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Global FinTech News - 18th of December

Global FinTech News - 18th of December
By Holland FinTech  • Issue #77 • View online
Hello, fintech enthusiast!
For this edition, we bring you the latest trends and developments from the fintech world. This week has been marked by a suspected Russian hack on US government institutions and several corporations, using SolarWinds software. Furthermore, the first wave of Covid-19 vaccines have been provided for UK health workers, and Europe is almost ready to approve vaccines as well. In terms of fintech, we bring you interesting news for you to explore. Go through the selected materials we prepared for you, ranging from news, funding rounds, research reports, to analysis and opinion.
And in case you missed our Flash Friday session held earlier today, in which our founder Don Ginsel discussed developments from fintech together with Leda Glyptis, Chief Client Officer at 10x Future Technologies, check out the recording on our YouTube channel here!
From the Holland FinTech Team, we wish you a happy end of the week!

Highlights from last weeks news related to fintech
New regulations, partnerships and technology developments. There is just so much going on in Fintech. Here is our selection of news, relevant for the industry.
  • IBM acquired fintech Expertus (Canada) in order to extend its capabilities into AI and payments
  • Upstart (USA), a fintech company that makes personal loans to consumers, did an IPO last week and their shares rose 47% on the first day of trading
  • Fiserv, a provider of financial technology solutions, acquired Ondot (USA), a digital card services platform
  • RAZER Fintech (UK), the fintech arm of gaming hardware and software firm Razer, is partnering buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service provider Rely (UK)
  • Earlier this week, Bitcoin managed to jump 10.5% to $23,655, a record price, taking its gains this year past 220%
  • Facebook announced that it is following in the footsteps of Google, moving data of millions of UK users outside EU’s privacy laws jurisdictions to the US
  • EU regulators have launched 2 new legislative proposals in order to update regional rules for digital businesses and the monopoly set up by Big Techs
  • Earlier this week, US Treasury and Commerce departments and other federal government agencies as well as several companies, announced that they experienced computer system breaches via the SolarWinds software. It is believed to be part of a global cyber espionage campaign by the Russian government
Read more details about this news and sources HERE.
hollandfintech.com  •  Share
The largest funding rounds we found from across the world
Where does the money flow? It is usually a good indicator for what is hot and what is not. To give you a view on global fintech investments, we have selected the largest and most relevant investment deals. Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we found, in the week going from 9 December until 16 December.
  • Tink (Stockholm, Sweden), an open banking platform provider, has raised €85 million in a round extension led by Eurazeo Growth and Dawn Capital
  • Bitso (Mexico City, Mexico), a crypto platform, closed $62m (€50.94m) in Series B funding
  • CHAI (Seoul, South Korea), a payment tech startup, announced it has raised a $60 million (€49.3m) Series B
  • Orca Security (Los Angeles, CA, US), a cloud security platform provider, raised $55m (€45.19m) in Series B funding
  • Salt Security (Palo Alto, CA, US), an API security company, raised $30m (€24.65m) in Series B funding
  • Zilch (London, UK), a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) startup, secured an additional $30m (€24.65m) equity funding and closed its pre Series B round
  • Five Degrees (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), a digital core banking technology provider, has secured an investment of € 22 million in a funding round
  • Taxdoo (Hamburg, Germany), a fintech startup, has announced that it closed €17m in Series A funding
  • Other fundings which caught our attention this week: Neufund (€4m), Vestrata (€3.29m), Salv (€1.5m)
Read more about this funding news HERE.
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A selection of recent research reports and papers worth reading
Much research is conducted across the world, providing data and insights about market developments at large. Below you can find the research reports and white papers we discovered and selected for you this week.
  • “InsurTech Startups in Europe” (astorya.io) - this overview presents a comprehensive mapping of the most prominent European InsurTech startups
  • “Fintech Global: Year in Review 2020, Year to Come 2021” (Linklaters) - this paper highlights the fintech landscape, with a focus on milestones for 2020 and expectations for 2021 at a global level
  • “Managing Compliance and Growth” (Finastra & Finextra) - the study explores perspectives and experiences of small and medium-sized banks in their efforts to grow and scale while managing compliance and all that goes with it
  • “Cross-Border Payments and Ecommerce Report 2020–2021” (The Paypers) - in this paper, insights and analyses from thought leaders in the field are given on key industry topics, such as regional particularities of cross-border online and mobile commerce
  • “Unbundling Bank Of America: How The Traditional Bank Is Being Disrupted” (CB Insights) - for this research, the case of Bank of America is analyzed, in order to understand how the traditional banking system is being disrupted across a wide variety of core revenue streams
  • “McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review” (McKinsey) - in this report, a market status of the banking sector is provided and the aftermath of the pandemic, likely to cause a two-stage problem for banks
  • “Indonesia Fintech Report and Map 2020” (Fintech News Singapore) - this overview shows the Indonesian fintech map in 2020
  • “Central bank swap lines and cross border bank flows” (BIS) - this paper explores why central banks relying heavily on US dollar swap lines with the Federal Reserve in the first half of 2020 led to a surge in cross-border banking flows
  • “The State of European Tech” (Atomico, Slush, Orrick & SVB Silicon Valley Bank) - for this analysis, numerous advantages for the tech industry in 2020 are presented, brought by Covid-19
  • “101 Sweden Based Fintech Companies” (Fintech.Coffee) - this overview presents the top Swedish fintechs which attracted the attention of major investors this year
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 views that stood out this week.
