FinTech
Digital payments alone could become a $100 trillion industry, according to PwC. And that’s just one component of the global Fintech industry. This channel tackles the lenders and buyers, the obstacles and achievements, and the trends and trend makers leading the ongoing technological evolution in global finance.
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Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) has launched its Crypto app in the European Union (EU), allowing eligible customers to engage in crypto trading with the added incentive of earning Bitcoin rewards. Customers stand to receive up to 1 BTC as a reward when signing up and can earn an additional 1 BTC for each successful referral. The platform claims to be the sole custodial crypto platform in the EU offering customers a percentage of their trading volume back every month, paid in Bitcoin.
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Brazilian Digital Bank Neon Raises $94 Million To Triple Its Customer Base
Neon, a Brazilian digital bank, has raised US$94 million from top investors. The challenger bank has ambitious plans in a high-growth market. It will use the funds to triple the number of its new customers by 2020. It already has about two million active accounts.
Blurring Lines of Distinction Between Banks and Fintechs
Fintechs and techs are trying more and more to masquerade as banks. Should banks take the battle into the fintech camp?
Here’s an interesting viewpoint: Incumbent and traditional banks are “no less” fintech than the technology startups.
Chinese Investors Pump In $120 Million Into Nigerian Fintech OPay
Chinese Investors Pump In $120 Million Into Nigerian Fintech OPay. Nigerian fintech OPay is an arm of Opera, which is based in Norway and majority-owned by Chinese. Opera founded OPay in 2018, leveraging its success as a browser of choice on the African continent. OPay’s Series B round of $120 million was subscribed by investors that included Meituan-Dianping, GaoRong, Source Code Capital, Softbank Asia, BAI, Redpoint, IDG Capital, Sequoia China, and GSR Ventures.
OPay previously raised $50 million in June.
Weekend Conversation: Neocova Co-Founder and CEO Sultan Meghji
Five years ago, Neocova Co-Founder and CEO Sultan Meghji worked on an aid mission in Africa to improve financial services in Africa and other emerging markets.
The primary goal was to provide services in parts of Africa, where branch banking was not a valid option.
Bonanza of New Accounts at Charles Schwab After Zero-Commission Trading
Brokerage Charles Schwab added a solid 31% more accounts in October compared to September.
Charles Schwab’s move last month to introduce commission-free trading has paid off in spades. Previously, it charged a commission of $4.95 per trade.
Bank-branded Checking Accounts Soon from Google
Google is partnering with Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union to offer checking accounts by next year.
Checking accounts. That all-important banking bastion may fall as cashed-up, data-heavy, and user-rich techs muscle into finance. Google’s Cache project will launch the search giant’s thrust deeper into banking with an offer of checking accounts, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook’s New Payment System to Roll Out This Week in the U.S.
Facebook announced Tuesday the launch of Facebook Pay, a new payment system.
Facebook Pay will handle payments across the Facebook ecosystem, namely, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Payments via Facebook and Messenger will be available this week in the US.
JP Morgan Invests in “Research Atomising” Startup Limeglass
JP Morgan invested an undisclosed amount in a startup that uses AI and NLP to simplify and focus research documents.
Imagine you wanted to find all references to Netflix in a bulky financial research document. JP Morgan may have made that easier for you by investing in fintech startup Limeglass.
Limeglass uses proprietary rich Natural Language Processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and their comprehensive cross-asset and macro taxonomy to smart-tag each paragraph in context.
Its “Research Atomization” solution will find out all references to Netflix in that research document with a simple search.
Alipay’s Brute Power on Display on Singles Day
Alipay is the 800-pound gorilla in the global fintech room. It processed more than US$38 billion of payments in a single day.
Alipay’s global fintech supremacy is without question. On the highly-anticipated Singles Day in China, Alipay processed all the online payments emanating from Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.
Does the Apple Card Like Women Less, or is it ‘black-box’ A.I.? DFS Investigating…
New York’s DFS, a financial regulator, will investigate whether the Apple Card differentiated between men and women over credit limits.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has accused the Apple Card of gender bias by offering men higher credit limits compared to women. Wozniak found that his credit limit was 10X that of his wife, even though they both share banks and other credit cards.
