The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest international fintech stories. In this Tuesday’s edition, we feature the latest moves across the industry, plus plans for a financial super app.
Collaborations & partnerships
Mastercard and TransferWise say they are making it faster, cheaper and easier to move money around the world after expanding their partnership. TransferWise currently partners with Mastercard across the European Economic Area, US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, with Japan due to launch later this year. As a result, the fintech can issue cards in any world market where Mastercard is accepted and TransferWise is licensed.
Challenger bank Lunar is joining the Nordic API Gateway roster of Nordic banks. In the coming months, multi-banking features and payments across Denmark, Sweden and Norway will be activated by Lunar. It says the open banking partnership is part of its ambition to create a ‘financial super app’.
To accelerate joint innovations, Nutanix and Intel are collaborating on a ‘first-of-its-kind joint innovation lab’. The Nutanix-Intel Joint Innovation Lab will dedicate both products and engineering resources to developing new Intel technologies on Nutanix architecture.
Meanwhile, fintech Paysend is hooking up with Alipay – China’s largest mobile payments business – to offer a cross-border money transfer. Paysend says the partnership is significant because it will create a more inclusive and accessible global money transfer market.
This week’s movers
Ismet Geri is the new CEO of Veridium, the digital identity platform. Geri – who takes over from James Stickland – will be responsible for driving growth of the biometric authentication business. Chiefly, he will lead the company’s expansion into Europe and the US.
Toasting the appointment of a prominent set of experts to its board, Egypt’s Prime FinTech says it plans to be the financing partner of choice for Egyptians. Independent board member Zeinab Hashim is a prominent banker with an extensive career of senior positions at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), National Bank of Egypt, Attijariwafa Bank Egypt, in addition to several management positions at Citibank in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Gabon and Jordan.
Zumo, the cryptocurrency wallet and exchange platform, has appointed its first chief operating officer in response to a surge in value of Bitcoin and interest in cryptocurrency platforms. Zumo says Dagmara Aldridge, who joins from digital payments firm CashFlows, will bring crucial knowledge of change delivery to the company.
Finally, Phil Glover has been named global head of sales at The Bayesian Group, the global digital asset fintech initiative. He joins from crypto exchange OKEx, where he managed institutional business development efforts for both Europe and the US.
The Bayesian Group’s use of data, sophisticated algorithms, and competitive pricing puts them right at the top of the class when it comes to digital asset trading.
Industry developments & announcements
European challenger acquirer Cashflows has unveiled a revamped brand and customer proposition to coincide with the launch of its omnichannel platform and proprietary payment gateway. In addition, the company has connected and simplified its payment acceptance within the Cashflows Go platform.
While Bank of America has expanded its mobile wallet capabilities for corporate clients in EMEA and APAC. Now, they are able to use Apple Pay and Google Pay to make and manage card purchases.
King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has approved Saudi Arabia’s artificial intelligence strategy. The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority says AI will propel the country’s economy. Meanwhile, Fintech Saudi says the fintech industry is flourishing in Saudi Arabia – take look at our overview of the key developments in Saudi.
And… there’s a ‘remarkable opportunity’ for UK’s female entrepreneurs to learn how to break into the US market. Founders of trailblazing, UK-based, female-led companies are encouraged to apply to US-based Project W’s Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp (WEB), a programme supported by the Department for International Trade. The initiative is recruiting candidates interested in learning how to scale their companies, break into the US market, and win Series A funding.
The final whistle
So, Paris Saint-Germain failed to add the elusive Champions League trophy to its silverware, but it’s not all doom and gloom. More importantly, $PSG, the PSG Fan Token, has seen its price quadruple on sports exchange Chiliz since listed in February!
