Hello Fintech Friends,
Join me at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this September!
Readers of This Week in Fintech can now get 50% off current rates on all tickets by using the code disrupt here.
Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!)
📺
Sponsored Content
Hi risk and compliance leaders 👋 Share your insights on fraud and AML and get $50. Take a 5 minute survey.
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
💼 Fintech Job of the Week
Unit, the platform to power the next generation of financial services, is looking for an Assistant Controller - Banking to join the team.
Looking for your next adventure in fintech? Come check out our job board and join our Talent Collective.
Employers: Want to get in front of 65,000+ weekly readers? Post a job here.
💬 Quote of the Week
“We're facing right now in emerging markets & especially in Africa the worst macroeconomic situation in a decade or more... It's heavily impacting the purchasing power of consumers.”
— Jumia's CEO on the earnings call today
The company lost 1M active customers over the last yr pic.twitter.com/UxkyVUIqO3— Emeka Ajene ✍🏽 (@eajene) August 15, 2023
🏦 Financial Services & Banking
Japan added tap-to-pay gates to all of its train stations.
The Reserve Bank of India plans to add a conversational AI to enable users to set up their payments on UPI.
The US CFPB is expected to roll out new rules regarding how data aggregators and brokers can re-sell user financial data.
The Bank of Canada is skeptical of central bank digital currencies, but Singapore rolled out a new regulatory framework for stablecoins and Russia is beginning to pilot its own digital ruble currency.
UBS says it no longer needs the Swiss government’s $10 billion backstop for its Credit Suisse acquisition.
The UK partnered with Fiji to invest in climate finance projects.
The Department of Justice is investigating Visa for reportedly charging retailers more when they choose not to use the network’s proprietary tokenization technology.
An online glitch that allowed customers with no money in their accounts to withdraw funds led to huge lines at Bank of Ireland ATMs.
💻 Fintech
🚀 Product Launches
Fintech for kids and teens Greenlight launched a new Greenlight Family Cash Mastercard (credit card), issued by First National Bank of Omaha. The card, which is available for $4.99 / month subscribers, comes with up to 3% cash back and gives parents features like spending limits.
US community bank Citizens Bank of Edmond launched a neobank specifically built and designed to serve the needs of military service members.
Introducing: SAFEs by Mercury for C-Corps.
You can now customize, sign, & share @ycombinator-templated SAFE docs on Mercury — and have the funding routed to your account. Plus, you can track the status of your investor checks in real time.
Watch how it works 👇 pic.twitter.com/pYCKxKWGOO— Mercury (@mercury) August 16, 2023
Bud Financial launched a generative AI platform for personalized banking.
DataVisor released a new machine learning solution to tackle real-time payments fraud.
Allbricks launched a new platform for mortgage-free investment property purchases.
📰 Other News
Instacart announced that they now accept EBT SNAP payments in all 50 states.
UK neobank Monzo is planning to expand into the pensions market. UK neobank Starling is in talks with an Asian bank to use its banking-as-a-service platform outside of Europe.
Coinbase went live in Canada and received regulatory approval (from the CFTC) to list crypto futures in the US. Binance received a digital asset license in El Salvador.
Card issuing platform Marqeta plugged into OpenAI’s language learning model to speed up the process of launching embedded finance applications.
Capi Money is building international payments for importers in Africa.
Uruguayan public fintech dLocal rebounded sharply from a shortseller attack, after announcing a new Co-CEO who sent its stock up 30%.
🤝 Partnership Corner
Bangladesh’s central bank partnered with fintech consultancy Fime to launch its own domestic card network.
The Nigerian Exchange partnered with Euroclear to build a dollar settlement platform that will enable fintech startups to raise in dollars.
Financial data standardization and enrichment tool Ntropy partnered with Sivo, the debt and capital markets exchange, to increase loan approvals and reduce defaults.
Financial inclusion startup Zirtue partnered with TruStage to facilitate unemployment insurance.
just some pod listener thoughts (no witness tampering😤)
Hey Fintech Friends and Beyond Two Percent bringing good fintech conversations anywhere u get pods @HelenFemix @julieverhage https://t.co/txZhjMdVSphttps://t.co/FOXBkwPhJx pic.twitter.com/gyDBm65ibH— This Week in Fintech (@twifintech) August 14, 2023
👎 The Bad News
UK home lending startup Fronted, which previously raised £20 million, announced it is shutting down.
Adyen temporarily halted trading in the Netherlands due to a 25% drop following disappointing quarterly results.
Israeli firm Vesttoo, which uses machine learning to connect capital markets with insurers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after laying off 75% of its staff, following a scandal in which it allegedly used a fraudulent letter of credit in a multi-billion dollar insurance transaction.
Bittrex agreed to pay $24 million to settle SEC charges that it operated an unregistered national securities exchange.
Sanjiv Somani, the CEO of JP Morgan-owned UK wealth platform Nutmeg, has quit his role.
Come meet us in-person at fintechhappyhour.com, and join our angel investing syndicate.



