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

Programming note: There will be no TWIF UK & Europe for the next two weeks. We shall return on Monday 22nd September.

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Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Klarna secured a €1.4bn financing facility with Santander.

🇪🇺 Crypto trading platform OrangeX raised a $20m round from Kryptos and SCI Ventures.

🇪🇺 Stablecoin infrastructure provider M0 raised a $40m Series B from Pantera Capital, Ribbit Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Polychain Capital and Bain.

🇪🇺 Automated Defi platform Almanak raised a $8.5m round from Matrix Partners, AppWorks, RockawayX, HashKey Capital and NEAR Foundation.

🇬🇧 Oxbury Bank raised a £15m round.

🇬🇧 Alternative asset investment platform Ctrl Alt raised a £6.4m round.

🇬🇧 Mass affluent neobank Monument raised a £5.3m round.

🇬🇧 B2B lender iwoca raised an £11.8m Series D.

₿ Stablecoin platform Rain raised a $58m Series B led by Sapphire Ventures.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Dutch neobank Bunq was hit with €2.6m fine for deficient AML controls.

🇪🇺 Spend management provider Pleo is launching investment accounts with lemon.markets.

🇪🇺 Neobank Northmill is seeking to expand across the EU as it reports quarterly pre-tax profitability.

🇬🇧 Neobank Starling is to acquire accounting and tax provider Ember.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Robinhood has rolled out an AI investing assistant.

🇬🇧 Cross-border transfer provider Wise has fully integrated with the Philippines payment systems.

🇬🇧 Credit card startup Yonder has selected tell.money has its open banking partner.

🇬🇧 Both Revolut and Monzo are launching interest-bearing savings accounts for kids. Revolut is exploring its next move in the US and reportedly hiring US bankers.

🌍 US spend management solution Expensify launched a receipt integration with DoorDash.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺Crypto exchange Gemini secured a MiCA licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority.

🇪🇺 The EU is weighing launching it's digital euro on a public blockchain.

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange Bitpanda is rumoured to prefer an IPO in New York or Frankfurt instead of London.

🇬🇧Crypto exchange Gemini launched staking in the UK.

🌍 Crypto exchange Kraken acquired no-code trading tool Capitalise.ai.

🌍 Digital asset custodian Anchorage Digital has had its consent order lifted by the OCC after improving its compliance infrastructure.

🌍 US banks are campaigning to close a loophole in the stablecoin legislation that allows rewards on stablecoins.

🌍 Singapore's OCBC is to issue a $1bn US commercial paper program using blockchain technology.

🌍 Digital wallet provider MetaMask is to launch a stablecoin with Stripe.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Circle is partnering with Finastra to help banks integrate stablecoins into their cross-border payment flows. The stablecoin issuer also expanded its partnership with Mastercard in EEMEA.

🌍 Digital asset banking group Sygnum was appointed by lender Ledn for BTC-backed tokenised private credit.

🌍 Google is to launch its own layer 1 blockchain, the Universal Ledger, aiming at institutional payments.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Swedbank is buying Barclay's stake in card company Entercard.

🇬🇧 UK banks have closed a third of branches over the past five years.

🇬🇧 HSBC suffered an IT outage across its mobile and online banking systems.

🌍 Fifth Third bank has acquired cash management software provider DTS Connex.

🌍 JP Morgan is to pay $330m to settle claims relating to 1MDB. It is also relaunching HELOC loans after a five year break.

🌍 Wells Fargo is adding alternative investments to its wealth management division.

🌍 Citi has rolled out two AI-powered banking platforms.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Core banking provider Thought Machine signed Shawbrook Bank as a customer which went live this week.

🇬🇧 The FCA has approved the London Stock Exchange as the first operator of a PISCES platform, a new private stock market.

🌍 The CFPB has sued Synapse for mishandling customer funds.

🌍 Visa is closing its US open banking unit.

🌍 Credit bureau TransUnion suffered a data breach which exposed the personal information of 4.4 million consumers.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna is targeting a $13bn pre-money valuation in its upcoming IPO.

🇪🇺 European lenders were forced into emergency action after PayPal suffered a glitch.

🌍 Global payments platform Airwallex has integrated with lending platform Pipe.

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

See you next week!