Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, Principal at EMVC!

Please enjoy all the news and updates from the past week in today’s edition. If you feel TWIF brings you value, please share it with your friends (and maybe suggest they subscribe too).

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)

📈 Chart of the Week

(Source)

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Berkshire Hathaway sold its entire shareholding in Paytm at a 40% loss.
2. Credit card spends reached a record high of INR 1.78tn ($ 21.7bn) in Oct, 2023 (+38.3% YoY).
3. YONO, SBI's digital banking platform, announced that it will soon launch YONO in Singapore and US markets.
4. RBI's Governor raised concerns on NBFC's reliance on Banks for loan books.
5. Currency in circulation during the week ended 17th Nov (Diwali week), reduced by INR 5,934cr ($ 724mm) to INR 33.6tn ($ 410bn). Total currency in circulation reduced by INR 22,721cr ($ 2.8bn) in FY24 (01st Apr till 17th Nov).
6. Clear, previously ClearTax, the tax compliance and filing startup, reported $13.3mm (INR 109cr) in FY23 revenue (+85% YoY).

🚀 Product Launches

1. RapiPay, a payments company, partnered with Jana Small Finance Bank to launch NYE Mobile App, a hybrid consumer banking app.
2. PayMate, a B2B payments company, launched its product in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.
3. Cashfree Payments, a payments startup, launched KYC Link, a no-code KYC verification product.
4. PayU launched three SDK's i.e. Native Payment Experience on 3DS, UPI Bolt and One Click Net Banking.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Superseded the board of Abhyudaya Bank, a regional bank. Released an alert list of 19 unauthorised forex trading platforms.
2. SEBI (securities): SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch announced that same-day settlement of trades will be launched by March 2024, followed by an optional parallel system for instantaneous settlement.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Scapia, a travel credit card startup, raised $23mm.
2. Kiwi, a credit on UPI startup, raised $13mm.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Wint Wealth, a fixed income investment platform, acquired Ambium Finserve, a licensed NBFC, and received RBI approval for the acquisition.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. South Korea's central bank released its plans for a digital currency pilot program, inviting 100K citizens to participate.
2. Singapore's MAS released regulations for investor protection for crypto service providers.
3. OKX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, applied for a virtual asset trading platform license in Hong Kong.
4. Nium, a Singaporean payments infra startup, partnered with JB Bank, a South Korean bank, for global remittance services.
5. KB Kookmin Bank, a South Korean bank, partnered with Siam Commercial Bank, a Thai Bank, to launch cross border payments and financial products.
6. Toss Pay, a South Korean payments company, expanded cross border on-site payment services to 42 countries globally.
7. Singapore's central bank launched its cross border payments platform with Malaysia and Indonesia.
8. Visa partnered with UOB, a SEA Bank and Doxa, a Singaporean payments company, to launch payment solutions for contractors in SEA.
9. Feedzai, a financial crime and risk management solution provider, partnered with Mastercard to launch crypto fraud protection.
10. MayBank Group launched an Islamic Wealth Management Hub in Singapore.
11. The Joint Venture between Mastercard and a Chinese firm received a formal approval from PBOC, China's central bank to launch domestic bank card clearing activity in China.
12. WeLab, a Hong Kong based digital banking startup, launched Bank Saqu, an Indonesian digital bank.
13. GCash, a Philippine payments company, launched cross border payments for its Philippine users.
14. Kasikornbank, a Thai bank, increased its stake in PT Bank Maspion, an Indonesian bank, to 84.55%, valuing the Indonesian bank at $438mm.
15. The central banks of Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi signed an MoU to increase fintech collaboration between the two countries.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Lendela, a Singaporean personal loan marketplace startup, raised $5mm.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. CoinGecko, a Singaporean crypto media platform, acquired Zash, an NFT pricing data platform.

🌏 International

If you’ve made it this far - thanks! As always, you can always reach me at osborne@thisweekinfintech.com. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.

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