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☆ Investing app Acorns acquires kid-focused fintech GoHenry to expand in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — American micro-investing platform Acorns acquired GoHenry, a digital banking startup focused on educating kids about money, for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2012, GoHenry offers a spending card for children aged six to 18, linked to an accompanying money management app. However, Noah Kerner, Acorns' CEO and co-founder, insisted market conditions had no effect on the timing of the acquisition as talks between the two companies started as early as 2021. Acorns looked at more than 100 deals globally before landing on GoHenry, Kerner said, adding a $55 million cash infusion into GoHenry last year and its buyout of rival firm PixPay in France made the deal more attractive. "We pioneered kids and teens with GoHenry, and Acorns very much pioneered investing and saving and bringing mental wellness to the up and coming, to everyday America," Louise Hill, co-founder and chief operating officer of GoHenry, told CNBC in an interview.

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Britain's digital banks will need support over the next few weeks and months to help them cope with the market fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a trade body representing UK fintechs said on Friday. A neobank, or digital bank, is a bank whose services are accessed via an app or website as opposed to having physical branches. He said that challenger banks - lenders which are usually smaller and newer than the big high-street banks - in Britain could be at risk. Hirt said that Innovate Finance has been offering "close support" to challenger banks to help them navigate the "turbulence" in the sector. BoE governor Andrew Bailey told lawmakers this week that the central bank was on alert amid the global turmoil, but added that Britain was not experiencing stress linked to the demise of Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ It's becoming increasingly clear that fintech has a fraud problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Bianca Chan | Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"With fast growth comes fast fraud," Frank McKenna, a longtime fraud expert who works with banks, lenders, and fintechs, told Insider. Cash App only requires a zip code, debit-card number, and either an email or phone number to create an account. Cash App's alleged fraud problem could also be the result of its large, active customer base, which numbers some 44 million, according to the company's 2022 annual report. The fact that Cash App offers peer-to-peer payments exacerbates the fraud issue, according to McKenna, the chief fraud strategist at Point Predictive, an anti-fraud software company. Digital-only bank Chime has had its own issues with fraud, Jason Mikula, a fintech analyst and consultant, told Insider.

☆ Fintech has a fraud problem, and the onus is on you to figure it out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Fintech's fraud misfortune. Which brings us to a story by Insider's Bianca Chan and Paige Hagy about concerns over the prevalence of fraud within consumer-facing fintechs in recent years. Click here to read more about fintech's fraud problem. We've also got the deck StellarFi, a fintech that helps users improve their credit score, used to raise $15 million. For more than 50 different decks used by fintechs to raise fresh funds, check out our library.

March 28 (Reuters) - The recent failures of mid-size U.S. lenders show the need for more robust risk management at banks and fintechs, along with improved regulation, the head of the top consumer financial watchdog agency said on Tuesday. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra told a gathering of retail bankers in Las Vegas that regulators were looking at liquidity, interest-rate risk management, capital frameworks, resolution planning and stress testing. "It will be good for the industry to have some honest conversations with itself about what is the way for the regulatory framework to not create this type of risk," Chopra said. As head of the CFPB, Chopra also sits on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which took over failed Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month. He also serves on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, created in the wake of the 2008 crash.

☆ UBS' uber-rich clients don't want to share the wealth (managers)
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Among the key things to remember was reopening the steam room at exactly 3:30 p.m. after its cleaning. Hayley has all the details from rich clients as well as industry analysts about why this whole thing could spell disaster. It's still early days, but the UBS-Credit Suisse deal might be the best example of something that makes sense on paper, but doesn't work in reality. Read more about why UBS acquiring Credit Suisse could lead to more headaches than huge wins for the Swiss wealth behemoth. And since we're talking BBQ, I'm required to share the funniest tweet in the history of Twitter.

☆ Give us your nominations: CNBC is ranking the world's top fintech companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In 2022, the fintech world took a beating, with some of the world's most richly valued companies seeing their valuations slashed. CNBC and independent research firm Statista are working together to identify the world's top fintech companies, to be named in a published CNBC report in August. In 2022, the fintech world took a beating. That has made the need for a transparent overview of the top fintech companies more important than ever. As part of the research, we are inviting entries from eligible fintech companies to register their interest in being considered for the list.

☆ Credit Suisse's $3.2 billion cut-price sale signals an ongoing crisis that could expose unicorn fintechs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The firesale of Credit Suisse to UBS is putting the banking world on high alert. A $54 billion loan from the Swiss National Bank wasn't enough to keep Credit Suisse afloat, and UBS stepped in. Credit Suisse suffered idiosyncratic problems, such as a spying scandal involving former CEO Tidjane Thiam, as well as crises relating to its relationships with hedge fund Archegos Capital and financial group Greensill Capital. "There's already a lot of soul searching about what fintech business models are," says Paul Rolles, an ex-Morgan Stanley managing director and cofounder of money-management service HyperJar. Rolles believes the banking issues of the past couple of weeks are as much about confidence as intrinsic issues.

