USA

Three years later, Revolut is a bank (TWIF 7/26)

Rider: Aaron Spargo, Photo: Teddy Augustine

Hello Fintech Friends,

You’re joining 119,000 other subscribers who can't get enough fintech; why not forward to one more?

If you didn't see it, we'll be starting our monthly fintech coffees in Dubai this September, and we'd love to see you there:

Last call for our upcoming happy hour with Method and Rutter in Austin at Fintech DevCon!

We had an amazing NYC Fintech Coffee at @InspiredCapital's rooftop, with fantastic conversations and networking among fintech founders and enthusiasts.

Thanks to everyone who attended and our co-hosts @received_ai and @twifintech.

See you at our next event! #HomeofFinTech pic.twitter.com/rrs6R3eNXN
— Rise, created by Barclays (@ThinkRiseGlobal) July 22, 2024

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

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💼 Fintech Job of the Week

Share your job with 2,000+ fintech people in our Slack #hiring-and-jobs channel.

💬 Quote of the Week

There's now a licenced UK bank that offers crypto trading

Think about that for a second.
— Simon Taylor (@sytaylor) July 25, 2024

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

U.S. Bank launched an accounts receivable platform, built with fintech Billtrust, to help suppliers accelerate cash flow, cut costs through automation and deliver better payment experiences.

The European Payments Initiative is rolling out its digital wallet wero, a competitor to Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and other multi-card digital wallet providers, which supposedly will let users authenticate transactions with only a phone number.

📰 Other News

Spot Ethereum ETFs were approved and began trading in the US.

Mastercard collaborated with Premier Bank, a Sharia-compliant commercial bank in Somalia, to launcha digital payments platform that enables Somali businesses to accept international card payments for online purchases.

Asset management and financial services giant State Street is exploring ways to get involved in settling payments on blockchain (aren't we all) by creating a stablecoin deposit token.

The CFPB provided additional guidance and proposed better disclosures on earned wage access programs, which provide users real-time access to wages, arguing that they are consumer loans.

HSBC, Lloyds, TSB, and AIB were rebuked by the FCA for failing to meet rules on providing customers with clear and up-to-date information.

The FTC launched a new probe into businesses that it says use consumer purchase history to algorithmically raise prices for those consumers.

The UK's FCA is setting new rules to make sure banks don't create cash deserts in communities.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Did we ever have some product launches this week!

Open banking data platform MX launched a new search and engagement tool, Message.

Monzo is rolling out a new pension consolidation product that tracks down old pensions and brings them into one fund in the Monzo app.

The father of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, is rolling out a secure data wallet for people to store all their personal information.

Debt advisory platform Sora rolled out its Debt Tolerance Assessment tool to help financial advisors understand their clients' appetites for debt.

Kasheesh, an app for splitting online payments between multiple cards, launched a one-time-use Visa card to its mobile wallet that can be used at physical stores.

Indonesian fintech and delivery conglomerate GoTo launched Dira, an AI-based fintech voice assistant.

GoTo launches new AI strategy with the introduction of Dira, the first ever AI-based fintech Voice Assistant in Bahasa Indonesia

Australian stablecoin payment startup Stables launched a stablecoin-backed European Mastercard virtual card.

Sticpay, an e-wallet service provider and payment gateway, launched a forex cashback service.

Waltz launched a platform for foreign investors to invest in American real estate.

Embedded lending provider Jifiti launched a 'tap now, pay later' loan product.

iDenfy, an identity verification and fraud prevention software, launched its new automated utility bill verification solution.

Retail chain Ollie's partnered with fintech Sunbit to launch a co-branded Visa card.

📰 Other News

After 3 years of lobbying for it's banking license, it's official! Revolut is now a bank in the UK.

Nutmeg, a British investment management fintech acquired by JP Morgan for $907 million in 2021, posted a $54.6 million annual loss.

The UK's FCA is preparing to lift restrictions on the onboarding of new customers at fintech Modulr.

Remittances provider Pesa is in final stages of acquiring its licenses in the US to send payments to emerging economies.

Shuffle, a start-up hospitality investment platform, is investing £2.5m into Manchester’s hospitality industry.

Fintech doesn't need to be a company's primary product to have a significant impact on its valuation and revenues.

Adding embedded payments helped legal tech Clio jump from $100M to $200M in ARR in 2 years. https://t.co/Abzq5s7ME8
— Nik (@NikMilanovic) July 23, 2024

🤝 Partnership Corner

Card issuing platform Marqeta announced that it is working with Visa and Affirm to offer the Visa Flexible Credential, a single card product that can toggle between payment methods.

Web3 money app Wirex partnered with Visa to further the use of digital currencies in the UK and Europe.

Cross-border trade payments platform XTransfer joined forces with payments firm EBANX to streamline B2B payments in Latin America.

👎 The Bad News

Block is killing off its Cash App peer-to-peer payments service in the UK.

Indian fintech Paytm saw revenue decline by 36% and losses more than double in the first quarter as it continues to grapple with a regulatory clampdown that has significantly curtailed business at its payments bank subsidiary.

Brazil warned that its PIX recurring payments feature launch will be delayed.

The Federal Reserve issued an enforcement action against embedded treasuries provider Jiko Group and fined Green Dot $44 million for "numerous" unfair and deceptive practices in the marketing, selling and servicing of its prepaid cards.

There was a 35% surge in customer complaints about requests for reimbursement over scam thefts being denied by Revolut in the UK.

Digital banking startup Mercury stopped its service for startups in Ukraine, Nigeria, other high-risk compliance countries.

Banks and card payment systems were among the many victims of the worldwide tech outage on Microsoft platforms due to CrowdStrike.