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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.

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Monar or Lunzo? - (17/07)

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

Monar or Lunzo? - (17/07)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Sadly this week Nick Hungerford, the co-founder of roboadvisor Nutmeg, which was sold to JPM in 2021, passed away. Nick started Nutmeg in 2011, one of the early fintech entrepreneurs in the UK. Rest in peace Nick.


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Tweet of the week ๐Ÿฆ‰๐Ÿ†


Funding ๐Ÿ’ธ

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

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บBaaS provider Solaris raised a โ‚ฌ38m Series F from HV Capital, Lakestar, ABN AMRO, , Finleap, Yabeo Capital, SBI Group, Decisive capital management and BBVA.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Open banking payment solution Ivy raised a $7.7m seed round led by Creandum.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บClimate fintech Finres raised a โ‚ฌ4.1m seed round led by Speedinvest and included Tiny VC, Plug and Play, Kima Ventures and Illuminate Financial.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บInstitutional crypto exchange Blocktrade raised a $10m round from ABO Digital.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บNFT ticketing solution Get Protocol raised a $4.5m seed round led by Flow Ventures and included Tezos Foundation, Redbeard Ventures and FunFair Ventures.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Insurtech Hepster raised a โ‚ฌ10m Series B from Seventure Partners, b Ventures and Claret Capital.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Portfolio monitoring solution 73 Strings raised a $10m Series A led by Fidelity and Blackstone and also included Broadhaven Ventures.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งUnified credit bureau API solution Slipstream raised a pre-seed round

Challenger Banking ๐Ÿš€

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บCorporate spend management provider Moss is to use GoCardless direct debit products in the UK.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งBudgeting and payments app Moneyhub is partnering with data aggregator MX.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Neobank Fiinu had its restricted banking licence withdrawn after failing to raise capital.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Neobank Monzo was reported to be in merger talks with Nordic peer Lunar.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งUS neobroker Public is now live in the UK offering fractional shares, NFTs, crypto and alternative assets.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง New global clearing bank The Bank of London has applied for a European banking licence and will spend โ‚ฌ200m investing and hiring 300 people in Luxembourg over the next five years.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Revolut has rolled out Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhone for its UK business and freelance customers.

๐ŸŒ Fintech giant Ant Group has been fined nearly $1bn for violating laws and regulations by China's central bank.

๐ŸŒ Latam neobank Nubank has partnered with Fireblocks to enhance its crypto infrastructure.

Digital Assets โ‚ฟ

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The Bank of England is partnering with KYC and identity provider Nuggets to support its digital pound project.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งThe UK Government is to introduce a Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) to allow innovations for new market infrastructure with digital assets to be tested. Likely to include stocks and bonds but not BTC or ETH.

๐ŸŒ Binance has seen three executives leave the exchange in the past week.

๐ŸŒ JP Morgan has said that SEC approval of a bitcoin ETF would not be a game changer for the crypto market.

๐ŸŒ Crypto exchange Gemini has sued Digital Currency Group and its founder for fraud in an attempt to recover Gemini funds from DCG.

๐ŸŒ Crypto bridge Multichain was exploited for $120m.

๐ŸŒ Crypto asset manager Grayscale has criticised the SEC for approving a leveraged bitcoin ETF after the regulator rejected its own spot ETF application. Its GBTC discount to NAV continues to fall.

๐ŸŒ A federal judge ruled that Ripple's XRP token "is not necessarily a security on its face" except when sold to raise funds from institutions. The price of XRP surged over 70% on the news as Coinbase, Crypto.com and Kraken reopened trading of the token.

๐ŸŒ Co-founder and ex-CEO of Celsius was arrested on fraud charges.

๐ŸŒ BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has said that crypto will transcend international currencies because of global demand.

Traditional Banking ๐Ÿฆ

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บCaixaBank is hiring 200 new staff in its tech team.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งNatWest has partnered with Perse and Absolar to help SMBs financially benefit from lowering their carbon emissions. It is also shutting another 36 branches.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Barclays won unanimously in the Supreme Court over liability for a ยฃ700,000 APP scam against a customer potentially setting a new precedent and flying in the face of new regulations from the PSR.

๐ŸŒ SVB has sued the FDIC to recover the ~$2bn in funds that the regulator seized from it earlier this year

๐ŸŒ The FT reported that the six largest US banks have seen higher credit card losses as delinquency rates increase.

๐ŸŒ Citi has launched a digital client platform for its Commercial Bank customers.

๐ŸŒ JP Morgan looks to be trying to fill the void of SVB by growing its VC and startup banking business. It hired SVB veteran John China.

๐ŸŒ Bank of America has been ordered to pay $250m in penalties by the CFPB to customers for double-dipping on fees imposed on customers for NSF.

Fintech Infrastructure ๐Ÿšง

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Cloud payment platform Form3 is partnering with POS provider SumUp to provide it with access to the Faster Payments Scheme and Bacs Scheme.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งA2A solution Token has signed payment processor Total Processing as a customer for its open banking payment solution.

๐ŸŒ Card issuing platform Marqeta is expanding to Brazil through a partnership with BaaS provider Fitbank.

Payments ๐Ÿ’ฐ

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งOpen banking payment provider Boodil is partnering with Shopify to provide its Pay by Bank solution to it's UK merchants.

๐ŸŒ BNPL provider Affirm is sunsetting Returnly, the startup it bought for $300m in June 2021 and has entered into a strategic partnership with Loop Returns. Its stock jumped nearly 10% during the week from favourable coverage of its decoupled debit product from an analyst.

๐ŸŒ The FTC has added more counts to its lawsuit against Walmart over failures to protect consumers against money transfer scams.

๐ŸŒ Stripe is reported to have cut another 40 members of staff.

๐ŸŒ Twitter has received MTL licences in Michigan, Missouri and New Hampshire.

๐ŸŒ Payment platform Payoneer is to cut 9% of its 2,000 staff by the end of Q3.

Regulatory Corner ๐Ÿ”Ž

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งThe FCA has warned banks of the rise of "deep fake" fraud and the need to increase spending to combat impacts of AI.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The Center for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has launched the "Open Finance Coalition" who will join together to collaborate on using financial data for better SME and consumer outcomes.

๐ŸŒ Federal agencies including the CFPB are investigating medical credit cards and instalment loans due to their high cost.


๐Ÿ’ก
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This content is not investment advice. When you invest, your capital is at risk. The value of your investments may go up or down. The past performance of a security or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing. โ€˜Publicโ€™ is a trading name of Public Investing UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 13760183 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Public Holdings, Inc. Registered office at C/O Browne Jacobson LLP 6 Bevis Marks, Bury Court, London, United Kingdom, EC3A 7BA.Public Investing UK Limited (FRN: 985994) is an appointed representative of Khepri Advisors Limited (FRN: 692447) which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities are offered by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. See public.com/disclosures for more information.