Fintech News Issue #291 November 19th, 2020

This week on Breaking Banks, Brett King is joined by Jo Ann Barefoot in the co-host chair as they speak with The Lord Mayor of London William Russell about the incredible VC and FinTech scene happening in the UK. The Lord Mayor discusses the impact that regtech has had on the industry and the Green Finance Initiative, aiming to make London the world leader in green finance. Then stayed tuned for another installment of Women in Fintech, a Breaking Banks initiative with host Chloe James. Chloe chats with Katie Palencsar Venture Studio Lead at Anthemis and Eli Polanco, Founder of Nivelo, about a recent report published by Anthemis, Empowering Female Founders – Moving from a Vicious Cycle to a Virtuous Cycle. Our guests reveal the difference between talk and action and discuss what TRUE change really looks like.

Now, like most of us, I’ve done some reading about banking, and I’ve been inside quite a few banks. But from all I’d seen up to this point, I had the impression that everyone in banks worked out front with the customers — either taking in money or handing it out, either paying interest or charging it. This, plus checking accounts, seemed to be it. Which meant that all that anybody in a bank did was add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Jenny Xia Spradling, the co-founder of Free Will, recounts her journey, why she walked away from her first startup, and how her new big venture has enabled over $1 billion of donations to nonprofits

Five Red Flags From Inside Wirecard

When John Hibbs’ daughter Xanthe received her first bank card in the mail, the six-year-old spent the next week Googling how to buy a horse.

It will include tap-to-pay, peer-to-peer, personal finance aggregation, customizable deals, and even full banking services

African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital with participation of Bezos Expeditions — the personal VC fund of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The UK's Financial Services Authority has issued a warning to would-be investors in Lanistar, a much-hyped fintech startup aiming for a £1 billion valuation, stating that the firm is providing services or products without authorisation.

Independent fintech expert Marcel van Oost compares two leading neobanks with two incumbents, one pair in the US and one pair in the UK, to see what room there is for mutual disruption.

Market manipulation is one of the main concerns the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has cited in rejecting a number of bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications.

Italian mobile payments outfit Satispay has raised €93 million in funding from a share sale to a clutch of international investors, including Square, Tencent, LGT LIghtsone and TIM Ventures.

The role of market infrastructures (MIs) in Europe came under scrutiny to begin day two of Swift's Community Update - Focus on Europe live virtual event.