Each fortnight, we bring you a collection of the major events in the fintech industry.
1. Google’s new plan to push Google Pay in India: Cashback Incentives in Android Apps
“Internally dubbed as Project Cruiser, the initiative has been in the works since last year and it is led by Google’s Next Billion Users team, sources said. Executives from the company have reached out to several businesses in India in recent months to coax them into coming on board, they added.”
2. Facebook forms Swiss fintech firm with payments focus
“Libra Networks, with Facebook Global Holdings as stakeholder, was registered in Geneva on May 2 to provide financial and technology services and develop related hardware and software.”
3. TransferWise doubles valuation to $3.5bn as early investors cash in
“The money-transfer startup has raised $292 million in a secondary share sale which values the money transfer startup at $3.5 billion. The new funding round makes TransferWise the most valuable fintech startup in Europe, effectively doubling the valuation it reached at its last financing in late 2017.”
4. N26 under fire from BaFin over money laundering failures
“Following a probe, BaFin has ordered N26 to remove backlogs in IT monitoring, establish process descriptions and workflows in writing, and re-identify a specified number of existing customers.”
5. HSBC opens London and Toronto innovation and data labs
“The mixed-discipline teams will collaborate with HSBC’s GBM businesses to create, among other initiatives, an AI ecosystem designed to help develop advanced machine learning techniques to analyse clients’ data.”
6. Barclays invests in blockchain-based invoice exchange startup Crowdz4
“Barclays has led a $5.5 million Series A funding round for Crowdz, the Silicon-Valley startup behind a global, blockchain-based invoice exchange vowing to revolutionise the $9 trillion receivables market.”
7. Bitcoin sinks abruptly after seven weeks of recovery
The price of Bitcoin fell by 20%, to as low as $6,178 at Bitstamp exchange, down 21.6% from the previous close and last stood down 8.2% at $7,236.
8. Global Payments is nearing an agreement to acquire Total System Services for roughly $20 billion in latest fintech deal
“Total System’s stock skyrocketed after the CNBC report. It rose as high as 17.9% Friday afternoon before giving back about a third of the day’s gains. Global Payments stock was up 3.7% in afternoon trading.”
9. Zero raises $20M from NEA and others for a credit card that works like a debit
“Zero’s idea is to offer a rewards credit card that works like debit. The Zerocard itself is a World Mastercard, so it earns credit card cash back. But unlike a traditional credit card, it’s combined with an FDIC-backed checking account called Zero Checking. That means Zerocard and Zero Checking work together in the app, allowing cardholders to see one net number they can spend from.”
10. Monzo hits 2M customer milestone
UK-based app-only bank Monzo hit 2million customers. This comes just over two years since the digital bank achieved its banking licence and eight months after surpassing one million customers. The company says it is currently signing up 35,000 new customers every week.