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Remitting it Forward

Firm to combine asset, wealth and consumer banking into one unit

Goldman Sachs Reorganization 

Coinbase, Google Cloud, MinePlex among deals

Crypto Still Has Fans...And Deals

Run on digital assets leads platforms to freeze user accounts, including withdrawals. Bankruptcy looms. 

The Big Chill in Crypto

Kard is a fintech business based in New York founded in 2015.  Kard develops and markets a rewards-as-a-service platform designed to enable card issuers to reward users for shopping brands and help merchants acquire customers and transactions.


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401(k) provider Fidelity aid it would give 23,000 employers the option to have employees add bitcoin and other crypto assets to their retirement savings.

Redefining Risk: Crypto and Retirement Savings

London financial services firm Ebury signed a deal to acquire Brazilian FinTech Bexs in a move to broaden Ebury’s offerings of global money transfer solutions for small- to medium-enterprises (SMEs).

London FinTech Ebury Expands Global Footprint with Bexs Acquisition

Swiss provider of banking software Temenos has launched ESG Investing-as-a-service, helping banks and wealth managers make use of sustainable investing. 

Temenos launches ESG Investing-as-a-Service

Crypto lender Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a week after halting withdrawals and two weeks after getting a $485 million bailout from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s firm Alameda Research.

Alameda Research now stands as Voyager’s biggest creditor with an outstanding loan of $75 million, according to multiple reports on Wednesday (July 6).

Voyager and its two affiliates, Voyager Digital LLC and Voyager Digital Holdings, filed Chapter 11 voluntarily in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York to restructure and “create a path” to resume operations and “return value to customers,” according to a press release. 

Crypto Lender Voyager Seeks Chapter 11 Protection

The co-founders of failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital appear to be on the run from creditors, according to court documents recently filed in New York.

Founders of Bankrupt Crypto Hedge Fund Three Arrows Capital Go Missing

Celsius Network, a large cryptocurrency lender filed for bankruptcy after freezing customer assets that led to increased customer redemptions following a decline in cryptocurrency values.

Crypto Lender Celsius Files for Bankruptcy 

Forsage claimed to be a decentralized smart contract platform built on the Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains allowing retail investors to earn profits by recruiting other investors.

SEC charges 11 people in alleged $300 million crypto Ponzi scheme

Global Payments announced plans to acquire EVO Payments today. EVO Payments provides payment technology and acquiring services solutions. 

Global Payments to buy EVO Payments for $4 billion 

Fintechs like Chime, Current, N26, Level, Step, Varo and Moven are partnering with banks in an effort to make younger consumers comfortable doing all their banking online

Most Fintechs Partner with Banks

Nasdaq Digital Assets will begin by developing a cryptocurrency custody solution that will bring together the “best attributes of hot and cold crypto wallets”

Nasdaq to Launch Crypto Custody Service

According to Crunchbase data, M&A activity targeting VC-backed crypto startups hit an all-time high in the first quarter of the year when 16 were announced. However, deal pace has reverted to barely a trickle, with just seven deals in the last nearly two full quarters.

Crypto M&A Slows to a Crawl

According to a news release, Billtrust, which has traded on the Nasdaq since going public last year, will become a private company upon the conclusion of the sale. Billtrust’s software helps businesses move from paper invoicing to a digital payments system and has more than 760 employees in seven countries. The company went public in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in 2021 and its shares hit their peak in the middle of February of last year before falling 73%. Recently, Billtrust reported quarterly results that showed the momentum of the accelerating trend toward automation and digitization in the B2B payments space.

B2B Payments Firm Billtrust Goes Private in $1.7B Deal 

Google will enable a subset of customers to pay for cloud services with bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The new payment method will go live early next year in a partnership with Coinbase. The exchange will migrate its data platform to Google Cloud.

Google to Accept Bitcoin, Crypto for Cloud Services in Coinbase Partnership

Headlines about losses and layoffs in FinTech are gathering to suggest market change through consolidation and merger. This year is seeing a big adjustment as FinTechs are experiencing a recession losing $850bn in value in the past year and laying off 7,300 staff between April and October 2022.  All technology sectors have been impacted in 2022 by the recession and contraction of spending, but FinTech is particularly vulnerable due to soaring costs, decreased transaction fee revenue, and declines in retail investing volumes. Global FinTech M&A saw a sharp rise in the first half of 2022 and will see massive consolidation through 2022 and 2023.

The FinTech Bloodbath

JPMorgan is piloting a platform it created for property owners and managers that automates the invoicing and receipt of online rent payments.  The majority of rent payments are still paid with checks.  JPMorgan sees the opportunity to leverage data and analytics for customers with rent rates, investments, and tenant screening.

JPMorgan Chase wants to disrupt the rent check with its payments platform for landlords and tenants

Banks looking to boost their digital capabilities reportedly may be taking a closer look at acquisitions of FinTechs as the valuations of FinTechs have fallen 70% this year.  The decline in FinTech valuations has been driven by the economic downturn, rising interest rates, and lower investor confidence after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In addition, banks earnings have increased as their lending business benefits from rising interest rates, and it’s easier for banks to buy FinTechs than to merge with other banks because the latter involves more regulatory scrutiny.

