The Front Page of Global Fintech

The largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

Image Description

The Front Page of Global Fintech

The the largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

Image Description

Open banking needs incentives for collaboration - (10/07)

TWIF UK & Europe - The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe

Open banking needs incentives for collaboration - (10/07)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

The number of investments into UK fintech fell 42% in Q2 2023 (127 deals) vs the same period last year. The amount raised dropped 82% to $639m according to Fintech Global Research.

Don't forget to sign up to the next London Fintech Happy Hour with our friends at Alloy!

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

P.S. you can now find me on Threads (as well as Twitter and LinkedIn)


Sponsored Content 

Want to be a This Week in Fintech - UK & Europe sponsor? Reach out to me at michael@thisweekinfintech.com and see our sponsorship information here.



Tweet of the week πŸ¦‰πŸ†


Funding πŸ’Έ

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊBusiness finance startup Numarics raised a €10m seed round led by UBS.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊInsurtech Qover raised a $30m Series C from Anthemis, Alven, Kreos Capital and Zurich Global Ventures.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊDigital wealth solution Vestinda raised a pre-seed round from dPixel.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Embedded fintech solution Lemonero raised a seed round from Societe Generale.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Accounting provider Dougs Compta raised a €25m Series A from Expedition Growth Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Challenger bank Tandem raised Β£20m in debt from Quilam Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§B2B cross-border payment firm CAB Payments raised Β£355m through a listing on the LSE.

🌍 Unit21 raised a $45m Series C from Tiger and South Park Commons.

🌍 Payment infrastructure provider Gr4vy raised investment from the venture arm of Woolworths Group, W23, to expand into Asia.

🌍 EWA provider Clair raised a $25m round led by Thrive Capital and included Upfront Ventures and Kairos.

Challenger Banking πŸš€

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Investors in Qonto are said to have sold shares in the secondary market at a $3.3bn valuation, a cut of 30%.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Turkish neobank Papara has acquired Spanish neobank Rebellion.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Zurich Insurance is entering into a strategic partnership with insurtech Qover.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Neobank Revolut has launched in New Zealand. It also launched a robo-advisor in the US. It also launched Express Elixir in Poland to allow instant transfers without additional fees. The FT also reported it lost $20m in the US due to scams.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Monzo has partnered with Qover to provide travel insurance for Monzo Premium accounts.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Neobroker Shares received a stock trading licence from French regulators, allowing it to launch in Europe.

🌍 Spend management platform Airbase is partnering with TravelPerk to offer its customers travel inventory and reporting insights.

🌍 Spend management platform Navan (FKA TripActions) partnered with Visa and Mastercard to allow customers to bring any corporate card to use its software platform through its new "Navan Connect" product.

🌍 Brex is back refocusing on startups after ditching SMBs a year ago.

Digital Assets β‚Ώ

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊSwiss based Web3 Foundation is calling for clearer regulation on how the EU plans to regulate web3 technology.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The BoE has proposed a Β£10k-Β£20k limit on consumer holdings of a CBDC which has received backlash from UK Finance, the industry body, for potentially causing deposit flight from commercial banks. They would like a Β£5,000 limit.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The FCA's new crypto marketing rules come into force on 8th October and the FCA has written to firms ordering them to comply or face criminal charges.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Revolut is to stop offering Solana, Cardano and Polygon to its US customers after partner Bakkt delisted the tokens.

🌍 Fidelity has joined the plethora of providers filing paperwork for a spot bitcoin traded ETF following the likes of BlackRock, Invesco and WisdomTree. It later refiled the paperwork to include a "surveillance sharing agreement" to ease SEC concerns of manipulation.

🌍 Celsius has been given permission to liquidate its altcoin holdings and convert them to BTC and ETH as it prepares to distribute funds to creditors.

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini has made a final offer in negotiations with bankrupt digital asset firm Genesis.

🌍 Lawyers working for creditors of bankrupt lender Voyager have earned $5.17m in fees from March to May.

🌍 Coinbase shares jumped after the Cboe and Nasdaq refiled applications for a bitcoin ETF from Fidelity, WisdomTree, VanEck, Invesco, Ark and BlackRock as it was named as a partner.

🌍 Kraken has been ordered to turn over user information to the IRS so it can check for underreported taxes.

🌍 Singaporean bank DBS has implemented a payment system for Chinese merchants that uses the e-CNY digital currency.

🌍 Circle is considering issuing a stablecoin in Japan after legislation took effect at the start of June.

🌍 Binance is hiring for a policy officer for the EU to try and placate policymakers and regulators which have been somewhat hostile.

Traditional Banking 🏦

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊDeutsche Bank completed the IT integration of Deutsche Postbank this weekend, 11 years after the acquisition was completed.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί ABN AMRO has launched a new solution for trade finance from software provider CBA.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§A new NatWest report on open banking concludes that all stakeholders need to work together to resolve economic obstacles holding back open banking. Suggestions include premium APIs, broader coverage and a multi-party system.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§The Bank of England is considering requiring foreign banks to establish subsidiaries rather than just branches.

🌍 Goldman Sachs is looking to offload its Apple partnership as it withdraws entirely from the consumer market. American Express is in talks to take it over.

🌍 SVB has cautiously restarted lending operations.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊA provisional agreement has been reached between European Parliament and Council for the European Union for a legal framework for the European Digital Identity.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί BBVA has launched a financial crime unit.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί CaixaBank has launched virtual account services for FX through its platform FXNow.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Croatia has joined the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system, the European instant settlement platform allowing customers of the seven participating Croatian banks to benefit from instant payments.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Wise is offering its multi accounts and debit cards solution to third party customers through its Platform unit, starting in Australia and has signed ProSpend and Parpera.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ComplyAdvantage has teamed up with FullCircl to provide customers a combined KYC and AML tool for onboarding and ongoing monitoring.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§EMI provider The Payment Firm is launching to offer payment solutions.

🌍 There are 57 early adopters that will be ready to go live when FedNow launches, according to the Federal Reserve.

🌍 Digital identity solution Socure has acquired document verification startup Berbix.

🌍 Belvo and FICO are partnering to help lenders expand credit access in Latam.

Payments πŸ’°

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊThe expansion plans of Cash App and Clearpay, both owned by Block (FKA Square) into European have been put on hold.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊSynch Payments, a mobile payment system from Ireland's leading banks faces delays until next year after it was told it needs EU approval.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊInternational payments firm Inpay has secured a Danish EMI licence and is the first Scandinavian firm to combine EMI, PSP and TPP

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Checkout.com launches an optimised acceptance engine "Intelligent Acceptance", powered by AI.

🌍 Toast is adding a $0.99 fee for orders larger than $10 placed through its online channel to fund product investment and innovation for restaurants.

🌍 FIS has agreed to sell a 45% stake in Worldpay Merchant Solutions to PE firm GTCR who valued the business at $18.5bn.


πŸ’‘

Have a thought/question/comment about anything we covered?

β€ŒStart a discussion in the comments section below!


Longer reads πŸ“œ


πŸ‘ πŸ‘Ž Have feedback for us? Let us know

Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for more fintech content

See you next week!