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☆ Big changes could be coming to the way we pay for things
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're examining how a change in credit cards' behind-the-scenes fees impacts you… and your points . Under the settlement, merchants could charge customers more for using different cards despite being part of the same Visa or Mastercard network. AdvertisementTim Boyle/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BIThe agreement could ultimately reshape how consumers pay for things. AdvertisementPerhaps that's why one analyst told Business Insider's Alex Bitter he doesn't expect major retailers to pass swipe fees along to customers. But maybe, not unlike the fees the agreement targets, what seems small could eventually add up to something big.

Persons: —, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Insider's Grace Eliza Goodwin, Tim Boyle, David Morris, Alex Bitter, LUDOVIC MARIN, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Jeremy Grantham, Ian Shepherdson, That'll, We've, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook execs, Francis Key Scott, Hunter Biden, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, George Glover Organizations: Service, Nickelodeon, Business, Mastercard, Visa, Getty, Fed, Amazon, BI Locations: Europe, LUDOVIC, Baltimore, Port, New York, London

☆ Carmoola, a UK car financing fintech, just raised a further $19.7 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Car financing fintech Carmoola has raised a further $19.7 million in an extension to its Series A round. "The business has been growing strongly and revenues are up 5x," Aidan Rushby, Carmoola CEO and cofounder told Business Insider. The FCA moved to ban such commissions in 2021 and Rushby told BI that Carmoola was able to acquire customers at a lower cost by cutting out the middlemen. Rushby told BI that the round represented a 33% up round on its previous financing but declined to give specifics on the company's valuation. Check out Carmoola's 14-slide Series A extension deck below:

Persons: Carmoola, Aidan Rushby, we've, Rushby, It's Organizations: Business, FCA, InMotion Ventures Locations: London, InMotion Ventures , New York, Kyiv

☆ AI could judge if user is of porn-watching age under new UK guidance
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. The legal age to watch porn in Britain is 18 or over. The regulator described its suggestion on facial age estimation as using AI to analyse a viewer's features. The watchdog said its proposed guidance also included photo identification matching, requiring a user to upload a photo ID such as passport or driving licence to prove their age, and credit chard checks. The regulator said weaker methods such as self-declaration of age, online payment methods that do not require a person to be 18, and disclaimers or warnings, would no longer meet the standards in its new guidance.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Melanie Dawes, chard, Muvija, Paul Sandle, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, England, of Economic Affairs, Ofcom, Thomson Locations: Britain

☆ AI Could Judge if User Is of Porn-Watching Age Under New UK Guidance
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Dec. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain proposed new age-check guidance on Tuesday to protect children from accessing pornography online, including a suggestion to use AI-based technology to see if a viewer looks to be of legal age. The legal age to watch porn in Britain is 18 or over. The regulator described its suggestion on facial age estimation as using AI to analyse a viewer's features. The watchdog said its proposed guidance also included photo identification matching, requiring a user to upload a photo ID such as passport or driving licence to prove their age, and credit chard checks. The regulator said weaker methods such as self-declaration of age, online payment methods that do not require a person to be 18, and disclaimers or warnings, would no longer meet the standards in its new guidance.

Persons: Melanie Dawes, chard, Muvija, Paul Sandle, Richard Chang Organizations: England, of Economic Affairs, Ofcom Locations: Britain

☆ UK payments report calls for alternatives to Mastercard and Visa
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Britain needs a "digital alternative" to relying on Visa and Mastercard for card payments regardless of steps being taken by regulators, a report commissioned by the government said on Wednesday. The conclusions of the Future of Payments Review echo longstanding complaints across Europe about heavy reliance on the American duo for card payments, though calls and attempts to create a 'home grown' alternative have made little progress. Britain's Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is reviewing the fees card schemes charge, a longstanding battle ground pitching Visa and Mastercard against 'merchants' charged for accepting their cards from customers making payments. Visa welcomed the review's conclusion saying that the UK payments landscape was in a good position. "We are keen to work with Government to ensure the UK continues to be at the forefront of payments innovation", it said.

