The Week in Review

The Week in Review

Friday November 29, 2019 –

Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.

India’s financial services firm Paytm raises $1B

Paytm has raised $1 billion in a new financing round led by T. Rowe Price with participation from existing investors, Ant Financial, Softbank, and Discovery Capital; the new funding valued Paytm at $16 billion.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/24/paytm-1-billion/

What is China’s digital currency plan?

Since 2014, China’s central bank has been working on a project called “DC/EP”: Digital Currency/Electronic Payments as China aims to be the first country in the world to launch a digital currency.

https://www.ft.com/content/e3f9c3c2-0aaf-11ea-bb52-34c8d9dc6d84

Discover and PayPal Collaboration Gives Cardmembers New Way to Redeem Rewards

Discover has announced a new collaboration with PayPal that lets Discover cardmembers use their Cashback Bonus® or Miles to pay for purchases at online stores and in-app through PayPal.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191125005161/en/Discover-PayPal%E2%84%A2-Collaboration-Cardmembers-New-Redeem-Rewards

Argentine fintech Ualá raises $150M led by Tencent and SoftBank

Ualá, an Argentine personal finance management app, has raised $150 million in a Series C round led by Tencent and SoftBank’s Latin America-focused Innovation Fund; Ualá offers a prepaid Mastercard and allows customers to transfer money, invest in mutual funds, apply for loans, pay bills, and top-up prepaid services.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/25/argentine-fintech-uala-raises-150m-led-by-tencent-and-softbank/

ECB offers support to bank-backed alternative to Visa and Mastercard

The European Central Bank (ECB) has articulated its support for the development of a European payments scheme, The Pan European Payment System Initiative (Pepsi) as an alternative to Visa / Mastercard, and to deflect potential threats from Chinese and US tech firms; Pepsi is being championed by 20 German and French banks.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/34843/ecb-offers-support-to-bank-backed-alternative-to-visa-and-mastercard

Ant Financial builds $1bn start-up investment fund

Ant Financial is building a $1 billion investment fund to back start-ups across south-east Asia and India with later-stage funding; the fund and the subsequent investments will support Alibaba’s broader push into the global payments ecosystem.

https://www.ft.com/content/234c3472-10f7-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a

NatWest launches digital challenger Bó

NatWest has launched its digital-only bank Bó, which has been built entirely on separate cloud-based technology and offers a debit card linked to a checking account and a range of money management tools; Bó has been in development for 18 months with an operating budget of £100 million.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/34850/natwest-launches-digital-challenger-b

PayPal and Mastercard Extend Instant Transfer to Singapore & Europe

PayPal and Mastercard are extending the Instant Transfer service (launched in the US in 2017) to Mastercard cardholders in Singapore and a number of European countries allowing for instant transfer of their PayPal account balance to Mastercard cards leveraging the Mastercard Send™ application.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191127005557/en/PayPal-Mastercard-Extend-Instant-Transfer-Singapore-Europe

Robinhood pulls bank charter application as fintechs face hurdles to disrupting financial system

Robinhood has voluntarily withdrawn its application for a bank charter with the OCC underscoring the difficulties fintech companies are facing in establishing a new bank.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/27/robinhood-pulls-bank-charter-application-as-fintechs-face-hurdles-to-disrupting-financial-system.html

KOHO Raises $25M to Usher in a New Era of Simplified Financial Services

Canada-based banking app, KOHO has closed a $25 million extension to its recent Series B financing led by Drive Capital and with participation from NAventures, the venture capital arm of National Bank of Canada.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/11/28/1953763/0/en/KOHO-Raises-25M-to-Usher-in-a-New-Era-of-Simplified-Financial-Services.html

RBA predicts end to physical bank cards

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has published an Issues Paper as the first stage of its Review of Retail Payments Regulation; the paper raises concerns around the rise of Visa/Mastercard dominated digital and mobile payments at the exclusion of eftpos and suggests merchant driven least-cost routing as a way to maintain network competition.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/breaking-news/rba-predicts-end-to-physical-bank-cards/news-story/76e0fa42c7b4af36995ac5e07b73775d

Pixpay is a challenger bank for teens focused on pocket money

French startup Pixpay is offering a teen focused digital bank account and debit card to help teens with savings, money management, and payments; parents and teens both download the app to interact with the service which offers money transfer functionality as well as several card management features.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/29/pixpay-is-a-challenger-bank-for-teens-focused-on-pocket-money/