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This Week in Fintech
Fiserv to buy First Data in USD 22 billion deal
The US-based fintech agreed to purchase the payments processor in one of the biggest fintech deals to date. Fiserv and First data came to an all-stock agreement, with the latter’s CEO taking the helm of the combined company. Read more
Fingerprint payments available in Russian supermarkets
Sberbank, in a partnership with supermarket chain Azbuka Vkusa, are offering shoppers the ability to pay via the popular biometric. Shoppers can register at checkout, and can pay via fingerprint and then confirm the transaction via password. Read more
China cancels lucrative interest-bearing deposits for non-bank payment companies
Third-party payments outfits in China used to be able to hold pre-paid sums from buyers in interest-bearing accounts for short periods of time before transferring it to merchants. Alibaba and Tencent were two companies that took advantage of this, now non-bank payments companies must place money in interest-free accounts. Read more
Snoop Dogg invests in Sweden’s payments unicorn Klarna
Not only did the rapper-millionaire become a minority shareholder in the online financial solutions provider, but he will front a new marketing campaign and is reportedly changing his name to ‘Smooth Dogg’ in homage to Klarna’s seamless payments solutions. Read more
ZhongAn and Grab partner on digital insurance marketplace
ZhongAn, one of China’s first internet-based insurers, and the Singaporean ride-hailing outfit came together to offer a range of insurance products in Southeast Asia via Grab’s mobile app. Read more
Alipay provides Beijing prisons with cashless payments
The payments giant launched its “prison pay” feature, allowing inmates’ family members to transfer money to them without having to make deposits in person. Prisoners can also use Alipay to pay for items in their commissary. Read more
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Funding
Infor, a US-based enterprise software company, landed USD 1.5 billion in a round led by Koch Equity Development and Golden Gate Capital.
Rubrik, a US-based enterprise data management company, raised USD 261 million in a Series E round including Bain Capital Ventures.
DMI Finance, an India-based lender, secured USD 230 million from New Investment Solutions.
Bold Commerce, a Canada-based company providing an ecommerce software platform, raised CDN 22 million in a Series A round.
Capify, a UK-based alternative lender, scored GBP 75 million from Goldman Sachs.
Singapore life, a Singapore-based insurtech, secured USD 13 million from Aberdeen Standard Investments.
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Research
Get comfortable outside your comfort zone
by Accenture & Oxford Economics
Surveying technology executives across the financial services sector, this study uncovers the sentiment of retail banking towards technological adoption in finance. The predominant issues facing retail banking are seamless integration and compliance-based concerns, but respondents concede that such digitisation is necessary to remain competitive amidst incoming fintech and non-payments sector firms. Read more
Venture Capital Report
by Dow Jones
Overviewing the fourth quarter of 2018, this report quantifies European venture capital highlighting a strong finish to the year for M&A's, closing as the third best year on record. It also underlines the unabashed investment perception towards the UK amidst Brexit drama, as they received the "lion's share" of VC investment in the last quarter. Read more
A Review into the Merits of Open Banking
by Department of Finance Canada
This paper reviews the benefits and risks of open banking implementation in Canada with the luxury of oversight across Europe. Unveiling the multitude of benefits for consumers, businesses and financial service providers alike, the culmination asks whether this is worth the added cybersecurity and privacy protection breach risks. Read more
Advice Initial Coin Offerings and Crypto-Assets
by ESMA
Aiming to conquer regulatory uncertainty in crypto-assets, this advisory report propagates a tech-agnostic approach to asset classification and regulation. It also discusses how existing crypto-assets could be classified under MFiD, tabling the risk exposure of those that do not clearly fall under existing regulatory protection. Read more
The economic impact of lending through funding circle
By Funding Circle
Overviewing the lending climate across the four markets Funding Circle operate in (UK, US, Germany, The Netherlands), this report tracks the success of their P2P lending platform against other alternative finance options and traditional finance. Noting the unaccommodating attitudes of banks towards small business, SMEs are looking more towards alternative finance than ever. Data also revealed jobs created, gross value added and taxes generated indirectly by the platform. Read more
Tech trends 2019
by Fleishman Hillard
Providing discussion points on the main technologies set for wide-scale adoption in 2019, this exploration unveils several tech trends that have the potential to disrupt businesses across a multitude of sectors, with many directly concerning finance services already. It earmarks the ways in which these technologies can disrupt and revolutionise business. Read more
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