Persons: Thomas White, Huw Jones, Jose Joseph, Kirsten Donovan, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: REUTERS, Visa, Mastercard, Systems, Government, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: Britain, Europe

☆ Plaid taps Adyen executive to lead its European operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. financial technology firm Plaid has hired former Adyen executive Brian Dammeir as its new head of Europe, the company told CNBC exclusively. Plaid, which was last valued by investors at $13.4 billion in a funding round, offers technology that enables financial technology apps to retrieve data from people's bank accounts and initiate payments on their behalf. Dammeir told CNBC. Bandourian, a former Booking.com executive, was appointed the company's first head of Europe last year. Payments has been a big focus for Plaid beyond financial data, with payment volumes on the platform having climbed more than 90% in 2023.

Persons: Plaid, Brian Dammeir, Dammeir, Ripsy Bandourian, Keith Grose, Dammeir didn't Organizations: CNBC, San, Plaid Locations: Europe, San Francisco, fintech, Adyen, North America

☆ Alphabet-backed GoCardless considers takeovers as CEO expects a barrage of consolidation
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Hiroki Takeuchi, GoCardless chief executive, on the MoneyConf Stage, attends Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal. Last year, GoCardless acquired the Latvian open banking startup Nordigen in its first major acquisition. Open banking is one thing and definitely something we think is really important." GoCardless' technology allows firms to collect direct debit payments from consumers. What is open banking?

Persons: Hiroki Takeuchi, Harry Murphy, We're, GoCardless, Takeuchi, Rapyd, they're, we've, Nordigen Organizations: Sportsfile, Getty, GV, CNBC, Tink, PayU GPO, GoCardless Locations: Lisbon, Portugal, British, Latvian, Britain, Statista, London

☆ Defacto provides short-term loans to SMEs. It just raised $10 million with this 20-slide pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

French fintech startup Defacto has raised a $10 million Series A extension from Citi Ventures. The Paris-based business, founded in 2021, provides short-term loans to small and medium-sized businesses. However, through integrations with businesses like fellow fintechs Pennylane and Qonto, Defacto wants to lower the cost and administration for smaller businesses. The new funding will go towards the continued growth of Defacto's platform as it pushes towards more personalized debt financing for small businesses. Check out Defacto's 20-slide Series A extension pitch deck below:

Persons: Pennylane, Morgan O'Hana, O'Hana, Northzone Organizations: Citi Ventures, Open Banking, Global Founders Capital Locations: Paris, integrations

☆ Dutch payments startup Fero just raised a $3 million seed round led by Coatue with this 11-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Dutch payments fintech startup Fero has raised $3 million in a seed funding round from US hedge fund Coatue. The Amsterdam-based startup, founded in 2022, aims to improve the customer verification process at checkouts and decrease the level of abandoned purchases. Payment authentication, where customer identities are verified, has become much more crucial for businesses since the rollout of Europe's PSD2 Open banking regulations. Fero wants to reduce the level of friction customers face during this authentication process, the startup's cofounder and CEO Craig Savage said. The company went through the tech startup incubation program Antler before raising this $3 million seed funding round led by Coatue, alongside Volta Ventures and Antler.

Persons: Fero, Craig Savage, Savage, Coatue Organizations: Volta Ventures Locations: The Amsterdam, Madrid, Amsterdam

☆ CFPB pushing to give consumers more control over their financial data
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Personal Financial Data Rights rule would ensure consumers' legal right to their checking and prepaid account, credit card and digital wallet history and require fee-free data sharing among financial institutions, according to a release. It also includes restrictions on the monetization of sensitive consumer data by banks and tech companies and permits customers to revoke access to their data. "When it comes to our financial lives, a handful of very large banks and financial firms control much of the market," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told reporters Thursday. If adopted, the rule would reactivate a statute of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act tasking the CFPB with ensuring fair competition for consumer financial products. Biden "encouraged the CFPB to consider issuing rules to make it easier for consumers to take their financial data to a new financial services provider," Brainard told reporters Thursday.

