Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, investor in early stage startups.

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).

Are you considering starting up? I’d love to help. DM me here: superdm.me/osborne

🧐🏆 Posts of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Russia's President proposed a unified depository and Clearing system for BRICS countries.
2. Paytm received NPCI's approval to onboard new users for UPI payments.
3. Indians spent $3.2Bn overseas in Aug, 2024 largely towards travel ($2bn) and overseas education.
4. Groww, a retail investment startup, moved its domicile to India in anticipation of its IPO.
5. CASA ratio of banks is reducing YoY, impacting a significant source of low cost/no-cost funds for banks.
6. Bajaj Finserv grew net profit by 8% YoY to INR 2,087cr ($248M) for the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
7. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance grew net profit by 3% YoY to INR 252cr ($30M) for the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
8. PhonePe reported net profit of INR 197cr ($23M) in FY24 (ended Mar, 2024).
9. GoDigit, a general insurance company, grew operating profit (net premiums) by 3.7% YoY to INR 1,891cr ($225M) for the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
10. Paytm grew operating revenue by 9% QoQ to INR 1,659.5cr ($197M) in the quarter ended Sep, 2024.
11. Groww grew its operating revenue by 2.2x YoY to INR 3,145cr ($374M) in FY24.
12. PB Fintech, the holding company of Policybazaar, received Certificate of Registration to begin operations as an Account Aggregator.
13. India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) imposed a INR 54lacs ($64K) fine on Union Bank for failing to report suspicious transactions reports and not undertaking due diligence under the anti money laundering law.

🚀 Product Launches

1. Neowise, a Decentro owned company, launched NeoBot and NeoSight - tools for voice debt collections and call analytics.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. SEBI (securities): Released a framework for barring partnerships between regulated intermediaries and non-regulated investment advisors. Announced including mutual fund units under the Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Even, a healthcare and insurance distribution startup, raised $30M.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Singapore's BNPL market is expected to triple to $3.7B by 2032, according to a report by ROSHI.
2. Arta Finance, a Singaporean wealth management startup, partnered with Co-Axis, a Temasek Trust initiative, to launch a partnership to raise $30M for impact investment projects.
3. Igloo, an Indonesian insurance startup, launched its first direct to consumer insurance products.
4. Thunes partnered with China Construction Bank (CCB) to launch cross border payments acceptance products.
5. Grab Financial launched experiments for users to pay with stablecoins and digital assets.
6. OJK, Indonesia's central bank, revoked Investree's P2P lending license after allegations of financial fraud surfaced.
7. EazyPay, an Indonesian payments company, launched its payment acceptance products across Southeast Asia.
8. Tribe Payments, a European payments startup, launched its operations in Singapore for expansion to Southeast Asia.
9. Australia's central bank released a three-year initiative to explore the potential of CBDC's.
10. HSBC has introduced the most extensive restructuring of the bank in over a decade.
11. OCBC Bank in Singapore launched a new bank account for children and teenagers between 7 and 15 years.
12. MAS, Singapore's central bank, and IMDA, Infocomm Media Development Authority, partnered and will implement a Shared Responsibility Framework for phishing scams 16th Dec.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Tookitaki, a Singaporean financial fraud management SaaS startup, raised an undisclosed amount.
2. Advance.AI, a Singaporean identity and credit management startup, raised $4M to expand its operations in Philippines.

ACQUISITIONS:

1. Western Union acquired Dash, a Singtel owned mobile wallet.
2. Komainu, a Southeast Asian JV of Nomura and others, acquired Propine, a digital asset custody provider in Singapore.

🌏 Sponsor on TWIF

Mail us at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com

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.

1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn