Travelex owner Finablr prepares for insolvency
Finablr processed $115 billion in transactions in 2019, and more than 1,500 firms rely on it.
Business-to-Business/B2B
Monzo launches first business banking accounts
UK challenger bank steps into the business space with new accounts.
Scotiabank commits to helping Canada’s emerging AI start-ups
The bank will give start-ups and tech entrepreneurs access to funding and expansion opportunities.
Crypto start-up Bakkt lands $300m Series B from Microsoft and PayU
The fundraising was closed last Friday, the same day Bitcoin experienced a multi-month low.
Underpinned helps companies pay freelancers with Banked
“The number of people choosing freelance work has grown rapidly,” says UnderPinned CEO.
Al Ansari Exchange chooses Pelican’s AI-based AML solution
Al Ansari Exchange hopes to create “an industry-leading compliance framework”.
Central banks free up US dollar liquidity amid coronavirus pandemic
The price on the US dollar liquidity swap arrangements will go down by 25 basis points.
Over one million users migrate from Yes Bank’s to ICICI Bank’s UPIs
The collapse of Yes Bank is causing ripple effects for UPI partners.
Agora Services lands $2m in seed funding
The founder previously built French digital bank Fortuneo.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 13 March 2020
FinTech Futures’ weekly news round-up.
Santander buys Spanish fintech Mercury TFS
Santander hopes the deal will enhance its global trade platform operations.
Global fintech funding: 2018 still stands as the reigning year
As of February 2020, year-over-year deal counts were down by 22%.
Wirecard strikes again with Klarna payments partnership
Also this week, Wirecard teamed with Southeast Asian ride-sharing firm Grab.
Nets buys Polish payment provider PeP for $455m
PeP moves to Nets with expected net revenues of roughly $62 milllion for 2020.
Neyber sells up to biggest rival Salary Finance
The sale is “understood to have seen Neyber’s assets sold for a meagre sum”.
SME challenger bank NorthOne raises $21m Series A
New York-based challenger plans to splash the cash on customer acquisition.
Standard Chartered launches Banking as a Service solution in Indonesia
The white-label service was incubated at SC Ventures.
Inclusion, innovation, and mobile money in Sub-Saharan Africa
“If our systems fail, a big part of the economy would fail,” says exec.
Wirecard and Singapore’s Grab partner on payments
The partnership will begin in Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
UK treasury expected to push back sale of its RBS stake to 2025
A further five-year delay is put down to “turbulent stock markets”.
UK banks prop up SMEs with £7bn amid coronavirus outbreak
The banks are also deferring customers’ payments on loans and mortgages for up to three months.
Alipay plans digitisation for 40 million Chinese service providers
The move marks a shift in the business from financial to digital services.
Visa teams up with Nigeria’s Paga
Lagos-based Paga holds more than 14 million customers across Nigeria.
Greensill buys Aussie payday advance app Earnd
The acquisition marks Greensill’s move into payday finance.
OakNorth Bank’s profits nearly double in 2019 but growth slows
The SoftBank-backed lender did see a slow down in its total loan facilities.
Aruba’s banks switch to instant payments with equensWorldline
The digitisation of payments has been “a challenging project” for the island.
GFH buys 70% stake in MENA payments fintech Marshal
Marshal has a 85% market share across the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Banking Technology March 2020 issue out now
Keep calm and carry on: Where does COVID-19 leave the Chinese fintech market?
“If you want it, go get it!”
Nancy Butler at B-North, shares her experience in banking this international women’s day.
Flywire’s CEO on unicorn status: “It means nothing until it is something”
“I’m the most anti-unicorn terminology person, so it’s quite ironic,” says Massaro.
Dutch fintech TerraPay gets acquired & raises $9.6m
“Fintechs like TerraPay play a vital role in increasing financial inclusion in emerging markets.”
Visa partners with Clinc to offer clients conversational AI
The Michigan-based firm serves 35 million end users.
Barclays makes cuts affecting more than 1,000 staff
Technology and operations teams will be hit hardest.
China’s Ant Financial buys small stake in Swedish unicorn Klarna
Klarna is already embedded into Alibaba’s AliExpress.
India’s lending start-up SMEcorner bags $30m Series B
The round was led by a $10.5 million investment from Germany’s Paragon Partners.
Samsung SDS and Credorax to launch DLT account reconciliation platform
The companies say the decision to team up was driven by open banking.
Refinitiv buys US wealth management fintech Scivantage
The deal amount is yet to be disclosed.
Santander’s PagoFX to launch in Spring and rival TransferWise
The venture now has a 50-person London-based team.
Nationwide leads race for £1.9bn Sainsbury’s Bank deal
An agreement had yet to be finalised but a transaction could be struck in the coming weeks.
PayPal migrates “key” infrastructure to Google’s new Salt Lake City data centre
Google Cloud now has 22 data centers across the globe.
