The Fintech Fix 17/03/2022

Welcome to The Fintech Fix, where we cover the biggest stories of the financial week! Whether it’s the next groundbreaking advancement in Blockchain technology, a new partnership about to trigger an economic revolution or an upcoming startup generating a huge following.

Hot Topics – This week we are kicking off the Fix with Kueski, the company which this week solidified itself as one of the largest Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) and online consumer lenders within Latin America. This came after its rapid expansion of loan transactions which now totals $1 Billion with one million consumers and six million loans. Through leveraging its AI and ML powered credit decisioning model, Kueski has been able to expand access to financial products and consolidate its position as one of the market leaders within LatAm FinTech.

Upgrade, Inc. has also announced according to the March 2022 issue of the Nilson Report that it is the fastest growing US credit card by outstanding balances. This comes after a period of accelerated growth in their ‘Upgrade Card’ during the second half of 2021. In these final six months of 2021 Upgrade Card more than doubled in outstanding to leap 20 other card issuers to move to #37 in the report’s top 50 U.S. Visa/Mastercard Credit Card Issuers. This was also partially due to Upgrade’s product innovation and commitment to consumers’ financial health, with the closing of two funding rounds valuing the company at over $6 billion.

Hong Kong bank, Mox Bank Limited, has launched a smarter way to clear their credit card bills with ‘Instant Clear’ Credit Card Balance Plan. Instant Clear is a loan that customers can draw from their Mox Credit balances to repay their outstanding credit card balances of HKD5,000 and above with other banks or financial institutions instantly. Barbaros Uygun, CEO of Mox, said: “Mox’s new ‘Instant Clear’ continues our efforts to make it easier for our Mox Credit customers to reach their financial freedom. The current economic uncertainty has saddled many with high credit card bills and increased financial anxiety. We are offering a smarter way to pay off these bills, allowing our customers to take back control of their financial future and their lives.”

We also sat down with Sarp Demiray, CEO and Board Member at the European Merchant Bank (EMBank) of Lithuania to talk about digitalisation. Demiray spoke about some of the most important inflection points for the digitalization of business management, the after effects of the pandemic as well as the often overlooked effects on people and interpersonal relations.

To round off our hot topics this week we go to Italian Banking Group illimity, who launched their very own new subscription based service ‘b-ilty’. The service brings together a diverse range of banking operations in a single harmonious ecosystem tailored to service the needs of the individual businesses and sectors of the economy. The launch of b-ilty marks the beginning of the first digital business store of financial services and credit for companies with a turnover of between 2 and 10 million euros per year whilst only costing a modest €40 Euros per/month.

Exciting Appointments – The UK’s first truly regional business bank of the modern era, Bank North dominates the new appointments section this week after appointing a new roster of department heads. Chris Weights joins as the new Head of Valuations alongside Adam McNichol and Andrew Gornall as Head of Financial Reporting and Financial Control and Head of underwriting respectively. Joining them at Bank North are James McCulloch, Acting Treasurer, Raja Abdullah, Data & Business Intelligence Manager and Tom Shillito, Lending Associate with all bringing a wealth of experience to the company.

Partnerships – Mastercard this week partnered with Aplazo to bring to market the first ever Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) virtual card to Latin America. Aplazo is the first omnichannel BNPL platform in Mexico and the card backed by Mastercard will bring secure payments to the region, providing a seamless payment journey to customers that enables one to shop anywhere and enjoy the convenience of instalment payments. Unlike more traditional entities Aplazo has the ability to approve virtual cards in record time to allow customers instant access and the ability to purchase goods on-demand, with the convenience of paying for them over time with Card Holders also being granted access to Mastercard’s customer support capabilities.

J.P. Morgan has this week been selected as Paysafe’s core banking provider. Some of the established solutions to be provided by J.P. Morgan includes; scheme payment settlements; handling of merchant payment flows; foreign exchange and multi-currency settlements; along with enhanced data insights and analysis. Noah Sharp, Chief Banking Officer at Paysafe, said: “Our global relationship with J.P. Morgan goes from strength to strength as we extend our work together across multiple touch points.” as Paysafe strengthens its relationship with J.P. Morgan as the partnership follows a similar collaboration on Paysafe’s integrated and Ecommerce Solutions business.

Another partnership which was announced this week was between Tesco Bank and Onfido, the global identity verification and authentication provider. Onfido will be providing a secure application process for new Tesco Clubcard Pay+ customers and through the use of digital identity verification will streamline the identity verification process, allowing customers to ditch postal registration in favour of digital.

Visa also confirmed their acquisition of Tink, the open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and merchants alike to build financial products, services and move money. The partnership will expectedly allow clients to deliver substantial benefits for consumers to better control their financial experiences including managing their money, financial data and financial goals. In the near future Tink will operate as a standalone subsidiary of Visa but the opportunities through the acquisition makes it a partnership worth keeping an eye on.

To finish this week’s version of the Fix we look to EY and Microsoft who also announced a partnership, as part of the existing EY Microsoft Alliance in a bid to help businesses around the world use technology to tackle a range of increasingly complex challenges faced by both legal and compliance teams. The partnership will be combining EY’s leading technology with Microsoft Cloud Technologies with Lyn Bird, Vice President, Enterprise Functions, Industry Solutions, Microsoft commenting “Legal and compliance done right is a modern experience that works continuously and allows employees and organisations to focus on their core competencies. Microsoft and EY share this belief, and have a valued partnership focused on delivering legal and compliance solutions through the latest technology.”