Newsletter #2: The latest trends, news and updates on finance, treasury and CFO related content.

Hi there readers, Gorka Aguirre here, writing this #2 edition of Snab (YC W22) Newsletter from San Sebastian.

I’m personally a big fan of Phil Rosen (from Business Insider, Inc. ) journalism style, so ill try to give this newsletter a more personal touch too. Mostly to save you from receiving corporate spammy information that nobody wants to read.

August was quite slow across Europe, however fintech and finance were quite active in terms of news.

Let’s get into it:

Personally curated by Gorka Aguirre, Founder & CEO of Snab.

1 - Fintech Industry Insights and Trends:

Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) adoption is on the horizon

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• The EU Commission recently took a first important step in the right direction by presenting a draft law on the introduction of a digital euro
• 130 countries are currently exploring the possibilities with Central Bank Digital Currencies(CBDC) adoption, which allows for digital money to be supported and used publicly alongside cash whilst supported by the nation’s central bank
• However according to experts in the matter, the lack of standardised regulation could pose a threat to global adoption of CBDCs, and there is a long road ahead for the concept to be accepted as a universal digital currency

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J.P. Morgan offers merchants Tap to Pay on iPhone

• The New York-based bank is aiming to utilise Apple’s solution to allow merchants to accept contactless payments using their iPhones
• Tap to Pay on iPhone enables merchants to accept in-person contactless payments with a just a tap of their payment cards or mobile wallet, with no need for additional terminals or hardware
• In that same space we can find our friends from Divilo that together with Visa launched Tap to Pay on mobile devices being pioneer in the European market. Soon we will forget about those big and manual POS devices that every merchant carries on

2. Macroeconomic environment & CFO related news:

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2023 AFP Liquidity Survey

• According to the 2023 AFP Liquidity Survey prepared by the “Association for financial professionals”, safety continues to be the most valued short-term investment objective for 63 percent of organizations interviewed
• This year, 222 treasury and finance professionals participated in this survey and their responses form the basis of this report
• Eighty-three percent of organizations consider the overall relationship with their banks a primary determinant when choosing banks

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Visa, Mastercard eye price increases

• Visa and 萬事達卡 are gearing up to increase the fees merchants pay when consumers use the companies’ credit cards, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday
• About half of the increase will be directed to network fees paid to the card network companies while the other half will constitute interchange, or swipe fees, that go to the banks issuing the cards, according to the publication

European Venture Funding Halved In Q2 2023 As Late-Stage Investors Dialed Back ????????

• European venture funding halved in the second quarter of 2023 compared to a year earlier, and was down two-thirds from the peak two years ago, Crunchbase data shows
• Funding totaled $12.4 billion in Europe in Q2 2023 — flat quarter over quarter and down 50% from the $24.7 billion invested in Q2 2022.

3. Regulatory & tech changes affecting the financial sector

• Next week the Spanish Treasury organization opens the sixth cohort of applications for the financial 'sandbox'
• The project promoters will be able to submit their applications to be eligible to test them in the 'sandbox', an initiative that the Spanish Government approved in February 2019, thus joining a few European countries that had implemented a initiative like this in their legal system.

Article in Spanish:

?Personally curated by Gorka Aguirre , Founder & CEO of Snab (YC W22)

https://snabfinance.com/