Welcome to?your?daily?FinTech?news!
Revolut’s UK risk and compliance chiefs are said to have quit in a slew of senior resignations amid heightened tensions with regulators and delays to the firm’s banking license. Five Revolut executives have handed in their resignations including UK chief risk officer, Victoria Stubbs; UK Head of Regulatory Compliance, Justine Wootton and UK Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) Mathew Seneviratne. Link here.
- Visa is said to be in talks with Airwallex, to join the second extension of its Series E funding round. Airwallex first raised $200m in September 2021 at a $4bn valuation, then topped it up with an extra $100m in November 2021 at a $5.5bn price tag with help from Lone Pine Capital. Now Bloomberg News reports that Airwallex is extending its Series E again, by between $100m and $150m, but this time maintaining its valuation at $5.5bn. Link here.
- CB Insights State of Fintech Q2’22 Report. Global FinTech funding in Q2’22 saw $20.4B raised across 1,225 deals — the lowest amount of quarterly funding and deals since Q4’20. Link here.
- SumUp launched SumUp Magic Pay, a QR code payment solution for the hospitality sector. At the end of a meal, everyone at the table can receive a copy of the bill, by scanning a QR code on the table. From there, a bill can be split, a tip added, and payment conducted (Apple or Google Pay are both an option). Link here.
- Vantage launched its new social trading product, V Social. V Social is a professional 'social network' that allows traders to auto-copy signals, execute trades, chat and analyse performance. Link here.
- The UK treasury unveils plans to regulate stablecoins as part of the new Financial Services and Markets Bill. In the bill, HM Treasury has been granted new powers to introduce rules on the regulation, payment systems, and service providers dealing with stablecoins and "digital settlement assets". Link here.
- Blockchain.com dismantles its Argentine operation, laying people off, and deactivating SeSocio, just 8 months after acquiring it. As of August 1st, all SeSocio users will only be able to transfer their crypto assets to Blockchain or another DeFi platform. All other services will be disabled including FIAT currency transfers. Link here.
- Coinbase has been granted approval by Italy's financial regulator to operate as a crypto assets service provider. The Organismo Agenti e Mediatori introduced new requirements for all companies offering crypto trading, custody or other services, in light of the rapid growth of the market. Link here.
- Colombia to regulate crypto service providers. The Financial Superintendence of Colombia presented a project that seeks to bring clarity to how links between banks and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) will be handled in the future. The document defines certain key concepts and determines a set of prerequisites that banks need to verify before accepting virtual asset service providers as customers. Link here.
- Bitso and a University partner to accept tuition payments in crypto. Bitso, the leading cryptocurrency platform in Latin America with more than 5 million users, has partnered with Utel, the leading online university in Latin America with more than 115,000 students and graduates across more than 60 countries. Through their partnership, Bitso will enable Utel’s students in more than 11 countries, including the United States, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, to pay tuition fees with cryptocurrency. Link here.
- Spanish Bit2Me buys Peruvian crypto exchange. Bit2Me, the largest Spanish crypto exchange, acquired a majority stake in the Peruvian peer Fluyez. The purchase of the 85% stake was for more than 1 million euros (US$1.022 million). Following the acquisition of a majority stake in Fluyez, the company is looking for purchasing opportunities in Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay. Link here.
- Curve appointed Eyal Galina as Chief Product Officer. Reporting to Curve CEO Shachar Bialick, Galina will be responsible for Curve’s product roadmap and strategy as the global fintech moves to the next stage of its mission to become the Operating System for Money. Link here.
- Revolut launches celeb collaboration with YouTubers the Sidemen. The group of seven British men has released two unique cards with the fintech, offering perks for “aficionados of the influencer sensations”. Between them, the YouTubers have more than 130 million followers and 34 billion views. Link here.
- Spanish Pecunpay launched Visa Direct, a new solution that will allow Pecunpay customers to send and receive money instantly. Consumers will be able to use the soon-to-be-launched Visa Direct, not only in Spain but also in the European Economic Area thanks to Visa's global network and Pecunpay's license. Link here.
- Emma adds commission-free stock trading to its super app to more than 1m+ customers in the UK, after successfully testing with more than 30,000 users who registered on the waiting list. Emma customers currently use the app to see all their financial life in one app, track day-to-day spending, and set budgets. Link here.
- Up Bank launches digital home loans for owner-occupiers looking to refinance their home loan. Initially open for expressions of interest solely for owner occupiers refinancing, Up Home will offer both, variable and fixed, home loan options. Link here.
- Mortgage fintech Maxwell launches loan application, a bilingual option for mortgage applications, to allow lenders to better serve the growing Hispanic American market, and dramatically improve access and user experience for Hispanic Americans with limited English proficiency (LEP). Link here.
- Rabobank taps InvestCloud for digital financial planning for all its customers, from private banking to retail clients. Online and mobile app Rabobank clients will be able to create highly customizable life plans, allowing advisors to guide their clients to achieve their financial goals without needing to create time-intensive and costly proposals. Link here.
- Brazilian Neon has raised $80 million for its first Credit Rights Investment Fund (FIDC) focused on credit cards. The investment increases the fund's size to $170 million and will allow Neon to better use its technology and credit analysis models to bring credit to Brazilian workers, says a statement. Link here.
- A week in the life of a Product Manager at Monzo. “I’m often asked by Product Managers outside of Monzo what a typical week looks like so in this post I’ll give an insight into what life is like as a PM here. It’s by no means perfect and I’m always looking to learn and improve!” Link here.
- How Embedded Finance & BaaS are Transforming India. Fintechs like Open, Bajaj Finance, Razorpay, PayTM and Cashfree have already created new benchmarks for customer experience and transparency Link here.
This ends?Your?Daily?Fintech?News. Let me know if there are any questions or comments. Until the next!
