This week, the latest fintech news that we bring you touched upon the topics regarding mobile cash payment, startups, CBDC, digital wallet, AI, IDs, digital currency, identity fraud, APIs. Discover the updates and enjoy the selection of materials!
Walmart, PayNearMe Team To Offer Cash Bill Payment Services (PYMNTS)
PayNearMe, mobile cash payments platform, has announced that customers will be able to facilitate cash payments for bills through the Green Dot Network at participating Walmart stores. PayNearMe’s network topps 31,000 retail locations after teaming with Walmart. Read more
Paytm, India’s most valuable startup, confirms plan for an IPO (Techcrunch)
Paytm, India’s most valuable startup, confirmed to its shareholders and employees that it plans to file for an IPO. Paytm said that it plans to raise money by issuing fresh equity in the IPO, and also sell existing shareholders’ shares at the event. The startup has offered its employees the option to sell their stakes in the firm. Read more
HSBC bolsters Hong Kong offering with AI-powered equity index product (Fintech Global)
HSBC has unveiled AiPEX5, a new AI-powered equity index structured product to bolster its wealth offering in Hong Kong. The new index is part of the AiPEX family of indices which was developed by HSBC alongside EquBot. The two companies used IBM Watson AI to scrutinise millions of data points and turn them into investment insights. According to HSBC, the index is designed to objectively evaluate each of the 1000 largest US publicly traded companies and select those whose stock prices are poised for growth. Read more
American banking lobby hits out at CBDC hype (Finextra)
The American Bankers Association has adopted a defensive stance over the possible future issuance of a central bank backed digital currency (CBDC), warning lawmakers about real-world trade-offs that could significantly reshape the banking system. Should policymakers decide to move ahead with development of a CBDC, the association urged them to do so with caution and carefully consider the risks and benefits of various CBDC designs. Read more
iOS 15 will bring US state IDs to Apple Wallet (Insider Intelligence)
Apple announced that its forthcoming mobile operating system will let Apple devices store driver’s licenses and state IDs for participating states to its Wallet app. Consumers will be able to use the digital identity cards, which will be encrypted, at airport security checkpoints and potentially other locations. With this movement, Apple may face serious competition from a digital ID wallet being developed by the EU. Read more
French and Swiss central banks to run wholesale digital currency trial (Finextra)
The Banque de France and the Swiss National Bank are to work with a private sector consortium on the trial of a CBDC-based cross-border payments module for transactions in the wholesale markets. The two central banks are collaborating with the BIS Innovation Hub and a coalition of partners led by Accenture that includes Credit Suisse, Natixis, R3, SIX Digital Exchange and UBS. The experiment will explore cross-border settlement with digital versions of the euro and Swiss franc and a French digital financial instrument on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Read more
OneBanks taps G4S for cash and bill payment services at shared branch kiosks (Finextra)
Shared bank branch venture OneBanks has contracted with G4S to enable banking customers to pay bills, deposit and withdraw notes and coins at its pop up kiosks, currently being trialled in the UK. The kiosks, which are fully manned, have been designed to use Open Banking technology to offer face to face banking to communities which no longer have local bank branches. G4S will equip OneBanks kiosks with a Cash 360 intelligent safe which will allow customers to pay utilities and other bills with cash and receive their change in cash. Read more
El Salvador becomes first country to make Bitcoin a legal currency (Fintech Global)
The government of El Salvador has passed a bill that will see Bitcoin join the US dollar as legal tender in the country. This move will mean that the cryptocurrency will now be accepted everywhere for goods and services within 90 days. This also means it has become the first country worldwide to have Bitcoin as a legal tender. Read more
Mark Cuban-Backed Personal Finance App Dave to Go Public in $4 Billion SPAC Deal (The Wall Street Journal)
A special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Victory Park Capital has agreed to merge with banking app Dave, allowing the financial startup to begin operating as a public company. The combination between Victory’s blank-check company, VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings III Inc., and Dave, which is backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban, is expected to be complete by the third or fourth quarter of this year. Read more
Mitek Acquires ID R&D To Fight Identity Fraud (PYMNTS)
Digital identity verification company Mitek announced it has acquired ID R&D, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based voice and face biometrics and liveness detection firm, a move it says will help curtail the growing threat of identity fraud. As part of the deal, ID R&D shareholders will be entitled to up to $49 million in Mitek stock and cash as consideration. Read more
PayPal Invests $135 Million To Help Advance Economic Equality (PYMNTS)
PayPal Holdings said it will deposit $135 million with “mission-driven” financial institutions (FIs) and managers that help members of minority groups “fight barriers to economic equity.” One of the recipients of the San Jose, California-based company’s financial infusion is OneUnited Bank. Read more
Nuvei filing indicates company may raise up to $1.8bn
Nuvei indicated in a regulatory filing that it could raise up to a total of $1.8 billion USD through new issues or secondary offerings over the next 19 months. Nuvei indicated it could potentially raise capital through the sale of subordinate voting and preferred shares, debt securities, warrants, subscription receipts, and units in one or more transactions during this period. Read more
Institutional investors sign investor statement on facial recognition
Several institutional investors are among a group of 50 global investors, representing more than USD 4.5trn in assets under management, to have become signatories to the Investor Statement on Facial Recognition. The initiative by Candriam was launched in March this year to address the risks raised by facial recognition technology (FRT) products and services. Read more
Marqeta begins a new journey as a public company (Marqueta)
Jason Gardner, Marqeta’s Founder & CEO, shares an exciting milestone for the company – Marqeta and the mission to be the global standard for modern card issuing. Throughout this journey, their open API platform has empowered builders to bring new and innovative payment solutions to the world — and the company is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with modern card issuing. Read more
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