  • “No-deal Brexit a “nightmare” for fintechs” via Bobsguide.com - this analysis explored the chances of a deal being agreed between the UK and EU, which look increasingly slim and unpromising for the financial sector
  • “Digital Onboarding For Small Businesses Falls Short” via Forbes - according to Scarlett Sieber, fintech contributor at Forbes, customer relationships for financial service providers is an essential factor for businesses to thrive
  • “How digital labour helps financial firms cope with market volatility” via Fintech Futures - Kevin Moran, Managing Director at Broadridge Financial Solutions, dives into the benefits of AI technology for financial firms, such as managing increases in operational workload due to market volatility
  • “How can AML combat the meteoric rise in financial crime?” via Fintech Bulletin - in this recent analysis by Guðmundur Kristjánsson is CEO of Lucinity, it is shown that the first half of 2020 was marked by the extreme increase in fraudulent activities and regulators’ issuing fines
  • “#KlarNAAA? Is #BNPL a good or bad thing?” via The Finanser - according to Chris Skinner, an independent commentator on the financial markets, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) transactions present both interesting advantages, but also disadvantages
  • “Building greenfield challenger banks is a major opportunity for issuer processors” via Finextra - Tom Mowat, Senior Manager at Be | Shaping the Future, explains why the preferred disruptive strategy that major banks undertake is the ‘Add’ and ‘Acquire’ options
  • “Latin America and teen-focused FinTech services are coming of age as the industry closes 32 rounds” via FinTech Global - this analysis dives into the growth of fintechs in Latin America, partly due to the increased adoption of open banking and also the popularity of teen-focused fintechs
  • “Revealing the top ten RegTech investors in 2020 so far" via FinTech Global - this overview explains why RegTech sees active rounds for 2020, with the sector rocketing from 2017 to 2019, and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 119.1%
  • “How Gamification can help consumers reach their savings goal” via Think Forward - Nethal Hashim, Irene Scopelliti and Janina Steinmetz highlight how financial literacy among individuals can be increased by introducing elements of gamification in financial apps
  • “European scheme for the Request-to-Pay” via IN4PAY & iPlan - Mark Munne, Partner at iPlan, and Paul van der Valk, Senior Payments Consultant at IN4PAY, present in an updated analysis on the “Practical guide to SEPA Request-to-Pay” considerations for banks, payment processors and corporation to join and benefit from the scheme
Read more about these analyses & opinion pieces HERE.
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Connect with the fintech ecosystem at some of the upcoming events
Virtual Cybersecurity Summit: Financial Services - 12th-13th January
ISMG global events are a must-attend for any IT or security executive tasked with protecting an organization from today’s evolving information security threats.
Register HERE.
events.ismg.io  •  Share
Asian Financial Forum Online - 18th-19th January
AFF is Asia’s premier platform for global leaders in government, finance and business to exchange insights, intelligence as well as business and investment opportunities.
Register HERE.
www.asianfinancialforum.com  •  Share
Are Financial Infrastructure Partnerships the Future of Banking? - 21st January
Digital transformation was on everyone’s agenda. The panel session will look at where, by working with financial infrastructure partners, relationships and service delivery between Banks and their business customers can be greatly improved.
Register HERE.
www.finextra.com  •  Share
Frontiers In Cooperative Banking Awards 2021 - 22nd-23rd January
The world has redefined itself and is not going to be the same again. The Cooperative sector which has undergone a sea of change in the past few months is today forced to look into totally new realms of business in this digital world aided by social distancing.
Register HERE.
bankingfrontiers.com  •  Share
FinTech Asia 2021 - 28th January
The Digital Finance 2021 draws on emerging trends in financial ecosystems in the developed and developing world and investigates the intersection of centralized legacy and new decentralized financial ecosystems.
Register HERE.
pgsolx.com  •  Share
AI in Financial Services 2021 - 3rd-4th February
The Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services conference will be going virtual in 2021. Over the course of 2 days, 150+ senior executives from leading financial institutions will gather to discuss current AI success, how you can leverage new tools, and when and where to use them for best effect.
Register HERE.
www.arena-international.com  •  Share
Transform Finance Big Tech Event - 3rd-4th February
Join this event for a virtual experience to enjoy the ultimate interactive experience of live case studies, interactive panel sessions, live polls, speaker interviews and Q&A’s.
Register HERE.
transformfinance.media  •  Share
Ready to get involved? Click here to find out more.
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