For this week, we keep you up to date with the latest news and trends in the fintech world. Dive into this week’s topics, focused on fintech partnerships, M&A, customer authentication, CBDCs, biometric verification, cryptocurrencies, financial data analytics service, payment management system. Enjoy the materials!
Galaxy Digital to acquire BitGo for $1.2 billion (MarketWatch)
Galaxy Digital Holdings, a financial services and investment manager in the digital asset, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology sectors, has agreed to acquire BitGo, an independent digital assets infrastructure provider, for $1.2 billion in stock and cash. At close, Galaxy will issue incremental shares to BitGo’s shareholders in exchange for net digital assets. Read more
Digital Dollar Project to launch five U.S. central bank digital currency pilots (Reuters)
The U.S. nonprofit Digital Dollar Project said it will launch five pilot programs over the next 12 months to test the potential uses of a U.S. central bank digital currency. The private-sector pilots initially will be funded by Accenture and involve financial firms, retailers and NGOs, among others. The aim is to generate data that could help U.S. policymakers develop a digital dollar. Read more
FCA Delays Implementation Of Second Factor For SCA (Vixio.com)
The UK will be delaying the requirement for card issuers to implement a second factor for the purposes of strong customer authentication (SCA), following data protection concerns over behavioural biometrics. Card issuers are now concerned that behavioural biometrics could conflict with the General Data Protection Regulation’s requirement that individuals provide “explicit consent” for the management of their data. Read more
Plaid and Railsbank join forces to take digital banking to the next level (AltFi)
Plaid, a data transfer network builder for digital finance products, and Railsbank, an open banking platform, are teaming up to bring Plaid’s Payment Initiation API to Railsbank’s customers, allowing them to instantly accept bank payments within their app or website. Railsbank’s customers will be able to initiate instant account-to-account transfers and reap all the benefits of Plaid’s service without having to onboard two separate suppliers. Read more
HSBC’s Voice ID prevents £249 million of attempted fraud (Finextra)
HSBC‘s caller identification programme Voice ID has cut telephone banking fraud by over 50% during the past year, demonstrating the value of biometric verification in the fight against scammers. Voice ID detects whether the voice matches that which is held on file for the customer and therefore whether the caller is genuine. Customers need to register for the service before it will be activated for their account. Read more
Payoneer collaborates with eBay to create a streamlined and modern market (Payments Cards And Mobile)
Payoneer, a cross-border payment platform, says it is collaborating with eBay, a multinational e-commerce corporation, to enable sellers in select countries to get paid for their sales on eBay’s core marketplace. Now, sellers will benefit from faster access to funds, greater flexibility managing multi-currency payments and expanded reach by enabling sellers to list on multiple international eBay sites. As of April 2021, Payoneer will manage payouts for sellers from Greater China as eBay expands its management of payments around the globe. Read more
Coinbase launches new way to buy crypto on PayPal (FsTech)
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, is making it possible for US customers to buy cryptocurrencies using debit and bank accounts linked to PayPal. The company said that those with an existing PayPal account will be able to start making transactions on the platform straight away. Customers will be able to make a purchase of up to $25,000 a day through their PayPal account. In the upcoming months, Coinbase will expand this new feature to more countries. Read more
Amazon Web Services launches financial data analytics service (FsTech)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched Amazon FinSpace, an analytics service for financial services institutions (FSIs). The company claims that the web application-based service can reduce the time it takes to find, prepare, and analyse financial data from “months to minutes.” Amazon FinSpace aggregates, catalogues, and tags data across an organisation’s data silos, making the data easily searchable by the entire organisation. Read more
Lanistar scores the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s approval (Finextra)
Lanistar, a banking service that allows customers to stack all cards onto a single payment card, has now secured the regulator’s approval to operate as an Electronic Money Directive (EMD) agent of payments firm Modulr. Lanistar can now distribute and redeem electronic money on behalf of Modulr, meaning the firm can offer its customers digital accounts to send and receive payments. Read more
—
Do you have any news to share: please put feed@beta.hollandfintech.com on your press list.
Curious to read and find out more from fintech? Then subscribe & read our full newsletters here: https://hollandfintech.com/featured/newsletters/. In order to see our other weekly highlights, check out the following links: research, analysis & opinion, funding.
