Another acquisition by Visa, another fintech SPAC starts trading and Square Banking highlight another busy news week in fintech. We also saw the release of a new bitcoin rewards card and bad news for one of the leading crypto lenders while across the pond Starling demonstrated that you can be profitable as a digital bank. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Visa acquires Currencycloud, which makes APIs for remittances and currency transfers, in a $963M deal from TechCrunch – Visa announced their second big acquisition in Europe in as many months as the payments leader looks to ramp up its cross border remittances capability.

Fintech OppFi goes public as CEO looks to alleviate America’s emergency savings drought from CNBC – OppFi closed their SPAC transaction and started trading this week on the New York Stock Exchange as the year of going public continues for fintech.

Billionaire Jack Dorsey’s Square Launches A Small Business Checking Account from Forbes – Ron Shevlin gives us his take on the new Square checking account that was launched this week called Square Banking and while he is generally positive on the move, he thinks they may struggle to dominate small business banking.

The new Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card pays 1.5% back in bitcoin with no annual fee, and anyone can apply from Business Insider – There has been a lot of movement in bitcoin rewards cards this year but those that have been announced are only in limited release. Upgrade beats the rest of the industry to the punch with a card available to everyone, pitching it as an onramp to crypto.

BlockFi’s interest product draws scrutiny from Alabama, Texas regulators from The Block – It has been a bad week for BlockFi. It started with a cease and desist from the New Jersey attorney general and then Alabama and Texas jumped into the fray. The issue is that these states believe BlockFi’s core product, the interest account, is a security.

Starling Banks’s 2021 results see 600% jump in revenues and 8 months of profitability from AltFi – Starling Bank released results through March 31 and they continue to do well. They are the only digital bank in the UK that seems to have turned the corner on profitability.

i80 Group has quietly committed $1B in credit to the fintech and proptech worlds from TechCrunch – The debt capital space for startups continues to evolve with one of the largest players now being i80 having funded more than $1 billion funded now.

Blockchain start-ups raised a record $4.4 billion in the second quarter despite the slump in crypto prices from CNBC – More analysis from CB Insights shows it was a good funding quarter for blockchain focused startups.

India considering phased roll out of central bank digital currency from TechCrunch – The deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India said this week that the country has studied the risks and will be moving forward with their plan to roll out their CBDC in phases.

How Tech Won the Pandemic and Now May Never Lose from The New York Times – Tech-centric companies from many industries, including fintech, have grown rapidly during the past 18 months, setting themselves up for a dominant future.

Robinhood dominated the news this week with two big stories happening on consecutive days: a record FINRA fine and then releasing their S-1 in preparation for their IPO. JPMorgan continues to acquire fintechs and Chime extends its lead as the most popular digital bank. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Robinhood has 18 million accounts with $80 billion in assets after rapid growth, IPO filing shows from CNBC – In what could well be the biggest fintech IPO ever Robinhood filed their S-1 with the SEC this week so everyone gets to pore over their numbers now.

Robinhood Agrees to Pay $70 Million to Settle Regulatory Investigation from The Wall Street Journal – In their largest fine ever, FINRA agreed to settle with Robinhood for almost $70 million for allegations that the brokerage misled customers, approved ineligible traders for risky strategies and didn’t supervise technology that failed and locked millions out of trading.

JPMorgan is buying an ESG investing platform in bank’s third fintech acquisition of the past year from CNBC – JPMorgan acquires OpenInvest one of the leading fintech companies in the ESG investing space.

Chime leads digital-first banking apps in downloads in H1 2021 from Insider Intelligence – Chime continues to crush it with 6.4 million new downloads in the first half of the year, Current was second with 2.7 million and Varo third with 1.95 million.

TD Bank introduces no overdraft-fee account, revises overdraft policy from Banking Dive – TD Bank has been one of the largest beneficiaries of overdrafts fees (as a percentage of non-interest income) but they recently announced a new no-overdraft deposit account.

