Challenger Banks Weekly Top Picks (newsletter - 16/09/19)
In the UK, traditional high street lenders are feeling the pressure, losing a collective US$2bn (￡1.6bn) in brand value over the last 12 months from challenger banks Monzo, Revolut and Starling.
Monzo has launched a “merchant block” feature for users to limit their spending, while scraping the its ￡5 referral bonus for new sign-ups, as this proved too costly for them, while trying to “moderate” its growth.
Starling Bank added SME insurtech Digital Risks and cybersecurity platform CyberSmart to its business marketplace. The two complementary products will allow customers to manage more of their business admin from one place.
SME challenger bank Alba chose Temenos’ cloud-native software, an end-to-end digital banking platform combined with pre-packaged model bank functionality as the right choice to help launching a bank that will offer a personalized experience.
Another SME challenger bank Allica has announced that it aims to achieve a balance sheet of “several billion” pounds in five to seven years, after getting its banking license this month.
In the Nordics, Northmill got its banking licence adding to the already competitive challenger bank market in the region.
Danish startup Lunar Way, chose Nets as payment partner. The partnership will ensure improved payment experiences for all Lunar Way private and business users in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
US: expansion and new acquisitions
Moving to the US, finance startup SoFi closed a deal to put its name on new LA stadium, following California’s long history of financial services companies buying stadium naming rights.
U.S. Bankcorp recently completed the acquisition of Talech, a Palo Alto-based software company, thus taking another step toward digital banking.
Varo drops its goals feature from app, citing low user uptake as the company is moving in a direction where users will design their personal finance journeys.
Australia: Newcomers and SME focus
Newcomers 86 400 has started trading this week, as the first new digital bank to launch a fully functional transaction account with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, a first in the Australian market. While Xinja is aiming to challenge Australia’s Big Four and not afraid of other neobanks competition.
With focus on SMEs, Judo Bank has launched its first national campaign designed to communicate to SMEs that with Judo Bank is on their side and their business plans are a big step closer to becoming a reality.
Africa: the challenger bank market is on the rise.
Nigerian fintech startup Kuda, a digital-only retail bank, has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding and launched a beta version of its mobile finance app.
Discovery Bank doesn’t plan to compete on price, as CEO Adrian Gore does not want to bring on board a whole lot of clients who won’t use the bank.
TymeBank is now one of the three fastest-growing digital banks in the world, with the bank seeing significant uptake since its official launch at the end of February 2019.
--> NOTE: This article was featured in my weekly newsletter on September 16th 2019. You want to be the first to read the news overview next week? Sign up for my Weekly Challenger Banks Newsletter here
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