short-term finance. Gemini has been built from the ground up with transparency, regulatory compliance and genuine consumer value at it’s core.

Filling a Gap the High Street Won’t Touch

Despite rising demand for smaller, accessible loans, every major UK high-street bank, including HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds, and Santander, sets the minimum personal loan amount at £1,000. Data published by the Financial Conduct Authority shows the average short-term loan taken out in the UK is approximately £250, a product that mainstream lenders structurally do not offer.

Gemini starts from £100.

The platform connects a single application to a carefully selected panel of FCA-regulated specialist lenders, covering five distinct product areas: small loans, payday loans, short-term loans, bad credit payday loans, and same day loans. All products are governed by the FCA’s price cap for high-cost short-term credit, meaning interest is limited to 0.8% per day, default fees are capped at £15, and consumers will never repay more than double the original amount borrowed.

Gemini is a credit broker, not a lender, and charges no fees to borrowers at any stage.

Free Financial Guidance – No Sign-Up Required

Alongside its lending products, Gemini launches with a library of 28 free financial guides covering borrowing, credit scores, debt management, money management, benefits entitlements, and financial difficulty. Written in plain English and requiring no registration to access, the guides represent a significant investment in financial education for the consumers Gemini serves.

Topics include how to budget, how to improve your credit score, what a CCJ means for your finances, how to deal with debt collectors, and how to build an emergency fund, among others.

What Gemini Offers Consumers

Loans from £100 to £5,000 over 1 to 36 monthsInstant eligibility decision via soft credit search, no impact on credit scoreSame day funding via the UK Faster Payments Service, operating 24/7Bad credit considered – decisions based on current affordability, not credit history aloneZero broker fees – completely free to use28 free financial guides – no sign-up requiredFull FCA price cap protection on every loan arranged

Spokesperson Quote

Mark Scott, Company Director at Gemini, said:

“We built Gemini because there is a very real and largely ignored gap in the UK lending market. When someone needs £200 for an emergency car repair, their bank will tell them the minimum they can borrow is £1,000. That is not a solution, it is a problem that leaves people with nowhere to turn.

“Gemini exists to fill that gap properly: with regulated products, complete transparency, and no fees. But we also wanted to do something more than just match people with loans. Our free guides library is designed to give people the financial knowledge to make better decisions, whether that means taking a loan, or realising they don’t need one.

“We are proud to be launching a product that genuinely puts the customer first, backed by FCA regulation and consumer protections that people deserve.”

About Gemini

Gemini is a trading name of Swift Money Limited, an FCA-authorised and regulated credit broker (FCA Reference: 738569, Company Number: 07552504). Based in Bolton, Greater Manchester, Gemini connects UK consumers with a panel of FCA-regulated specialist lenders offering short-term finance from £100 to £5,000. Gemini charges no fees to borrowers and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO Registration: ZA069965).

Website: gemini.co.uk FCA Register: register.fca.org.uk (Ref: 738569) Registered Office: Hamill House, 112-116 Chorley New Road, Bolton, BL1 4DH Telephone: 0330 088 2359

Notes to Editors

Gemini is a credit broker, not a lender, and does not make credit decisionsAll loans arranged through Gemini are subject to the FCA’s price cap for high-cost short-term creditRepresentative APR: 79.5% variable. Min APR 48.1%, Max APR 1721%. Terms from 1 to 36 monthsRepresentative example: £1,000 borrowed over 18 months at £89.22/month. Total repayable £1,605.96. Fixed interest rate 59.97% per annum. 79.5% APR variableWarning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help, visit moneyhelper.org.ukHigh-resolution brand assets and additional background information available on request

Press contact: Gemini / Swift Money Limited: press@gemini.co.uk, 0330 088 2359

Media Contact

Mark Scott, Swift Money Limited, 44 0330 088 2359, Mark@Gemini.co.uk, https://www.Gemini.co.uk

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SOURCE Swift Money Limited

Technology

Bloomberg Introduces Spread-to-Benchmark Quoting for EUR and GBP Portfolio Trading Baskets

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

LONDON, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg today announced the launch of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting and trading for Euro (EUR) and Sterling (GBP) denominated portfolio trades through its Portfolio Trading Basket Builder (PTBB). The new functionality expands the range of quoting protocols available for European credit portfolio trading and reflects growing client demand for spread-based execution workflows, alongside increased dealer support for the convention across EUR and GBP markets.

Spread-to-Benchmark quoting is a well-established protocol for USD credit portfolio trades and is used by market participants to evaluate and execute portfolio trades. By extending this workflow to EUR and GBP portfolio trades, Bloomberg enables clients and dealers to transact using a familiar spread-based methodology across additional credit markets.

The introduction of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets reflects increased client interest in evaluating portfolio trades through a spread-based lens and the growing adoption of spread-based execution workflows in European credit markets. The workflow provides market participants with an additional framework for assessing the relationship between credit spread risk and underlying government bond yields when pricing and executing portfolio trades.

Additional Workflow Flexibility 
The workflow complements Bloomberg’s existing portfolio trading capabilities, which support the full range of market-standard quoting conventions, including Price, Yield, Spread-to-Benchmark and Spread based workflows that reference Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service (BVAL). This gives clients flexibility to compare and execute portfolio trades using the quoting methodology that best aligns with their investment objectives, execution preferences and internal risk management processes.

“European credit clients continue to look for execution workflows that reflect how they evaluate risk and monitor portfolio trading outcomes,” said Harry Street, Global Head of Credit and Equities Trading Product at Bloomberg. “By expanding dealer support for Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets, Bloomberg is broadening the range of workflow options available to clients trading European credit portfolios.”