☆ Here’s how payment players have fared post-SVB
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Affirm said SVB was neither a funding partner nor an originating bank partner, and that large banks held the majority of its operating accounts. While it initially paused disbursements to merchants that had SVB accounts, it later resumed those transactions. While it initially paused disbursements to merchants that had SVB accounts, it later resumed those transactions. Issues with payment processing , accessing capital, and cryptocurrency implications emerged in the wake of SVB’s collapse. However, many are still getting the cold shoulder from those large banks, and their account opening times can be longer than startup-focused lenders.

Employees have been working around the clock to onboard as many startups as possible in the wake of the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, which had more than $175 billion in deposits and served nearly half of US VC-backed startups, was taken over by US regulators on March 10. "That said, I am worried that this bias towards a Big Four bank is a double-edged sword," Shekar added. "SVB did not think like a big bank. They could understand your operating plan when a big bank would balk at it," Ashley Tyrner, CEO and founder of FarmBoxRX, told Insider.

☆ Checkout.com turns to Mastercard to support faster payments in APAC
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The news: Checkout.com started using Mastercard Send to enable faster payments for consumers and businesses in Singapore, per a press release. Mastercard Send is Mastercard’s faster payments network . It lets businesses send payments to more than 1.5 billion debit, credit, and prepaid cards. The bigger picture: Real-time payments are gaining steam across Asia-Pacific thanks to factors like new technologies, regulatory pressures, and merchant and customer expectations, per Global Payments. In the long term, expanding faster payments use cases will require collaboration between governments, banks, and fintechs.

☆ What we lend in the shadows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"What We Do in the Shadows." New companies, especially ones that don't make any money are "pre-revenue," as VCs like to say, aren't easy to lend to. — there are also risks to letting investment firms lend billions of dollars without much oversight. Private-credit firms are looking to fill the lending gap left by Silicon Valley Bank's downfall. Inside Silicon Valley Bank's $70 billion loan portfolio that's now up for grabs.

☆ 9 startup founders who banked with Silicon Valley Bank share where they're moving their money: 'We will not get caught like this again'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank's failure has left startup founders scrambling for a new home for their money. Last Friday morning, the startup founder Mang-Git Ng zipped up the interstate before sunrise to a Silicon Valley Bank branch in St. Helena, in California's wine country. Ng's plight is similar to countless other founders following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, who waited with bated breath over the weekend on whether they'd ever get their money back. DiversificationSilicon Valley Bank's collapse could forever change how startups stash their cash, at least two investors told Insider. Silicon Valley Bank had exclusivity clauses with some of its clients, according to a CNBC report, forcing them to use the firm for most or all of their banking services.

The sale means UK startups and investors will be able to access their money. Like its US parent, SVB UK mostly served tech startups and their investors. Insider understands from a person close to SVB UK that there is some internal frustration at the bank run. The feeling is that SVB UK was sold off simply because of groupthink. That evening, it looked feasible that the government would allow SVB UK to collapse.

☆ The winners and losers of the Silicon Valley Bank failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by regulators on Friday. These are the biggest winners, and losers, in the wake of the bank failure. Which brings us to the downfall of Silicon Valley Bank. Here's a rundown of who stands to gain, and lose, the most as a result of the fall of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank's obituary had barely been written before firms were offering to buy up customers' uninsured deposits for as little as 55 cents on the dollar.

☆ Fintechs Saw Demand Surge as SVB Implosion Left Clients Scrambling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Yuliya Chernova | Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A has left startups and venture firms scrambling, but one group of startups has benefited in recent days. Banking startups saw a surge of demand from SVB Financial Group customers who were seeking new places to park their money until the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced early Friday that it had taken control of SVB via a new bank it created called the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara. Venture-backed...

☆ Everyone's freaking out about SVB because everyone else is freaking out about SVB
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But the real star — or perhaps supernova — of Thursday was SVB Financial, which saw shares drop as much as 62%. As you can imagine, the past year has not been kind to SVB. SVB had to sell a $21 billion bond portfolio for a $1.8 billion loss (thanks a lot, interest rates!). It wasn't long before reports started rolling in about VCs instructing their founders to get their money out. Here's more on the tech founders trying to calm everyone down amid the chaos.

