Friday August 3, 2018 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
Bank Leumi, Azrieli agree to sell credit card unit to Warburg Pincus
Bank Leumi to sell its credit card business to Warburg Pincus for US$685 million.
Chase Pay bows to the inevitable; hops into bed with Samsung Pay
Chase is aligning with Samsung Pay to to allow its Chase Pay customers to pay via Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology.
Kroger threatens to ban Visa cards
Kroger threatens to stop accepting Visa cards citing high merchant fees.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kroger-threatens-to-ban-visa-cards/
U.S. bank regulator allows fintech firms to seek federal charter
The OCC has decided to allow fintech firms to apply for a special purpose national banking charter.
Grab Pulls In $2 Billion to Finance Ride-Hailing Battle
Grab secures US$2 billion in funding from Toyota and a number of investments firms.
Bank while you chat on WhatsApp with South Africa’s Absa
Absa launches WhatsApp banking’ allowing customers to conduct simple financial transactions via WhatsApp using conversational language and short commands.
Moneybox launches Open Banking integration with Santander
Moneybox integrates with Santander to allow Santander customers to round up and invest spare change from their everyday purchases.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/32475/moneybox-launches-open-banking-integration-with-santander
Starling flys into banking-as-a-service space
Starling moves into the banking-as-a-platform space, enabling third party companies to develop their own financial services offerings using Starling’s banking license and API infrastructure.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/32485/starling-flys-into-banking-as-a-service-space/retail
Zopa raises £44 million to support digital bank launch
Zopa secures new funding as it prepares to launch its new digital challenger bank.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/32483/zopa-raises-44-million-to-support-digital-bank-launch
Intercontinental Exchange Announces Bakkt, a Global Platform and Ecosystem for Digital Assets
Tech startups are reviving point-of-sale lending
POS lending is growing in popularity driven by fintech firms and consumer demand for installment based credit solutions.
