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Global FinTech News - 11th of December

Global FinTech News - 11th of December
By Holland FinTech  • Issue #76 • View online
Hello, dear reader!
For this week, while we enjoyed the last days of the Singapore Fintech Festival event for this year, we also brought you the latest news from fintech. Dive into your favorite reading materials, ranging from news, funding rounds, research reports, to analysis and opinion.
Earlier today, for Holland FinTech’s Flash Friday, our founder Don Ginsel discussed developments from fintech in our weekly live show, co-hosted by Martijn Groot, VP Marketing & Strategy at Alveo. In case you missed the event, check out the recording on our YouTube channel here!
We also published the overview of fintech developments in November. If you didn’t have the time to read all past newsletters, check out the overview here!
From the Holland FinTech Team, we wish you a nice weekend!

Highlights from last weeks news related to fintech
Our selection of remarkable news from the industry.
  • Standard Chartered partners with Northern Trust for a Cryptocurrency Custodian for Institutional Investors
  • Revolut’s figures show break even in November, after Starling reportedly making profit
  • Capital One is among the first banks to not allow its customers to use buy now, pay later (BNPL) transactions on its credit cards
  • Stripe, an US digital payments company, is looking to expand its services across Asia, after driving 40% growth in staff across the region this year
  • China’s top banking regulator raised some concerns earlier this week regarding the power of the country’s large financial technology companies
  • With the most recent announcement of Ethereum launching ETH 2.0, the world’s second-largest virtual currency by market value is up about 350% in 2020
  • Solarisbank, a digital banking platform, has announced expansion to various European markets
  • With their newly launched QR code payments in iZettle’s point of sale app, PayPal allows now for small businesses across the UK to accept QR payments
  • The 7-Eleven launches an E-Wallet to pay in a contactless form at their US stores
  • Globally, $10.4bn in fines were paid over the last year by firms breaking money laundering, data privacy, MiFID and KYC rules
  • JP Morgan Asset Management is set to acquire 55ip, a fintech that provides financial advisors with tax efficient investment strategies
  • As part of the Singapore FinTech Festival, ING announced in a discussion panel earlier this week about its preliminary trials with digital assets
Read more details about this news and sources HERE.
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The largest funding rounds we found from across the world
We have again looked across all oceans to find all investments that are relevant for the financial industry and listed the largest below. Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we found in the week going from 2 December until 9 December.
  • Pico (New York, US), a provider of technology services for financial markets, announced a strategic investment with Intel Capital, completing its series C round of funding with $135M (€111.4m)
  • Chainalysis (New York, US), a blockchain analysis company, secured $100m (€90.98m) in Series C financing
  • Luko (Paris, France), an insurance company, has raised a $60 million (€49.63m) Series B funding round
  • Outfund (London, UK), the fintech company changing the way online businesses raise funds, has announced the close of a £37 million (€41.04m) late seed round of capital
  • Albo (Mexico City, Mexico), a digital bank, has raised $45 million (€37.32m) in funding round
  • Getsafe (Heidelberg, Germany), the digital-first insurance startup that initially launched with an app for home contents insurance, has closed $30 million (€33.28m) in Series B funding
  • Gohenry (London, UK), a kids’ money management app, has raised $40 million (€33.08m) in a funding round
  • Other fundings which caught our eye this week: At-Bay - €28.12m, Moov - €22.33m, Updraft - €17.75m, IDnow - €15m, simplesurance - €15m, Upvest - €12m, Payaut - €2.6m, s​mallcase Technologies - undisclosed
Read more about this funding news HERE.
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A selection of recent research reports and papers worth reading
Please check out these research reports and white papers we discovered this week.
  • “ETH 2.0” by Altcoin Buzz: this report provides a comprehensive overview of what Ethereum’s evolution entails in terms of risks and opportunities
  • “December 2020’s Top 100 Digital International Insurance Companies” by Digital Scouting.de: this analysis explores the top players from the industry and brings a complete overview of the major 100 digital international insurance companies
  • “The Global Covid-19 FinTech Market Rapid Assessment Study” by Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, World Bank Group & World Economic Forum: this report gathers empirical data and evidence to show the changes in the fintech landscape across the globe
  • “Migration to cloud – your guide to delivering an intuitive customer experience” by Fintech Futures: this E-book emphasizes the importance of efficient cloud services for a smooth CX
  • “2021 banking and capital markets outlook” by Deloitte: this paper gathered data from over 200 industry leaders practicing in the banking and capital markets sectors in order to discover how businesses are managing to recover from Covid-19
  • “Project Helvetia: Settling tokenised assets in central bank money” by Swiss National Bank, BIS, SIX Group AG: this report explores the integration of tokenised assets and central bank money on the SDX platform
  • “What comes next? Recovery from an uneven recession” by BIS: this paper highlights the effects of Covid-19 crisis on different sectors, which leads to an uneven recession and recovery
Read more about the research sources and download pdf’s HERE.