“Portfolio trading workflows in fixed income continue to become more sophisticated as institutional investors look for ways to evaluate execution quality in changing market conditions,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure & Technology Research at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “Spread-based quoting helps market participants more clearly distinguish between the impacts of credit spread and underlying rates movements when determining how best to execute a portfolio trade.”

Bloomberg’s Electronic Markets solutions are used by leading financial institutions to trade efficiently in over 175 markets around the world. More than 9,000 client firms use Bloomberg Electronic Markets to access industry-leading depth and breadth of liquidity across asset classes from over 800 dealers globally. Bloomberg Electronic Markets provides market participants with comprehensive solutions across the trading lifecycle, including robust price transparency, analytics, automation and execution, powered by Bloomberg’s high-quality, multi-asset class data and tools.

About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.

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SOURCE Bloomberg L.P.

Technology

Dr. Sunho Kang, a senior battery-technology executive with leadership experience at major global battery and EV manufacturers, joins TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeraWatt Technology Inc. (Headquartered in California, USA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Sunho Kang has joined the company as Head of Product and Technology.

Dr. Kang is a globally recognized battery-technology executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning the United States, Asia, and Europe, and a distinguished track record of advancing innovations from laboratory research through gigafactory-scale production. He has held senior executive positions at world-leading organizations including Samsung SDI, Apple, and Volkswagen Group of America, and brings deep expertise in lithium-ion battery materials, cell engineering, and product industrialization across a broad range of applications, including electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

At TeraWatt, Dr. Kang will lead global product development and the commercialization of TeraWatt’s battery technology platform, aiming to accelerate the delivery of TeraWatt’s competitive products as well as the technology and commercialization roadmap including manufacturing scale-up.

Dr. Kang commented:

“I am thrilled to join TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology. TeraWatt’s innovative battery platform presents a tremendous opportunity to push the boundaries of lithium-ion technology, and I look forward to working with the team to accelerate product development and commercialization to deliver meaningful impact.”

TeraWatt Technology founder CEO Ken Ogata, Ph.D. commented:

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kang as our Head of Product and Technology. His deep expertise in battery materials, cell engineering, and productization will be instrumental in accelerating TeraWatt’s product roadmap and technology leadership. Together with Dr. Kang, we will continue to drive our mission forward.”

About TeraWatt Technology Inc.
TeraWatt Technology Inc. is a California-based company that produces lightweight, high-power, and safe next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Company Overview
Name: TeraWatt Technology Inc.
Representative: Co-founder and CEO Ken Ogata
Headquarters: 28 Geary St, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94108, United States
Founded: January 2020
Established: December 2019
URL: https://www.terawatt-technology.com/

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SOURCE TeraWatt Technology Inc.

Technology

Tencent Cloud and Soniox Announce Strategic Partnership: Combining Advanced Speech-to-Text (STT) Technology with Global Real-Time Infrastructure

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

HONG KONG, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced a strategic partnership with Soniox, a San Francisco-based speech AI company that specializes in developing high-accuracy, low-latency speech AI solutions. The collaboration integrates Soniox’s speech-to-text (STT) technology with Tencent Cloud’s Real-Time Communication (TRTC) enterprise-grade global infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build and deploy multilingual voice AI applications across 200+ countries and regions.

Elevating Enterprise Voice AI at a Global Scale

In enterprise voice AI deployments, latency directly affects user experience and application reliability. The integration of Soniox’s high-accuracy, low-latency STT with TRTC’s global transmission infrastructure reduces latency across the entire pipeline, creating a comprehensive end-to-end solution for enterprises deploying conversational AI applications worldwide.

Soniox is the voice platform for every language. Unlike legacy speech AI, which was built primarily for English-speakers, Soniox delivers native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages. Its technology can handle mid-sentence language switching — a user can switch between English and Chinese in a single utterance, and Soniox will capture every word with complete accuracy. All of this works through a single API that works for both speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

By integrating TRTC, the partnership leverages an enterprise-grade real-time communication backbone featuring more than 3,200 global nodes, sub-300 ms worldwide latency, and advanced capabilities such as AI noise suppression and weak-network resilience. These capabilities enable conversational AI applications to operate reliably across diverse network environments, including regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

With the roll out of this partnership, developers can integrate the Soniox STT API directly within the Tencent Cloud console. Whether targeting English-speaking markets or supporting languages such as Arabic, Hindi, and Malay, enterprises can build global voice applications — including intelligent customer service, voice assistants, real-time translation, and meeting transcription — to address the demands of expansion into emerging markets and multilingual scenarios.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, stated: “Tencent RTC has always been committed to providing reliable real-time communication infrastructure for global enterprises. Our partnership with Soniox brings together our strengths in enterprise-grade audio transmission and Soniox’s advanced speech recognition technology. Together, we are making it easier for businesses to deploy accurate, low-latency voice AI applications across any language and any market.”

Klemen Simonic, CEO at Soniox Inc., stated “At Soniox, our mission is to help businesses understand every word, in any language, with native speaker accuracy and exceptional speed. Partnering with Tencent Cloud combines our speech AI with world-class real-time infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build voice AI experiences that scale globally with low latency and reliability.”

About Tencent Cloud:

Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.

About Tencent RTC:

Tencent RTC provides real-time communication solutions, including audio/video calling, live streaming, and in-game voice. With enterprise-grade security, AI-powered enhancements, and a global network of over 3,200 nodes, Tencent RTC powers mission-critical communication for customers worldwide.

About Soniox:

Soniox is a next-generation voice AI company bringing about the end of English-first speech AI. Most people on the planet did not grow up speaking English and often mix languages mid-sentence; and yet legacy speech AI was built for just English. Soniox is different: native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages, true mid-sentence language switching, and flawless alphanumeric recognition that legacy providers still can’t match. For developers building global apps, Soniox is the only option. Try it for yourself at soniox.com.

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SOURCE Tencent Cloud