FinTechs

Payments giants and fintech startups in India on Saturday requested the central bank to treat widely used prepaid payment instruments on par with bank accounts for customers who have undertaken certain verifications, days after the monetary authority signalled industry-wide crackdown. The Payments Council of India, a unit of influential industry body IAMAI, said in a letter to the Reserve Bank of India that by treating prepaid payment instruments — prepaid purchasing cards and wallets –- as bank…

So you’re thinking of expanding your fintech company to another market? Congratulations, you’re in for an interesting ride. While 2022 has seen a slight slowdown in fintech investments, Q1 investments were still up 27% from Q1 2021. Even so, fintech giants like Klarna have laid off part of their staff in expectation of a more difficult future financial environment. This slowdown puts more pressure on fintechs to build resilience by expanding both in product and in markets, while keeping a…

Welcome to The Interchange, a take on this week’s fintech news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Greetings from Austin, Texas, where the temps have been over 100 degrees for days now and we’re trying hard just not to melt. The global funding boom in 2021 was unlike anything most of us have ever seen before. While countries all over the world saw surges in venture capital investments, Latin America in particular saw a massive bump in dollars invested. Unsurprisingly — with so many people in the…

Investment in fintech is slowing as worries around rising inflation and the prospect of higher interest rates have dented economic sentiment.Elena Noviello | Moment | Getty ImagesAMSTERDAM — Financial technology companies are putting IPO plans on hold and cutting expenses as fears of an impending recession cause a shift in how investors view the market.At the Money 20/20 conference in Amsterdam, bosses of major fintech players sounded the alarm about the impact of a deteriorating macroeconomic climate on fundraising and…

In this weekly series, CNBC takes a look at companies that made the inaugural Disruptor 50 list, 10 years later.A decade ago, the idea that an investment industry customer preferred to never speak with a human being seemed questionable. But it was among the soundbites from the robo-advisory firm Wealthfront, which came to market with backing from elite Silicon Valley firms and financial industry luminary Burt Malkiel, author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," among its top executives.Wealthfront racked up some notable…

Nikolay Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut.Harry Murphy | Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty ImagesNot all fintech unicorns are cutting jobs.After Klarna announced plans to lay off 10% of its workforce Monday, some rival fintechs are making it clear that they have no intention of cutting jobs or freezing hiring.Revolut, the $33 billion digital banking start-up, said the company is "actively hiring," with over 250 open roles listed on its website.Meanwhile, Wise CEO Kristo Kaarmann said the London-based money transfer…

Finance seeps into the very fabric of our daily lives — for individuals and businesses alike, so it only seems fitting that banking and financial services keep up with the times and imbibe technology into most, if not all processes. There is also the fact that India is the third largest FinTech ecosystem in the world. Following suit only after the US and China, the Indian FinTech market–valued at $31 billion (roughly Rs. 2,40,600 crore) in 2021– is poised for a quantum leap. In the next five years, FinTech is expected to…