The UK Neobanks Stay Winning
Future of Fintech - Edition #106 (13th-19th Feb)
Tick-tock! It's Tuesday o'clock—got 10 minutes?
That's all we need to bring you up to speed on the latest fintech happenings. As for you, your cuppa and curiosity are all you need!
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What’s on the fintech menu today?
📖 Today’s Must Read: Open Banking as the Jackpot for Modern Gambling
🌟 Fintech Fiesta: The Week's Hot 10!
🌐 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Fintech highlights, sorted by segment!
🔗 Link Up: Your gateway to resourceful links!
Fin-teresting Stories in Fintech 📰
Open Banking's Winning Hand in Online Gaming!
In a world where fortunes are made and games never stop, the stakes have never been higher. With a market set to explode to $138.1B by 2028, the need for player safety and responsible gaming practices in gambling and iGaming has never been more critical.
And that’s where we find Open Banking to be the answer, enabling seamless transactions directly from your bank account, real-time affordability checks, and lightning-fast payouts. In 2023 alone, we witnessed groundbreaking collaborations and jaw-dropping product launches leveraging the open phenomenon in this arena.
From enhanced KYC checks to frictionless payments, Open Banking pioneers like TrueLayer, Plaid, and Trustly are leading the charge. Picture instant deposits, secure withdrawals, and QR code-powered transactions at your fingertips - that’s what partnerships like PokerStars x Plaid and Trustly x PointsBet are bringing to the table. It's the dawn of a new era in online gaming, where Open Banking offers a lifeline for operators, ensuring compliance and protecting players.
Ready to roll the dice on a safer, more exhilarating gambling experience? Explore the full potential of Open Banking in our latest blog! 👇
Welcome to the 106th Edition of our weekly fintech soirée – your sleek sip of the freshest opportunities bubbling up in the financial technology universe!
The Week's Hot 10! ♨️🔟
‘Master’ing and ‘revolut’ionising the way finance is done all around the globe - Mastercard launched MDES (Mastercard Digital Enablement Service) Token Connect in India to enable card-on-file and device tokens for debit and credit cards through issuer banks’ mobile and internet banking channels. Continuing the fashion, UK-based Revolut ventured into the telecom sector and introduced phone plans in the UK, using eSIMs as part of the offering.
In a strategic move to elevate the realm of credit, Internet Travel Solutions, a provider of travel management software, chose Marqeta to launch a scalable, embedded Travel & Expense credit solution for corporate customers. At the same time, payment service provider PayU partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enable PayU merchants to accept digital payments through credit lines on UPI.
Fintech triumphs echoed globally last week as UK digital bank Monzo notched up an impressive 9 million customers, with 2 million joining in the past year. Meanwhile, Ripple made waves by acquiring Standard Custody & Trust Company, a US-based digital asset custody provider, to bolster US presence and regulatory compliance.
Igniting innovation in collaboration, identity platform Trulioo partnered with Canadian challenger EQ Bank to enhance ID verification solutions, elevating customer and business onboarding processes. Simultaneously, HDI Embedded, the subsidiary of HDI specialising in embedded insurance solutions, joined forces with German insurance startup Wefox and Italian telecommunications company WINDTRE. Together, they are set to introduce cutting-edge insurance products, protecting household appliances and electronics.
Adding a spark to the Middle East fintech arena, Arab National Bank secured an Open Banking licence from The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Simultaneously, The Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC), in tandem with a task force comprising the Central Bank of Jordan and several banks, unveiled The Jordan Open Finance Standards. This initiative aims to establish unified requirements for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) across key financial services in the banking sector.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
In the world of Embedded Finance, strategic initiatives were targeted towards diverse customer segments engaged in payments and championing the cause of savings.
Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance, a fintech specialist in split and deferred payments, acquired Pledg - a BNPL provider. The acquisition is aimed towards enhancing split payment activities, both on e-commerce journeys and at points of sale.
ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking for financial institutions, partnered with digital investment platform Wealthify to roll out a new savings account. The account tracks the Bank of England’s base rate and currently offers an interest rate of 4.91% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) / 4.80% gross.