☆ Fintech firms may struggle to find investor love in rebounding U.S. IPO market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Manya Saini | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationMarch 8 (Reuters) - The once high-flying fintech startups looking to go public will have a hard time attracting investor attention, even though a freeze that has gripped the market for new listings is starting to thaw. "I don't think it would surprise anyone if they all sat out the 2023 IPO market," Kennedy added. In the IPO boom of 2021, 20 fintech companies raised a combined $10.93 billion, vastly overshadowing the $144 million that was raised by a lone offering in the following year, according to data from Dealogic. "The IPO market is not closed, but it's certainly more valuation and profitability focused," said David Ethridge, U.S. co-IPO leader at global consulting giant PwC. Reuters GraphicsLACKLUSTRE LISTINGSListed fintech companies have failed to largely live up to their shareholders' expectations as they have steadily booked losses, leading to a string of routs in their shares.

☆ London fintech Griffin lands UK banking license with restrictions after years-long process as it eyes fresh funding in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

British fintech startup Griffin has secured a banking license after a years-long process. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has approved the startup, subject to restrictions. Banking-as-a-service startup Griffin has become the latest fintech to land a UK banking license with restrictions after a years-long process. Securing a UK banking license is no mean feat. Neobanks like Revolut, founded in 2015, haven't yet managed to get a UK banking license with stringent processes in place, with Jarvis suggesting that the application process isn't something "you can just throw money at."

☆ Brazil announces pilot for digital currency seeking to leverage financial services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, March 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's central bank announced the start of a digital currency pilot project on Monday, aiming to replicate the success of its instant payment system Pix to popularize financial services in the country. Araujo said the "digital real" will be built as a means of payment executed on distributed ledger technology (DLT), to support the provision of retail financial services settled through tokenized deposits in institutions of the financial and payment systems in Brazil. There is a great potential for new service providers, fintechs, democratizing access to the market and offering new services." Araujo stressed that the concept of the Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC) was not intended to leverage digital payments, as this is already being done on a large scale with Pix, which was launched at the end of 2021 and has been widely adopted in Brazil. "Banks are very interested in this new tokenized world, in every conversation we have they have shown a lot of interest," said Araujo.

☆ These 8 execs are leading teams at Stripe, Apple Pay, Visa, and other top payment players to stay ahead of the competition
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Bianca Chan | Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Payments are off to a red-hot start in 2023, with action from big banks, Big Tech, and fintech. Insider identified the people helping established payments firms stay ahead of the innovation curve. With competition bubbling up in the payments sphere and downward macro pressure on fintechs and tech companies broadly, the rat race to come out on top has begun. For the well-established payments players looking to defend their turf, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Here are the people at the bleeding edge of innovation at eight top payments companies.

☆ Sequoia-backed fintech Pennylane is set to raise around $50 million in deal led by Revolut investor DST Global, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

French accounting tech startup Pennylane is set to raise around $50 million, Insider understands. The new round will be led by Revolut investor DST Global, four sources familiar with the deal said. The new funding is thought to be an up-round from the company's last deal in January 2022. Pennylane, a fintech that wants to become the predominant financial operating system for SMEs, is set to close a new funding round led by Revolut investor DST Global, sources say. The Paris-based company will raise around $50 million, two sources said.

☆ Plaid views identity verification as key to its 2023 growth plans. Here's how the fintech is using it to become a one-stop shop for customers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Plaid views identity verification as key to linking together different parts of its business. The company is using ID verification to streamline the onboarding process for fintechs. Plaid wants to create a seamless onboarding experience for fintech users with its new product Plaid Identity Verification (IDV). Plaid IDV launched in July 2022 and has 200 customers. In the fourth quarter of 2022, one in three new deals included Plaid IDV.

☆ Block sharpens focus on Cash App in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The 15% year-over-year (YoY) increase is down from 45% the same period a year ago . How we got here: Three factors contributed to Block’s Q4 performance. With these expansions, gross profit outside of the US accounted for 17% of Square’s total profit in Q4, compared with just 9% in Q4 2021. Unlike other big-name fintechs, Block didn’t announce layoffs in recent months, which may point to the strength of its business model and its performance outlook. It anticipates this segment’s expenses to grow between 5% and 10% this year, driven by Cash App.

☆ JPMorgan says little-known West Virginia fintech is positioned as 'bank of choice' for online gaming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

JPMorgan says a little-known microcap financial holding company that began as a West Virginia community bank but is transitioning into a fintech is poised to become "the Silicon Valley Bank" of the online gaming industry. MVB Financial, with a market value of a little more than $330 million, is headquartered in Fairmont, West Virginia, population 18,000, about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh. Yet MVB, headed by CEO Larry Mazza, currently holds an 85% market share in banking for online gaming. "Over time, we see MVB as becoming 'the Silicon Valley Bank' of the online gaming industry," JPMorgan wrote. What's more, MVB Bank also provides banking services to support Credit Karma Money Spend and Save accounts.

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