Hi fintech friends, Osborne here!

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).

Note: this edition covers news till Thur, 10th Aug, 2023.

✨ Global Fintech Fest 2023

Thank you to all those who participated in our Giveaway last week. Congratulations to Abby, Ankit, Sonakshi, Melanie and Vedika!

See you all at the Global Fintech Fest on 5th to 7th Sept, 2023.

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

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

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. A report by EY stated that PE and VC investments in July, 2023 declined 5% YoY to $3.9bn across 59 deals.
2. RBI rejected CRED's application to increase its shareholding in Newtap Fin, an NBFC co-owned by Kunal Shah.
3. PhonePe reportedly processed a record 5bn transactions in a month in July, 2023 while recording an annualised payments volume of $1.15tn.
4. Mastercard launched Strive, its global philanthropic work, to enable 500K small businesses to become digital ready by 2025.
5. 1 in 10 women in India reportedly own crypto, according to a research by Forex Suggest.
6. Paygate, a payment gateway operated by Safexpay, reportedly continues to operate its payment services despite RBI's rejection of Paygate's license application and order to cease operations within 180 days.

🚀 Product Launches

1. IppoPay, a payments startup, partnered with Light Microfinance to launch digital lending to MSME's.
2. LegalPay, a litigation financing startup, launched an online dispute resolution product.
3. Zolve, a cross border payments startup, launched mobile plans for immigrants.
4. RBI, India's central bank, launched UDGAM, a platform for retail users to search for unclaimed deposits.

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. RBI (central bank): Introduced a pilot project for digital lending, initially intended for banks to grant loans digitally.
2. SEBI (securities): Approved Zerodha's final application to launch an Asset Management Company.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Vegapay, a credit SaaS platform, raised $1.1mm.

ACQUISITION:

1. Finix Partners, a VC firm, acquired Slash, a payments startup.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. Singapore's central bank notified that it finalised regulations for stablecoins.
2. OJK, Indonesia's central bank, released data stating that default portfolio of the country's fintech lenders grew to $338mm.
3. DBS completed the acquisition of Citi's Taiwan retail arm.
4. Bangladesh's central bank selected Fime, a local payments company, to develop the country's payments card network.
5. The central banks of Indonesia and Singapore are expected to introduce its cross border QR payments integration.
6. Indonesia's central bank introduced fund transfers and ATM withdrawal features in the QRIS QR payments system.
7. Robocash Group, a research firm, reported that total volume of payments in SEA with grow at a CAGR of 86% (2023-2027) to $54tn.
8. Atome, a BNPL startup, renewed its $100mm debt facility with HSBC for its Philippines expansion.
9. TrueMoney, an e-wallet payments startup, partnered with Thailand's CP group and Malaysia's Lotus Group, to launch staff benefits platforms.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Boost Capital, a Singaporean chat-based credit decisioning startup, raised $2.5mm.
2. CHOYS, a Singaporean group health insurance startup, raised $1.1mm.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Emeka Ajene.
• China written by Ning Ye.
• Policy written by Mohammad Hamdy.

And of course, our podcast series - Beyond Two Percent and Hey Fintech Friends.

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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