Revolut one step closer to becoming a super app
Good morning,
Welcome to your daily FinTech news!
NEWS HIGHLIGHT
City minister tells Revolut he cannot influence its banking licence bid. Earlier this month, Andrew Griffith and officials held talks with Revolut's CEO Nikolay Storonsky and Chairman Martin Gilbert for the first time. This development occurred as the company fights to salvage its application to the Bank of England to become a fully authorised lender. A Revolut spokesman said the company was not seeking to ask Mr Griffith to intervene in the process.
“Monzo: Navigating growth, overcoming losses, and diversifying revenue streams.” In this comprehensive research report, C-Innovation delves into the key elements that shape Monzo's trajectory and financial landscape. Get the full report here
INTERVIEW
‘How becoming a homeless CEO saved my fintech company.’ Edoka Idoko, founder and CEO of OjirehPrime, typifies the Nigerian spirit in this tell-all interview. He recently sat down to share his story with BusinessDay’s Technology and Media editor, Frank Eleanya, on his journey to building a fintech that is on the verge of closing a $21 million funding.
INSIGHTS
European Regulators Moving the Needle on Real-Time AML Monitoring. As banks in the EU slowly begin to adopt this new approach, will the rest of the world follow suit? Read specialist’s Sujata Dasgupta insights published here
Africa's fintech market to top US$65B by 2030. The report, Global Fintech 2023: Reimagining the Future of Finance found that Africa's fintech market is projected to grow thirteenfold to US$65 billion in 2030. Read full story here
Adaptable Platforms, Strong Alliances: BaaS consolidation in action. Grab, merge, or unite – 2023 is fast becoming the year of consolidation in the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) realm. WhiteSight uncovers the three key aspects shaping the BaaS consolidation wave in this great article
Founder Framework: Identifying AI opportunities in financial services. Emergence is enthusiastic about the potential AI holds for the financial services industry and will continue to monitor changes as they emerge. Read the full write up by Carlotta "Lotti" Siniscalco and Kyle Murphy.
The Key Number to Watch in U.S. Bank Earnings. No major bank has collapsed since First Republic Bank at the beginning of May. But that doesn’t mean fears about banks have gone away. Learn more in this interesting WSJ article.
Treasury poised to shelve crackdown on 'buy now pay later' sector. One source recently said that a final decision had yet to be taken but that the Treasury was leaning towards kicking the proposals into the long grass. Read complete story here
What is cuckoo smurfing? Cuckoo smurfing is a money laundering method used by criminals to disguise the source and ownership of illegally derived funds. Anna Stylianou explains how it works. Read more
FINTECH NEWS
Swift pilots instant payments across currency zones. Dozens of payments from global banks (NAB, ANZ, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Banking Group) were successfully processed and credited within seconds to the beneficiary's account during the pilot phase of the Swift GPI Instant service.
Payhawk announces its release of a money management handbook to help startups Founders and CFOs that have raised VC funding to manage their cash flow and build a business that lasts beyond the difficult first year. Hristo Borisov, Payhawk CEO and Co-founder, announced the launch of the handbook.
Robinhood’s new retirement accounts put a new spin on ‘You Only Live Once’. The online broker is getting into the retirement business—which calls for a very different kind of trading than its customers usually mean when they ‘YOLO.’ Read more
Australia Post to close POLi Payments. The service will be closed at the end of September. The postal service announced the impending closure in a brief status notification to merchants. NZ version will live on, however. Read more
MTN MoMo platform’s self-service strategy pays off. The e-wallet service has shown 200% year-on-year user growth over the past two years, with over eight million registered MoMo customers in SA.
Goldman Sachs completes $1 billion loan sale to Varde. The loans involved borrowers who were making regular payments and meeting their obligations.
Will Toast get burned by 99-cent fee? Toast’s move to add a fee to restaurant customers’ tabs for online orders isn’t likely to be replicated by rivals, analysts said. Read more
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DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
Revolut moves closer to super-app status by adding tour and travel experience bookings. Europe's largest neobank, has moved a step closer to its goal of becoming a super-app by introducing a new marketplace for booking tours called Revolut Experiences that will allow users in Europe and the UK to book tours, attractions and activities directly through the app.
Emirates NBD has revamped its digital bank Liv with new value proposition targeting Gen Now empowering them with a better financial future through innovative offerings and a superior digital experience empowering them with a better financial future through innovative offerings and a superior digital experience.
BLOCKCHAIN
Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and a key executive, Roni Cohen-Pavon arrested. Mashinsky was arrested Thursday on federal securities fraud charges, as the bankrupt crypto exchange agreed to $4.7 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Here is everything you need to know. I also recommend watching this video by Coffeezilla.
PARTNERSHIPS
Moss selects GoCardless for UK push. The move comes as the Berlin-based company continues to gain momentum in the UK, its third international market. Link here
Monet teamed up with Belvo to tap into open finance data, utilizing machine learning techniques to successfully build a new credit scoring model. This mission is set against a backdrop of widespread lack of access to credit in Latin America.
'Solopreneur' finance platform Collective raises $50m for AI. Collective will use the money to invest in its core platform and expand implementation of AI technology across its product suite. Read more
US fintech start-up MerQube lands $22m Series B funding. With the new funding, MerQube plans to expand its engineering capabilities and platform infrastructure, hire talent, and continue expansion into its key markets.
RightRev raises $12M in funding. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth and expand its revenue accounting offerings. RightRev plans to invest in product innovation, including integrating with Billing solutions and ERPs.
Mattilda grabs another $19M, this time to expand beyond Mexico’s private schools. The company plans to use the funds to expand across Latin America, and is also working on some new services and products that will be announced later this year.
NFT lender Gondi goes live, raises $5.3M round led by Hack.vc . Gondi allows lenders and borrowers to capitalize on the value of blue-chip NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain. Borrowers can use their NFT assets as collateral to request a loan from the open market.
Construction Fintech startup Trunk Tools announces launch with $9.9M in seed funding. The infusion of capital will fuel the company’s growth by expanding its talented team, helping accelerate the development of its unique output-focused incentives solution, and driving market adoption.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Australia central bank appoints first female head Michele Bullock for next seven years. Australia has made history by appointing its first female head of the central bank. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony made the announcement, highlighting Bullock's qualifications and her ability to lead the RBA through an upcoming reorganization.
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Cheers,
Marcel van Oost
Thank you for the mention and coverage!
The Payment Solutions Guy — I'll help you decrease processing fees by 20%, and improve approval rates (guaranteed) by finding the best Payment Providers for your business | Visit my website to learn how
1yMarcel, great updates! It's like having a daily FinTech newspaper delivered straight to my feed 👏🤩 You're making it so easy to stay informed. Thanks!
Anti-Financial Crime & AML Advisor, Leader and Trainer | Empowering and Supporting BoDs | Building Compliance-by-design programs | Educating and Inspiring Compliance Teams | Founder of AML Cube | 40k+ followers
1yNice read! Thanks for making my post part of your newsletter!