Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Join us for the next London Fintech Breakfast in September in collaboration with Shoreditch Treehouse, CMS and Plaid. RSVP here.

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

Programming note: There will be no TWIF UK & Europe for the next few weeks. We will return on 28th September.

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Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇬🇧 Treasury fintech Palm raised a $6.1m round.

🌍 Singapore lending platform Validus raised a $50m debt facility from HSBC.

🌍 UAE payment firm Ziina raised a $22m Series A led by Altos Ventures and included Fintech Collective, FJ Labs and others.

🌍 Brazilian fintech Ume raised a $15m Series A led by PayPal Ventures.

🌍 HELOC fintech Unlock raised a $30m Series B.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Nordic family finance app MyMonii has closed down.

🇬🇧 Female focused digital wealth app Propelle is launching in late September.

🇬🇧 Cross-border transfer solution Atlantic Money has introduced a way for customers to transfer funds without its app and directly from their own bank accounts.

🇬🇧 SMB bank Tide announced it has hit 1 million customers.

🇬🇧 Revolut has added BillPay to its business account offering as its revenue from the business unit passes $500m.

🇬🇧 Pension solution Penfold has automated contribution processing with an integration into Xero.

🌍 UAE BNPL provider Tabby acquired Saudi digital wallet Tweeq.

🌍 Cloud payroll provider Paylocity is to acquire spend management platform Airbase.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Siemens have issued a €300m digital bond on the blockchain.

🇬🇧 Revolut is rolling out virtual crypto payment cards.

🇬🇧 Crypto exchange Nexo has resumed onboarding clients in the UK after upgrading its compliance to meet FCA guidelines.

🌍 Crypto.com has launched a global retail service.

🌍 Russia is looking to use cross-border crypto payments to circumvent international sanctions.

🌍 The SEC has warned FTX against prepaying creditors in crypto and stablecoins.

🌍 Citi found in its latest whitepaper a growing convergence between traditional and digital assets.

🌍 Robinhood settled with the California DOJ over previous crypto withdrawal restrictions for $3.9m.

🌍 Japan's three major banks, MUFG, SMBC and Mizuho, are testing a cross-border stablecoin transfer platform.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 A number of UK banks including Lloyds were hit by an outage with their mobile banking apps.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank has partnered with Cleareye to use its AI to automate trade finance checks.

🌍 A viral trend of check fraud struck JP Morgan stemming from TikTok which the bank described as "fraud, plain and simple". The bank's asset management arm added new treasury capabilities to its Morgan Money platform.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Issuer processor Enfuce signed Saldo Bank as a customer.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform Moneyhub signed L&G as a customer to build a pensions dashboard.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider Griffin signed Income Group as a customer for savings accounts.

🌍 A Federal Reserve governor has cautioned against interlinking domestic fast payment systems.

🌍 Jack Henry announced a collaboration with payment processor Moov.

🌍 US bank-owned open banking provider Akoya signed a partnership with Nova Credit.

🌍 Global financial services provider BNY is to acquire wealthtech Archer.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Payment platform Ecommpay added 3 Italian alternative payment methods Bancomat Pay, MyBank and Satispay.

🇪🇺 Open banking payments solution Trustly is to use Fifth Third's Newline as its payment technology provider.

🇬🇧 Embedded payments platform Modulr has expanded its integration with Xero to include payroll services.

🇬🇧 Payment solution Mollie announced it achieved triple-digit growth in its UK business.

🇬🇧 Payment provider GoCardless has completed its deal to acquire Nuapay.

🇬🇧 BNPL provider Zilch reached its first month of operating profit and hit £100m in revenue.

🇬🇧 A2A payment provider Vyne has been acquired by MENA open banking platform Tarabut.

🇬🇧 Visa and Mastercard are to face a $4bn class action lawsuit from UK businesses over interchange fees.

🇬🇧 The PSR has reduced the limit of compensation for APP fraud to £85,000, from the originally proposed £415,000 in a win for banks and fintechs.

🇬🇧 Visa is launching a new A2A offering in the UK next year and is partnering with Banked.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com signed Holiday Extras as a customer for its virtual card program.

🌍 PayPal is launching PayPal Everywhere, a solution to access rewards and cashback when shopping anywhere through integrating its debit card with Apple Wallet.

🌍 Mastercard is piloting its Payment Passkey Service in India.

🌍 American Express partnered with Knot, a card-on-file update solution.

🌍 Card issuer Lithic has expanded to Canada.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The UK government has signalled it will raise taxes potentially including CGT and treatment of carried interest which sparked a rebuke from the UK VC and founder ecosystem.

🌍 The CFTC fined Nasdaq Futures $22m for Core Principle violations.

🌍 The FDIC is preparing rules to require banks to manage directly or reconcile FBO accounts to prevent a repeat of the synapse fiasco.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Hero & Hygiene features: The decade that shifted digital banking expectations - Jas Shah, Fintech R&R
• The Future of Credit Risk Decisioning - Alex Johnson & Francisco Javier Arceo
• EU Accessibility Act 2025: Paving the Way for Inclusive Banking Services - Jas Shah, Fintech R&R
• Intel Honesty - Ben Thompson
• The Wisdom of Crowds - Marc Rubinstein

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See you next week!