Digital Banking | 2022 #6
Weekly news up to Monday, February 7th, 2022
REPORT
FT Partners’ report discusses the history of the Supper App, the various Super App models that have emerged globally, and examines the global landscape and the players that are leading the way as well as new potential entrants across all key geographies.
👉 Read the full report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
How to Choose the Right Core Banking Provider?
To generate new growth and transform a business, it takes a deliberate strategic decision about which digital business models to line up against, where to play, which new technologies best support the chosen business model(s), and how to win in the embedded financial era.
For this, it is important to rethink technology procurement.
👉 Read Tuum’s white paper on how to choose the right core banking provider here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
Setting up an entity in the UK can be challenging, we know because we've done it. That's why we've worked with international law firm, Mishcon de Reya, to create this practical guide to growing your business into the UK.
📰 ARTICLE
British FinTech Railsbank is eyeing up ‘unicorn’ status as it looks to raise $100m funding that would value the firm at over $1bn, according to news reports.
Railsbank, which provides digital banking services to financial service and consumer companies, has called in FinTech-focused investment bank Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners to work on the $100m round, Sky News’ Mark Kleinman first reported.
👉 Read the full article here.
👨💻 BLOG
Built for Mars is back! This time with a showdown of the overdrafts, between Monzo Bank and Starling Bank.
Peter Ramsey has been re-evaluating the UX of these two banks specifically and highlighted a few things that we can all learn from. So, is the experience of getting an overdraft better with Monzo, or Starling?
👉 Read the full blog article here.
💡INSIGHTS
Insurance is one of the new battlegrounds for digital banks, as they look to boost revenues by offering payment protection in areas including foreign travel, phones, and even income.
Now, Revolut, with barely a paw-se for thought, has moved into pet insurance in the UK. And the neobank has even appointed a canine chief pet officer, although it's unclear if one-year-old Shiba Inu named Sam will be giving media interviews. Link here.
🎤 PODCAST
👀 Would you prefer to receive your Digital Banking news daily? 👉 Read all about Digital Banking news here.
Subscribe to our Daily Digital Banking Newsletter and never miss an important update again.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Upgrade, Inc., a Fintech platform that combines mobile banking, credit, payments, and more in a “Super App,” has added a new feature: Shopping. Link here.
⭐️ Masthaven Bank, a former non-bank lender turned neobank, is withdrawing from the UK banking market. Link here.
⭐️ Despite failing to secure a US banking licence, Monzo has finally moved out of private beta in the country and opened up to the wider public. Link here.
⭐️ Mozper, the startup that helps parents in Latin America educate their children to make smart and responsible financial decisions, launches in Brazil, together with Visa. Link here.
UK 🇬🇧
After launching its first savings accounts in December, digital bank Monument is increasing its headline rate to a huge 2.2 percent. That’s on its 5 year Fixed Term account, up from the 2.05 percent it previously offered, with no changes to its other accounts Link here.
Atom bank is partnering with Sesame to provide increased accessibility for those applying for mortgages through Sesame’s brokers. The move aims to allow more customers the opportunity to access Atom bank’s mortgage rates for prime and near-prime mortgages. Link here.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
European neobank Bunq has launched a new feature allowing its users to invest their cash through a partnership with Birdee. Link here.
Swedish fintech Northmill Bank has acquired native payments firm Moreflo, as it makes a play in the B2B retail sphere. Link here.
Revolut is to begin offering personal loans in Ireland as its push into the banking market here gathers pace. The online bank has opened a waiting list for the loans, the first Revolut Bank product it is to offer in this country. Link here.
Riverbank, a Luxembourg-based fintech company, announced that it has launched a fully digital loan application for advisors and intermediaries in the professional real estate sector. Link here.
USA 🇺🇸
Bakkt Holdings, Inc., a trusted digital asset platform that enables consumers to buy, sell, send and spend a range of digital assets, announced that Hanover Community Bank (“Hanover Bank”) will join its early adopter program to connect to Bakkt’s cryptocurrency platform, which will offer Bank customers access to Bitcoin and Ethereum through the Bank’s mobile banking app. Link here.
UK-based core banking software provider Thought Machine has signed its second community bank in the US – Mascoma Bank. Mascoma follows Arkansas-based Arvest, which opted for the vendor’s flagship cloud-based offering, Vault, last year. Link here.
First Internet Bank is doubling down on banking as a service. It’s something the Fishers, Indiana, community bank has been doing on a limited basis for years — backing fintechs by handling tasks only a regulated institution is permitted to offer, such as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured deposits and checking accounts. Link here.
CANADA
Spurred by the growth of financial products designed to support Canada’s underbanked, Toronto-based FinTech startup KOHO has secured $210 million in Series D financing to democratize access to wealth creation in Canada. Link here.
LATAM
Nubank founder and CEO David Vélez sees the economic struggles of Brazil as a potential opportunity for even faster growth for his digital banking platform across Latin America and around the world. Link here.
ASIA
Russian state lender Sberbank has rolled out a service that lets customers send money to Alipay wallets in China using phone numbers. To make a transfer, customers indicate the phone number and full name of the recipient in SberBank Online. Link here.
Thailand's central bank plans to allow banks to invest more than a current limit of 3% of their capital funds in fintech, except in digital assets, an assistant governor said on Tuesday. Link here.
MIDDLE EAST
FinTech start-up Rewire, which develops an online financial services platform for expatriate workers, has partnered with Qover – a leading InsurTech in seamless embedded insurance solutions – and insurer AIG to protect its customers in case of accidents at no additional cost. Link here.
Islamic fintech is one subsector of fintech geared for significant growth in the coming years. Based on the latest figures from Dinar Standard and Elipses, the Islamic fintech market size in the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was $49 billion in 2020. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
10x Banking (10x) announced the appointment of three senior sales and marketing leaders, to fuel the next stage of growth for the core banking technology provider. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
The digital-only bank Monzo will allow its employees to take three months’ paid leave as it joins a growing number of businesses that are overhauling their working practices to become more flexible after the Covid-19 crisis. Monzo’s staff will be eligible for the sabbaticals after they have worked for the company for four years, the bank said. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.