Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, Principal at EMVC!
Please enjoy all the news and updates from the past week in today’s edition. If you feel TWIF brings you value, please share it with your friends (and maybe suggest they subscribe too).
🧐🏆 Posts of the Week
Why are fintech banking as a service providers so expensive?
Just got a quote from that started at $250K / year with every single thing (accounts, wires, ACH's etc) being an extra fee
Which early stage startup can in good faith afford to pay for this?— Ankur Nagpal (@ankurnagpal) November 22, 2023
What drives Nubank $NU revenue? Work in progress, will be posting charts that I am looking at when trying to forecast the company's earnings pic.twitter.com/KunZE47psF— Jevgenijs Kazanins (@jevgenijs) November 15, 2023
If you are building a startup in Financial Services for India that will cater to Indians + will be regulated directly or indirectly, there are zero incentives to register the venture outside India while operating in India.
Yes, few large startups did that earlier and are…— pj (@BeingPractical) November 15, 2023
The Delta Airlines portfolio of credit cards with Amex results in spends of 1% of US GDP.— Ankit Sawant (@SatanAtWink) November 14, 2023
India's ownership - beyond the promoters, it's still FIIs that own the biggest chunk. (19%)
Retail (9.4%) owns more than mutual funds (8.6%) pic.twitter.com/RW3fqHAC6T— Deepak Shenoy (@deepakshenoy) November 24, 2023
(Note: Neither TWIF nor I endorse any views in the tweets highlighted above.)
📈 Chart of the Week
(Source)
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
Berkshire Hathawaysold its entire shareholding in Paytm at a 40% loss.
Credit card spends reached a record high of INR 1.78tn ($ 21.7bn) in Oct, 2023 (+38.3% YoY).
YONO, SBI's digital banking platform, announced that it will soon launch YONO in Singapore and US markets.
RBI's Governorraised concerns on NBFC's reliance on Banks for loan books.
Currency in circulation during the week ended 17th Nov (Diwali week), reduced by INR 5,934cr ($ 724mm) to INR 33.6tn ($ 410bn). Total currency in circulation reduced by INR 22,721cr ($ 2.8bn) in FY24 (01st Apr till 17th Nov).
Clear, previously ClearTax, the tax compliance and filing startup, reported $13.3mm (INR 109cr) in FY23 revenue (+85% YoY).
🚀 Product Launches
RapiPay, a payments company, partnered withJana Small Finance Bank to launch NYE Mobile App, a hybrid consumer banking app.
PayMate, a B2B payments company, launched its product in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.
Cashfree Payments, a payments startup, launched KYC Link, a no-code KYC verification product.
PayUlaunched three SDK's i.e. Native Payment Experience on 3DS, UPI Bolt and One Click Net Banking.
📝 Regulatory Updates
RBI (central bank): Superseded the board of Abhyudaya Bank, a regional bank. Released an alert list of 19 unauthorised forex trading platforms.
SEBI (securities): SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch announced that same-day settlement of trades will be launched by March 2024, followed by an optional parallel system for instantaneous settlement.
💰 Financing Announcements
ACQUISITIONS:
Wint Wealth, a fixed income investment platform, acquiredAmbium Finserve, a licensed NBFC, and received RBI approval for the acquisition.
1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽
🌏 Asia
📰 Market Updates
South Korea's central bank released its plans for a digital currency pilot program, inviting 100K citizens to participate.
Singapore's MAS released regulations for investor protection for crypto service providers.
OKX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, applied for a virtual asset trading platform license in Hong Kong.
Nium, a Singaporean payments infra startup, partnered withJB Bank, a South Korean bank, for global remittance services.
KB Kookmin Bank, a South Korean bank, partnered withSiam Commercial Bank, a Thai Bank, to launch cross border payments and financial products.
Toss Pay, a South Korean payments company, expanded cross border on-site payment services to 42 countries globally.
Singapore's central bank launched its cross border payments platform with Malaysia and Indonesia.
Visapartnered withUOB, a SEA Bank and Doxa, a Singaporean payments company, to launch payment solutions for contractors in SEA.
Feedzai, a financial crime and risk management solution provider, partnered withMastercard to launch crypto fraud protection.
MayBank Grouplaunched an Islamic Wealth Management Hub in Singapore.
The Joint Venture between Mastercard and a Chinese firm received a formal approval from PBOC, China's central bank to launch domestic bank card clearing activity in China.
WeLab, a Hong Kong based digital banking startup, launchedBank Saqu, an Indonesian digital bank.
GCash, a Philippine payments company, launched cross border payments for its Philippine users.
Kasikornbank, a Thai bank, increased its stake in PT Bank Maspion, an Indonesian bank, to 84.55%, valuing the Indonesian bank at $438mm.
The central banks of Hong Kong and Abu Dhabisigned an MoU to increase fintech collaboration between the two countries.
💰 Financing Announcements
Lendela, a Singaporean personal loan marketplace startup, raised $5mm.
ACQUISITIONS:
CoinGecko, a Singaporean crypto media platform, acquiredZash, an NFT pricing data platform.
🌏 International
🚀
Why subscribe to
?
• Join other execs from Visa, Plaid, Stripe, Robinhood, Revolut, Chime, Rapyd, and more to get the latest insights and deep dives.
• Learn from and collaborate with the world's largest fintech community, with 75,000+ members.
• Memberships start at $10 per month.
👉
.
If you’ve made it this far - thanks! As always, you can always reach me at [email protected]. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.
1-min Anonymous Feedback: Your feedback helps me improve this newsletter. Click UPVOTE 👍🏽 or DOWNVOTE 👎🏽