Exciting shifts in Open Finance reveal a sweeping trend, as the fintech landscape warmly embraces open banking payment services designed to cater to varied users.
Global fintech FIS partnered with open banking provider Banked to launch new pay-by-bank capabilities for both businesses and customers. Through the use of the pay-by-bank offerings, businesses and clients alike will be enabled to make payments directly between the company’s and the user’s bank accounts, without the need for account numbers, card details, or sort codes.
Moneyhub announced that it is named as a supplier of The Crown Commercial Service (CCS)’s Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System framework for the UK government. Following this announcement, Moneyhub will provide its Open Banking and Payments services to the UK institution.
Step into the Digital Finance realm, where novel ventures are making their way to emerging markets to make financial solutions more accessible.
Bahrain-based ila Bank launches the Easy Payment Plan feature to allow clients to split their credit card purchases into instalments. Customers can select a preferred tenure of three, six, nine, or twelve months for monthly instalment payments on selected purchases, enabling them to manage payments over time for items that may be financially challenging to settle all at once.
Philippines-based Tonik Digital Bank signed a partnership agreement with Southeast Asian payment gateway Xendit. Through this partnership, both companies aim to deliver a selection of secure, convenient, and customer-centric financial solutions.
In the Fintech Infrastructure arena, players are conjuring tech expertise to boost their prowess in BNPL and KYC space, adding a touch of enchantment to their operational efficiencies.
Episode Six, an enterprise-grade payment processing and ledger infrastructure provider, joined the Mastercard Engage Programme for its instalment solution in Europe. The partnership arises from the increasing demand for buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solutions amid a challenging economic environment and stringent regulatory requirements in the instalment market.
Digital onboarding infrastructure provider Signzy launched One-Touch Know Your Customer (KYC) to simplify the whole KYC process for users and businesses. The One-Touch KYC intends to enhance the efficiency of the user experience and the accuracy of results to increase customer conversions for previously slow and complex processes.
Peer through the kaleidoscope of the DeFi realm to see how the efforts of a host of innovative players are helping to shape the landscape of stablecoin lending and digital collectibles.
DeFi lender Moonwell launched "USDC Anywhere" to simplify lending and borrowing of the USD Coin stablecoin across different Ethereum networks. This eliminates the manual bridging of assets, enabling users to effortlessly send USDC across the Ethereum ecosystem using their digital assets on Moonwell.
PYUSD, PayPal's regulated USD stablecoin, entered the DeFi sector through an innovative integration with Backed's tokenised real-world assets (RWAs) on Morpho Blue. This integration marks a significant milestone as PYUSD becomes part of a major lending market for the first time, offering users the opportunity to earn yield on their stablecoin holdings uniquely and securely.
Embark on the meadows of Green Finance, where financial behemoths unfurl green bonds ーtending to the diverse investment appetites of the investor landscape.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management introduced the Goldman Sachs Global Green Bond UCITS ETF. The fund provides exposure to the Solactive Global Green Bond Select Index, which seeks to include companies with a lower climate risk than comparable passive benchmarks.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) introduced Green Finance for Commercial Real Estate (CRE), an initiative aimed at bolstering investments in commercial buildings that meet specific environmental standards.
And that's a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Weekly Fintech Brew!
As a reward for making it all the way here, enjoy a curated list of awesome fintech resources to keep your curiosity cup full to the brim. Cheers to continuous learning! 🔗
Link Up! –
Powering the U.K.’s next economy – fintech innovation and the transition to net zero Report - Mastercard
A tech-driven approach to embedded lending Report - Plaid X YouLend
Click and collect: The evolving reality in the ecommerce space Blog - Adyen
2023 Roundup: Payment Titans Go All-In on the Embedded Lending Revolution Blog - WhiteSight
2023 Roundup: The Synergy of BNPL and E-commerce Blog - WhiteSight
Revolut’s UK Banking Quest Report - WhiteSight
Hungry for more fintech insights? Check out some of our other work at WhiteSight.
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.
Fintech research is in the WhiteSight DNA, so if you'd like to get in touch for features, sponsorships, and content marketing services, reach out to us at hello@whitesight.net.
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