Revolut Closing in on Australian Banking Licence
Weekly news up to Monday, 27th of January 2025.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Five years after launching its first product in Mexico, Nu announced that it has reached 10 million customers in the country, doubling its customer base over the past 12 months.
Since entering the market, the local portfolio expanded from a credit card to savings account with Cajitas (Money Boxes), a debit card, as well as personal loans, transforming the lives of nearly 12% of the adult Mexican population.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Revolut closing in on Australian banking licence.
⭐️ SG digibank Anext names new CEO.
⭐️ Fusion Bank enters commercial cooperation with WeBank.
⭐️ Central 1 announces the transfer of digital banking operations to Intellect Design Arena Ltd.
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🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Santander reviews UK retail banking presence. Santander's review is part of a regular assessment of its major businesses. This could result in different outcomes, including scaling back Santander's business in Britain. "The UK is a core market for Santander and this has not changed," Santander said in a statement.
Fairer Finance launches new business banking product ratings. This aims to help businesses navigate the complexities of choosing a bank account by highlighting products that offer good value. The ratings consider the benefits and costs of each account, ensuring that business owners understand the value of what they’re signing up for.
bunq introduces Mastercard benefits to its European SMEs. Through Mastercard's Business Bonus, bunq's users gain access to merchant discounts and offers, including business software, travel, shipping, and freelance contracting. The programme will be available in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
Omnea partners with Thought Machine to transform procurement governance. The partnership allows Thought Machine to consolidate legacy vendors and unify its third-party risk management processes, procurement intake and approvals, and supplier management processes within a single platform.
Starling Bank appoints Raghu Narula as Chief Banking Officer. In his role as CBO, Raghu will be responsible for driving customer and commercial growth as well as innovation across all the bank’s customer segments with a focus on the development and launch of new products, customer propositions, and go-to-market strategies.
HSBC to close international payments app Zing a year after launch. HSBC plans to shut down Zing after struggling to restructure its compliance functions under Project Green, aimed at improving fraud controls, meeting regulations, and aligning with anti-money laundering policies, according to internal documents.
Lightyear looks to disrupt “herd mentality” with ISA launch. The app is looking to take on established players like Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell in the competitive UK investment market. It has also raised $35 million to date and is backed by Virgin Group and Mosaic Ventures, competing against the likes of Robinhood and Revolt.
Chip launches WealthScore a revolutionary tool to help users grow their wealth. The tool is designed to celebrate progress, educate users, and inspire positive action. By analyzing over 50 metrics and millions of data points, the feature provides a daily-updated, algorithm-driven score to help users make smarter financial decisions.
Revolut opens instant access savings accout at a market-beating rate of 5%. Savers can start earning immediately with no minimum deposit required, a maximum limit of £200,000, and no additional costs. Its users can accelerate their savings by turning on Spare Change to roundup each transaction to the nearest pound, automatically putting the difference into savings.
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Revolut is rolling out a new feature that allows customers to pay off their credit card debt in “instalments.” The FinTech announced plans to enter the mortgage market by summer 2025. Also, it announced that Ukrainians formed the largest waiting list the company had on a "global scale." Revolut did not specify how many Ukrainians have already gained access to the application.
Lunar launches crypto in Norway. Lunar Block allows users to buy and sell digital crypto assets securely and transparently directly through the Lunar app. The launch provides Norwegians with an easy, user-friendly way to explore the crypto world while managing their traditional financial services, all in one place.
Bank of Ireland shares rise as UK government weighs in on car finance crisis. The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has launched a bid to protect motor finance providers from multibillion-pound payouts that could flow from a landmark supreme court case.
De Volksbank renews Ohpen Core Banking contract for investments and loans. Ohpen’s SaaS core banking platform has enabled the financial institution to build, deploy, and measure the impact of innovative new tools and products, such as sustainable investments.
USA 🇺🇸
Nubank CEO considers moving domicile to Britain, expanding in US. David Velez said President Donald Trump's new U.S. administration, which has signalled a likely embrace of regulation for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, should create a more favourable environment for Nubank to consider entering that market.
Monzo looks to US as board debates where to float. Chief Executive is leaning towards New York listing, while board favours home market of London. The discussions were in the early stages, sources said, and no decisions had been taken.
ASIA
Standard Chartered has introduced SC PrismFX. This offers FI and NBFI clients the convenience of a single provider with an extensive suite of FX currencies and upfront rate transparency, enabling full control over margins and rates for their customers.
Maybank Islamic taps audax, AWS for digital banking push. This partnership aims to provide customers with enhanced, user-friendly digital banking experiences built on AWS’ secure cloud infrastructure. The first product launch is anticipated in 2025.
Amid losses and market decline, can Superbank justify an IPO? The bank is reportedly looking to raise between $200 and $300 million this year. This might seem risky, since the digital bank is still a new entity (launched in June 2024), loss-making, and seeking a valuation that is at a premium to its competitors.
Revolut automates investment: launches Robo-Advisor in Singapore. The service will be tailored to investors by assessing their risk tolerance and financial goals through a series of questions. Customers only need to deposit funds into their portfolios, and the Robo-Advisor will handle market investments automatically.
AFRICA
YC-backed Waza launches Lync, an alternative to Mercury for African startups after $8m raise. Lync enables businesses to receive money and make payments in over 100 countries, supporting multiple currencies and stablecoins making it easier for businesses to reconcile payments, as funds are processed under their accounts.