Аsia
SimCorp renews partnership with Deutsche Bank to expand into APAC
IBS Intelligence, Posted November 27, 2024
SimCorp, a global financial technology company, and Deutsche Bank Securities Services have announced the extension of their longstanding partnership.
This renewed agreement, first set in 2006, will enable Deutsche Bank to continue delivering integrated fund administration and accounting services to its clients across the Asia Pacific region using the integrated, front-to-back investment management platform SimCorp One.
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ADB, Mastercard Launch Innovative Partnership to Finance MSMEs in Asia and the Pacific
Asian Development Bank, Posted November 28, 2024
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Mastercard Impact Fund, administered by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a groundbreaking partnership aimed at supporting micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Asia and the Pacific.
The initiative will initially target Georgia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It will leverage a $5 million grant from Mastercard to financial institutions, to catalyze lending toward MSMEs, with a focus on women-led or -owned MSMEs and climate finance among small businesses. The grant will support up to $1 billion of ADB financing over a 4-year period, providing risk-reduction capital, performance incentives, and capacity building for financial institutions.
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India, already an IPO bright spot, prepares for bigger surge in 2025
TechCrunch, Posted November 27, 2024
India has bucked the global trend in initial public offerings this year, establishing itself as a rare bright spot for tech listings while other major markets face continued headwinds. The world’s most populous nation is now preparing for an even more substantial wave of startup IPOs in 2025.
More than 20 startups are preparing to list next year, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. These include business-to-business marketplaces Inframarket and Zetwerk, farm-to-produce venture CaptainFresh, professional services marketplace UrbanCompany, jewelry retailer Bluestone, security firm OneAssist, and offline-to-online retailer Magicpin.
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Europe
Fintech Finance News, Posted November 21, 2024
tell.money, a leading provider of open banking solutions, today announces its appointment as the official open banking gateway provider for Monese, the award-winning mobile money app. This strategic partnership arrives at a crucial time when embedded finance solutions are experiencing unprecedented growth in the UK and EU markets.
The collaboration marks a significant milestone in tell.money’s mission to simplify open banking integration for Third Party Providers (TPPs) while expanding its European presence. The partnership introduces comprehensive EU coverage for TPPs, alongside enhanced support features including a dedicated sandbox environment for testing and implementation.
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Revolut to offer UK, EU stock trading solutions after scoring license
IBS Intelligence, Posted November 21, 2024
FinTech Revolut has been granted a trading licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), paving the way for it to start offering UK-listed stocks.
The receipt of this license makes Revolut Trading an authorised investment firm, allowing it to improve the user experience for its 650,000+ existing UK trading customers.
Since 2019, Revolut has operated its Trading feature as an Appointed Representative with a Principal in the UK. This partnership allowed the FinTech to offer an investment service through its app, where retail customers could buy and sell shares listed in the United States.
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GCash streamlines remittances for Filipinos in the UK, Europe
IBS Intelligence, Posted November 27, 2024
GCash, the Philippines’ finance super app, has expanded its presence in the United Kingdom and Europe with the new ‘UK/EU Bank Cash In’ feature, which enhances remittance for Filipinos in Europe.
Overseas Filipinos in the UK and Europe can now seamlessly link their international bank accounts to GCash, making it easier to send remittances to the Philippines.
Previously, sending money from the UK and Europe to the Philippines was a complex and time-consuming process, often involving expensive fees and multiple intermediaries. With the new feature, Filipinos can enjoy lower costs and faster transaction times when sending money home, as well as competitive exchange rates and real-time access to funds.
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HSBC UK partners with Ovo for BNPL market debut
Fintech Global, Posted November 26, 2024
HSBC UK, a leading provider of banking and financial services, has announced the launch of Flexipay, a point-of-sale (POS) finance product aimed at entering the growing buy now, pay later (BNPL) market in the United Kingdom.
With the rising popularity of instalment-based payment solutions, HSBC aims to provide a flexible, responsible, and fully regulated alternative for customers seeking to spread the cost of large purchases, according to Finextra.
The new point-of-sale financing solution, allows consumers to pay for purchases in instalments.
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Revolut reveals 2025 vision, with AI assistant, mortgages, and ATMs on the horizon
Revolut, Posted November 22, 2024
Earlier today, Revolut co-founders Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko took to the stage at the company’s The Revolutionaries event in London to celebrate 50 million Revolut customers and share the company’s future product vision for 2025.
Revolut, which has grown by over 10 million customers globally in 2024 so far, is now focused on accelerating the roll out of innovative products and services to continue disrupting global financial services in its bid to become the world’s first truly global bank.
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Avaloq report highlights UK wealth managers’ faith in AI, despite investor scepticism
Fintech Global, Posted November 25, 2024
A study by Avaloq has shed light on the contrasting perspectives between UK wealth managers and investors regarding AI in wealth management.
According to Finextra, the research, which surveyed 300 wealth managers and 3,000 investors globally, found that 87% of UK wealth managers believe AI is crucial to the future of the industry and could significantly improve wealth management practices.
Wealth managers see AI as particularly beneficial in areas like client onboarding, where 86% see its effectiveness, summarising client meetings (65%), automated compliance monitoring (64%), and automated regulatory checks (61%). These applications could potentially free up wealth managers to focus more on client relationships and strategic decision-making.
