Hi fintech friends,

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).

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📊Chart of the week

Source: Bloomberg

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

• India's fintech sector and global technology companies are planning to lobby against RBI's recent digital lending guidelines.
• NPCI, India's retail payments body, directed payment apps to not charge bill payment fees on their platforms.
• BharatPe claimed to have achieved $20bn in annualised payments throughput.
• RBI is reportedly planning to set up a "fraud registry" which will have a centralised database of websites, phone numbers, email ID and IP address used in digital frauds.
• An investigation by an Indian news agency revealed that banks' tech systems are unable to keep pace with rising payment load and fast digital changes.
• NPCI, India's retail payments body, is purchasing a 9-10% stake in India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
• OkCredit, a SMB accounting SaaS startup, is seeking acquirers.
• India's GDP expanded by 13.5% in Q1 (Apr-Jun) FY23.
• Jar*, a savings and investment startup, claimed to be processing 250K+ UPI transactions daily.
• Google announced that it will launch a pilot for third-party, in-app billing.

🚀 Product Launches

• ICICI Bank partnered with NPCI to launch the first RuPay credit card.
• Mahila Money launched a pre-paid card for women entrepreneurs.
• ICICI Bank partnered with NPCI to launch the first RuPay credit card.
• Ziploan, a SME lending startup, partnered with StrideOne to launch SME credit products.
• Snapdeal partnered with Bank of Baroda to launch a co-branded credit card.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Launched a pilot to digitise agri-lending via the Kisan Credit Card. Issued clarifications and further guidelines for immediate implementation of digital lending regulations.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Tortise, a save now buy later startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

CORRECTION: In last week's edition, it was wrongly mentioned that EarlySalary raised $97mm. EarlySalary announced raising $110mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

• According to a survey conducted by Google and Quinlan Associates, 60% of fintech executives stated that Hong Kong was "uncompetitive" for fintech, citing regulation, set-up costs and a "severe talent gap" as the primary causes.
• ADDX, Asian private markets exchange, partnered with OCBC Bank's Lion Global Investors to launch a feature allowing investors to earn income on idle cash in their wallet.
• There are a total of six digital banks that have been awarded digital banking licenses to operate in Philippines.
• Samsung announced its plans to launch a digital asset exchange in South Korea by 2023.
• Central Banks of Indonesia and Singapore have begun integrating their payment systems to launch a QR code base cross border payment system. The launch is expected in 2023.
• Safepay is launching Visa's Cybersource in Pakistan.
• MAS, Singapore's central bank, is planning new crypto rules to limit retail investors exposure to crypto. The rules may include curbs on leverage.
• BSP, the Philippine central bank, released its Financial Inclusion Survey results which stated that bank account ownership surged to 56% of the population in 2021 from 29% in 2019.
• Validus purchased Citi Singapore's SME loans in a $100mm securitisation facility.
• Thunes, a cross border payments company, partnered with AliPay+, a suite of cross border payments solutions, to launch Asian payments acceptance for European merchants.
• Dana, an Indonesian payments co., partnered with Brankas, an Indonesian finance infra startup, to launch open finance infra in Bangladesh.
• Trust Bank, the Singaporean digital bank of Standard Chartered and FairPrice group, launched its digital banking services.
• A Thai youtuber allegedly cheated her followers of $55mm in a forex trading scam.
• Indonesia's trade minister announced that the country will launch its crypto bourse, a digital assets exchange, by the end of 2022.

💰 Financing Announcements

• Lightnet, a Singaporean blockchain-based cross border payment company, raised $50mm.
• Banco, a Singaporean financial inclusion and SME lending startup, raised $6.7mm.
• International Payments Identity (iPiD), a cross border payments identity management startup, raised $3.3mm.
• AdiWisista, a P2P lending startup, raised $1.75mm.

ACQUISITION:

• GoTo acquired Kripto Maksima Koin, an Indonesian crypto exchange for $8.4mm

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic published on Friday’s and Saturday’s.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins published on Monday’s.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Benjamin Dada.

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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