See you at the McKittrick Hotel (TWIF 11/10)

Hello Fintech Friends,

The Fintech Formal venue is here -

Join us at the McKittrick Hotel, home of Sleep No More and Gallow Green, on Friday, December 8th.

We're down to our last tranche of tickets, so we hope to see you there!

A big thank you to this year's Formal sposnors!

Elsewhere from TWIF this week, we published our Signals Winter '23 Outlook Survey from the fintech community:

And we brought back our Africa newsletter!

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!)

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Confido is hiring a Founding Full-Stack Engineer in New York!

Confido is a next-generation financial automation and intelligence platform helping fast-growing CPG brands operate and scale more efficiently. Despite advances in technology, the tools to run and grow a business in retail haven’t changed. Today, the vast majority of brands rely on the same error-prone and expensive manual spreadsheet-based workflows.

"In our relentless quest for convenience and connection within the digital sphere, we have unwittingly allowed the essence of our agency to be eroded by the "push" strategies of Web 2.0 platforms. The narrative that once empowered users to actively 'pull' content of their choosing has been eclipsed by an invasive model that "pushes" content upon us, often at the cost of our privacy, our autonomy, and the serenity of our digital experience."

- Chase Fleming, The Pull vs Push Manifesto: How the Lessons of RSS Can Help Us Build a Better Web3

HSBC is moving into the digital assets market with the launch of an institutional grade custody service for tokenized securities using technology from Swiss crypto safekeeping firm Metaco. (The bank is also launching tokenized gold.)

BMO launched a digital hub where customers can access personal finance advice and guidance as well as tools to help them budget and set money targets.

Goldman Sachs is looking to sell off its entire General Motors credit card program to a bidder as it gets out of consumer banking.

The European Council and European Parliament made a provisional agreement on mandatory instant credit transfers in euros and access to central bank payment rails by non-bank e-money institutions and stablecoin issuers.

In similar news Colombia's central bank is exploring launching its own version of PIX!

Visa started its own AI advisory practice.

The Swiss National Bank is set to issue its first wholesale digital currency for tests with six commercial banks and the Dubai Financial Authority approved Ripple XRP under its virtual assets regime. Ripple will also lead the Bank of Georgia's digital asset pilot.

The US' CFPB proposed new oversight of big tech companies and other providers of digital wallets to ensure they're compliant with deposit account rules, while the FCA warned banks that they need to take increased precautions against authorised push payment fraud. California signed a new consumer financial protection bill into law.

Banking insiders in the UK were jailed upon stealing £1 million from customers in collaboration with organized crime while a banking contractor was sentenced to four years for diverting £2 million to himself.

DigiSure launched a tool to prevent fraud on sharing economy platforms.

Airwallex launched a high yield account for Australians.

Zip launched a tool to help sourcing teams identify savings opportunities.

Silver generation-focused neobank launched new tools to guard seniors from financial fraud.

Velo launched a peer-to-peer payment app.

OakNorth launched a new Business Banking product.

Remittance app Minit Money launched money transfers to Zambia.

Belvo introduced variable recurring payments.

Upstart and Vesta launched a new home equity line of credit.

Plaid officially announced a new CRA entity to let customers build credit products: "This new entity will operate as a consumer reporting agency and help our customers make smarter risk decisions throughout the lending process."

Payment service provider EBANX integrated with Oxxo Pay in Mexico.

Wealthfront increased their savings account APY to 5.00%.

Visa brought its account updating technology to APAC markets.

UK neobank Monzo is making moves into the insurance space.

Crypto-focused German bank Nuri is coming back from bankruptcy as a streamlined service under its original name, Bitwala.

Disgraced crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all counts against him.

Earnings are looking good for fintech!

 Klarna turned a profit in its Q3 results.

Shares in Adyen jumped 35% on Thursday on news that the payment processor has lowered its growth targets for the next three years, providing investors with more clarity over its medium-term future.

Warren Buffett has now made $250 million from his NuBank investment.

Truelayer brought open banking payments to Shopify.

Infosys and Better partnered to offer mortgage-as-a-service.

TreviPay partnered with Harbor Freight Tools to provide a Harbor Freight Commercial Credit Card.

Ripple joined forces with Onafriq to power digital asset-enabled cross-border payments between Africa and other countries.

Chipper Cash deepened its Visa card issuance partnership.

Subsidiaries Square and Cash App are reportedly going head-to-head at Block, as the "divisions feud so intensely they can’t agree on even minor points of cooperation."

PayPal received an SEC subpoena over its stablecoin 🙄 while its new CEO says that the company's focus 'has not been clear.'

Crypto collectibles site Sorare is under fire for KYC / AML failures.

Neobank N26 quit Brazil.

Brigit had to provide $18 million in refunds following an FTC lawsuit for charging a subscription fee for its loan platform.

UK credit card management app Cardeo shut down.

The FTC banned Chargebacks911 from working with high-risk clients.

Carta went through another round of employee layoffs.