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USA
Cardless secures $30m to enhance co-branded credit card offerings
Fintech global, Posted November 27, 2024
Cardless, an embedded credit card platform, has successfully raised $30m in growth equity funding.
According to Finextra, this funding marks a significant milestone, underpinned by a tenfold increase in revenue since the beginning of 2023. Cardless specializes in creating co-branded credit cards for major brands, seamlessly integrated across the three largest card networks: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
The recent financial infusion was spearheaded by Activant Capital, with contributions from both new and existing investors, including Mischief (the fund co-founded by Plaid’s Zach Perret), Industry Ventures, Thayer Ventures, Assurant, and American Express. This latest round brings the total equity funding for Cardless to over $90m.
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Citi Invests in Pylon, the Programmatic Mortgage Infrastructure Platform
Citi, Posted November 26, 2024
Citi has made a minority strategic investment in Pylon, a mortgage infrastructure provider.
The investment was made jointly through Citi’s Spread Products Investment Technologies (SPRINT) unit and Citi Ventures. Citi is joining existing investors Conversion Capital, Allegis Capital, Peter Thiel, QED, and Fifth Wall.
In addition to the investment, Citi and Pylon are working together to integrate the industry-leading liquidity offered by Citi’s mortgage trading desk directly into the Pylon platform. This will effectively provide Pylon customers with direct access to Citi’s institutional-grade products and rates.
Founded in 2022, Pylon’s mission is to rewire mortgage from the ground up. The Pylon platform delivers programmatic originations and capital through its enterprise-grade APIs. The company serves innovative businesses across wealth management, homebuilding, servicers, banks, and select lenders.
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PayPal revives its money-pooling feature
TechCrunch, Posted November 19, 2024
PayPal is launching new features that let users pool together money with friends or family to collectively pay for trips, travel, gifts, and more. And most importantly, those contributing to the pool don’t need to have a PayPal account to pay their fair share.
PayPal actually had a pooling feature in place way back in 2017, but the service was shuttered globally in November 2021. A PayPal spokesperson told TechCrunch the feature is returning “due to high customer demand” and will launch in the U.S., Germany, U.K., Italy, and Spain ahead of the holidays.
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Apple Pay, Cash App, PayPal and other apps to be treated more like banks
TechCrunch, Posted November 14, 2024
Some digital services look like banks and act like banks, but aren’t banks — meaning they can, for instance, close down your account without notice. Or be difficult to contact when you want to dispute fraud.
This is about to change: the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has just ruled that all digital services that handle a significant number of transactions should be subject to bank-like supervision. The government agency will gain new powers around incorrect transactions, fraudulent activity, data privacy, and more.
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LatAm
Brazilian Fintech Nubank Considers Domicile Move to UK
Bloomberg, Posted November 20, 2024
Brazilian financial-technology company Nu Holdings Ltd. is considering plans to shift its legal base to the UK, in a move that would mark a major win in Britain’s push to encourage more tech companies to move to the country.
The digital challenger bank has been working with the British government on the plans, which were discussed as part of a broader set of agreements between Brazil and the UK on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro, according to people familiar with the talks.
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dLocal secures PISP certification for Pix to streamline payments in Brazil
IBS Intelligence, Posted November 27, 2024
dLocal, the cross-border payment platform specialising in high-growth markets, has marked a new regulatory milestone by becoming a certified Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) in Brazil, authorised by the Central Bank.
This certification enables dLocal to facilitate Pix payments directly within the Open Finance ecosystem, streamlining the checkout process and reducing friction by allowing direct payments without redirecting users to bank apps. Brazil’s Open Finance ecosystem is supported by the country’s top five banks, including Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Itaú, and Nubank, which together represent 92% of the country’s banked population.
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This Mexican fintech isn’t too worried about Trump’s tariff threats
TechCrunch, Posted November 26, 2024
Mexico’s economic development has made it a fertile ground for startups. But the trend is under threat if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his plans to take a harder line on trade with Mexico.
Jaime Tabachnik, co-founder and CEO of Mexican trucking finance startup Solvento, isn’t too worried, though. Solvento just closed its $12.5 million Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Cometa.
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Latin America fintech will be a market to watch in 2025
TechCrunch, Posted November 24, 2024
Midway through 2024, Mike Packer, a partner at fintech-focused QED Investors, predicted we’d already hit the bottom for funding to Latin American fintech startups and that a bounce-back was coming. While momentum hasn’t been a straight shot up and to the right ever since, it’s looking like he was right.
The volume of venture capital dollars invested into fintech companies based in LatAm has already surpassed 2023 with another month left in the year. So far in 2024, $2.6 billion has been invested across 174 deals, according to PitchBook data. This compares to the $1.5 billion invested across 241 deals in 2023. While these aren’t huge totals, 2024 has already seen a 73% increase in funding volume compared to 2023.
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In Mexico’s tense job market, Minu’s take on employee benefits includes financial wellness
Tech Crunch, Posted November 19, 2024
In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to look after employee well-being. As Mexico is nearing full employment, this creates tailwinds for these endeavors, but with particular awareness that financial, physical, and mental health are interconnected.
“The main problem to solve in Mexico is around financial matters,” said Mexico-based entrepreneur Nima Pourshasb (at the center in the picture above). His startup, Minu, helps Mexican employees provide their workforce with more than 50 benefits, including telehealth, as well as earned wage access so they don’t have to stress over waiting for payday.
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