What’s in store for financial services in 2021?
A look at what the rest of this year might have in store for the world of financial services and fintech.
Banking
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 29 January 2021
FinTech Futures’ weekly news round-up.
Has JP Morgan Chase learnt the lessons of Finn and Bó?
This isn’t its first challenger start-up foray.
VTB deputy chairman discloses exasperation over Yandex, Sber and Tinkoff competition
In 2020, VTB launched a total of 1,280 software development teams.
2021 fintech predictions
Staring into the crystal ball for signs of what we could see over the course of the year from the industry.
Craft Bank picks Jack Henry’s SilverLake after 2020 launch
Atlanta-based de novo bank deploys SilverLake in the cloud.
Founder-focused start-up Remagine nabs €20m in seed investment
Berlin-based firm aims to help “impactful” businesses with a range of products.
Black-owned US challenger Greenwood Financial hits 500,000 sign-ups in 100 days
“We see that there is definitely an appetite for what we’re doing,” says co-founder, Ryan Glover.
JOFF Fintech Acquisition Spac files for $300m IPO
The Spac is eyeing up fintech, wealth management and gaming sectors.
Brexit forces interest-rate derivatives trading shift to US
A permanent shift to New York would be particularly damaging for London.
N26 lands Zalando’s former financial chief as CFO
The former Zalando chief isn’t the only executive addition in recent months.
Paystone raises CAD 69m with support from Canada business fund
The funding is a combination of equity and debt financing.
Saudi start-up Hakbah raises $1.2m in seed funding
Hakbah aims to “modernise and ease” savings in Saudi Arabia.
Waqfinity launches in UK to provide “impact focused” Islamic finance
Former Rizq founder sets up new Islamic wallet app.
ECB launches climate change unit
The central bank has previously been criticised over its bond purchasing.
Why Google Pay’s reboot signals a major land grab on financial services
Five reasons why the banking world, including fintech challengers, needs to sit up and take notice.
Mastercard plans to raise fees for UK purchases from EU
“This smacks of opportunism,” says Kevin Hollinrake, chair of Fair Business Banking.
Starling experienced “major outage” on its app last week
The temporary outage, though “short-lived”, was severe.
Contactless usage surges to 88.6% of in-store card transactions
The over-65s were most likely to embrace the technology for the first time.
Working amid COVID-19: why the cloud is the silver lining
How COVID-19 has accelerated the transition to the cloud.
FinTech Futures Jobs: five awesome fintech companies founded by women
Featuring Aya Payments, Modularbank, First Boulevard, GoHenry, and Alinea Invest.
Chris Brummer in line for CFTC chairman role as Tarbert steps down
President Biden’s reshuffle of regulatory top jobs continues.
Minna Technologies raises €15.5m in Series B funding round
Minna says the investment will be used for global expansion, “with requests from all continents”.
DNA Payments Group acquires Active Merchant Services
The deal brings DNA’s customer base up to around 30,000 merchants.
Plaid launches incubator FinRise for fintech founders of colour
The incubator is looking to accept just three-to-five start-ups.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 22 January 2021
FinTech Futures’ weekly news round-up.
RBI invests in Romanian open banking start-up Finqware
Finqware initiated account aggregation for seven Croatian banks last year.
Tom Blomfield exits Monzo and opens up about mental health
“COVID-19 just exacerbated things,” says Blomfield.
Spectrum Equity invests $51m in OTC firm Quantile Technologies
Spectrum’s MD joins the Quantile board of directors.
Santander hires HSBC’s Rakshit Kapoor as new chief data officer
Kapoor joins after three years at the major international bank.
The five p’s of banking
Banks have relied on the “five p’s” – people, physical cash, premises, processes and paper.
FinTech Futures Jobs: new year, new job – five tech companies that are hiring now
Featuring CGI, Cleo AI, Freetrade, Market Finance, and Monzo.
Under the hood of London payments platform Currencycloud
Currencycloud talks tech, structure, product development and bank relationships.
Pyypl’s regulation-first approach to MENA starts to pay off
“The options today are mobile money or banks,” says CEO.
PPRO reaches $1bn valuation on back of $180m venture raise
Payments infrastructure firm plans “global expansion” with new cash.
Czech BNPL Twitso nabs €16 million in Series C funding
Investors include Aussie BNPL unicorn Zip.
HSBC closes 82 branches as in-person banking continues to decline
The bank says no jobs will be cut in the closures.
A thing apart
Teamwork, trust, and support come from a place of pure emotion.
What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 1 | Innovation in commercial lending
Innovation in commercial lending with special guest, Dean Snyder, EVP at AFS.
Aion Bank signs payments processing deal with Form3
Form3 to provide real-time payment processing, clearing and settlement.