Banking Giant Banco Santander Snaps Up Control of Fintech Ebury To Focus on the Small Guys
Traditional bank Santander paid £350 million for 50.1% of payments fintech Ebury.
Banco Santander’s focus on small businesses as new clientele led it to buy a controlling interest in Ebury. The bank is planning to build a new trade platform for businesses. London-based Ebury is a startup fintech that provides a gamut of corporate services to small-to-medium sized international companies. These services include cash management, foreign exchange, and trade finance.
Corporates and Banks Rejoice: Bottomline Launches Real Time Payments
Fintech firm Bottomline Technologies enhances its Digital Banking product with the addition of a Real-Time Payments module.
Real-time payments are essential these days to a bank’s competitiveness, particularly in the enterprise arena. Bottomline’s innovation will enable corporate customers to send and receive real-time payments and as well, request payments.
Fintechs Across The Asia Pacific Can Go Global Using The Visa-Marqeta Alliance
Visa and Marqeta have partnered to offer fintechs in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam a new way to themselves internationally accepted.
Fintechs in these countries can turn their user account balances into digital cards that are accepted wherever Visa is and where the Marqeta platform is certified.
Now, Student Loan Refinance, in Minutes, on the Blockchain
Mike Cagney founded Figure Technologies uses the blockchain to process transactions on its lending platform. The use of the blockchain allows Figure to function paperless, and that helps to speed up its loan procedure.
SoftBank Group Pumps $655 Million into Greensill Capital
Greensill Capital has received a large capital injections from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund. The tech-focused investment fund gave the eight-year-old financing firm an additional $655 million.
Greensill plans to use the money to finance its international expansion.
Square Launches Share Investments on its Cash App (Even as little as $1)
Square’s Cash App, aimed at the young and the hip, will allow investing in share fractions.
The Square Cash App is a mobile payments app that allows people to transfer money between cellphones, pay for retail purchases, and draw cash via credit card, “Cash Card” or ATM.
PwC Fintech Report Reveals Differences Between FS and TMT Firms
PwC has a new report titled: “Crossing the lines: How fintech is propelling FS and TMT firms out of their lanes.”
Revolut and Mastercard To Partner On US Debit Cards
Revolut, the digital challenger bank, and fintech unicorn have tied up with Mastercard for US debit cards.
Mastercard will handle Revolut’s debit cards when they launch in the US sometime within this year. Also included in today’s deal is Europe – the two businesses will partner on a minimum of 50 percent of all of Revolut’s existing and future cards in Europe.
Bank of America Joins the Zero-Commission Wars
Bank of America has joined the chorus of brokerages to slash commissions to zero through its Merrill Edge Self-Directed platform. The company said Monday that it will expand its zero-dollar to Preferred Rewards customers. It will also reduce commissions for all other customers.
Latin American Payments Processor EBANX Achieves Unicorn Status
Brazil-based fintech and payment processor EBANX is a newly-minted unicorn.
EBANX, which enables transactions between global companies and Latin American commerce, received a “significant” investment from FTV Capital.
US VC Funding and Fintech Deals Dip In Q3
US venture capital and fintech funding both declined in Q3 of 2019 compared to the previous quarter.
According to a CB Insights MoneyTree report US VC capital funding declined 15% while Fintech funding declined by 27%.
Revolut Swings for the Fences; Plots $1.5B Fundraise
Revolut, the European challenger bank, prized fintech, and uber-hot unicorn, wants $1.5 billion.
Revolut’s fundraise, if successful, would achieve two momentous feats: A company valuation of $5 – $10 billion, and entry into the select club of startups that managed to raise $1 billion or more in a single funding round.
Auriga Launches WWS AI For Advanced Banking Insights
Bankers can now get an Artificial Intelligence-led insight into their banking operations with the help of Auriga’s new WWS AI module. Auriga’s WWS AI module is a component of its WinWebServer omnichannel banking software suite.
Nubank, the Brazilian Fintech, Hits a Purple Patch
Brazilian fintech startup Nubank has added three million users since August this year.
Speaking at the Brazil Investment Forum in Sao Paulo, Nubank founder and CEO David Vélez said the fintech now had 15 million users.