Bunq officially applied for a US banking license
Wonderful Wednesday FinTech Fanatic,
For some the move was obvious, for others it was a surprise, but Dutch digital challenger Bunq has officially applied for a US banking license with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in New York.
CEO and founder Ali Niknam says the challenger was created to make life easier for digital nomads in Europe. Now, it wants to do the same across the pond, “giving a community of location-independent people” a way to bank remotely. Bunq looks to expand it services to all 50 states.?
Recently, Bunq became the first neobank in the European Union to report a quarterly profit over Q4 2022, after a decade of operations. Congrats to Ali Niknam and his team, and interesting to follow how they will do stateside; especially given the previous US-experiences of digital banks such as N26 and Monzo.
Something completely different. Germany's accounting watchdog on Monday handed the 2016-2018 auditor of Wirecard, named in the company's annual reports as EY, a 500,000 euro fine and banned it from taking on new audits for companies of public interest for two years.
EY said in an email that it had been informed by watchdog APAS that an investigation into the company had been completed, but that it had not been briefed on the details of the decision.
APAS said in a statement that it had imposed sanctions on Wirecard's auditing company and five individual auditors, without referring to EY by name. Wirecard's annual report names EY as the auditor for that period.
The Wirecard scandal caused quite a stir within the FinTech scene, and the fraud trial against its ex-CEO and two managers is currently in full swing in Munich. A verdict is not expected until 2024 at the earliest.
To end this newsletter on a somewhat positive note, Quantexa announced a new major investment.
The London-based company, providing AI and other tools to help navigate online fraud and customer data management, has raised $129 million at a $1.8 billion valuation in a Series E funding round joined by HSBC, BNY Mellon and ABN Amro.
The last six months have been such a tricky time for a lot of startups looking to raise money, but Quantexa and Stripe, with its recent $6.5 billion round, are one in a small group that has bucked that trend.
Now on to the other FinTech news.
INSIGHTS?
ClearBank slashed its 2022 losses by 65% as income reached a record ￡58m. For its 2022 financial year, ClearBank’s operating loss was reduced to just ￡10.7m, a 65 per cent improvement on the ￡31m loss it reported the previous year. Read more
Fintech Talent Insights: The Netherlands, with its vibrant startup scene, strong tech infrastructure, and supportive government policies, has become a hub for FinTech companies and startups. Check out PCN ’s latest talent industry report to find out more insights about FinTech in the country.
FINTECH NEWS
Fiserv merchant terminals to accept JCB cards. This multi-regional collaboration will expand payment choice for JCB Cardmembers, allowing them to pay with their JCB Cards at participating merchants in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.
Walmart-backed payments giant PhonePe makes e-commerce push. The Bengaluru-based startup, launched a hyperlocal commerce app, called Pincode, that is powered by the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Link here
Cellulant looks to evolve the payment space in Africa. It builds on the rapid growth of the African payment space, which has been significantly bolstered by the expansion of peer-to-peer (P2P) and consumer-to-business (C2B) payment solutions.
Finance Incorporated selects ThetaRay transaction monitoring tech. The agreement with ThetaRay to implement the SaaS-based SONAR AI solution will enable Finance Incorporated Limited to integrate multiple datasets for risk-based transaction monitoring and greatly enhance the accuracy of AML operations.
Meet Teya, the mysterious fintech unicorn formerly known as SaltPay. Teya is here to provide a whole suite of services to small businesses, combining payment acceptance and business management tools in one ecosystem.
#FINTECHREPORT
Check out Fintech Notes: “The rise and impact of FinTech in Latin America", by International Monetary Fund. This paper focuses on digital payment systems, digital banks, alternative finance, bigtech, insurtech, and regulatory innovations that help unlock fintech potential while controlling risks. Read more
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
Orange Bank to migrate to Mambu's cloud banking platform in France. The implementation in France signals the bank’s intention to operate a single banking platform in order to scale Europe-wide. Link here
Lunar bails out of P2P market. Denmark's Lunar bank is to offload its P2P business to Swedish investment platform SaveLend Group. The acquisition date is expected to occur in the summer of 2023.
领英推荐
BLOCKCHAIN
Former Gemini officials offer about 5% on Treasury-backed tokens.?Former senior officials at digital-asset exchange Gemini are rolling out a token backed by US Treasury Bills with around 5% yield in response to a gulf in returns between traditional finance and decentralized crypto lending.?
M&As
SoFi pounces on fintech mortgage lender amid housing downturn. SoFi Technologies is on the M&A trail. The company has scooped up fintech mortgage lender Wyndham Capital Mortgage in an all-cash deal for an undisclosed sum.
PARTNERSHIPS
Cape integrates with Xero to launch one click automated accounting and enable a direct bank feed to streamline financial reporting, reconciliation and management in an entirely digital and secure manner. Read more
Together with CCV and Bancontact, KAA Gent launches the first football club mobile app with One-Click-Pay. The club wanted its supporters to be able to pay easily in the app and opted for CCV Online Payments. Adding the Bancontact One-Click-Pay functionality provides great added value and makes the app unique in Belgium.
#DONEDEAL
Private banking startup Kashet raises ￡5.4 million. The company intends to offer a membership-based wealth management app combining a complete set of cards, foreign exchange, domestic and international payments, and access to digital currencies under Swiss law to clients in the UK.
Finanzguru Raises €13 million in New Funding Led By SCOR Ventures and PayPal Ventures. Finanzguru will use the funding to accelerate profitable growth in Germany, as well as to further expand its product platform. The company will also significantly strengthen its current team of 70 employees.
Skript launches Subskript: The automated solution for secure bank data feeds for businesses via open banking. This powerful API-based solution provides businesses with a secure and reliable way to access their bank data feed directly into their own system, without the need to connect to multiple bank data sources or deal with manual processes.
Mexican financial tracking platform Cometa raised USD $5M. Cometa's platform offers tools that digitize school operations saving hundreds of hours of tasks each year. The startup's mission is to promote financial inclusion within the education sector.
UK-based TerraPay secures €91.7M. The company claims to have been successful, and it is now prepared to advance its payments infrastructure and features, and offer customers around the globe more seamless cross-border payment options.
Moni unveils new community-powered business loans for African SMEs. This enables market traders, spare part dealers, textile traders and other small business owners in Africa to take advantage of the power of their communities to access the working capital they need to run and scale their businesses.
UAE launches CBDC strategy backed by tech and law experts. With its first phase being activated, the CBDC strategy will continue to develop certain use cases for a range of domestic and cross-border purposes.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Rescued fintech Railsr recruits ex-blockchain executive as new CEO. Railsr will announce the appointment of Philippe Morel as its new Chief Executive. Mr. Morel will join Railsr just a month after parts of it were sold through an expedited insolvency process. Link here
Checkout.com faces exec team exodus and makes layoffs ‘by stealth’. In the last nine months, six executives that reported directly to CEO Guillaume Pousaz, have left the company, according to people familiar with the moves. A spokesperson said the headcount reductions are “a combination of natural attrition and resource planning”.
Looking to work with me in any of the following areas?
Cheers,
Marcel van Oost