Persons: Rohit Chopra, Dodd, Biden, Chopra, Lael Brainard, Joe Biden's, Brainard Organizations: Financial, WASHINGTON, Consumer Financial, Frank, National Economic Council, CNBC Locations: U.S

☆ US consumer watchdog warns payment systems risk Chinese-style surveillance
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Signage is seen at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 14, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Consumer Financial Protection Bureau FollowOct 6 (Reuters) - The top U.S. agency for consumer financial protection is considering regulatory moves to help protect the public from the kind of excessive surveillance of their financial data enabled by payment structures in China, its director said on Friday. This will involve ordering some large U.S. tech firms to provide information on their use of personal data and private currencies, Rohit Chopra, director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said in a speech. "It's critically important for American consumers to have stronger protections against excessive surveillance and misuse of our data," Chopra said in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "open banking" proposal is expected to give consumers the ability to switch service providers more easily and control how financial tech service providers collect consumer data.

Persons: Andrew Kelly, Rohit Chopra, Chopra, Chopra's, Douglas Gillison, Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Washington , D.C, REUTERS, Consumer Financial, U.S, U.S . Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Brookings Institution, Consumer, Thomson Locations: Washington ,, China, Washington

☆ Brite Payments, a fintech startup founded by a former Klarna employee, just raised $60 million using this 10-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Fintech startup Brite Payments has raised $60 million in venture capital funding as it looks to scale its European operations. Founded in 2019, the Swedish firm is in the instant bank transfer space, a burgeoning sector of open banking known as account-to-account (A2A) payments. Based in Stockholm, Brite was founded by a former employee at buy-now, pay-later giant Klarna, Lena Hackelöer, and operates in 25 countries leveraging Europe wide open banking regulation, known as PSD2. Its latest capital injection comes from London fund Dawn Capital which led the round alongside Headline and existing investor Incore. You can check out Brite Payment's 10 slide pitch deck below:

Persons: Brite, Lena Hackelöer, Hackelöer Organizations: Dawn Capital Locations: Swedish, Stockholm, Europe, London, Sweden, Malaga, Spain

☆ A top European software investor raises $700 million — defying the venture capital slump
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Dawn Capital, one of Europe's biggest backers of business-to-business software companies, raised $700 million in two new funds — doubling down on its bid to find technology champions in the region at a time when venture capital funding for tech startups has dwindled. "For us, the LP [limited partner] side, even those that weren't building programs in venture where lots of people felt historically, 18 months ago, they ought to be allocating a lot more to venture," Gubbins told CNBC in an interview. That meant a lot of funds could only reup with existing managers or those with high convictions." "It's the same as in those cycles where there is still capital out there, there are still investors investing. Dawn Capital plans to invest in 20 companies with the new funds, which is the firm's fifth to date.

Persons: Capital, Hannah Gubbins, Gubbins, Dawn Organizations: PayPal, Visa, Dawn Capital, CNBC, Capital, Dawn Locations: London

[1/2] 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the Oracle cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsTORONTO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Oracle (ORCL.N) is ready to cater to Canadian banks for their open banking needs and provide tools as needed when the country make its available, a financial services executive with the cloud computing giant said. "We are open banking ready," Sonny Singh, executive vice president of Oracle Financial Services said in an interview. Oracle's suite of financial products - used in 140 countries, billing and managing $500 billion in revenue - includes purpose-built products for financial services from financial crime, compliance applications and risk management. Oracle already counts some Canadian banks as clients for one or many of its services, that includes cloud to enterprise applications.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Sonny Singh, Singh, Nivedita Balu, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Oracle, REUTERS, Rights, Oracle Financial Services, SIBOS, Amazon Web Services, Google, Thomson Locations: Canada, Toronto, Australia, Britain

[1/2] 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the Oracle cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Oracle Corp FollowTORONTO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Oracle (ORCL.N) is ready to cater to Canadian banks for their open banking needs and provide tools as needed when the country make its available, a financial services executive with the cloud computing giant said. "We are open banking ready," Sonny Singh, executive vice president of Oracle Financial Services said in an interview. Oracle's suite of financial products - used in 140 countries, billing and managing $500 billion in revenue - includes purpose-built products for financial services from financial crime, compliance applications and risk management. Oracle already counts some Canadian banks as clients for one or many of its services, that includes cloud to enterprise applications.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Sonny Singh, Singh, Nivedita Balu, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Oracle, REUTERS, Oracle Corp, Oracle Financial Services, SIBOS, Thomson Locations: Canada, Toronto, Australia, Britain

