Puerto Rico-based challenger bank, Zenus, was granted its banking licence by US regulatory authorities this week.
Unlike other challengers, Zenus will allow anyone in the world to open an account, including the unbanked population from countries such as South America, India and China. (more…)
Digital bank Monzo is dipping its toes into the short-term loans market a year after Wonga’s collapse, but insists it will not target customers who usually turn to payday lenders.
The challenger bank formally launched loans for its 2.5 million customers on Thursday, following a trial with around 4,000 of its users. Those who qualify will be able to borrow as much as £15,000 for up to 60 months, or take loans as small as £200 for as little as 90 days.
That kind of wage top-up has been the hallmark of short-term or payday lenders, whose customers borrow an average of £300 over three months. (more…)
Digital bank Revolut has integrated Xero, an SME accounting platform, to facilitate seamless business expense reporting. The Revolut for Business app has also been updated for team members to upload receipts and add expense information, according to a release from the company
The new “Expense Management tool,” is designed to help growing businesses more easily manage expenses. Business owners may now approve or reject team expenses, an area that has traditionally been difficult to manage. (more…)
The funding round was led by PTB Ventures, with help from Accion Venture Lab, Financial Venture Studio and Techstars.
Founded by Lamine Zarrad and George Kurtyka in 2017, Joust aims to help independent professionals find more financial stability and avoid late payments amid the irregular payment system for freelance work. The bank guarantees invoice payments and has a “PayArmour” feature for same-day funding, which is available as an app in Google Play and the Apple App Store. (more…)
Deutsche Bank has started a digital bank called Fyrst, designed for freelancers, founders and entrepreneurs. However, the project is currently suspended by their former subsidiary, Postbank, reports Ruby Hinchliffe. (more…)
Monzo, the fast-growing U.K. challenger bank that recently soft-launched in the U.S., is disclosing a potential, albeit relatively limited, security oversight that saw customer PINs stored incorrectly within the company’s internal systems. (more…)
via FinTech Futures
Mbanq, an accredited investor, has backed Arival Bank by acquiring shares, as reported by Medium.
Mbanq provides digital core technology and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and Arival Bank chose it for its digital core banking back in July 2018. (more…)
Meeting a consumer’s banking needs requires FIs to think locally — but when it comes to fighting fraud, it pays to think globally. That’s why FIs need to stay ahead of fraud trends both domestically and internationally, says Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO for German challenger bank N26. In the latest Digital Fraud Tracker, Kopp discusses how N26 is using customer data from 24 countries to better protect users against fraud attacks as it enters the U.S. market. (more…)
via TechCrunch
Fintech startup Revolut announced changes to its business accounts this week. The good news is that if you were thinking about trying Revolut for your business needs, it’s now cheaper to get started. But there are some limits.
While Revolut is better known for its regular consumer accounts that let you receive, send and spend money all around the world, the company has been offering launched business accounts for a couple of years.
The main advantage of Revolut for Business is that you can hold multiple currencies. If you work with clients or suppliers in other countries, you can exchange money and send it to your partners directly from Revolut’s interface. (more…)
Another hopeful among Europe’s so-called challenger banks — startups taking on the big names in consumer banking by targeting niche groups of users with a more modern set of tools to manage users’ money — has raised a sizeable round of funding to expand its business.
Atom Bank — which targets mainly millennial-aged consumers (current slogan: “It’s all about you, you, you”) with mobile-first savings accounts and mortgages as well as small business loans — has raised a further £50 million in funding. It’s not disclosing its valuation officially, but sources confirm it’s £530 million (or around $660 million at current rates), up from £450 million previously. (more…)
via Business Insider Australia
via TechCrunch
Fintech startup N26 is raising $170 million a few months after raising $300 million. While it’s technically structured as a new round, the company considers today’s new funding as an extension of the Series D round.
N26 has only reached out to existing investors. All the investors in the Series D round are investing again, as well as a few investors that have been around for a while. So that’s Insight Venture Partners, GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), Tencent, Allianz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital and Greyhound Capital. (more…)
via e27
The announcement from MAS that non-banking fintechs will be eligible to create banks in the digital format, and provide services without any physical branches whatsoever can be considered as the biggest headliner in the financial news of Singapore in July. Altogether, MAS is planning on issuing 5 digital banking licenses in the nearest future.
Applications admission shall begin in August and financial enterprises are, one after another, already announcing their interest in getting the license. As early as today, top managers form Validus, Grab, Razer, Singtel, and InstaReM have already expressed such intentions.
The new licenses issued for digital banking allow the performing of the following services: depositing, lending, and investing for both businesses and natural persons. Customer onboarding therefore, will become essential as the very first step towards utilizing the product. This step has to take into consideration the requirements of the regulations as well as internal risk assessment. This motivates companies to engage in specific partnerships in order to perform the onboarding and KYC. (more…)
Challenger bank Tandem Bank has been recognized as “Best Credit Card Provider” and “Innovation of the Year” at the Consumer Credit Awards, according to a release. The Consumer Credit Awards are run by Smart Money People.
