Digital Banking | 2022 #25
Weekly news up to Monday, June 20th, 2022
REPORT
India retail banking is poised for disruption as neobanks look to revolutionise personal banking experience.
👉Download Redseer Strategy Consultants “Neobanking In India The Matrix Upgraded” report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Revolut announced that a streamlined version of its app is launching in Oman in the next couple of months.
With the aim to launch in up to 90 countries by the end of 2022, and additional features to be added soon, customers in the additional countries would be able to transfer money to 50+ countries using 30+ currencies.
👉Read the full article here.
📰 ARTICLE
The founder of fintech giant Revolut has criticized the Financial Conduct Authority over the firm’s “slower than expectation” progress towards a banking llicense
“I definitely see the process is slower compared to other regulators,” Nikolay Storonsky said. “I’ll give you an example – so we applied for 48 licenses across the globe and we received 44, and three of the licenses that we haven’t received are actually in the UK.”
👉Read the full article here.
👨💻 BLOG
How Are Neobanks Regulated?
What neobanks — and all fintechs — should be prepared to do in the face of mounting regulatory scrutiny:
As the digitization of financial services grows at record pace, the outlook for neobanks is promising, with market value estimated at $300 billion. In 2021, neobanks nabbed $12 billion in venture capital funding, springing up a new cohort of these fintechs.
👉Read the full article by Sheetal Parikh here.
💬 INTERVIEW
‘N26 isn’t for everyone’: CEO Valentin Stalf addresses neobank’s culture struggles.
In a rare interview, the N26 CEO and cofounder addressed the $9bn German fintech’s plan to deal with its internal blind spots, as well as its struggles with compliance.
👉Read the full article by Amy O'Brien here.
💳 MVO - CARD COLLECTION
Monzo is introducing 3 limited edition colors inspired by their original hot coral card✨.
👉 Read the full article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Fidor Bank is planning to roll out a new generation of contactless bank cards later this year which include fingerprint ID to authorize payments. Link here.
⭐️ Airbank has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Molten Ventures. Link here.
⭐️ Kinly officially launched Monday and announced $15 million in Series A funding. Link here.
⭐️ Revolut is now the fastest-growing fintech in Spain. The company has increased its customers in Spain by more than 76 percent in the last year to hit one million users. Link here.
⭐️ Key learnings from SaaStr Europa 2022: scaling your business and more. Link here.
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Zopa is reportedly delaying plans for a public offering due to the current market conditions. Link here.
Starling Bank is rolling out 36 new spending categories, which will give its customers access to monthly spending data within each category. Link here. Starling Bank buys £500m mortgage book. Link here.
Revolut said it was launching a streamlined version of its app in Sri Lanka, Chile, Ecuador, Azerbaijan and Oman, allowing customers to transfer money to over 50 countries using more than 30 currencies. Link here.
Tell.money has partnered with Toqio, the fintech SaaS platform that enables organizations to build and launch fintech propositions. Link here.
Monzo has confirmed it still plans to pursue crypto investment opportunities, amid the current crash in the digital asset market. Link here.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
CaixaBank is teaming up with Microsoft on an AI innovation laboratory that will, among other things, focus on building a work environment in the metaverse. Link here.
Virgin Money has struck a three-year deal with lending-as-a-service platform Trade Ledger to speed up business loan applications. Link here.
AMNIS Treasury Services announced the closing of a Series-A investment round of CHF 8.6 million. Link here.
Weavr signals further growth and expansion in Europe with Portugal launch. Link here.
USA 🇺🇸
Narmi lands $35M to layer services on top of existing banking infrastructure. Link here.
Fintech Zytara partners deadmau5 to create branded banking solution. Link here.
Brex is apparently abandoning the very segment it started out to serve – small and medium-to-sized businesses. Link here.
CANADA
The Royal Bank of Canada has partnered with United States FinTech companies Yodlee and Plaid to offer RBC clients a private form of open banking. Link here.
LATAM
Mono aims to be the ‘first bankingless bank’ for Latin America’s small businesses. Link here.
ASIA
Singapore's banks are stepping up their defences against scammers, rolling out a host of measures, including an emergency self-service kill switch for customers to suspend their accounts. Link here.
Minna Bank Japan's first digital bank, has recorded over 1 million downloads of its mobile banking app and more than 400 thousand accounts have been opened. Link here.
The “airasia Super App” has rolled out its e-wallet “airasia pocket” to create a seamless in-app payment experience that is available to all of its users in Malaysia. Link here.
GCash announced that it now has over 60 million registered users and more than five million merchants nationwide. Link here.
Mewt has raised $4.6 million ( ₹35.8 crore) in a seed funding round led by global fintech investor Quona Capital. Link here.
Samba Bank Pakistan has officially gone live with SmartVista Card Management & Middleware system after partnering with BPC to complete the first stage of its cross-vertical digital banking transformation. Link here.
AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
CommBank partners with Mambu to develop Unloan, the CBA group’s new digital home loan. Link here.
Douugh is on track to launch its banking super-app to Australians later this year, following its Beta launch. Link here.
Currencycloud announced that they have been granted an Australian Financial Services licence by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Link here.
MIDDLE EAST
Rewire has “hit a key growth milestone” after acquiring Imagen, a provider of pre-paid card solutions for migrants in Israel. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
SEON has hired Matt Davies, formerly VP of Customer Marketing at Splunk as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.