FinTech Winter May Lead Banks to Increase Acquisitions 

Small to midsized businesses (SMBs) are investing in new tools, including payment solutions to explore the size and scale of the opportunity for SMB retail and how merchants can drive growth with new payment technologies. Retailers are chasing of seamless payment experiences including buy now, pay later and considering new payment options for payment technologies that can streamline payment experience and help achieve scale for their businesses.  

Small Business Survival May Hinge on Digital Payment Features

Blockchain payments company, Centbee, announced that it has closed its pre-Series A round with entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, founder of Ayre Ventures which first invested in Centbee in 2019. Centbee has a suite of digital cash products and services that make payments easy, even cross-border.  Centbee was founded by co-CEOs, Lorien Gamaroff and Angus Brown both of which has significant experience in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. 

Global Blockchain Payments Wallet, Centbee, Raises $1 Million Pre-Series a Funding from Ayre Ventures

Australian payments processor Till Payments is shedding 40% of its workforce, joining the long line of fintechs which have been forced to cut staff in the wake of over-ambitious quick-scale growth strategies. The firm has pointed to high inflation and tough global economic conditions for the downsizing.

Till Payments to cut 120 staff

Chinese billionaire and founder of Ant Group Jack Ma will be giving up his control of the fintech firm. Ant Group’s shareholders have agreed to carry out a restructuring process that will see Ma give up most of his voting rights, according to the statement.

Jack Ma to cede control of Chinese fintech Ant Group

Moneyhub, founded in 2014, creates software for open banking, open finance, and open data applications announced it received an additional $18.2 million (£15 million) investment from savings and retirement business Phoenix Group. The funding round is a follow-on to the recent $48.6 million (£40 million) Moneyhub received in October 2022 which was led by Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group led that round, contributing $42.4 million (£35 million), and Shawbrook Bank. Moneyhub’s total funding now adds up to $81.6 million.. 

Moneyhub Raises $18.2 Million, Completing $66.8 Million Funding Round

Global payments platform for digital A2A transactions, Trustly, has announced a new strategic partnership with Sweden-based platform for savings and investments, Nordnet. The partnership will allow pay-ins via Trustly across the Nordic countries, making it possible for Nordnet customers to easily and securely deposit funds, benefitting from an improved user experience throughout the process.

Trustly, Nordnet partner to enable pay-ins for retailer investors

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a new rule to ban excessive credit card late fees. Congress banned excessive fees in 2009, but the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued actions to circumvent the law, the CFPB said.  The CFPB rule proposed Wednesday would lower the amount consumers can owe for late fees under the immunity provision to $8 from as much as $41, end the automatic annual inflation adjustment for the provision and cap late fees at 25% of the minimum payment owed by the cardholder. The new rule could potentially reduce excessive late fees by as much as $9 billion per year.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau targets excessive credit card fees in new rule proposal

Fidelity National Information Services, known as FIS, has cut 2,600 workers as part of a strategic review of the business. The job cuts, which were made in recent weeks, amount to about 2% of the FIS workforce, according to an unnamed source for the report, and included 1,000 eliminated contractor jobs.

FIS sheds 2,600 employees: report

Payment process Fidelity National Information Services, known as FIS, said Monday that it will spin off its merchant services business to create two separate publicly-traded companies with the new entity reclaiming its former name, Worldpay.  FIS is making the major moves to break apart the company and squeeze savings out of the operations after two activist shareholders, D.E. Shaw and Jana Partners, made investments in the company last year. Worldpay will be more likely to pursue acquisitions as a result of the plan to spin off the company. 

FIS plans to spin off merchant unit

Nomura's digital assets subsidiary, Laser Digital, has invested in Infinity, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for institutional lending and borrowing. Infinity offers an interest rate protocol that forms the basis for benchmark rates and institutional-grade lending, borrowing, and risk management in DeFi. Infinity’s wholesale exchange provides inter-exchange clearing, fixed and floating rate markets, as well as enterprise-grade risk management utilising hybrid on-chain/off-chain infrastructures.

Nomura invests in 'Hybrid Finance' startup Infinity

Cryptocurrency prices fell on Friday as investors weighed the latest financial woes at Silvergate Capital and assessed what a potential bankruptcy at the crypto bank could mean for the broader crypto industry.The drop came late Thursday night, hours after several crypto companies said they’d stopped accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate – including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Circle, Paxos and Bitstamp. Silvergate, which has become the go-to bank for cryptocurrency businesses, gave notice Wednesday that it won’t meet an extended deadline to file its annual report and warned it may not be able to operate for another 12 months. 

Bitcoin, ether slide on Friday as investors weigh potential fallout from Silvergate woes

Purpose-driven payment platform, Sezzle, today announced its intent to list its shares of common stock for trading on the Nasdaq Global Market. The proposed listing on the Nasdaq Global Market is expected to be conducted pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

Sezzle to list on Nasdaq

Half of all fintech firms have put a stop to hiring staff in 2023 because of the challenging economic climate, according to a major new report. During the first half of 2022, over 4,000 fintech employees lost their roles across 45 companies, from mortgage lenders to firms processing digital payments, further highlighting the impact challenging financial times are having on a sector.  With a global recession looming, the development of financial software and the evolution of fintech innovations will have a larger impact on consumers than ever in 2023. 

Half of all fintech firms introduce hiring freeze

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Kard is a fintech business based in New York founded in 2015.

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