Walmart’s Money Card Is Now A Checking Account: Does It Matter? from Forbes – Ron Shevlin takes a deep dive into Walmart’s debit card turned full featured checking account and wonders if it is going to be a competitive threat to banks or fintechs.

Goldman Sachs is beefing up in buy now, pay later with partnership and strategy hires from Business Insider – Goldman Sachs’ BNPL product, MarcusPay has been out for a while with JetBlue as the only high profile client but that could be set to change as the company looks to beef up it executive ranks for the product.

Fintechs seek CFPB guidance on making AI-based lending fair from American Banker – Affirm, LendingClub, Oportun, PayPal, Square and Varo Bank sent a letter to the CFPB this week seeking clarity on disparate impact of AI-based lending.

Former Zillow execs raise $70M seed round for Tomo, which wants to simplify the mortgage process from TechCrunch – It was a quiet week on the fundraising front with Tomo leading the way with what they a calling a $70 million seed round. Really? Sounds like a Series A to me…

Kikoff raises $30M for its hybrid consumer-credit and financial-literacy service from TechCrunch – Kikoff came out a stealth mode this week announcing that they have closed on a $30 million Series B and had previously closed $12.5 million in seed/Series A funding.

This week we have M&A, a negative ruling in Washington, big fundraising rounds (of course), digital currency news and more. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Visa to buy Swedish fintech Tink for $2.1 billion after abandoning Plaid takeover from CNBC – They couldn’t get the deal done with Plaid so Visa went to Europe to acquire the leader in open banking there. Tink connects with 3,400 banks that reach 250 million customers across Europe.

House passes bill to repeal OCC ‘true lender’ rule from The Hill – It was inevitable, after passing the Senate last month, but it was still sad to see a commonsense rule that helps consumers, get lumped in with payday lending and defeated in the House this week.

Dutch payments startup Mollie raises another $800M at a $6.5B valuation from TechCrunch – The biggest fintech round of the week goes to Dutch payments startup Mollie that raised €665 million ($800 million) in equity at a €5.4 billion ($6.5 billion) valuation, led by Blackstone Growth.

Fintech Unicorn Upgrade Eyes New Funding at $3 Billion Valuation from Bloomberg – Renaud Laplanche’s Upgrade is looking to raise a fresh round of financing that will see its valuation triple to $3 billion (significantly more than the current valuation of the first fintech company he founded, LendingClub).

Central bank digital currencies get full BIS backing from Reuters – The Bank of International Settlements is going all-in on digital currencies saying the train has left the station. It says that central banks need to embrace digital currencies before big tech dominates digital money.

How neobank Dave hit 10 million users in four years from American Banker – With Dave in the process of going public in a merger with Victory Park’s SPAC, Penny Crosman takes a deep dive into the neobank that is quietly become a force in digital banking.

Blend Labs Cofounder Nima Ghamsari Given Potential $10.9 Billion Incentive Pay Package from Forbes – It looks like fintech could have its own Elon Musk with a massive incentive package on the table for Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari revealed in their S-1 filing.

Latam Fintech Nubank Said to be Planning an IPO in the US from Crowdfund Insider – The leading fintech company in Latin America, fresh off their $750 million equity round, is apparently in talks with investment banks to go public in the US late this year or early 2022.

German fintech rivals Deposit Solutions and Raisin merge to form Raisin DS – a European champion with global ambitions from EU-Startups – Two of the leading German fintechs are merging, creating a savings giant that already has a foothold in the US and markets across Europe.

Pioneering Data Analytics Firm PeerIQ Acquired by Cross River from LendIt Fintech News – PeerIQ broke new ground when it came to risk and analytics tools for the online lending space, expanding to offer similar services to community banks. Now, it will become part of the Cross River family after the announcement of the acquisition this past week.