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Background information and insights from opinion leaders and experts
We are keeping track of what opinion leaders across the world have to say about everything that is happening in and around financial services and technology. Below, you can find the ones that stood out this week.
  • “The future of money – innovating while retaining trust” by ECB: in this analysis, Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, shows a complete overview on the key factors which influence the journey towards the future of money
  • “Why the pandemic has not dented Latin American remittances” by The Economist: the findings of this piece highlight that the remittance industry for Latin America has not seen a drastic decrease as expected
  • “Wealth advisors must embrace fintech to maximise ESG investing” via Fintech Bulletin: according to Boris Rankov, co-founder and Partner of InCube Group AG, there is a focus from the regulatory environment on ESG investments
  • “How the cloud is the path to open banking” via Fintech Futures: Andrew Beatty, head of global next generation banking at FIS, explains why cloud systems have gained more popularity than ever for open banking services
  • “When Fintech Succeeds: The Three Ds” via Forbes: Alex Lazarow, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, highlights the increase in fintech market cap on a global scale, which is advancing almost into banking territory
  • “Buyers’ brief: The future of bank treasury tech is AI” via Bobsguide.com: according to Chrissy Chiu, journalist at Bobsguide.com, treasurers are looking for advanced technology over wire payments in order to connect with more payment counterparties
  • “ID Verification is no longer an obstacle to global growth” via Finextra: Barley Laing, UK Managing Director Melissa, emphasizes that for a long period of time, banks and challenger fintechs struggled to obtain proper growth due to issues related to effective identity (ID) verification
  • “Top Trends in Commercial Banking: 2021” by Capgemini: this analysis outlines the top trends in commercial banking for 2021 and takes a look back at 2020
  • “Top AI Trends to Watch in 2021” via Interesting Engineering: according to Susan Fourtané, science and technology journalist, artificial intelligence (AI) has been established as the main driver of emerging technologies
  • “RPA‌ ‌in‌ ‌Banking‌ ‌and‌ ‌Finance‌ ‌Industry:‌ ‌The‌ ‌Use‌ ‌Cases‌ ‌and‌ ‌Benefits‌” ‌via Datafloq: according to Shailee Parikh, writer at Datafloq, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become an essential instrument for most businesses to drive cost optimization, process efficiency, improved data accuracy
  • “Ethereum 2.0: All You Need To Know About The Crypto” via Programming Insider: in this analysis overview, Marc Berman, founder and Editor-in-Chief for Programming Insider, explores the features of Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0)
Read more about these analyses & opinion pieces HERE.
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Connect with the fintech ecosystem at some of the upcoming events
Global AI Student Conference - 12th December
In this session, we will give a brief overview of the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as whole, and talk about why it is important for every student to learn the basics of AI/ML.
Register HERE.
aiconf.education  •  Share
Fintech Delivery Panel Fintech Pledge Webinar - 15th December
Join us on 15 December 2020 at 10am to learn more about the origins, details and ongoing implementation of the Fintech Pledge. Hosted exclusively online, this is your opportunity to gain insights into how banks and fintechs can work together to build successful partnerships.
Register HERE.
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The Success of (and Competition to) the "4-corner-model" in Payments - 17th December
Is the old world of four-corner models and transaction fees to be replaced by platforms and everything-for-free? Will the model that has served us well for decades and made many companies rich, be replaced by a model that makes the platforms rich by harvesting our data? Join our live debate with a global panel including regulator, bank, card and associations!
Register HERE.
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Consumer Technology Association - 11th-14th January
For more than 50 years, CES® has been the global stage for innovation. And the all-digital CES 2021 will continue to be a platform to launch products, engage with global brands and define the future of the tech industry.
Register HERE.
www.ces.tech  •  Share
Open Banking MENA Digi-Conference - 25th January
The banking sector has been impacted in its earnings due to the global pandemic. Coupled with increased competition from financial technology companies who are increasingly expanding products and financial services to banking customers in ways traditional banks are not able to due to regulations.
Register HERE.
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