Monzo hired over 700 employees and average salaries rose 15%
Weekly news up to Monday, 10th of June 2024
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Four years after bursting into an industry dominated by the country’s “Big Four” legacy banks, South Africa’s TymeBank became the first ever digital lender on the continent to break even.
That helped the $965mn-valued institution ranked 21st in this year’s FT-Statista list of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies get closer to its aim of being one of the top three fastest-growing banks in Africa’s most industrialised economy.
📰 ARTICLE
💡INSIGHTS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ SoftBank-backed online bank Inter bets on Brazilians in Florida.
⭐️ U.S. Bank, Greenlight Partner to Bring Financial Empowerment to Families.
⭐️ FDIC Issues Warning To Consumers About Neobanks And FinTechs.
⭐️ PPRO partners with Lunar and Swish to unlock Swedish consumer market for global businesses.
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Monzo Bank posts first full year of profit after more than doubling revenue. The FinTech startup said in annual financial results that its pre-tax profits totaled £15.4 million ($19.6 million) in its 2023-2024 fiscal year, swinging to the black from a £116.3 million loss the year prior.
Monzo Bank says it has plans for an Irish 🇮🇪 office as part of a bid to enter the European Union market. The online-only bank reported its first-ever annual profit recently. It launched in 2015.
FCA drops criminal investigation into Monzo money laundering failings. The online bank said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was no longer assessing criminal liability in its long running investigation into the bank.
Digital bank Revolut has insisted its payment systems are robust and that it takes fraud seriously. It comes as the Irish Independent queried a number of cases with Revolut where its customers experienced fraudulent activity or had their accounts shut down without explanation.
New lifeline for bank customers as ‘super-ATMs’ go on trial in England. The first in a planned wave of new “super-ATMs” allowing customers of multiple banks to make cash deposits and free withdrawals have opened for business.
Digital bank Zopa to expand into current accounts, investments and SME lending. Zopa’s big goal is to incentivise its 1.2m customers to use it as their primary bank account, CEO Jaidev Janardana, a former executive of American bank Capital One, tells Sifted.
UK Neobank Starling Will Not Reapply for EU Banking License. Instead, the company will try to expand internationally via its software business, incoming CEO Raman Bhatia told CNBC.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
European neobank bunq is debunking financial fraudsters with the help of NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI. Traditional transaction-monitoring systems are rules-based, meaning algorithms flag suspicious transactions according to a set of criteria that determine if an activity presents risk of fraud or money laundering.
bunq has partnered with Mastercard to offer its 12.5 million users across Europe a complete overview of their finances. bunq is the first bank in Europe to leverage AI in Open Banking with Mastercard.
Marqeta Expands Partnership with Lydia to Power New European Digital Bank Sumeria. Marqeta’s platform enables these dynamic capabilities, ensuring security and compliance while issuing tokenized virtual and physical cards for Sumeria customers that provide detailed, real-time views into their accounts and transactions.
Deutsche Bank ties up with Bitpanda in 'cautious' crypto shift. This means that deposits or withdrawals of fiat currencies from Bitpanda will go through Germany's largest bank. Some banks do not allow customers to transfer funds to crypto exchanges.
Temenos and Mastercard join forces to expand cross-border payment capabilities through Mastercard Move. With nearly 10 billion endpoints in over 180 countries, recipients can choose from various disbursement options, including cards, bank accounts, cash pick-up locations and mobile wallets.
European digital banking solution for SMEs and entrepreneurs FINOM has announced the launch of local IBAN accounts in France. This move aims to offer customised financial services to more French small and medium-sized businesses.
Viva.com partners with Belgian Beobank, expanding its European synergies as an Acquirer Partner of Choice. The strategic partnership between Viva.com and Beobank introduces a new partnership model for Belgium, to hasten the adoption of digital payments among Belgian SMEs.
How European banks compare on readiness for EU payments regulations. As Open Banking makes way for Open Finance, how banks and payment service providers can achieve compliance and gain a competitive edge.
With 2 million customers, Revolut is now the biggest neobank in Italy. Revolut crosses the two-million-customer threshold in Italy and is preparing to launch new products: from personal loans to flexible accounts and a current account with Italian Iban.
CANADA 🇨🇦
Zūm Rails, the company merging open banking and instant payments so businesses can use any payment rails they want, announced its work on a large-scale Banking as a Service (BaaS) project.
LATAM
Nubank recognized by TIME as One of the World’s Most Influential Companies of 2024. Nubank, the world’s largest digital banking platform outside of Asia, has been recognized for the third time on TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2024.
ASIA
South Korea prepares for a fourth digital bank. Consumer interest in digital banks in Korea is such that the market can very likely support a fourth online lender.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is set to replace the term “virtual bank” with “licensed digital bank” for the eight branchless lenders operating in the city to boost public confidence and eliminate negative connotations associated with the term.
Boost Bank, a digital bank collaboration between Axiata Group Bhd's FinTech arm Boost and RHB Banking Group, has launched an embedded digital bank app that will allow users who do not have an existing bank account to be digitally onboarded.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
London FinTech Monzo hired over 700 employees and average salaries rose 15%. Monzo splits its staff up into two divisions: 'customer operations', and 'management, operations and administration.'
US-based digital banking solutions provider Alkami Technology has appointed industry veteran Gagan Kanjlia as its new chief product officer (CPO). Kanjlia previously served as CPO at SVB, where he oversaw the company’s commercial banking solutions across various product lines, including payments, lending, trade finance, and more.