This week we had a bit of everything. A big bank acquisition of a fintech, a fintech buying a bank, the almost obligatory weekly announcement of another fintech going public, a mega-round for a Brazilian fintech and a DeFi implosion. It was an interesting week. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

JPMorgan Buys Nutmeg to Bolster Digital Banking Push in U.K. from The Wall Street Journal – JPMorgan has said they are starting a digital bank in the UK and now they have made a reported £1 billion acquisition of the UK’s leading digital wealth manager.

Wise announces plans to go public via direct listing from TechCrunch – Wise, formerly TransferWise, has chosen London over New York as they look to become a public company.

Brazilian Cross-Border Unicorn Ebanx Raises $430 Million From Advent, Gears Up For US IPO from Forbes – The biggest fintech fundraising round of the week went to the Brazilian cross-border payments company Ebanx, raising $430 million as LatAm continues to the hottest fintech region on the planet.

Inside the New Cross River Bank Venture Arm from LendIt Fintech News – Cross River Bank has been at the center of fintech innovation for more than a decade and now they will be taking an even more active role as they become an equity investor.

Kabbage Adds Digital Checking to Platform from Crowdfund Insider – While Kabbage initially announced this product back in July of last year, the Amex acquisition obviously pushed back the timeline, but the feature set looks to have remained in place.

Overdraft Fees: Will Big Banks Ditch Them for Good? from The Financial Brand – Overdraft fees are a pet peeve of mine and we had more movement from large banks this week. This is a good summary of where we stand today.

On approval from OCC, payments platform Adyen lands bank charter from FinLedger – I have to admit, I had never heard of a Federal Foreign Branch License until this week but Dutch payments giant Adyen now has one to allow the company to offer banking services to their US clients.

Iron Finance’s Titan Token Falls to Near Zero in DeFi Panic Selling from CoinDesk – Without doubt this is the biggest implosion in the short history of DeFi as Iron Finance’s TITAN token went from $65 on Wednesday to less than one-thousandth of a cent on Thursday. Not a good look for an industry that is trying to gain in credibility.

Plaid, Visa, and the best fintech deal that never happened from Fortune – If you have been waiting for a deep dive into the Plaid-Visa divorce then be sure to pull up a chair this weekend and dig into this excellent in-depth piece on the saga.

Credijusto bought Finterra and makes history as the first fintech owner of a bank in Mexico from Entrepreneur – We have seen a handful of fintechs do it here but Mexican small business lender, Credijusto, is the first fintech in Mexico to buy a bank.

The trend of fintech companies going public is becoming a flood. Several fintechs announced this week intentions to go public alongside many that have already signaled their intentions. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Fintech Startup Acorns to Go Public in $2 Billion SPAC Deal from The Wall Street Journal – SPACs are still alive and well in fintech with the savings and investing startup Acorns taking the plunge in a $2.2 billion deal.

Aspiration, Backed by DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom, Weighs an IPO from Bloomberg – With the green digital bank’s customer base doubling to 4 million in the past year and ESG top of mind for so many people Aspiration is considering taking the plunge into the public markets.

Fintech Unicorn Stash Is Weighing Options for Going Public from Bloomberg – Rounding out our trifecta of public markets news is Stash, who have hired Goldman Sachs to explore the different options to become a public company.

SoftBank is backing buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna in funding round that values it at over $40 billion from CNBC – Yes, Klarna just raised $1 billion at a $31 billion valuation in March but somehow the BNPL leader is reportedly raising more money at an even higher valuation now.

Visa: Putting $105 Billion Of FinTech Investment To Work For Banks from PYMNTS.com – Visa launched its Visa Fintech Partner Connection marketplace in Europe in November last year to help match fintechs with incumbents and is now rolling this out to the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa.

Square Takes Aim at JPMorgan With Checking, Savings Accounts from Bloomberg – Digging in to the code of Square’s new iPhone and iPad apps Bloomberg discovered support for both checking and savings accounts, not a big surprise given their new bank started operations in March.

