Major UK High Street Banks Say Payment Issues Fixed
Weekly news up to Monday, 1st of July 2024
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Tencent Holdings-backed online lender WeBank has received regulatory approval from the mainland to set up a FinTech subsidiary in Hong Kong, as the Shenzhen-based digital banking unicorn looks to grow outside its home market.
WeBank was cleared to establish its wholly-owned Hong Kong unit with a capitalisation of US$150 million, according to a statement published last Friday by the Shenzhen bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), an agency created last year under the State Council.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ DBS Powers Mashreq’s Global Same-Day Cross-Border Payments.
⭐️ Shinhan Card, KakaoBank to team up for PLCC.
⭐️ Chime to buy Salt Labs for as much as $173 million in push to expand ahead of possible IPO.
⭐️ BlueVine rolls out cashback credit card for SMEs.
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
UK-based FinTech FreeBnk has tapped E Money Network, a MiCA-compliant modular blockchain built for tokenising real-world assets, to issue international bank account numbers (IBANs).
Starling Bank boosts debt recovery amid surging regulatory demands in UK. As geopolitical tensions and economic turmoil escalate, UK businesses are facing increased regulatory pressure, prompting Starling Bank to intensify its efforts in debt recovery and compliance.
Monzo saw a 57% decrease in customer queries after rewording one description on website. Monzo has been focusing on how it utilises the use of language across its app and website, seeing some strong results from small changes.
Qonto signs with Wise Plaform. With the integration of Wise Platform, Qonto’s customers will now be able to pay their partners faster, in more countries, and with a more transparent and reliable platform.
Revolut launches digital personal loans up to 30,000 euros in Portugal. Despite not yet having an IBAN or branch, the FinTech is advancing the launch of new products in the country. Starting last week, some customers will have access to personal loans ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 euros.
Virgin Money’s AI-powered virtual assistant, Redi, is being expanded to more customers, having already supported over one million conversations since its launch in March 2023.
Thousands of UK bank customers were hit by payment problems affecting some of the biggest High Street lenders on Friday. Banks including HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Money were all affected by issues with a system that operates payments between individuals and firms.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Swedish banks in race to build new technical infrastructure for Bankgirot to meet EU regulations. SEB is, together with the other owner banks of Bankgirot, fully dedicated to securing a solution and have worked closely with Bankgirot to support the development of new technical infrastructure needed to ensure WTR-compliance.
German digital bank C24 extends relationship with Mambu. The partnership with Mambu has allowed C24 Bank to build a product that has gained substantial attention and traction in the German market.
Atom bank has passed £1bn in commercial mortgage completions, marking a “significant” milestone for the digital lender. This follows the lender's strongest ever financial results which were published last week.
FinTech Atmos Financial Partners Directly with Five Star Bank in a Sustainable BaaS Model. The new partnership provides Atmos account holders with access to a greater range of services and products. And, importantly, they are able to play an active role in supporting a clean economy and combating climate change.
snappi, the Greek neobank, announces that it has received a universal banking license from the European Central Bank (ECB), following the proposal of the Bank of Greece. The licensing process was facilitated by snappi’s experienced team, working in strong collaboration with regulatory authorities.
USA 🇺🇸
Bank of America is doubling down on innovation to drive further adoption of its digital-banking mobile app for businesses, and turning to its clients for input on enhancing user experience and feature functionality.
This banking FinTech for older Americans is launching a new feature to fight AI fraud. AI has the potential to make this problem far worse since it allows fraudsters to impersonate banks and businesses.
Visa Brings Travelers Peace of Mind with New Digital Card Replacement. Once received, cardholders can authenticate and add the new card into their digital wallet, offering a convenient, fast and secure solution that helps enhance travel experiences and boost issuer customer satisfaction.
LATAM
Brazilian neobank Nubank has partnered with payments platform Lightspark to offer the Bitcoin Lightning Network to its 100 million customers in Latin America. Lightspark said that it’s working with Nubank to start the Lightning “integration, mapping, and building potential products” and would have “more to share in the future.”
Just 7 months after announcing a $6M seed round, Hyperplane, a San Fran-based data intelligence startup that is building foundation models for banks, has been acquired by Brazil’s Nu.
ASIA
Women-Focused Neobanking Startup LXME Bags Seed Funding From Kalaari Capital, Others. Women-focused neobanking startup LXME has raised $1.2 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in a seed funding exercise led by Kalaari Capital via its CXXO initiative.
More than Half a Million Malaysians Have Signed up for GXBank. The bank also provides an unlimited cashback card, rewarding users with 1% cashback on all transactions and offering benefits like fee waivers at over 10,000 MEPS ATMs nationwide.
Zed, a credit-led neobank, announced it has received its Certificate of Authority to Operate as a standalone credit card issuer from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
NBK introduces “WAMD” instant payment service on its mobile banking app. The service comes within K-Net’s implementation of a new domestic account to account instant payments scheme in Kuwait under the authority and supervision of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK).
AFRICA
Euronet and FinTech Galaxy partnership leads to Banking As A Service offering for banks, FinTechs and merchants in the Middle East and Africa. The partnership includes complete payment processing capabilities and open banking services delivered through a new Banking as a Service (BaaS) offering for banks, FinTechs and merchants in the Middle Eastern and African regions.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Gareth Jones joins Atom bank as chief risk officer. In his new role, he will ensure that Atom bank maintains its risk-management culture. Jones said: “The opportunity to join an ambitious and progressive digital business like Atom bank was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Finom appoints ex-Revolut Rob Allen as head of sales. Most recently, Rob served as VP of Sales at Super Payments, where he built a 15-member sales team from scratch and achieved significant growth in payment volume.
Solaris hires Michael Bonacker to lead supervisory board. Following this year’s general assembly, Solaris is excited to announce Michael Bonacker as the new supervisory board chairman.
I'm a fan of your blog and like the range of content that you cover. However, there are some misleading or misrepresented companies mentioned in the first bullet. As a pre-authorised Electronic Money Institution in Europe I was interested to understand what qualifies the "E-money network" as MiCA compliant. After looking through their documents it is entirely unclear, and hugely misleading. They are not licensed to issue an EMT (Electronic Money Token) in accordance with either EMD 2009/110/ec or MiCA. Another quick look at FreeBnk shows that equally they are not licensed to provide payment services of any kind in the UK, and especially not Europe - which MiCA covers. Please review your DD on these companies as this is very misleading!