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Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

Capital strategy will determine the winners and losers of fintech in 2023. See how fintech leaders like Ramp, Arc, and Parafin are partnering with Finley to maximize and secure their debt capital access, while saving hundreds of thousands in in-house development costs. Explore Finley's credit facility management software today.

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💬 Quote of the Week

📖 Read of the Week

I enjoyed reading Matt Brown’s writeup this week, Why aren’t there more winner-take-all dynamics in fintech?

Matt notes that, even in consumer-focused markets like payments and banking, though there may be breakaway winners in terms of size, financial products markets don’t tend to exhibit winner-take-all dynamics.

The culprits Matt points to make sense: government policy is predicated towards creating a diverse provider ecosystem, geographic differences fragment addressable markets, and markets are too large for single winners.

In financial services, the lack of WTA dynamics certainly feel like a feature and not a bug. Over-concentration is bad for financial stability and resilience in banking. Single points of failure can threaten critical financial operations. Competition driven by consumer choice keeps prices in-check. And specialization allows customers to leverage different financial service providers for different purposes.

📊 Stat of the Week

Financial inclusion in Egypt, defined as total % of consumers with transactional accounts, reached 65% in 2022. (Source)

Banks and mortgage lenders in the US lost $301 for every mortgage that they made in 2022. (Source)

45 million micro enterprises in Indonesia use QR codes to make payments, with cross-border QR transactions in Asean countries increasingly becoming possible. (Source)

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Mastercard launched a new tool to help financial institutions set up international payments for their customers in 100 markets.

Visa launched its new Visa+ service, which will let users leverage VIsa’s network and rails to let users of peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and PayPal move money instantly and seamlessly across platforms.

📰 Other News

China is expanding its anti-corruption drive with a combination of venture capital audits and cuts to executive pay at banks.

HSBC is building an ‘innovation economy’ group, hiring a swathe of ex-SVB bankers to lead the unit.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is (finally) hosting a hackathon of sorts to tackle all the greenwashing in financial services.

EU lawmakers voted to limit the amounts that can be transacted from fully anonymous crypto wallets.

The Visa Foundation will make $5 million in grants to support womens’ participation in the digital economy.

Société Générale is partnering with Lemonway to build payment tools for B2B marketplaces. The Central Bank of Montenegro is partnering with Ripple on a CBDC.

Florida’s Ron DeSantis apparently does not like the Federal Reserve.

Deutsche Bank will shut down its Russian IT operations. Goldman Sachs was fined $3 million by FINRA for mis-marking its short sell orders. JP Morgan is back to 5 days a week in the office.

The (now contained…?) banking crisis in the US has propelled a large outflow from small bank deposits into money market accounts, part of a longer-term trend into the accounts. First Republic, one of the hardest-hit banks with its stock down 90%, suspended dividends. Auditors are under fire for failing to catch the risks of underwater bond portfolios and banks are expected to continue reporting outflows.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Sydecar* launched its fund administration product for the next generation of venture capitalists (disclaimer: I am a customer).

Payable launched automated reconciliation.

Plaid launched its multi-rail instant payout product for customers to send funds in real-time at any time through the platform.

Zurp launched a card that, like its savings account, provides a high rewards rate for users who jump through its usage hoops.

📰 Other News

PayPal added new smart payment tools for business owners, including Apple Pay support.

UK cross-border payments provider Verto claims a quarter of SVB’s clients in Africa have moved onto its service and British payfac startup Ryft received an FCA license.

The Winklevoss twins, co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini, made a $100 million loan to the platform after it failed to raise outside funding following setbacks. Relatedly, stablecoin TrueUSD may have had its market cap propped up by crypto exchange Binance.

The Frontier Carbon Removal Commitment, co-founded by Stripe, welcomed four new members including JP Morgan Chase.

WhatsApp users in Brazil can finally (after much regulatory back-and-forth) pay merchants through the app.

Capital strategy will determine the winners and losers of fintech in 2023. See how fintech leaders like Ramp, Arc, and Parafin are partnering with Finley to maximize and secure their debt capital access, while saving hundreds of thousands in in-house development costs. Explore Finley's credit facility management software today.

🤝 Partnership Corner

Singaporean institutional investor GIC extended its strategic partnership with Pagaya, in which it invests in the fintech’s financial products.

👎 The Bad News

Decentralized exchange dydx is winding down its operations in Canada.

Neobank Current’s ex-head of talent sued the bank, alleging discrimination.

Nigerian crypto payments firm Lazerpay shut down.

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