Global newsletter: Focused fintech tailwinds should bring profitability

The following is an excerpt from today’s Global Newsletter.

For the second time this week, we can take time to celebrate some good news in the lending space, as Monzo reported monthly profitability for the first time.

CNBC reported, “In its annual report for the year ending February 2023, Monzo reported net operating income of £214.5 million ($266.1 million), almost doubling year-over-year from £114 million.”

We’ve recently celebrated earnings and growth from several LatAm fintechs, and now we’re seeing solid reporting across the pond.

As these trends tend to flow, we’ll see a shift to the U.S. soon enough (notwithstanding the micro economy that Taylor Swift has already generated through her Eras tour), so this news bodes very well for the end of this year and into 2024.

From Fintech Nexus

LatAm Nubank to boost lending in Brazil to drive revenue growth By David Feliba    Nubank is developing a risk appetite for unsecured loans, while it expects to roll out payroll lending in the following quarters.

Global Open finance and financial contract tokenization – A crossover to supercharge markets By Isabelle Castro Margaroli    Tokenization has been set for some time to cause disruption but open finance incorporation may be key to realizing its growth.

Also making news

• USA: 4Q overdraft revenue fell 50% in three years; CFPB says Bank overdraft revenue fell nearly 50% in the fourth quarter compared with three years earlier, according to new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data.
• USA: JPMorgan Chase aims to create $1.5 billion in value with AI by yearend JPMorgan Chase is on track to invest more than $15 billion in technology in 2023, with the goal of driving $3 billion in cost savings and efficiencies across infrastructure and data initiatives, as the bank continues to execute on the firm-wide strategy it laid out last year.
• USA: OCC targets big banks with ‘persistent weaknesses’ The regulator’s new enforcement manual appendix comes in the wake of the recent bank failures and is aimed at larger and more complex financial institutions.
• Global: Sam Bankman-Fried could have some charges dropped if Bahamas objects The Justice Department said it would drop some of the criminal charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried if the Bahamas says they violate the terms of his extradition to the U.S.
• USA: Academics offer important insights into how crypto markets are evolving I discuss key insights from a set of research studies on crypto markets whose findings were presented at a recent conference that took place at Santa Clara University.
• USA: Binance explores letting some traders keep collateral at a bank Binance is discussing a proposal to let some of its institutional clients keep their trading collateral at a bank instead of with the crypto platform. This step could help reduce counterparty risk.
• Europe: NomuPay says it’s raised $53.6M for cross-border payments We still see regular updates on the calamitous fallout of the 2020 collapse of Wirecard, the now-insolvent fintech out of Germany that had built an elaborate house of cards on false accounting and murky business.