Friday June 28, 2019 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
Digital bank Monzo doubles valuation to over £2bn in 8 months
As it launches in the US, Monzo has raised £113 million in new funding led by Y Combinator Continuity and existing investors, doubling its post-money valuation to over £2 billion.
https://www.ft.com/content/31527e48-9689-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229
P27 selects Mastercard as Nordic payment infrastructure partner
P27, the Nordic bank owned payments consortium has selected Mastercard to provide the underlying infrastructure for its real-time, cross-border payment project.
JPMorgan Chase unveils flagship NYC branch amid nationwide brick-and-mortar expansion
As part of a broad expansion that will see 400 new branches in 20 markets, Chase unveiled its flagship NYC branch that according to CEO Jamie Dimon is designed as both a “branch and a community center.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-chase-flagship-midtown-manhattan-124826440.html
Citi’s new ‘Pay With Points’ feature lets ThankYou cardholders redeem points in real-time
Citi announced its new ‘Pay with Points’ feature that will let Citi customers with certain cards to redeem points in real-time via the bank’s mobile app with the redemption showing up as a statement credit.
Banking giant JP Morgan clicks on stake in Jenkins’s 10x venture
Chase is reportedly close to investing in UK based 10x Future Technologies, which develops technology platforms underpinning digital banking operations.
https://news.sky.com/story/banking-giant-jp-morgan-clicks-on-stake-in-jenkins-10x-venture-11749482
InComm and American Express Expand Partnership to Canada
InComm and Amex have announced the extension of their partnership whereby Incomm will become the distributor, program manager, and processor for single load Amex prepaid cards in Canada.
Visa Unveils Installment Payment Capabilities to Give Shoppers Simple and Flexible Way to Pay
Visa is piloting an installment lending capability with a set of international issuers and merchants that will let Visa cardholders pay for their purchases using equal monthly installments vs. charging them to the revolving credit line.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/visa-unveils-installment-payment-capabilities-110000356.html
CaixaBank, Global Payments and Ingenico invest EUR5 million in startup programme
CaixaBank, Global Payments, and Ingenico have joined together to launch ‘Zone2boost’, an international innovation program aimed at identifying and nurturing promising fintech startups.
Singapore to Issue New Digital Banking Licenses to Non-Banks
Singapore is planning on issuing five new digital banking licenses to non-banks; two to companies serving the retail sector and three to companies serving SMB’s.
David Solomon says Goldman Sachs is looking into using blockchain to digitize assets
Speaking to the French newspaper Les Echos, Goldman’s CEO said that the bank is conducting “extensive research on tokenization” and he believes the future of payments systems is bound to live on blockchain.