Da Ponte denied a Bloomberg report that the payments processor paused development of its stablecoin in February. But da Ponte argues this troubled backdrop is exactly why PayPal is poised to succeed. Then there's the hypothetical digital dollar that would be the Fed's take on a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. "We have a large base of consumers; we have a large base of merchants," da Ponte said of PayPal's "two-sided network." Da Ponte sees PayPal's more than 20-year tenure in the payments space as one of the company's chief advantages in the stablecoin market.

Persons: Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal's, Da Ponte, Paxos, it's, Ponte, stablecoins, Nic Carter, Stablecoins, Carter, Andy Bromberg, Andreessen Horowitz, Bromberg, PYUSD, Jeremy Allaire, Allaire, Patrick McHenry, McHenry Organizations: PayPal, CNBC, Bloomberg, SEC, New, Regulators, Valley Bank, U.S ., U.S, Castle, Ventures, Companies, Eco, Coinbase Ventures, Paypal, Facebook, Financial Services, America Locations: U.S, New York, Bromberg, web3, United States, R, DexTools

☆ From banking giants to lending up-and-comers — here are the world's top 200 fintech companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Statista identified 40 firms as top digital payments companies. While digital payments is often the area that draws most investor buzz, lending generates more money in financial services. Statista identified 25 fintech companies that fall into the category of top alternate lending firms. They include American small business lending firm Biz2Credit, Irish e-commerce lending company Wayflyer, and Latvian loan refinancing startup Mintos. Digital business solutions

Persons: Monzo, there's, Statista, Afterpay, It's, Binance, eToro, Equity crowdfunding, hasn't, Peter Hazlehurst Organizations: JPMorgan —, Orange, Digital, U.S, SEC, European, Education, Equity, Republic, Tech, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, CNBC, Solaris Locations: fintech, Europe, Nigeria, Orange, Africa, Terra, U.S, Cayman Islands, American, Latvian, U.K

☆ How payments giant Mastercard is revamping is work culture to lure developers — from free days to work on passion projects to $200,000 salaries
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mastercard is hiring tech talent across 7 global technology hubs. The payments firm wants software architects and talent in crypto and AI, among others. Mastercard wants to be a firm where technologists are excited to work. The qualifications and responsibilities listed on Mastercard tech job postings are intentionally vague so as to attract a diverse pool of talent with broad skill sets, Cummins said. They can also work remotely from anywhere for up to four weeks per year with the "Work from Elsewhere" benefit.

Persons: Oran Cummins, Cummins, It's Organizations: Mastercard, Mastercard Mastercard Mastercard, LinkedIn, York, Tech, New York, Flatiron District, Employees Locations: New York, Dublin, Sydney, Vancouver, Mastercard's, Flatiron

☆ British payments fintech Volt in talks to raise fresh funds from Coinbase-backer IVP, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

London-based fintech startup Volt is set to raise fresh funds, sources say. The company, founded in 2019, is in talks with VC firm IVP over a deal worth around $50 million. British fintech startup Volt is in talks to raise fresh capital from Silicon Valley investing firm IVP, sources say. The payments firm, founded in 2019, has already raised around $28 million to date and counts Swedish investor EQT Ventures among its biggest backers. Volt is set to raise around $50 million as part of the deal, two London-based sources said.

Persons: Slack, PSD2, IVP, Hopin, Tom Greenwood, Jordan Lawrence Organizations: EQT Ventures, Fuel Ventures, Open Finance Association, Open Banking, IFX Locations: British, Silicon Valley, London, Europe, Volt's, Brazil

☆ Fintechs need to focus on the future to develop tomorrow's solutions today
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Unlimit With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The future is DeFiDecentralized finance (DeFi) has gained significant traction in recent years, offering a new paradigm for financial services that are open, transparent, and community-driven. DeFi adoption will significantly enhance the concept of "embedded finance," and we will see more integration of financial services with traditionally non-financial services or products. Foresee market structure trends and shape them proactivelyWhile fintech's growth in developed markets is undeniable, even more significant potential for growth lies in developing economies. This will empower customers to make payments swiftly and conveniently, ultimately driving higher adoption and usage of fintech solutions. With the fintech industry projected to reach $492.81 billion by 2028, the time to start looking into tomorrow is now.