Tandem CEO Ricky Knox said the Consumer Credit Awards mean a lot to his company because the winners are voted for by consumers. (more…)
via Tearsheet
Digital banks are looking to make donating to charity more accessible and simple for their customers. From round-up features to charity linked loyalty programs, raising money for fintech users’ favorite causes is becoming more tech friendly.
54 percent of donors worldwide prefer to give to charity online, according to Non-Profits Sources. That’s driving $31 billion of online charitable givings in the U.S. alone. Plus, in 2018, mobile payments grew by 36 percent. While there are still some who prefer mailing donations, the number of people who are attracted to quick and easy forms of giving to charity is growing. (more…)
via Bloomberg
Singapore cross-border payments startup Instarem is seeking partners in the lending business as it prepares to apply for a digital banking license in the city state.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Friday it will grant as many as two digital full-bank licenses and up to three digital wholesale bank licenses. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Grab and Razer have expressed an interest since the MAS announcement, but Instarem is the first company to say it will apply for a license. (more…)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will issue five new “digital bank licenses” according to the financial regulator. MAS said this was in addition to any existing Singapore banks which may also offer digital banking under existing rules.
MAS said the new rules extend digital banking to non-bank entrants.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Chairman of MAS, announced the new rules during a meeting of the Association of Banks in Singapore. Shanmugaratnam said the new digital bank licenses “mark the next chapter in Singapore’s banking liberalization journey.” (more…)
UK challenger bank Revolut has released a new in-app feature called Donations, which allows customers to round up their card payments and donate the difference to charity.
What is it: Using a round up feature, five million Revolut users can donate spare change to charity. There’s also the ability to make one time and recurring payments. Revolut doesn’t require a minimum donation amount and the feature can be turned on and off by customers at any time. (more…)
via Bloomberg
Leading Southeast Asian ride-sharing provider Grab is considering applying for a digital banking license if Singapore’s banking regulator allows it, Reuters reported citing four people with knowledge of the process.
Grab, which acquired Uber Technologies Inc.’s Southeast Asian business and now carries a valuation of $14 billion, is close to hiring a consultancy firm to advise it on the matter, Reuters said. A company representative declined to comment.
via PaymentsJournal
Mention the term “challenger bank” and bankers might free-associate labels such as “fintechs,” “disruptors,” or “non-banks.” Those terms would certainly be apt for a small group of tech-driven market entrants, most focused on providing mobile-savvy transaction accounts for consumers who may have an anti-bank mindset.
However, if you stand back and look at the market data (as we did for our recently released report, Digital Consumer Banks in the U.S.: Your Money or Your Wallet), some of the most fearsome online competitors for U.S. consumers’ deposits have very familiar names (or parent names): Marcus (Goldman Sachs), Discover Bank, American Express Bank, USAA Bank, Charles Schwab Bank, Capital One 360. A new crop of digital banking divisions with unique brand identities and products is also coming to market: Finn (JPMorgan Chase), Greenhouse (Wells Fargo), Citizens Access (Citizens Bank), and more. In total, these well-connected digital divisions are already providing co-opetition for their branch-centric retail banking divisions. (more…)
via AltFi
At the beginning of 2019 luminous yellow adverts promoting a mysterious new app began spreading across London.
Called Dozens, the app appeared almost out of nowhere with a digital banking service similar to a Monzo or Starling, but with the addition of a curious 5% fixed interest bond aimed at “savers”.
The only question on everyone’s mind was – who was behind this mysterious startup? (more…)
By Vladislav Solodkiy, managing partner of a Singapore-based Life.SREDA VC
Fintech is currently undergoing a natural evolution stage. Previous three years were a «toothbrush» era: when you perform just one function, but better than anyone, and when you are irreplaceable and used every day. The long-awaited turning point came in 2015 when all services started merging with each other in some way. (more…)
By 2019, eMarketer estimates that the total value of transactions made by tapping a phone on an in-store terminal will reach $210 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2015. For banks and retailers, that presents an opportunity to take on Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay – and maybe save on transaction fees to boot.
Read our full research “Money of the Future”. Download PDF (20MB) (more…)
By Bloomberg News,
Lufax, a Chinese peer-to-peer lender and broker, has secured its position as the world’s most valuable financial technology startup by completing a fundraising that it said values the company at $18.5 billion. (more…)
By Erin Hobey for Crowdfundinsider.com
Almost one third of Americans are likely to be using a technology provider and not a bank for the majority of their financial services activity in just five years time, according to a new report launched by TransferWise, the peer-to-peer international money transfer platform. (more…)
