Hello Fintech Friends,

🚀 We're excited to partner with a16z for NY Tech Week in October. We have some spots left for sponsors and would love to throw an event with you! If you are interested, reach out to us at events@thisweekinfintech.com.

🏙️ And if you just can’t wait for your next fintech event, check out what we’ve got coming up in New York on September 12th:

Big shout-out to our Strategic Partner MethodFi and our event partners Codat, Taktile & Middesk!

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

💼 Fintech Job of the Week

• Looking for your next adventure in fintech? Come check out our job board and join our Talent Collective.
• Employers: Want to get in front of 65,000+ weekly readers? Post a job here.

💬 Quote of the Week

📊 Stat of the Week

A new report from Money.co.uk reveals that Brits lost £593 million through fraud in Q2 2023… (Source)

…and 72% of the Philippines is expected to be using fintech services via mobile apps by the end of 2023. (Source)

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Mastercard launched CVC codeless payments for tokenized cards in India.

Garanti BBVA Financial Technologies, the fintech subsidiary of Turkey's Garanti BBVA Bank, launched its own digital asset trading platform.

📰 Other News

The Bank of England is exploring working with cryptocurrency provider Ripple on developing and interledger protocol for payment settlement and the UK government is looking into using open banking for public services payments. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is extending its oversight to cover novel technology-driven risks (ie: fintech and crypto).

HSBC more than doubled its profits for the first half of the year, benefiting from rising interest rates in the UK and around the world.

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong issued a warning to unlicensed crypto exchanges: comply or die.

Kenya is suspending Worldcoin until it can resolve financial privacy issues.

Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas joined the long line of banks paying multi-million dollar fines for using WhatsApp.

Visa brought its Apple Pay mobile service to Vietnam.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

PayPal launched its own proprietary dollar-backed stablecoin called PayPal USD to enable a new method of payment for users, issued by Paxos.

Rightfoot launched its own zero-login consumer-permissioned data product, Connect Magic.

Fasset launched an app to enable people in emerging markets to invest in digital assets that have real-world value.

Payments provider Dwolla launched Dwolla Connect, a payments API designed for mid- to enterprise-sized businesses.

Piñata, a credit-building platform for rent payments, launched Piñata Pay, a cash back debit card payment method for rent.

Shopify launched a new credit solution for merchant with its own reward system.

Spring Labs and TransUnion partnered to launch BusinessMatch, a comprehensive view of business, industry and geography health through enhanced transparency and broader coverage.

📰 Other News

Guess who’s back? FTX plans to restart its embattled crypto exchange, but only for offshore customers.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore committed $150 million to invest in technology and innovation in the country’s financial sector. TerraPay (a different Terra) received a money movement license in Singapore. Blockchain.com also received a crypto brokerage license in Singapore.

Stripe is allowing its customers to embed and access its tax solution (acquired via TaxJar) in other platforms to help with accounting.

Allo wants you to create better financial habits through mindfulness…

…and Bloom wants to teach Gen Z how to build wealth.

The central banks of Nigeria and Egypt signed an MOU to build a fintech bridge between the two countries.

The SEC ended its investigation into mortgage platform Better, clearing the way for its SPAC.

Mercado Libre, Latin America’s e-commerce and payments platform, doubled profits in Q2 to $262 million. Neobank Dave increased year-over-year revenues to $61.2 million. 

🤝 Partnership Corner

TrueBiz* partnered with Alloy to enable financial institutions to instantly verify a merchant’s website and internet reputation.

Banking-as-a-service provider Pathward partnered with Dash on enabling disbursements with real-time payments.

SoFi integrated Galileo’s conversational AI into its personal finance app.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is working with Fireblocks to enable digital asset trading.

👎 The Bad News

Block is shutting down and walking away from Cash App’s Verse payments brand in Europe and its buy-now-pay-later brand Clearpay in Spain, France, and Italy.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is suing brokerage eToro for failing to fairly market its contract for differences product.

Israeli insurance and capital markets platform Vestto is laying off 75% of its staff in the wake of a growing scandal regarding a fraudulent letter of credit in a multi-billion dollar insurance transaction.

Creator payments platform Patreon disabled payouts after issues with its partner Payoneer’s system.

Revolut suspended its US crypto services.

Come meet us in-person at fintechhappyhour.com, and join our angel investing syndicate.