💬 INTERVIEW
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Klarna announced the launch of its new Loyalty Card feature in the Klarna App.
This allows app users to store and access their physical loyalty cards as digital versions. They can then collect all points and benefits at any merchant without the need to carry plastic equivalents while out shopping in-store.
👉Read the full article here.
📰 ARTICLE
The 10 leading neobanks in the US grew by a little more than 10 million accounts in 2021, from 23.3 million to 33.5 million, according to Cornerstone Advisors.
Cornerstone’s research found that only about half of the top 10 neobanks’ customers—17.6 million consumers—call their account with those fintechs their primary checking (or spending) account.
In contrast, more than 15 million consumers call PayPal or Square Cash App their primary checking or spending account provider. That’s just a small percentage of the roughly 272 million accounts Americans have with these “megafintechs.”
👉Read the full article here.
👨💻 BLOG
The top 6 features of the best business credit cards.
Choosing the best business credit card for your company can be challenging.
There are loads of options and plenty of similarities... and differences. Discover which six features you should look for in a high-performing company credit card.
👉Read the full payhawk blog here.
💡INSIGHTS
How Are Neobanks Regulated?
What neobanks — and all FinTechs — should be prepared to do in the face of mounting regulatory scrutiny:
As the digitization of financial services grows at record pace, the outlook for neobanks is promising, with market value estimated at $300 billion. In 2021, neobanks nabbed $12 billion in venture capital funding, springing up a new cohort of these fintechs.
👉Read the full blog by Sheetal Parikh here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️Stripe is making its bank transfer offering available to businesses in the UK, EU and Mexico. Link here.
⭐️Brex is apparently abandoning the very segment it started out to serve – small and medium-to-sized businesses. Link here.
⭐️Cube, a startup that wants to help companies “plan their financial future,” has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Battery Ventures. Link here.
⭐️YieldX announced a partnership with Jefferies. Jefferies’ Wealth Management advisors will now be able to access and leverage the full YieldX solution set to broaden the firm’s current offering of fixed income-generating portfolios for clients. Link here.
⭐️Flagstar Bank has suffered a data breach that has hit over 1.5 million customers. Link here.
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DIGITAL BANKING
Fans of the musician deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman, will have the opportunity to interact with his brand through the Zytara banking app, as well as have access to custom physical and virtual Mastercard debit cards. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Paydownhero, which lets customers pay off auto debt, has rolled out a new debit card with 3% cash back gas rewards, a press release says. It will let users add cash rewards to their round-ups and hopefully pay car loans off faster. Link here.
Adyen and McDonald’s announced the expansion of their mobile app partnership to the U.S. The two companies began working together in early 2020 in the U.K. and are now expanding to other markets globally. Link here.
Mode Eleven Bancorp has chosen Finzly’s payment hub technology to power its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering. Its payment hub allows banks to provide “a single API for all payment rails to fintech partners” and also establishes a direct connection with the Federal Reserve, The Clearing House and Swift, offloading all payment processing from the bank’s legacy core. Link here.
New fintech Atlantic Money has landed, founded by Robinhood early employees Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh. The American ex-pats arrived in London and spotted what they saw as a gap in the market: a foreign exchange service without the markups. Link here.
BNPL
Credova announced today the launch of a new financing option on their platform. Shoppers can now pay for their purchases in four payments, every two weeks, with no interest, at select merchants. Link here.
CRYPTO
USDC issuer Circle Internet Financial is set to issue a fully-reserved, euro-pegged stablecoin from the United States called Euro Coin. Available from 30 June, Euro Coin will be a regulated, euro-backed stablecoin issued under the same full-reserve model as USDC, which currently has over $54 billion in circulation. Link here.
FTX US is acquiring equities clearing firm Embed Financial in a move to enhance its newly-launched stocks trading offering. The acquisition of Embed will help FTX US offer the stock trading functionality to other firms, said Harrison. Link here.
FRAUD PREVENTION
SEON is delighted to announce a new partnership with Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software for the fintech industry. The exciting partnership will help organizations to build powerful new fraud prevention solutions. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.