FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 19 July 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of fintech this week, featuring the FCA, HSBC, Stripe and more.
HSBC concludes search for new group CEO with Georges Elhedery appointment
HSBC names Georges Elhedery as new group CEO (Image: HSBC)
HSBC has concluded its search for a new group CEO, with the bank’s current CFO Georges Elhedery set to take up the role from 2 September 2024.
He is to succeed Noel Quinn, who announced in April that he was stepping away from the company after 37 years to “pursue a portfolio career”.
Commenting on the bank’s new CEO, group chairman Sir Mark Tucker describes Elhedery as having a “track record of leading through change, driving growth, delivering simplification, containing costs and brings a strong focus on execution”.
He first joined HSBC in 2005 and has held numerous leadership roles at the bank, including serving as regional CEO for the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey from July 2016 to February 2019.
Until September, Elhedery will continue in the position of CFO during a “transition period”, with the bank stating that an announcement on his successor “will be made in due course”.
FCA announces “biggest changes” to the UK’s listing regime “in over three decades”
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has overhauled the country’s listing rules in an effort to “support a wider range of companies to issue their shares on a UK exchange, increasing opportunities for investors”.
The new rules aim to streamline the listing process by introducing a single category and simplified eligibility criteria for firms looking to go public in the UK, effective 29 July 2024.
The amendments will “remove the need for votes on significant or related party transactions and offer flexibility around enhanced voting rights”.
However, shareholder approvals will still be required for “key events”, such as reverse takeovers and decisions to delist shares.
The FCA says that while the updated guidelines will preserve “appropriate” investor protections to hold company management accountable, it acknowledges that the “new rules involve allowing greater risk” but will “better reflect the risk appetite the economy needs to achieve growth”.
Starling Bank founder Anne Boden steps down from board to focus on new AI venture
Anne Boden steps down from Starling Bank’s board
Anne Boden has stepped down from her position on Starling Bank’s board, the UK-based challenger she founded in 2014, to focus on a new AI venture called AI by Boden.
The news of Boden’s departure was first reported by The Sunday Times.
While specific details of what the new venture may offer are currently unknown, Boden writes on LinkedIn that AI by Boden “is my platform for my personal interests in AI and industry disruption”.
The business’s incorporation in May last year coincided with the announcement that Boden had decided to step down as CEO of Starling Bank.
And while it’s been suggested that AI by Boden will be Boden’s main point of focus for the foreseeable future, she has yet to comment on her next steps.
Sequoia Capital reportedly offers Stripe investors share deal as fintech valuation tops $70bn
Sequoia Capital has reportedly offered limited partners of some of its legacy funds the chance to sell their shares in Stripe, a business payments fintech backed by the venture firm since 2010.
According to an email sent to LPs this week, the firm is “contemplating a transaction where new purchasers, including the Expansion Fund, Sequoia Capital Fund, Sequoia Heritage, and Sequoia Capital Global Equities, will commit to buy up to $861 million of Stripe shares held in select Sequoia funds raised between 2009 and 2012,” as first reported by Axios.
The share price will apparently be based on a fair market value (FMV) assessment conducted this month, which valued Stripe at $70 billion.
LPs of these legacy funds “will have the option to hold or to sell all or a portion of their Stipe shares”, the email continues, with those who choose to sell standing to benefit from no carried interest. The recipients of the deal have until 14 August to make a decision.
The development has fuelled further speculation that Stripe is preparing for an IPO. However, the fintech has yet to confirm the move itself.
US fintech Aven achieves unicorn status with latest $142m Series D capital raise
Aven’s valuation tops $1bn with new Series D funding
A new $142 million Series D investment has elevated Aven, a credit solutions start-up based in San Francisco, US, to unicorn status.
The funding was led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst (which both previously supported Ramp’s $150 million raise in April), with additional participation from existing investors including Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund and The General Partnership.
Founded in 2019 by former Facebook and Square executives, Aven specialises in democratising consumer capital access for homeowners by offering a credit card combined with a home equity line of credit (HELOC), enabling homeowners to “access their home equity in minutes”.
The fintech claims to have issued over $1.5 billion in credit lines for its Aven Home Card to date, helping consumers across the US to save over $100 million in interest payments.
