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REPORT

As Wise rolls out its new look worldwide, C-Innovation ’s deep dive report reveals how Wise has made a name for itself in the FinTech industry.

REPORT

Retail banking in South Africa is increasingly competitive with neobanks and digital players entering profitable segments across the banking value chain.

For banks to be loved by their customers, they must reimagine their customer service -- with continuous innovation required to meet customers’ evolving expectations.

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👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT

Buddy partnered with Klarna Kosma to allow Buddy users to connect their bank to automatically and seamlessly track expenses for greater budgeting accuracy and efficiency.

Buddy’s partnership with Klarna Kosma means customers can check their account balance in real-time, monitor spending and even set up payment reminders, all from Buddy’s app.

💡INSIGHTS

Where are digital wallets thriving and why?

In China and SE Asia, ‘super apps’ are the most prevalent digital wallet value proposition form. These apps also often support broader banking services such as lending.

📊 INFOGRAPHIC

Starling Bank and Revolut swung to a profit in 2021, while Monzo Bank was left in the red. How else did their performance weigh up?👇

📰 ARTICLE

Challenger and specialist banks lent small businesses more than the traditional major players in 2022 - a record £35.5 billion. Gross bank lending to smaller businesses in 2022 was £65.1 billion, of which 55% came from challengers and specialists, according to data from the British Business Bank.

The total figure represents a 12.8% increase from 2021.

👨 💻 BLOG

Varo Bank raising $50m in significant down round 👇

Less than a year ago, Varo CEO Colin Walsh was insisting the company had enough runway to reach profitability without raising additional equity.

🧐 ANALYSIS

In Southeast Asia, banks are embarking on the next phase of their digital transformation, focusing heavily on improving customer experiences, leveraging data and analytics, and investing in cloud-based core banking systems as well as intelligent technologies, a new study by digital transformation consultancy Publicis Sapient found.

NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS

🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS

⭐️ Revolut is entering the New Zealand market next month with around 20,000 Kiwis on its waitlist.

⭐️ Goldman Sachs Group is considering "strategic alternatives" for its consumer arm, raising prospects for a potential sale.

⭐️ Flutterwave denied allegations that hackers stole N2.9bn from its platform and stashed the funds in 27 bank accounts.

⭐️ The City regulator is on alert for an emergency restructuring of Railsr, which was among the companies to snap up assets from the collapsed German group Wirecard.

⭐️ Revolut investor wrote billions off its $33bn valuation, two years after the finance app became Britain’s most valuable start-up.

FinTech Meetup in Vegas is just around the corner and I will start and close it with a bang. Join me and let's do this together!

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🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

UK 🇬🇧

Citizen chose embedded finance infrastructure provider OpenPayd as its real-time payments provider.

Railsbank raised more than $100 million from investors, may be sold off through an insolvency process as it faces mounting financial and regulatory problems.

Tide removed 100% of its emissions as of last year with durable carbon removal and is now committing to becoming fully net zero by 2030.

Revolut released its annual report for 2021 which shows some significant figures as the company nearly tripled its revenue between 2020 and 2021, and the company reached profitability for the first time.

Revolut’s auditor warned that the design of the fintech’s IT systems meant there was a risk that the bulk of its 2021 revenues was materially misstated even as it turned a profit for the first time that year.

Nationwide and HSBC cracked down by applying daily limits for buyers or restricting credit cards from making crypto purchases.

Starling Bank is moving up north and intends to create 1,000 new jobs for the region.

Wise hits 16m customers and reveals rebrand to bolster global expansion.

EUROPE 🇪🇺

Banco Sabadell is selling 80 percent of its merchant acquiring business to European paytech Nexi for €280m.

Ireland's central bank become the latest financial institution to ban its employees from using the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

Bank of Ireland is to hire 100 new technology staff in roles across engineering, cloud technology, cybersecurity, and data.

N26’s chief risk officer Thomas Grosse resigned.

USA 🇺🇸

Serena Ventures backs SoLo Funds as finance platform tops 1M registered users and over 1.3 million downloads.

First Fidelity Bank announced the launch of its next-gen Banking as a Service solution.

Goldman Sachs' Platform Solutions business, consisting of Transaction Banking and Consumer Platforms, had negative net revenues of USD 1.5bn in 2022.

Zenus Bank becomes the first bank to launch Visa Infinite Debit Card to a global audience.

Modern Treasury and Silicon Valley Bank announced the availability of a new global payment solution.

CANADA

Intuit´s TurboTax announced the launch of TurboTax Cash, powered by Neo Financial to help Canadians get their hands on funds faster.

LATAM

Nubank changed how Brazil banks and now it’s helping users plan and grow their savings.

Nubank began releasing its Nucoin token, developed on Polygon, to customers in Brazil.

ASIA

Shanghai Commercial Bank joined forces with Salt Edge, a pioneer in open banking, to leverage PSD2 possibilities and create a bespoke banking experience for its customers.

G-Bank Technologies OÜ and GIG-A launched their multilingual mobile financial service offering in Japan, allowing users to easily and inexpensively open bank accounts.

HSBC granted its first green loan in Honk Kong to a climate-mitigation technology firm, fighting global warming by financing clients’ emissions reduction projects.

UOB finalized the acquisition of Citigroup’s consumer banking business which comprises its lending portfolios, wealth management and retail deposit businesses in Vietnam.

The potential merger of Bank Nobu and Bank MNC will combine the ecosystem of two of Indonesia’s top corporate groups.

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺

The Reserve Bank of Australia will be launching its live central bank digital currency pilot in the next few months.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel Discount Bank announced a collaboration with e-lending company Ezbob to set up a new fintech company Greenlend to provide digital credit.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Citi Singapore announced the appointment of Matt Read as its Retail Banking Head.