REPORT
Let’s dive into A2A payments👇
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Uber for Business, Uber’s enterprise arm, announced it has integrated with leading expense management providers Brex and Ramp. The integrations will automate receipt matching for Uber rides and meals, which rank among the most-expensed items for employees. This will help companies of all sizes simplify expenses and save time on and off the road.
More than 200,000 companies use the Uber for Business platform to help provide rides and meals to their employees, customers, and guests. The dashboard enables companies to create travel and meal programs that reflect their policies, including features like restrictions on spending or time of day. ortless for employees while simplifying operations for finance teams.
📰 ARTICLE
For the final LinkedIn newsletter of 2023, a16z's Fintech partners previewed the one big idea they believe will drive innovation in 2024.
Hundreds of banks use Fed’s new instant-payment service, but universal availability could remain a long way off.
The company announced it has expanded its services with Walmart to bring Affirm’s transparent and flexible pay-over-time options to self-checkout kiosks at over 4,500 Walmart stores in the United States.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Goldman Sachs faces rocky exit from Apple credit card partnership.
⭐️ Apple sued with Visa, Mastercard in card-fee antitrust case.
⭐️ US court approves order for Binance to pay $2.7 bln to CFTC.
⭐️ Coinbase says it will challenge SEC crypto rulemaking rejection.
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FINTECH
Intermex partners with Visa to expand money transfer services and enable Intermex customers to make fast transfers to eligible Visa cards and bank accounts.
Mercury seeking $30M from Synapse, emergency court filing reveals. The suit was filed in the Superior Court of California for San Francisco County on December 13th.
Atomic announced a partnership with OneSource Virtual (OSV), a collaboration designed to deliver a simplified and secure direct deposit management solution to millions of American workers.
Upgrade says its secured card has trifecta of differentiators. It's not a product that is designed to make money it's a way to help consumers build their credit.
American fintech Mbanq opens Osijek office. The American fintech company Mbanq recently celebrated the entry into a new era of its presence in Croatia.
PAYMENTS
Melio taps JPMorgan to for real-time payments, which provides payors with the option to deliver funds instantly to their vendors.
FedNow may have spurred RTP adoption. The number of banks participating in The Clearing House’s real-time payments network surged this year after the launch of the rival FedNow system. In other news, the Federal Reserve is weighing additional fraud-fighting tools as it takes feedback from users of the new instant payments system.
Elon Musk's Latest Move: Transforming X into a Financial Powerhouse. Musk's vision extends beyond social media, aiming to revolutionize the way we handle our financial affairs.
Affirm pushes further into retail gift cards. They said it is teaming up with a major provider of retail-branded gift cards purchase digital gift cards for the holiday season.
Klarna CEO Siemiatkowski says buy now, pay later is used by shoppers who otherwise avoid credit.
OPEN BANKING
TD Bank Group and Plaid enter into North American data-access agreement to enable TD customers in Canada and the U.S. to more securely connect to and share financial data with Plaid's data network.
Xero is partnering with Flinks to give access to more than 20 high-quality bank feeds in Xero and achieve their customers financial goals, while staying in control of their banking data.
DIGITAL BANKING
U.S. Bank will pay $36 million over allegations the company illegally blocked out-of-work consumers from accessing unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic.
Synctera launches embedded banking platform in canada. The platform allows organizations, to develop FinTech apps.
Sale of Silicon Valley Bank’s old venture capital arm hits a snag. Creditors including Pimco and Davidson Kempner may wind up taking over SVB’s.
CRYPTO
BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF team has met 5 times with the SEC. Pooling BlackRock’s meetings with the rest of the ETF hopefuls, the agency has met 24 times with applicants.
Giddy turns to Stripe for crypto purchases. Giddy is integrating Stripe to enable a seamless way to buy cryptocurrency directly from the Giddy mobile app.
DONEDEAL
Claim, a social network that lets users earn and trade rewards with friends, raises $4M. The startup is on a mission to make shopping fun, rewarding and social.
SupportPay lands $3.1M to deliver a unique employee benefit for parents, family members, and caregivers while expanding its consumer offering.
SellersFi closes $300 million credit facility with Citi and Fasanara Capital. The new investment will be deployed to further develop SellersFi’s innovative product offerings.
M&As
CSI snaps up partner Hawthorn River for single-platform loan origination system. The deal comes after CSI initially struck a partnership with the solutions provider in October this year for its LOS.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Chime appoints Shara Chang as chief compliance officer. She has been tasked with regulatory compliance for the company and “earn, maintain and build trust” with Chime members, banking partners and regulators.