Global FinTech | 2022 #4
Weekly news up to Tuesday, January 25th, 2022
REPORT
Rapyd, a global Fintech-as-a-Service company, published a new report “The 2022 Global State of Cross-Border Commerce” to assess the level of organizational readiness amongst businesses for cross-border commerce.
Expected to reach $153 trillion globally, growing at 5% CAGR, cross-border commerce is a high priority in 2022 for 93% of the businesses big and small surveyed across the United States and Europe.
👉 Read more here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
The business of handling open banking data can be a messy one, as demonstrated by Plaid in the US where it settled a class-action lawsuit in August for obtaining “more financial data than was needed”.
The issue in question was around how Plaid operated bank account login screens between 2013 and 2021—starting long before banking APIs were commonplace—that often mimicked those of a user’s own bank… while it was actually Plaid collecting the data.
👉 Read the full AltFi article here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
Get to know Payhawk. The most efficient credit card backed by powerful financial software to help companies stay in control of their spend. Schedule a demo and try efficient, paperless, compliant spending today.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
WhiteSight takes a look at what some of the financial services big-shots are doing when it comes to crypto, and how committed they really are to the cause.
👉 Read the full article by Sanjeev Kumar and Kshitija Kaur here.
📰 ARTICLE
Robinhood is bleeding. Jamie Dimon is spending. JPMorgan Chase has billions to spend catching up with fintech startups. What about just doing a deal instead?
👉 Read the full Protocol newsletter by Benjamin Pimentel here.
💳 MVO CARD COLLECTION
Curve, the financial super app which combines all of your debit, credit, and loyalty cards into one, easy-to-use smart card, has unveiled a new card with a bold, updated design, reflecting the bold advancements the company has made to help people take control of their money.
👉 Read the full FF News | Fintech Finance article here.
👨💻 BLOG
💬 INTERVIEW
“Bahrain and our neighbours are maturing at an accelerated pace that, as a trading bloc and a region, we have never seen before.”Khalid Dannish, CEO, Bahrain FinTech Bay
When Bahrain FinTech Bay was founded three years ago, a key part of fulfilling its mission in developing the financial technology industry in the Middle East and North Africa was to raise awareness and foster collaboration among incumbents and insurgents.
👉 Read the full interview here.
💡INSIGHTS
Private markets are “overvalued” and must “rebalance,” said SoftBank Group Corp. Vision Fund Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Misra.
He said that companies that had asked the Vision Fund for unrealistically high valuations last year, and wound up not doing a deal, had in recent weeks asked the firm to reengage.
Read the full Bloomberg article here.
👀 Looking for funding news? We've moved them to their own special weekly newsletter here.
👉 Read all about M&As, VCs, Down Rounds, IPOs, Funding Rounds, etc.
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Visa has formed a strategic relationship with AI fintech Pagaya to enable its merchant and issuing bank partners to expand access to credit. Link here.
⭐️ The Bank of Korea has successfully completed the first phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) mock testing, which started in August 2021. Link here.
⭐️ Tink has announced the launch of ‘Income Check’ in the UK – a service that streamlines income verification using open banking technology. Link here.
⭐️ Vroon Modgill, CEO of Sokin talks to The Banker's Liz Lumley about meeting the needs of today's migrant workforce. Link here.
⭐️ The anatomy of an African fintech’s tech stack. Link here.
⭐️ App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 Report gives you the most comprehensive look at the market and guides you in how to leverage mobile market data to propel your growth and delight your customers in 2022. Link here.
PAYMENTS
The Digital Fifth has created a detailed report on Digital Payments in India: Indian Digital Payments Ecosystem 2022. Link here.
As more people return to in-store shopping, businesses managing both physical locations and eCommerce markets are tapping financial infrastructure platform Stripe and its Stripe Terminal solution to handle payments online and off. Link here.
Huawei is skirting around US restrictions that prevent it from using Google's Android software by installing NFC payments functionality across its smartphones with the help of the card consolidation app Curve. Link here.
AstroPay announced the launch of a new capability - Payment Links - for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Brazil. Link here.
As Amazon UK stops accepting Visa credit cards from later this week, fintech Curve says it has a "hack" that will enable shoppers to still make payments with the banned cards. Link here.
Two and a half years after joining Stripe, Rafa Plantier, Tink’s Head of UK Ireland, has announced his departure from the open banking provider. Link here.
Mastercard announced the launch of Mastercard TrackTM Instant Pay. Link here.
BNPL
The market space for BNPL providers is increasingly crowded. BNPL providers that have gained traction locally typically execute geo expansion strategies. Link here.
Affirm reached a deal to put its “buy now, pay later” options on millions of Verifone payment devices and online checkout systems. Link here.
MNT-Halan announced the successful addition of its Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) feature to its comprehensive digital ecosystem. Link here.
Zestmoney has seen transactions grow by 300 percent in 2021 as people took to convenience and affordability in a big way. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Currensea launched a roundup function as part of its ‘powered by’ service, allowing customers to make charitable donations when spending in the UK and abroad. Link here.
Plaid, a FinTech unicorn known for its APIs that connect consumer bank accounts to financial applications, announced today that it is buying Cognito. Link here.
CRYPTO
Shares of Robinhood and Coinbase, which each went public last year, slid Monday to new all-time lows before bouncing back. Link here.
eToro introduced MetaverseLife, a new smart portfolio covering stocks and crypto-assets from within the growing metaverse industry. Link here.
Bybit has taken trading to the next level by enabling peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions to help easier on- and off-ramp access. Link here.
Gemini acquired Omniex, a trading technology platform that provides order, execution, and portfolio management system solutions for institutional crypto trading. Link here.
Bitpanda announced its first Italian sports partnership with the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR). Link here.
The chief executive of UK fintech Mode has resigned two months after the company faced backlash for a controversial announcement. Link here.
BLOCKCHAIN
Fusang Corporation is planning to list its own token on the digital securities exchange it operates on Malaysia’s Labuan offshore financial centre (OFC), in what could be the first public offering of blockchain-based equities in Asia. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection, announced two new executive hires that include Nabeel Vilcassim as the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Oliver Furniss as Chief Product Officer (CPO). Both will report directly to Vatsa Narasimha, Chief Operating Officer of ComplyAdvantage. Link here.
Google is planning to enter into the cryptocurrency space as the firm has hired a former PayPal executive to lead its payment division. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Wise offers staffers 18 weeks of paid parental leave. 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.