Naspers is the most valuable listed company in Africa and is now selling $10 billion worth of shares in Tencent to invest in fintech, classified and online food delivery businesses; Naspers stake in Tencent is estimated at $545 billion; this is the first time the company has sold shares in the company after initially investing in 2001. Source
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
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One of China’s largest online lenders has shelved their IPO because of the regulatory crackdown on online lending; the FT reports that Lufax is waiting until the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) required online lenders to apply for a license; the current thinking is the government will approve licenses in April, though the time frame could be a bit longer; Lufax wants to ensure they get it right instead of rushing to be first. Source.
The franchise will be in Seattle’s Central Region; Lendio franchises help businesses understand their financing options and apply for loans; Lendio currently has partnerships with more than 75 lenders across SBA loans, startup loans, equipment loans and commercial real estate; Lendio surpassed $300 million through the platform last year. Source
Cash flow is often a challenge for businesses; with Square’s Instant Deposit merchants can access bank deposits much faster for a 1% fee; Square hopes this will help attract even larger merchants and boost revenue; the service has already seen success in the US market. Source
UK based digital bank Revolut launched disposable card numbers form within the app; the disposable nature of the number can help to reduce card fraud, one of the main areas of financial fraud; the move is part of a wider trend in banking to make the online shopping experience more secure and tailored to millennial customers; Revolut also allows users to freeze/unfreeze cards and disable functions like contactless and swipe payments. Source.
American Banker shares several blockchain projects underway in financial services; Includes JPMorgan Chase’s open source ledger Quoram and initiatives from Northern Trust, ING and the DTCC; while there is a lot of interest in blockchain technology many initiatives aren’t in production; various perspectives are shared in the piece as to why adoption hasn’t taken off. Source
U.S. based growth investor, Motive Partners, recently opened their European hub in Canary Wharf, London as they see the market as one of the epicenters of financial services; this is the latest sign that London has not lost their attractiveness since Brexit; a few additional reasons for being a destination include experience with the new open banking regulations and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been very supportive of fintech. Source.
Banks have started to implement behavioral biometrics more and more as it is seamless for customers and helps to better detect fraud; behavioral biometrics firms like BioCatch has provided banks with the type of security they like, customers cannot see if but it also is harder for criminals to spoof; BioCatch reviews more than 5 billion transactions per month and has about 60 million users in their system; another reason banks love this type of security is the privacy regulations are not as strict, the data is not personally identifiable and is based on type of actions. Source.
Florida based Axiom Bank launched a new all digital account targeted at the unbanked; Axiom partnered with fintech company Malauzai to help design and launch their mobile app; "For many in our community, AxiomGo provides the first tangible banking experience that not only eliminates expensive fees, but also enables them to perform any banking transaction needed at any time of day,” says Ron Strand-Sorrell, the bank's chief operating officer, in a release reported by American Banker. Source.