Fintech
This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 02/07
Welcome to The Times of Financial Technology Fortnightly press review for Tuesday 2 July 2024 with the latest news from around the world.
Collaborations
AMINA Bank, a Swiss crypto bank, has unveiled a strategic partnership with Pyth Network, the decentralized financial oracle. AMINA Bank will provide digital asset price data to the Pyth Network to strengthen its real-time price feeds, benefiting users across multiple lines of finance.
Fears signed an agreement with Mahindra Technologya global provider of technology consulting and digital solutions. By leveraging Temenos composable banking capabilities and Tech Mahindra services, electronic money institutions (EMIs) in the UK and Europe will benefit from faster time to market, lower operating costs, scalable architecture and access to over 100 selected Temenos Exchange fintech partners.
Fingerprints AND In the group continued their partnership with the launch of a Secure Component solution for contactless biometric payment cards, supporting global card manufacturers in scaling up the production of next-generation payment cards. Fingerprints and IN Groupe first partnered in November 2023 with the aim of streamlining the manufacturing process, enabling increased production while improving reliability and reducing costs.
European Paytech Nexi has signed a new collaboration with Amazon.it, allowing customers to make purchases via Bancomat Pay. Thanks to the collaboration, Nexi becomes a technical supplier for Amazon.it, making its technological platform available to the e-commerce site. The agreement offers Amazon.it customers greater choice at the time of payment.
Flexible, a debt management software company, and Your, a core banking service provider, have joined forces. By integrating their platforms, the partnership enables banks to modernize debt collection. Their unified ecosystem replaces banks’ “old, creaky core systems with cloud-based power that streamlines debt collection workflows from start to finish.”
Company Updates
Global Fintech Conotoxicosis introduces three more settlement currencies for multi-currency cards. The Hungarian forint, Romanian leu and UAE dirham join the 20 currencies that users can top up their card with and pay with without additional currency conversion.
THE Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has annulled the permanent revocation of the license by the Bank of Lithuania, reintegrating ABC Projectss payment institute license. The company lost its license in April 2020 when the Bank of Lithuania alleged unauthorized issuance of electronic money due to holding client funds longer than necessary. Now the court has ruled that the main charge against ABC Projektai regarding exceeding the limits of its payment institution license was invalid.
Circlea global financial technology company founded in 2013 and issuer of the USDC and EURC stablecoins, has been granted an electronic money institution license by the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR). In order to operate fully from France, Circle had to obtain registration as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP). Circle France can now issue, manage and make available electronic money.
Appointments
London-based technology company Nothing appointment Tony Peterson as the first independent director. Petersson, together with partners from GV (formerly Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and Highland Europe, will help drive the strategic direction to further scale the business.
Alan Clearly, a mortgage expert, is appointed president of Chetwood FinancialMortgage Advisory Committee. Cleary served as Head of Sales at BM Solutions and then as director of Halifax Brokersbefore taking up the position of MD at Accurate Mortgage ExpertsHe is also recognized for his role at Charter Court Financial Servicesco-founded by him in 2008.
Global Digital Finance (GDF), Global Digital Assets Members Association Announces Two New Senior Executives
promotions: Elise Soucie is promoted to executive director, with an appointment to the GDF board of directors, while Madeleine Boys is promoted to Director of Programs and Innovation, with an appointment to the GDF Executive Committee.
my POS, The UK-based payment provider welcomed Matt Komorowski as Chief Revenue Officer. He will manage all aspects of the company’s revenue growth and sales strategy. Matt brings with him extensive payments experience at companies such as PayPal, Groupon as well as the Boston Consulting GroupMore recently, he also served as CRO at Volt.io.
Financing and Investments
Travel Debit Card Currensea surpassed its crowdfunding goal in just four hours after launching on Seeds platform. Currensea, a travel savings card linked to existing bank accounts, has already raised over £1.86 million from 875 investors. Currensea initially targeted £1 million.
Agronomistthe agriculture-focused climate technology company, has raised €10 million in its Series A2 equity round. The round includes €4.2 million raised in a booster round last year, now converted into equity, plus another €5.8 million raised this year. The funds raised will expand eAgronom’s presence in key markets and expand the company into various sustainable agriculture programs, especially sustainable financing.
Rain forest closed a $20 million Series A led by Matrix Partner, with the participation of existing investors including Accel, Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, Ardent Venture Partners, and a number of strategic investors. Rainforest will accelerate investment in its core product, including features and enhancements requested by platform partners.
Insights
Young Britons find financial jargon harder to learn than a foreign language, survey finds Clarify revealed. A study of 2,000 adults found that 64 percent of Gen Z believe learning basic foreign words is easier than mastering money terms like APR, capital gains, and compound interest. AI-powered payments network Klarna is calling on the government to prioritize financial inclusion in the national curriculum.