Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for our next UK & EU long read this Wednesday!

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

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Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Digital banking fintech Plumery raised $3.3m from DN Capital and Fontes.

🇪🇺 Digital wealth app Easyvest raised a €13m round from SFPM and Belfius.

🇬🇧 Car financing business Carmoola raised a £100m debt deal with NatWest.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform TrueLayer extended its Series E by $50m led by Northzone.

🇬🇧 Zepz, formerly WorldRemit raised a £267m growth round from Accel, Technology Crossover Ventures, Coller Capital and LeapFrog Investments.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Spend management solution Expend has integrated business card transactions from Mastercard and Visa into its platform through partnership with Astrada.

🇬🇧 HSBC has written off its stake in fintech Monese.

🇬🇧 Starling Bank has been fined £29m by the FCA for financial crime failings.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Robinhood has added the ability to deposit and withdraw 20 cryptocurrencies in the EU.

🇪🇺 Boerse Stuttgart tested the use of blockchain settlement solutions to reduce settlement time, reducing them from two days to minutes.

🇪🇺 Taurus is integrating Chainlink's cross-chain protocol.

🇪🇺 Visa has launched Visa Tokenised Asset Platform (VTAP) to enable partners to mint, burn and transfer fiat-backed tokens. BBVA is the first partner.

🇪🇺 Due to MiCA regulations, Coinbase is to restrict services for some stablecoins in Europe.

🇬🇧 The FCA and BoE announced its Digital Securities Sandbox has opened.

🌍 Crypto exchange Bybit has secured a full licence in Kazakhstan.

🌍 Binance has secured a VASP licence in Argentina. Its former CEO CZ was released from prison.

🌍 Ripple has secured in-principle approval from the Dubai regulator to expand its services. The SEC also appealed its case against Ripple, citing a conflict with a Supreme Court precedent.

🌍 FTX has set aside $240m for shareholders at the expense of creditors in a last minute change to its bankruptcy plans. 94% of creditors voted in favour of the plan that promises to pay 118% of their claims in cash.

🌍 Matrixport has acquired Crypto Financial Asset Management AG as it expands in Europe.

🌍 Franklin Templeton's money market fund has launched on Aptos.

🌍 PYUSD, PayPal's stablecoin is now available for purchase on MoonPay.

🌍 ETP provider Bitwise has registered a spot XRP ETF with the SEC.

🌍 Swift is to trial digital asset transactions over its network in 2025.

🌍 Canton Network successfully completed a pilot to tokenize gilts, Eurobonds and gold.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 AIB launched a 31 day notice deposit account for its business customers.

🇪🇺 Bank of America has expanded its virtual card working capital offering in EMEA with Virtual Payables Direct.

🇬🇧 Reports have claimed that HSBC and JP Morgan processed payments for companies associated with the Russian leader of the Wagner Group.

🇬🇧 Nationwide has completed its acquisition of Virgin Money.

🇬🇧 Meta has launched an anti-fraud partnership with UK banks to share information. Revolut has said Meta's efforts are "woefully short".

🇬🇧 HSBC has launched SemFi, a joint venture with Tradeshift , an B2B embedded finance solution.

🌍 Wells Fargo is facing a fresh class-action lawsuit over its cash sweeps. It has also ended its merchant acquiring joint venture with Fiserv and will make a cash payment to the company.

🌍 Bank of America customers report online access issuers.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Open banking platform Tink launched Merchant Information, a transaction enrichment solution that provides more information on their bank transactions.

🇪🇺 Mastercard is to acquire subscription management fintech Minna.

🇬🇧 A recent survey from Bluestone Mortgages found 60% of UK adults were unaware of open banking.

🇬🇧 Fintech infrastructure provider Manigo has entered administration.

🇬🇧 Regulated bank and BaaS provider Griffin signed Calmony as a customer to power their bank account for lettings agents.

🇬🇧 Wealthtech infrastructure provider WealthKernel secured a Spanish licence as it expands into Europe.

🌍 JP Morgan have signed Trustpair as a customer for its global bank account verification service Confirm.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 EPI has launched its digital payment wallet Wero in France.

🇬🇧 Payments platform Ecommpay has expanded its virtual account offering powered by Token.io to Netherlands, Spain, France and Ireland.

🇬🇧 Payment infrastructure provider Mangopay signed gateway Paybyrd as a customer.

🇬🇧 The Post Office has stopped offering MoneyGram services after the latter's cyber security incident.

🇬🇧 UK banks are set to be able to delay payments by 72 hours to investigate fraud or scams.

🌍 Venmo is rolling out scheduled and repeat payments.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• UK fintechs scramble ahead of new fraud compensation scheme - Tom Matsuda, Sifted
• QR Codes Are A Fraud Risk - Dave Birch
• The truth about immigration and the American worker - The Atlantic
• eCom 2025 and DOJ Complaint – ?Is Visa is a Debit Monopoly? - Tom Noyes
• Deposits And Cheques - Dave Birch

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See you next week!