Digital Banking | 2022 #17
Weekly news up to Monday, April 25th, 2022
REPORT
Evolution of successful Digital Banking Models 📈
As companies scale, goals change, and digital banks are diversifying their revenue sources beyond interchange fees, moving away from fee-free propositions and towards premium, paid banking features such as lending and banking for businesses.
👉 Read the full C-Innovation’s article by Javier Guevara Torres here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Contis is set to supercharge the company’s growth in the UK and EEA-listed countries, enabling client expansion into new geographies.
The new solution, called process.pay is a card scheme certified by Visa and Mastercard to process any credit, debit, and prepaid card transactions globally.
The technology will form part of Contis’s evolution of PayTech solutions as it continues to evolve in line with the changing needs of the payment sector in the digital age.
The solution will be available across both small and large banks, fintech, businesses, and non-finance players in the gaming and gifting sector.
👉 Read more here.
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💳 MVO - CARD COLLECTION
GoHenry, a neobanking fintech that offers prepaid cards for children aged 6-18, has said it is dumping plastic cards in favour of a biodegradable alternative.
The company made its first leap into the world of non-plastic cards with the launch of an 82 per cent bio-sourced non-petroleum-based polymer designed to break down in six months in May 2020.
👉 Read more here.
📰 ARTICLE
Evolve Bank & Trust and Bond Financial Technologies, Inc. are pushing the boundaries of embedded finance to bring innovation to companies that want to offer financial products to their customers.
Together, Evolve and Bond will enable entrepreneurs to build and launch innovative financial solutions at scale.
“As a leading fintech sponsor bank, Evolve is excited by the capabilities Bond brings to our partnership,” said Hank Word, President of Evolve's Open Banking division.
👉 Read the full article here.
💬 INTERVIEW
Anna Perera Shaw, Director, Consumer Credit, Deposits and Payments at RFI Global, discussed with Efma the illuminating results from their latest global survey on youth banking in Australia.
When it comes to having independent access to an account with a linked card, our data has the average ideal age at 15. However, 1 in 5 parents (18%) indicate that 10 to 12 is the right age.
👉 Read the full Q&A here.
💡INSIGHTS
The cost of acquiring and servicing emerging market FinTech customers
One takeaway: Digital banking and payments FinTechs incur the lowest costs to acquire and serve customers; investechs spend the most.
Read the full Tellimer article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Germany's Commerzbank applies for a local crypto license. Link here.
⭐️ A new processing solution from leading banking-as-a-service provider (BaaS) Contis is set to supercharge the company's growth in the UK and EEA listed countries, enabling client expansion into new geographies. Link here.
⭐️ Sanctioned former billionaire Oleg Tinkov has denounced Putin’s war in Ukraine, calling for an end to “this crazy war”. Link here.
⭐️ Qonto has raised €5 million in just 6.5 hours on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. Link here.
UK 🇬🇧
Moneybox has become the latest fintech to increase the interest rate on its savings accounts, upping the rate on its long-term savings account by nearly 70 per cent. Link here.
Frost, is set to launch on 4 May. The firm’s app will allow users to open a digital e-money account and will offer features such as spend management tools to track spending. Link here.
Recognise Bank has entered the business savings market with the launch of an Easy Access Savings Account paying 0.55% AER. Link here.
Pillar raised a pre-seed round of £13 million ($16.9 million) led by Global Founders Capital and Backed VC. Link here.
Shawbrook has come up with a unique proposition to encourage its customers to share their open banking data: better rates. Link here.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Fenergo has acquired Amsterdam’s Sentinels, an anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring new market entrant with AI-based technology. Link here.
Santander is lopping an hour off the opening time of hundreds of its branches, admitting customers only for pre-booked appointments in the late afternoon. Link here.
Swedish neobank Juni, which is targeting e-commerce entrepreneurs, is emerging out of beta with a new brand identity and product features. Link here.
Societe Generale has launched an accelerator programme for startups working in trade finance cash management, factoring, and correspondent banking. Link here.
USA 🇺🇸
Goldman Sachs has started testing a new checking account, another step in its multi-year push into the consumer banking sector. Link here.
Ellis announced it has raised a $5.6 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, 20VC, Dreamers VC, and V1.VC. Link here.
PayPal and Venmo are increasing their instant transfer fees for both consumers and merchants in the United States in the coming weeks. Link here.
William Hockey and Annie Hockey, are the cofounders and co-CEOs of Column. It’s a technology-focused, federally chartered bank that aims to make it easier and faster for other companies to offer financial services. Link here.
Creative Juice announced its $50 million fund to underwrite creator businesses. Link here.
CANADA
QuadFi has signed an agreement with Crayhill Capital Management for a new financing facility worth $100 million (CAD 127 million). Link here.
ASIA
Fi is in the advanced stages of talks to raise about $100 million at a $700 million valuation, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Link here.
SadaPay raised additional funds to become the nation’s highest-funded fintech as it received permission for full-fledged operations that will allow it to add millions of new users. Link here.
Tajikistan-based Alif is looking to tap Pakistan’s fintech space to cater Pakistan’s large ‘unbanked’ population, said Mahmood Shamsher Ali, Country Representative Alif Capital Holdings, during an exclusive interview with The News International. Link here.
AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
The first Australian bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is set to list on the Cboe next week as the country’s major equity markets clearinghouse gives participants the green light. Link here.
MogoPlus is in the process of becoming an Accredited Data Recipient authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Link here.
AFRICA
Wave Digital Finance has been granted an e-money license by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). Link here.
Umba has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Link here.
OjirehPrime launched a digital bank with interest-free BNPL. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Finastra has appointed former ING Bank board member Isabel Fernandez as EVP for the company’s lending business unit. Link here.
Binance has hired another former regulator in the US. Seth Levy, who spent over a decade at the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is joining Binance as head of market surveillance to oversee the implementation of infrastructure that will address regulatory risk when trading digital assets worldwide. Link here.
Elavon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank and one the largest payments processors globally, appointed Pari Sawant as Chief Product Officer. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Having already created more than 300 Indian jobs in less than 12 months, Revolut plans to continue creating hundreds more jobs in the coming years. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.