Friday December 6, 2019 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
The 2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
The Fed released the 2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the fifth in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior; results show that in October 2018, consumers made more payments with debit cards than with any other payment instrument (28% of payments), followed by cash at 26%, and credit cards at 23%.
Zopa gets £140m investment amid pursuit of bank licence
British P2P lender Zopa has secured a £140m investment from IAG Capital allowing it to fulfill the capital and regulatory requirements to become a full bank; Zopa had received a provisional banking license last year.
https://www.ft.com/content/fc3833c0-15e4-11ea-8d73-6303645ac406
Corporate America Credit Union Becomes Funding Agent for the RTP® Network
Corporate America Credit Union (CACU) has become a Funding Agent for The Clearing House’s RTP® network allowing member credit unions to efficiently manage their liquidity on the network at a lower cost; CACU is working with VSoft Corporation to facilitate the sending and receiving of faster payments transactions for its member credit unions.
Rapyd raises another $20m
Rapyd, UK headquartered global fintech-as-a-service provider has received a $20 million investment from Durable Capital Partners LP bringing its total funding to date to $180 million; Rapyd’s cloud-based technology platform helps businesses quickly integrate fintech and payment capabilities into any commerce application enabling local and cross-border expansion.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/80822/rapyd-raises-another-20m/startups
SoftBank pours $100M into Mexico’s Konfio
Sofbank has led a $100 million investment into Mexican SMB lender Konfio that uses a data-first approach to enable fast credit assessment of SMB’s with funds disbursement in one day; other companies joining Softbank in the investment round included QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures and Vostok Emerging Finance.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/03/softbank-pours-100-million-into-mexicos-konfio/
MoneyGram Expands Cross Border P2P service with Visa Direct
MoneyGram has announced the expansion of its debit card deposit service internationally to Spain and the Philippines; the service is offered in collaboration with Visa through Visa’s real-time push payments platform, Visa Direct.
The Federal Reserve Joins the U.S. Faster Payments Council as Founding Sponsor
The Federal Reserve System has joined the US Faster Payments Council (FPC) as a founding sponsor and will be actively working with the FPC on faster payments initiatives, including the FedNow Service.
https://www.frbservices.org/news/press-releases/120519-us-faster-payments-council.html
Figure Raises $103M in Series C Funding
Figure Technologies, Inc. a blockchain technology consumer lending company, closed a $103 million Series C funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital at a $1.2 billion valuation; Figure started with home equity loans and has recently expanded to student loan refinancing and mortgage products.
http://www.finsmes.com/2019/12/figure-raises-103m-in-series-c-funding.html
Digital bank Chime quadruples valuation in less than a year to $5.8 billion as it takes on megabanks
Chime, the largest of the US digital-only banks has raised $500 million in a Series E round and will use the money to continue on its expansion which could potentially include acquisitions; Chime reports about 6.5 million accounts.
Grab lets Southeast Asians shop globally with Mastercard deal
Grab, a Singapore-based ride sharing, fintech and food delivery app, has launched the GrabPay Card, a Mastercard branded prepaid card that will enable Grab users to pay for purchases with their GrabPay e-wallet balance at merchants anywhere in the world that accept Mastercard; the card wil be launched in Singapore followed by the Philippines.
Canadians rapidly adopting new payments channels
According to the recently released Canadian Payments Methods and Trends report from Payments Canada, there is continued rapid migration of payments from paper to electronic payment forms; between 2013 and 2018 cash/checks declined from 42% of payment transactions to 24.2% accompanied by strong growth in debit and credit card transactions.
https://www.payments.ca/about-us/news/canadians-rapidly-adopting-new-payments-channels
Consumer Credit in U.S. Rises More Than Forecast in October
According to the Fed, consumer credit increased by $18.9 billion to $4.16 trillion; revolving credit increased at an annual rate of 8.75% to $1.08 trillion while nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 4.25% to $3.08 trillion.
