FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 5 April 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week, featuring Nuvei, Westpac, iCapital, Santander Bank and more.
Advent International snaps up Nuvei in $6.3bn deal
Nuvei sold to Advent International
US private equity firm Advent International has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Canadian payments processor Nuvei in a deal worth $6.3 billion.
The all-cash transaction will result in the paytech being delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) and Nasdaq, where it has been listed since September 2020 and October 2021, respectively.
Nuvei CEO and chairman, Philip Fayer, is to retain his leadership role of the resulting private company and will hold a 24% indirect stake in its equity once the acquisition is complete.
Still subject to customary closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close by “late 2024 or the first quarter of 2025”.
Westpac set to invest billions of dollars to fuel bank-wide tech overhaul
Australian banking heavyweight Westpac has laid out its plans for a major technology overhaul as part of its Project Unite programme.
During its latest technology market update, CEO Peter King described the project as “a business-led, technology-enabled simplification” with progress “already underway”.
The endeavour seeks to update and enhance the bank’s technology stack, lower its run and change costs, and narrow its cost-to-income ratio, powered by an investment of between AUD 1.8 billion ($1.1 billion) and AUD 2 billion ($1.3 billion), which is to be “delivered progressively out to 2028”.
The reasoning behind the launch of Project Unite, as King’s latest comments indicate, is that although Westpac’s current stack “isn’t older or less capable than peers… we just have too much of it”.
For the financial year ahead, Unite will now seek to half the number of banker platforms at Westpac to three, while consolidating 11 customer onboarding systems and seven of the bank’s collections systems into two single systems respectively.
Swati Bhatia joins Santander Bank as head of retail banking and transformation
Santander bank hires Swati Bhatia (Image: LinkedIn)
US-based Santander Bank, which operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spain’s Santander Group, has appointed former Goldman Sachs director Swati Bhatia as its new head of retail banking and transformation.
Effective immediately, the new hire has been tasked with leading the subsidiary’s consumer and business banking division in the US and, as the bank’s latest statement confirms, “all related digital transformation initiatives”.
The statement adds that Bhatia will lead initiatives focused on “building new capabilities, simplifying existing processes, and enhancing customer experiences while lowering the cost to serve”.
Aside from Goldman Sachs, Bhatia counts the likes of business payments giant Stripe, PayPal and US-based bank Capital One among her previous employers.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore unveils new financial crime-fighting platform Cosmic
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the launch of a new centralised digital platform called Cosmic aimed at helping banks combat terrorism financing and money laundering through the sharing of customer information.
MAS states that Cosmic is centred around three primary financial crime risks in commercial banking: the misuse of trade finance for illicit purposes; the misuse of legal persons; and incidents of proliferation financing.
Cosmic was co-developed by MAS and six commercial Singaporean banks – Citibank, DBS, HSBC, OCBC, UOB, and Standard Chartered Bank – with these financial institutions being the first to implement the solution during its initial phase.
The regulator’s assistant MD (Policy, Payments and Financial Crime), Loo Siew Yee, says that the Cosmic platform will enable financial institutions to “warn each other of suspicious activities” and conduct more informed risk assessments promptly.
iCapital set to acquire investment data firm Mirador
iCapital to acquire Mirador
Alternative investment fintech iCapital has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mirador, an investment data firm headquartered in Stamford, USA, for an undisclosed sum.
iCapital expects its latest purchase to “expand its data management and reporting capabilities to create an enhanced technology experience”, while it also prepares to absorb over 180 of the firm’s employees.
Lawrence Calcano, chairman and CEO of iCapital, explains that the acquisition “further enhances and broadens” the service model of its alternative investment operating system and “creates a holistic solution for both wealth and asset managers”.
Mirador offers services including consolidated financial reporting, private investment support, alternative investment data management, and K-1 document and compensation management.
