Global FinTech | 2022 #10
Weekly news up to Tuesday, March 8th, 2022
REPORT
Check out the second edition of Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners in-depth research report, Women in FinTech: Redefining the Future of FinTech.
👉 Download the full report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Several Russian banks said on Sunday they would soon start issuing cards using the Chinese UnionPay card operator's system coupled with Russia's own Mir network, after Visa and MasterCard said they were suspending operations in Russia.
Announcements regarding the switch to UnionPay came on Sunday from Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's biggest lender, as well as Alfa Bank and Tinkoff.
👉 Read the full Reuters article here.
👀 On the note, PayPal said Saturday it was suspending its services in Russia, adding to the number of firms retreating from the country in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
"Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia," Dan Schulman, PayPal's CEO, said in a letter addressed to the Ukrainian government.
👉 Read the full CNBC article here.
Also, American Express says it is suspending its operations in Russia and Belarus, becoming the latest credit card giant to respond with measures denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg article here.
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📰 ARTICLE
Al Fardan Exchange, one of the largest money transfer and currency exchange firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced today a partnership with Thunes, a cross-border payments, enabling Al Fardan Exchange customers to make seamless payments to 87 countries.
UAE residents will now be able to send money directly through Al Fardan Exchange’s 75+ physical branches across the UAE.
👉 Read the full Fintech News article here.
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Shares, a stock trading app that aims to bring ‘social investing’ to the UK, has raised a $40m Series A round. Link here
⭐️ Your Juno, a financial education platform, just picked up $2.2 million in a seed funding round. Link here
⭐️ Mastercard and Visa have blocked multiple financial institutions from their payment networks in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Link here
⭐️ Zen.com founder and CEO Dawid Rozek has a message about volunteers for Ukraine. Link here
⭐️ BankiFi, the Manchester-based tech company on a mission to put banks at the heart of business has announced today that it has joined Visa Fintech Partner Connect in Europe – a programme that helps Visa’s clients deliver the next generation of digital banking solutions. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Airwallex, a global fintech platform, announced its partnership with leading investing app, Plum, to support its cross-border payments and FX needs. Link here.
Fairbit, a California-based SoftPOS Solution provider, is happy to announce that it received Mastercard Tap on Phone EMV Level 2 certification for the “Fairbit Kernel-on-the-Cloud” product. Link here
Mesh Payments, a leading provider in the corporate payment and spend management space, announced its latest innovation: the Plug & Pay Visa Business card which ties a physical and a virtual card. Link here
Worldline, a global leader in payments services announced its business expansion to Japan, offering credit card payment processing for merchants nationwide. Link here
TotallyMoney, the credit app which helps everyone move their finances forward, has partnered with Cashplus Bank, the leading SME-focused digital challenger to launch its new, market-leading cashback credit card. Link here
Sokin, the next generation payments provider, is set to disrupt India’s $87bn remittances market by giving the 18 million Indian migrants living outside their homeland access to 51% cheaper global money transfers. Link here
Following its partnership with the Bank of Abyssinia and its receipt of regulatory approval from the National Bank of Ethiopia, Paga Group Ltd is set to expand its African footprint with the launch of its online payment gateway in Ethiopia. Link here
Paysend, the card-to-card pioneer and international payments platform, announced the expansion of its cross-border money transfer services to Colombia with MOVii, a leading mobile wallet service in Colombia. Link here
Cheddar, the bank transfer platform powering payments, announced an exciting new acquisition of open banking technology by Upside Saving to be added to the company’s free payment offering. Link here
IDEX Biometrics has partnered with IDEMIA to support Rocker, the Swedish challenger bank, as it launches biometric payment cards to the market. Link here
BNPL
Nearly all of Afterpay's customers repaid their installments in 2021, Block CFO Amrita Ahuja told CNBC on Thursday when questioned about the Cash App parent's acquisition of the buy-now, pay-later service. Link here.
Australian Fintech ZeeFi is the new kid on the BNPL block – the first to specialise only in payments for education providers. Link here
The Dubai-based fintech Cashew Payments has made an entry into Pakistan. This is through a partnership with Taro Technologies, a fintech startup in the South Asian country. Link here
The UK market has not been kind to foreign fintechs in recent years. N26, Robinhood, Holvi and Lydia have all pulled out. The latest to throw in the towel is Australian buy, now pay later (BNPL) startup Openpay. Link here
PollenPay, a Manchester-based fintech company has now officially launched, and had over 1000 downloads in its first few days live. Link here
OPEN BANKING
Irish postal services provider An Post has teamed up with European open banking platform Tink, to bring new money management services to its customers. Link here
CRYPTO
CME Group announced that it plans to launch options on Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures on March 28, pending regulatory review. Link here
Binance, a global blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has announced the launch of Bifinity, a payments technology company and its official fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Freetrade, the investment platform that is on a mission to get everyone investing, is pleased to announce its imminent launch in Sweden. Link here
AirAsia Super App has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CGS-CIMB Securities to enable its users to make investments from within the app. Both entities said in a joint statement that they will combine their respective strengths to democratise capital market offerings for the masses by making it accessible, affordable, and digitally inclusive. Link here.
Estateguru Marketplace Limited, the property investment and financing platform, announces its first office opening in Manchester. It plans to start facilitating loans once fully FCA approved. Link here.
GREEN FINANCE
Sustainable payment provider, HELPFUL, has launched digital branded wallets to help businesses make their checkouts greener, faster and attract new customers. Link here
REGTECH
Coping with regulatory risk can be challenging at the best of times, but the sanction warfare of the kind waged against Russia has fintech compliance teams “grappling with the sheer complexity”. “Every fintech CEO at the moment is going to their compliance team to ask how the Ukraine crisis will impact them,” says Charlie Delingpole, founder and CEO of reg-tech firm, ComplyAdvantage. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Nova Credit announced it has expanded its engineering team with the appointment of Yacine Azmi as Head of Engineering. Link here
moneycorp, a leading payments services provider for Fintechs, banks, businesses, and individuals, announced the appointment of Koen Vanpraet to the role of EMEA CEO. Link here
Shawbrook Bank has hired Arthur Leung as its first chief product officer, as the bank doubles down on its digital strategy. Link here
UK-based crypto startup Mode has named former Alipay UK CEO Rita L. as chief executive officer. Link here
FINTECH MAPS
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.