JP Morgan, BlackRock, CME, & Bancolombia get into crypto 🌕 (TWIF 5/17)

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Hello Fintech Friends,

It's been a busy week as always, here's what you may have missed:

On the events side:

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Card network Visa launched new digital capabilities for its credit and debit cards, including the ability for users to tap their own card on their own device to instantly provision a new card in a digital wallet; pay via credit or debit from a single account; and use facial identification for one-click checkout more broadly. Most interestingly, the new Visa Flexible Credential will enable banks to issue a single card with one card number that toggles between different payment methods. (Remember Coin?)

HSBC added a feature to its mobile app in the UK to help customers identify, plan and manage their saving goals.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia launched Truyu, its own app to alert users when their credentials are at risk of being misused by fraudsters.

Also – holy institutional crypto!

CME, the world's largest futures exchange, now plans to launch bitcoin trading, in another coup for crypto investors.

Colombia’s largest bank, Bancolombia, also entered the crypto market with the launch of a new crypto exchange called Wenia that it plans to scale to 60,000 users in its first year.

JP Morgan struck a deal to offer its JPM Coin digital token as a settlement mechanism for Broadridge's Distributed Ledger Repo platform, which offers Broadridge clients intra-day, overnight and term repo capabilities.

BlackRock is closing in on the title world’s largest bitcoin fund as the asset manager’s initial scepticism over cryptocurrencies gives way to ambitions to be the biggest digital asset market. Its ETF now stands at $16.7 billion, compared to Grayscale's $19 billion.

US-headquartered global payment network Mastercard partnered with Standard Chartered on a proof-of-concept pilot exploring tokenised deposits and tokenised carbon credits. The network also began processing domestic payments in China through its NetsUnion JV.

The Reserve Bank of India proposed to launch a central bank digital currency token that can also function offline, while Kazakhstan is jumping ahead in the CBDC race:

Wells Fargo and JP Morgan both said that US authorities are scrutinizing how consumer complaints about Zelle payments are handled.

American Express and Worldpay signed a new agreement to give small business owners more tools to accept AmEx card payments. Nasdaq is integrating GenAI into its market surveillance tech.

The US Supreme Court rejected a conservative legal challenge to the CFPB's funding and legitimacy, as the regulator begins to investigate credit card reward programs and spending incentives.

Payments firms are calling for the UK government to rethink plans to protect victims of authorized push payments fraud, arguing that a refund cap of £415,000 will hurt smaller providers.

UK neobank Monument Bank is joining other neobanks like Starling and Monese in offering its product as-a-service, taking on Ecology Building Society as its first customer.

Meanwhile, French mobile payments app Lydia launched its own neobank, with plans to invest €100 million in the division and hire 400 people over the next three years.

Data security company Evervault launched a new payments security platform with a Network Tokens API, Card Insights API, and payment optimization.

Corporate expense management provider Expensify launched unlimited virtual cards for customers to manage expenses across employees and merchants.

Lili, a financial platform for small businesss, launched a GenAI tool — Accountant AI — to harness businesses' financial data for personalized recommendations.

Credit bureau Experian launched cashflow insights to allow lenders to integrate personal cashflow and banking data into their decision-making.

Multi-asset trading platform Tradu launched a new crypto trading exchange.

io.finnet launched its Vault, a digital asset self-custody solution for institutions.

Core banking provider Temenos announced the launch of its Responsible Generative AI solutions as part of its AI banking platform.

Dutch neobank bunq upgraded its GenAI assistant Finn to make it "fully conversational" (answering over 100,000 questions) and launched a new travel insurance product.

UK currency transfer fintech Atlantic Money launched a desktop app.

📺

Sponsored Content

Does your startup have a solution for Responsible AI deployment in the banking sector? Ally is excited to announce the launch of the Ally Innovation Challenge – Responsible AI.

Ally is seeking market-ready, US-based startups specializing in AI infrastructure that can assist in building robust, scalable platforms for responsible AI development and deployment. Selected startups will have opportunities for mentoring and potential collaboration with senior experts from the financial services company behind the nation’s largest all-digital bank. Learn more about it here and submit your application by June 17th!  Terms and conditions apply- see website for full details

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

Chinese payments giant Ant Group is looking to expand into the payments markets of Europe, Middle East and Latin America with its Alipay+ offering, while Google Wallet launches in India.

Kima, an Israeli asset-agnostic, peer-to-peer money transfer and payment protocol, is working with Mastercard to build a DeFi credit card.

German savings and investment product marketplace Raisin doubled revenues in 2023 to €158 million and reached €20 million EBTDA with a net profit of €1 million.

Commerce payments and loyalty platform Nayax posted its first quarter earnings, including 43% YoY recurring revenue growth and $3.6 million of EBITDA on $64 million of revenues.

Mortgage app Better's EVP of customer experience withdrew her lawsuit against the company.

Nacha selected real-time payment and account verification provider Orum* as a Preferred Partner its ACH Experience and Nacha Certified platforms.

TBD, a decentralized exchange run by Jack Dorsey's Block, partnered with pan-African peer-to-peer payments provider Chipper Cash on stablecoin payments.

Wipro partnered with Microsoft to launch a suite of cognitive assistants for the financial services sector powered by GenAI.

BVNK, a payment infrastructure provider, integrated the PayPal USD stablecoin, issued by Paxos, into its payment system.

As part of the fallout from banking-as-a-service provider Synapse's meltdown, teen and family banking app Copper abruptly shut down its deposit accounts and debit cards. A United States Trustee filed an emergency motion on Wednesday to convert Synapse's debt reorganization Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a liquidation Chapter 7.

The CFPB settled a $384 million fine that it will distribute to customers of Think Finance, whom it says were tricked into repaying loans they did not legally owe.

Even though Affirm grew revenues by over 51% annually and lowered losses per share, its stock sank after earnings, which analysts believe is due to slowing growth at its e-commerce partner Shopify.

Crypto exchange Binance was fined C$6 million by Canadian authorities for violating money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

Ampla, a fintech that lends to consumer brands, is reportedly trying to find a buyer.