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).

Don’t forget to share with fellow fintech friends!

✨ Thank you, Bangalore!

We hosted our first Fintech Happy Hour of 2023 in Bangalore on 27th April.

It was gratifying to see so many founders, senior product folks, builders, journos, investors and execs from incumbents, congregate around fintech! Thank you to everyone who came! Until next time, Bangalore.

Fintech is truly alive & well!

Delhi and Mumbai - we're coming to you soon! Subscribe to stay updated!

🐦🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. UIDAI and NPCI are setting up an eKYC aggregation platform.
2. VISA paused single-click checkout for ecommerce transactions.
3. India's income tax department issued show cause notices to 16 insurers including Bajaj Allianz and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance for evading INR 5,000cr ($610mm) in unpaid taxes.
4. Aye Finance claimed it grew its loan book by 56% YoY for the year ended 31st March, 2023 with a loan book of INR 2,700cr ($330mm) and 300K in active borrowers.
5. PhonePe, Walmart-owned Flipkart's fintech arm, is launching an app store.
6. Tide, a UK-based small business finance startup that expanded to India, launched an MSME Exchange Program.
7. ChqBook, a small business neobanking startup, announced it grew its revenues 100% YoY to INR 26crs ($ 3.2mm) for the year ended 31st Mar, 2023.
8. Jupiter, a retail neobanking startup, received an NBFC license from RBI.
9. The RBI (central bank) governor in a speech said that he "expects the management and board of directors of each bank to continually assess the financial risks and focus on building up adequate capital and liquidity buffers even beyond the regulatory minimum for continued resilience and sustainable growth".
10. PPro, a global payments infrastructure company, signed a strategic partnership with NPCI International to offer UPI payments as an option to its global merchants.
11. Razorpay joined India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as a payment partner.

🚀 Product Launches

1. ICICI Bank launched a Rupee Vostro Account service enabling Indian exporters and importers to pay and settle export-import transactions in Indian Rupees (INR).

📝 Regulatory Updates

1. SEBI (securities): Banned stock brokers from pledging customer funds with banks.

💰 Financing Announcements

1. Niro, a lending infrastructure startup, raised $11mm.
2. Deciml, a round up investing startup, raised an undisclosed amount.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. StashAway launched StashAway Simple Guaranteed, a cash management portfolio product with guaranteed returns.
2. AliPay integrated with SGQR, Singapore's standardised QR payments system, enabling travelers to pay with their home-country wallets in Singapore.
3. iFAST Global Bank, a Singaporean wealth management company, launched a Digital Personal Banking platform for its wealth management customers.
4. MAS, Singapore's central bank, directed DBS Bank to conduct an assessment of its staff, processes and technology supporting its digital banking platform.
5. GXS Bank, the digital banking platform by Grab and Singtel, launched an instant personal loan product.
6. Stripe launched its revenue and finance automation suite for its customers in SEA.
7. Cambodia’s Finance Ministry partnered with ABA Bank to develop a fintech and digital economy.

💰 Financing Announcements

(There were no fund raises this week. Did I miss any? Email me.)

ACQUISITION:

1. KakaoPay, a South Korean payments company, is acquiring Siebert, a US stock brokerage firm, for $17mm.

🌏 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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