Hello Fintech Friends,

Happy FedNow Day!

💼 Jobs are coming to This Week in Fintech, and they're coming for you!!

Starting September 6th, we're hosting a virtual Fintech Job Fair to help folks in our 60k+ community find opportunities at amazing companies. Want to join? Click the image below. 👇

Thank you to our first hiring partner, Basis, for working with us to hire amazing people! Want to work with us? Check out our employer overview.

Have questions? Reach out to sophie@thisweekinfintech.com or check out our job fair overview!

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

💬 Quote of the Week

📖 Read of the Week

A few interesting reads from fintech land this week -

More Americans are getting turned down for loans, according to Fed data. The rejection rate for bank loan applicants jumped to 21.8% in the 12 months through June, the highest level in five years, as credit applications decline as well.

The National Bureau of Economic Research published interesting data this week on bank runs, which make the point that banks with higher investment in branch presence – ie: the banks that work on developing an in-person relationship with their depositors – are less likely to suffer sudden drawdowns during bank runs.

The Carnegie Endowment published interesting research on the limits of digital-first financial inclusion initiatives: “In pursuing digital financial inclusion, accelerating access to DFS has taken precedence over equally important features like providing adequate protections for those who use digital platforms to make financial transactions. As such, the populations being targeted for financial inclusion have been negatively impacted, and public trust in formal financial services or products has taken a hit.”

And The Generalist’s Mario Gabriele covered Brex’s Second Act.

📊 Stat of the Week

National Australia Bank’s scam alerts prompted customers to stop $270 million in payments. (Source)

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

The US Federal Reserve launched its long-awaited instant payment service, FedNow. The question on everyone's minds is: (fed)now what? Will banks be quick to incorporate instant payments into their interfaces? Will this service become interoperable with RTP like wire/ACH? Who will own liability for fraud? Will features like recurring payments and pull transactions be built on top? Time will tell. (Oh, and Swift and a group of international banks also successfully piloted instant payments between different currency areas.)

Halifax Bank is making solar panel sourcing, installation and aftercare available as services.

Beginning in April 2024, Brazilians will be able to pay utility bills, subscriptions, and all types of recurring payments through the country’s PIX instant payments system.

📰 Other News

Citi’s performance got a boost from higher interest rates and card balances, as financially-stressed consumers increasingly turn to cards as a payment option.

Fifteen of the UK’s biggest fintechs, including Wise, Revolut and Monzo, are demanding legislation regarding hidden bank fees for international payments.

Similarly, Block is suing payments networks Visa and Mastercard over their interchange fees.

UK bank TSB’s mobile app and website went down.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Know-your-business platform provider TrueBiz* launched its web presence review API, providing instant verification of a merchant’s website and internet reputation. Similarly, ComplyAdvantage launched a new KYB verification product with automated risk-scoring.

Mesh launched ProcurePay, its automated payment solution that connects procurement, payment, and reconciliation processes.

Student lender Earnest partnered with international credit score provider Nova Credit to launch international private student loans.

Gnosis, a crypto wallet provider, launched a self-custodial asset-backed Visa card - and open-sourced the design for other wallets to copy.

Coinbase launched digital messaging between users and new USDC payment features in its wallet app.

Crypto bridge builder Chainlink launched a protocol to connect bank-owned blockchains with decentralized ones.

Uniswap launched UniswapX, an aggregation protocol designed to allow third parties to compete to execute users’ trades at the best prices.

Thai multi-currency digital wallet YouTrip partnered with Kasikornbank to launch 3DS-compliant secure digital payments.

📰 Other News

US brokerage and stock trading app Public launched in the UK - its first overseas market.

French employee benefits and payment card provider Swile expects to turn a profit on an EBITDA basis next quarter.

Dutch neobank bunq hit 9 million users across Europe and surpassed €4.5 billion in deposits.

🤝 Partnership Corner

Brazilian payments provider Ebanx partnered with Nubank to offer more payment options to the neobank's customers.

Airwallex announced a partnership with Brex to support its international expansion.

Cash App partnered with PayNearMe on alternative bill payment options.

Nuvei and Plaid partnered on bank-based payments experiences in more regions.

Digital assets prime brokerage FalconX partnered with crypto index provider CF Benchmarks to build a regulated crypto derivative market.

LendKey and Thomas Ho partnered on better analytics for financial institutions buying or selling loans.

Insurance firms are increasingly embracing real-time payments for business-to-business via fintech partnerships.

👎 The Bad News

Fintechs and restaurants are both incensed at restaurant payments firm Toast’s new 99 cent processing fee on all orders. The PoS works with 85,000 restaurants.

California, Colorado, and DC reached settlements with lender EasyPay Finance for offering predatory loans.

Digital wealth manager Nutmeg saw its annual losses grow from £19.3 to  £29.9 after getting acquired by JP Morgan.

Neobank Greenwood is being sued by the founders of The Gathering Spot, a members-only club that it acquired for $50 million in May 2022, for failing to make payments on a $5 million earn-out agreement.

Open banking loyalty app loyalBe is shutting down its consumer offering.

The founders of British P2P lending app Collateral have been sentenced to a combined eight years in prison for fraud and money laundering.

Vesttoo, a unicorn digital platform for assessing risk in insurance investments, is facing a billion-dollar fraud scandal.

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