Digital Banking: | 2024 #11
Weekly news up to Monday, 11th of March 2024
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
In partnership with Mastercard Open Banking, with services provided by Finicity, a Mastercard company, Fannie Mae continues to work toward improving access to affordable housing with secure banking-powered technologies, speeding up the application process for lenders and reducing the need for manual document preparation.
In addition to helping lenders validate assets and assess a borrower’s rent payment history and cash flow, Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) validation service gives lenders the power to verify a borrowers’ income and employment information using a single 12-month asset report. This digital enhancement is saving lenders time while enhancing the borrower experience.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Oxygen shuts down abruptly its neobank.
⭐️ Revolut UK CEO Says London’s Role as FinTech Hub Under Threat.
⭐️ Chime Adds Cash-Back Feature to Debit, Credit Cards.
⭐️ Edwards Federal Credit Union Selects the Apiture Digital Banking Platform.
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Revolut Business Customers Targeted in Sophisticated Account Takeover Scams, Losing Over £200,000. Despite Revolut's multi-factor authentication processes, the criminals managed to drain one account of £165,000 and another of over £40,000.
Nationwide agrees to buy Virgin Money for £2.9bn. Nationwide Building Society has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Virgin Money in a £2.9bn deal that would bolster its ability to challenge the UK’s big four banks.
Alphabet leads £340m Monzo funding round. The FinTech, which has become one of the largest digital banks in the UK with more than nine million users, has been valued at £4bn following the injection of capital.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Revolut is expanding its presence in Portugal by opening a branch and working towards acquiring a national IBAN. This move includes launching new financial products like personal loans, which necessitates the Portuguese IBAN.
Revolut has revealed new On-Ramp in partnership with MetaMask. According to the press release shared with Cryptonews, Revolut Ramp is the latest crypto offering available to users in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA).
Dutch FinTech Bunq moves top exec to UK to lead post-Brexit return. The company has appointed Parvinder Bhatia to a new role as UK country lead, a spokesperson told Financial News.
J.P. Morgan Payments is set to become a principal member of France’s leading payments network with the intention to offer European merchant clients access to the payments system by the end of 2024.
Banking Circle delivers agency banking service. The solution delivers indirect access to EURO local clearing via SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer and GBP via Faster Payments Service.
Revolut has launched a digital eSIM card for Irish customers to access data plans in more than 100 countries. This makes Revolut the first financial institution in Ireland to enter eSIM market.
USA 🇺🇸
Synctera Announces $18.6M Funding Boost, Appoints New CRO, To Support Largest New Customers’ US Expansions. The new funding and the addition of Leigh Gross to their team will help fuel their next phase of growth.
Neobank Dave achieves Q4 profitability. 2023 was an extraordinary year for Dave, and its results are a testament to the dedication and hard work of its exceptional team.
ChargeAfter launches white-label embedded POS lending platform for banks. The white-label platform, called The Lending Hub, offers financial institutions a suite of tools designed to streamline the development, management, and distribution of lending products at scale.
Paul Pester's Tandem Acquisition of Loop Sparks Digital Banking Revolution. This move not only amplifies Tandem's digital service offerings but also reinforces the bank's commitment to fostering a consumer-centric and sustainable banking environment.
Grasshopper and Pocketbook team up to support SMBs with embedded banking. Aligned in their missions of better serving the small business banking ecosystem, and in partnership with embedded banking software platform Treasury Prime.
Monzo plots US return as fresh funding secures £4bn valuation. The round, led by Alphabet’s investment fund CapitalG and Chinese venture capital investor HongShan, will see it take a second crack at the US market.
JPMorgan pursued Discover deal before Capital One’s $35bn offer. Talks show largest US lender’s appetite for a payments network to support its credit card business.
US digital dollar is “nowhere near” development, says Federal Reserve chair. Jerome Powell said that the Fed were not close to implementing a digital dollar, as it has no interest in a system that would require user data.
LATAM
Neobank Hey receives authorization to become a member of Banregio Grupo Financiero in Mexico. This is another step in the process for Hey, which today still operates as the digital arm of Banregio, to start operations as an independent bank.
Ualá expects to be profitable in Mexico by 2026. Ualá, an Argentine FinTech company, aims to achieve profitability in Mexico by January 2026, approximately five years after its entry into the country in September 2020.
ASIA
Virtual bank applications to open in March. The Bank of Thailand submitted the draft for virtual banking regulations to the Finance Ministry, with the rules slated for publication in the Royal Gazette.
Papara's growth continues with T-Bank acquisition. Papara's latest expansion follows several recent acquisitions and its rollout of world-first voice-activation FinTech.
AlexBank to grow credit card base with new digital tools from Mastercard. The partnership leverages Mastercard’s technologies to advance the bank’s payment solutions strategy and enhance the financial services landscape.
Mox Bank Limited has launched Express Remit, Powered by Wise Platform, a hassle-free global money transfers service that allows Mox customers to transfer money internationally anytime, from their Mox app.
NTT DATA builds a Center of Excellence on Tuum technology to drive core banking modernization. This alliance between NTT DATA and Tuum will strengthen both companies’ ability to deliver superior customer success.
AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
$17m capital raise will keep Australia’s newest bank afloat, CEO says. Avenue Bank chief executive Peita Piper says a $17 million capital raise will give the nation’s newest bank enough cash to survive into the foreseeable future.
AFRICA
TymeBank teams up with iKhokha to lift business services. The move will allow Tymebank’s business banking customers to not only use the latest in mobile payment innovation, but to also have access to iKhokha’s suite of business tools.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Revolut just lost its algorithmic trading head. Anton Pasiechnikov leaves Revolut after over five years. He joined as the company's head of finance technology in 2018 and has undertaken multiple roles, including deputy CFO and chief investment officer.