Persons: Irene Skrynova, Statista Organizations: Intelligence, Central Bank, Allied Market Research, Finance, World Bank, Insider Studios Locations: China, India, Eastern Europe, Africa

So what's hot in fintech right now? One area fintech companies are getting excited by is an improvement to online checkout tools. Callan Carvey, global head of operations at Cleo, said the firm's AI connects to a customer's bank account to get a better understanding of their financial behavior. "A job that typically would take around one or two weeks can now be completed in 30 minutes, right. Several fintech executives CNBC interviewed spoke of how they're not interested in launching products tailored to crypto as the demand from their customers isn't there.

Persons: MacKenzie Sigalos, hasn't, they've, Starling, Richard Davies, Davies, Niklas Guske, —, B2C fintechs, David Singleton, Guske, dazzled, Cleo, Callan Carvey, Carvey, Teo Blidarus, Taktile's, Hiroki Takeuchi, Takeuchi, Changpeng Zhao, they're, Jack Zhang, Zhang, Prajit Nanu, cryptocurrencies, Banks, Nanu Organizations: Bank, fintechs, CNBC, Business, Allica Bank, B2B, Tiger, Schroders Capital, Atom Bank, Schroders, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, U.S, cryptocurrencies Locations: Amsterdam, MacKenzie Sigalos AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, British, Atomico, U.S

☆ This startup that automates SME invoices with AI just raised $8 million. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Triver used to raise the fresh funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The startup was founded by former Funding Circle executive Jerome Le Luel and is backed by Stride.vc. A London-based startup that will provide instant working capital to SMEs has emerged from stealth with an $8 million funding round. Like most forms of short-term working capital, financing solutions for the SME market are often expensive and time-consuming. Most providers run checks based on e-commerce data, but Le Luel believes that Open Banking data allows for better risk and analytics modeling. The company wants to launch its platform within this quarter and said that it had a "line-of-sight" to a very profitable business by 2027.

☆ Britain seeks to boost banking services from fintechs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"While significant progress has been made, there is more to be done to deliver the full benefits of open banking within retail banking markets, and beyond," the statement said. The recommendations from regulators will keep up momentum in open banking and extend its benefits to other sectors, said Marion King, chair of Open Banking Limited, which checks on whether the nine banks comply with open banking rules on customer data. Britain is keen to push open banking to the next stage following Brexit to attract more fintechs to set up in Britain as the European Union is poised to compete with its own version of open banking. The data protection draft law, now going through parliament, will be used to put open banking on a sustainable footing, Griffith said. "We now need to see proportionate regulation," said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, the UK fintech industry body.

☆ Yonder, a fintech startup that helps expats get credit cards and offers rewards for spend, raised $78 million in debt and equity using this 11-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

London-based fintech startup Yonder has raised $78 million in debt and equity. Yonder, a London-based credit card startup, has raised $78 million in debt and equity in a new funding round. Yonder previously brought in $26 million in debt and equity as part of a seed funding round. This latest raise comes in the form of £12.5 million, about $15.7 million, in equity and £50 million, roughly $62.6 million, in debt. Yonder also plans to launch in two further unspecified cities and offer more events to users with its new capital, Chong said.

☆ JPMorgan is continuing its push into fintech with a deal to partner with buzzy treasury startup Trovata
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Trovata, a cash management fintech startup, has partnered with JPMorgan Asset Management. JPMorgan has continued its push into fintech with a partnership with US cash management startup Trovata. California-based Trovata, which was founded in 2016, has been repeatedly backed by JPMorgan and has raised $57.6 million from investors to date. The startup offers cash management services to companies through an API. The tie-up will see Trovata host Morgan Money, JPMorgan's trading and risk management infrastructure, on its platform.

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