Hello Fintech Friends,

The biggest narrative violation in blockchain these days seems to be that banks are increasingly driving innovation in crypto payments. This week, JP Morgan launched their new programmable payments interface, while BlackRock applied for an Ethereum ETF, Commerzbank got into crypto custody, and Goldman led a round into blockchain payments firm Fnality.

Here's the question: Is this innovation theater, or are banks – the experts at structuring difficult transactions – really finding efficiences by building on blockchains?

I have a feeling the answer will surprise us; I'm betting that some of these are real products and use-cases.

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Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!)

💼 Fintech Job of the Week

KYC / AML provider Minerva is hiring for a lot of roles across sales, engineering, operations, customer support, and finance!

💬 Quote of the Week

"Rumors of fintech’s demise were overstated." - Simon Taylor, speaking on Wise and other fintechs benefitting from higher rates.

“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.” - Elon Musk, speaking on plans for the X app.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

JP Morgan released its new programmable payments blockchain banking system, which will companies set rules to move cash automatically.

📰 Other News

It's hard to summarize this article, so I'll just quote it: "A toxic work environment at the FDIC, one of the nation’s top banking regulators, has for years caused employees to flee from an agency they say enabled and failed to punish bad behavior. Employees say sexual harassment, misogyny pervade federal agency tasked with ensuring stability of nation’s banks, driving women to leave."

Zelle will finally work with banks to reverse frtaudulent transactions, after pressure from legislators and years of refusing to compensate fraud victims.

BlackRock applied to list an ethereum ETF in the US, while Germany's Commerzbank was granted a crypto custody license.

Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada were left holding millions of Crescent Point Energy shares after a C$500 million equity raise failed to win institutional investor support.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest bank, was forced to execute trades using a USB stick following a suspected Russian ransomware attack that rerouted some US Treasury trades (the bank has since paid off the hackers and flown top execs to the US to smooth things over.)

Irish banks abandoned their plan to launch a mobile payments app.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

UK business lender Funding Circle* partnered with embedded finance solutions provider Enfuce to launch its new small business credit card as part of its FlexiPay product.

Nigerian payment facilitator Paystack launched a direct debit product in partnership with NIBSS, which operates Nigeria’s instant payments infrastructure.

Similarly, Belvo, an open banking platform in Mexico, released a product that will allow companies in Mexico to make recurring payments by direct debit to any bank account.

Modern Treasury sped up bank account verification with instant microdeposits over RTP and FedNow rails.

Identity verification and fraud prevention provider Socure launched a machine learning and and network feedback data tool to uncover patterns linked to synthetic identity fraud.

EduFi launched a new digital student loan platform in Pakistan.

Real-time payments app Orum launched outbound wires as part of the Orum API.

Teen banking app Step launched their Step Black card, a metal card with $500 in annual benefits, cash back, and 5% interest on savings, while savings and investment app Acorns partnered with Dwayne Johnson to launch a debit card focused on financial health.

ECI launched a large language model built for alternative investing.

Truework launched tenant income screening:

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📰 Other News

Flutterwave was cleared of all charges in Kenya's high court case, and received a license to process payments in Malawi.

Indonesia will cap interest rates on fintech loans at 0.3% per day, falling to 0.1% per day in 2026.

It's earnings season!

Wise reported a 234% jump in pre-tax profits year-over-year as interest rates soar.

Coinbase’s Q3 results show subscription and services revenue topping transaction revenue, signaling its strategic shift to a crypto superapp. Meanwhile, a fake story about an XRP ETF sent Ripple's token price soaring.

Affirm shares soared after reporting a 37% jump in revenues.

Investing platform Wealthfront surpassed $50 billion in client assets, with line of sight to growing revenue 140% in 2023. Online pension provider PensionBee is also approaching profitability, with £4 billion under management. And UK wealth app Chip reported its first profitable quarter in Q3.

After a collapse last year, accusations of fraud and its founder being arrested, bankrupt crypto lender Celsius is planning to restructure into a new company next year. Will anyone use it?

Cross River provided $740,000 in STEM scholarships over the last year.

🤝 Partnership Corner

NEC partnered with Mastercard on in-store biometric payments.

Yellowcard became the first fintech in Africa to enable PayPal USD.

Banking Circle is partnering with Ant Financial on tokenized deposits.

Alkami partnered with Plaid to provide direct access to Plaid APIs via the Financial Data Exchange.

i2c and Payfare partnered on providing faster payouts to gig workers in Canada and the UK.

Ramp announced an AI partnership on copilot with Microsoft:

👎 The Bad News

Apple and Goldman Sachs' card partnership may soon all fall apart.

Neobank Revolut raised monthly fees for premium customers, from £2.99 to £3.99 per month for Plus and £6.99 to £7.99 for Premium.

In a troubling sign, Flutterwave's CFO and multiple finance executives have resigned months after the company talked about going public.

Defunct crypto lender Celsius must pay back customers as its bankruptcy case concludes.

Bitwise Asset Management is distancing itself from fraud charges leveled at Bitwise Industries by the SEC and DOJ.

Alphabet sold off the last of its Robinhood stake.

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