The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Thursday 22 August 2024.
Insights
A new survey by Loqbox, a UK credit building business, highlights that the cost of school uniforms and supplies is a major source of stress and anxiety for many families, with some parents resorting to loans or credit to cover these essential expenses. Parents of secondary school-aged children face the highest expenses, with an average of £422 spent annually on uniforms alone.
FinMont, the global payment orchestration platform, has published a new survey about European consumers’ online travel booking habits, expectations and frustrations. The survey has shown millions have struggled to get a refund on a holiday or travel booking with one in 10 travellers admitting they have had problems when they have needed to cancel a holiday.
Company updates
Commerzbank AG, one of Germany’s oldest financial institutions, is opening a Representative Office in Vilnius. The new Representative will serve as the hub for the three Baltic States Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Specifically, Commerzbank will focus on trade and project finance in the region. Additionally, the deepening of the cooperation with the public sector and local financial services industry is a key priority.
Mashreq has launched the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) Validation Application Programming Interface (API), tailored for its business and corporate customers. The API integrates with the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) payment infrastructure, ensuring accurate verification of beneficiary account details in compliance with regulatory standards.
Sav, a financial technology company, has launched Sav ‘MyMoney’ to help mass-affluent UAE residents track, analyse and gain deeper insights into their cash flow. Available now on the Sav app, ‘MyMoney’ consolidates users’ financial data from all their bank accounts, and presents it on one dashboard. Users can also look up transactions by merchants or categories and get reminders for bill payments and subscriptions.
Partnerships
Yellow Card, a stablecoin on/off ramp, has announced that it is integrating digital asset infrastructure provider Fireblocks to improve cross-border transactions for both businesses and individuals. By utilising Fireblocks, Yellow Card seeks to remove obstacles for global corporate treasury, in accessing African markets, by offering secure and effective on-chain solutions.
The Tank Museum, recently named England’s top visitor attraction, has chosen iplicit’s accounting software to run its finances. The Tank Museum plumped for iplicit’s features tailored for nonprofits, including flexible financial reporting for different stakeholders, the ability to track grants and funds and the automated application of partial VAT.
Banking Circle, a fully licensed next generation bank with central bank access, has entered a partnership with Skydo, India’s cross-border payments platform for MSMEs and freelancers. The collaboration aims to support Indian businesses operating globally by providing them with seamless, efficient and cost-effective payment solutions, enabling them to thrive in international markets.
dLocal, a cross-border payment platform specialising in high-growth markets, has forged a strategic partnership with Topper, Uphold’s onramp service. This collaboration aims to combine dLocal’s payment processing tools with Uphold’s versatile financial platform to enhance financial accessibility across emerging markets.
The American Fintech Council, the industry association representing responsible fintech companies and innovative banks, has added TransPecos Banks as its newest member. Concentrated in the TransPecos region of West Texas and San Antonio, TransPecos Banks offers a full range of banking products as well as fintech services.
Funding and investments
TransBnk, a Mumbai-based transaction banking platform, has raised $4million in Series A funding. The round was led by 8i Ventures, as well as Accion Venture Lab. The company plans to utilise these funds towards expanding the network of banking partners, while also pursuing global expansion plans with a focus on Middle East and South East Asia markets.
Revenew, the new growth partner for the platform economy, has today announced it has secured $4.55million in funding, following the success of its recent Seed round. The raise was led by Fika Ventures, who invest in companies that leverage the power of data as a core component of their value proposition, and joined by Dash Fund and TTV Capital.
Appointments
Apromore, a provider of AI-driven process mining and simulation solutions, appoints Brandee Sanders as chief marketing officer. Prior to joining Apromore, Sanders has held pivotal roles at prominent organisations including BlackLine, Sony Music and Observe.AI. She will oversee Apromore’s global marketing strategy, focusing on expanding market reach, enhancing brand visibility and driving customer engagement initiatives.
Trustly appoints Adam D’arcy as chief product officer. After processing $58billion in transaction value globally and achieving 79 per cent year-over-year growth in total payments volume in 2023, Trustly looks to reinforce its product team by bringing on D’arcy to lead several upcoming product expansions for open banking payments. Before joining Trustly, D’arcy was the CPO of Prodigy Finance.
Tandem Bank has welcomed ‘four new heavyweights’ to its growing team as it accelerates the journey to become the UK’s greener digital bank. Tandem has appointed Catherine Diamond as chief people officer, Darvish Heshejin as director of strategic growth, Marriam Malik as company secretary and general counsel, and Adi Kadle as director of engineering, each bringing significant expertise to support the bank’s growth, sustainability and innovation goals.
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