Fed’s Lael Brainard pushes digital dollar as central bank currency race heats up from CNBC – Fed Governor Lael Brainard gave a speech at Consensus this week discussing the benefits of a digital currency saying it could help get money to people more quickly and bring the underbanked into the financial system (full text of the speech is here).

PayPal Wants To Be A Super App from Forbes – Ron Shevlin gives his opinion of PayPal CEO Dan Schulman’s plans to make PayPal a super app similar to what exists in China, arguing that the US will not embrace super apps and they should focus on building out their merchant platform.

Coinbase crypto partner Circle raises $440 million from Fidelity and others from Fortune – Crypto startup Circle has raised $440 million from Fidelity and others in one of the largest rounds ever for crypto and it is also eyeing the public markets.

These are the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50 companies from CNBC – CNBC is out with their annual list of the most disruptive companies in tech with fintech taking five of the top eight places, led by Robinhood.

This week was all about funding rounds and IPOs. Four of our top 10 articles are for funding rounds (could have easily added more here) and we have Marqeta’s upcoming IPO, SoFi will start trading soon and Robinhood will be giving its investors access to IPOs. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Marqeta S1 Deep Dive from Fintech Today – Much was written this week about the coming Marqeta IPO but this in-depth piece in Fintech Today was my favorite read on the topic.

Goldman Sachs hires Uber tech executive to run consumer bank after string of defections from CNBC – After a flurry of departures from Marcus, Goldman has hired a new lead from Uber to take over from Omer Ismail who left in February.

Pipe, “NASDAQ for revenue,” reaches $2B valuation with $250M investment from FinLedger – One of the biggest funding rounds this week was this $250 million round from Pipe, a fintech company that launched less than a year ago.

Cagney’s Figure Valued at $3.2 Billion in Latest Funding Round from Bloomberg – Figure closed on a $200 million Series D that values the blockchain-based fintech company at $3.2 billion.

Payments Fintech DailyPay, which Provides On-Demand Pay Solutions to Firms, Secures $500M in Capital from Crowdfund Insider – The earned wage access space continues to heat up with DailyPay closing a $175 million equity round as well as $325 million in debt.

Amount raises a $99M Series D to help banks compete with fintech startups from FinLedger – Amount is now officially a unicorn after raising a $99 million Series D led by WestCap.

Bank regulators grilled on climate efforts, ILCs, ‘true lenders’ from American Banker – The heads of the OCC, FDIC, NCUA and Fed Vice Chairman Randal Quarles all appeared in a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week.

The Fed this summer will take another step in developing a digital currency from CNBC – This summer the Federal Reserve will release a research paper on digital currencies working in conjunction with the Bank for International Settlements.

Robinhood to allow users to buy into IPOs, ahead of its own market debut from Reuters – The company that democratized stock investing is launching a new product called IPO Access to allow their investors to participate in IPOs, including its own coming up soon.

SoFi Expected to Trade on Nasdaq on June 1st in SPAC Merger from Crowdfund Insider – The much anticipated SoFi SPAC merger should be completed on May 28 with the company starting to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol SOFI on June 1st.

In honor of Earth Day this week we start off with two stories focused on climate change. Of course, there is M&A news, financing news, news from big banks and a deep dive into the design philosophy of Robinhood. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Citi, Bank of America join global push to curb emissions from American Banker – The Net-Zero Banking Alliance is a group of 43 banks, including Citi, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, focused on aligning financing activities with the goals of the Paris climate accord.

From pink to green: Klarna unveils carbon footprint tracking for customers from AltFi – Klarna is partnering with Doconomy to raise awareness of the carbon footprint of the products available for payment via the Klarna app.

Mastercard purchases identity verification company Ekata from FinLedger – Mastercard has made another significant fintech acquisition, acquiring Ekata for $850 million, its sixth acquisition of more than $100 million.

Clearbanc rebrands its way into a unicorn from TechCrunch – Clearbanc has rebranded to Clearco, at the same time announcing a $100 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation, as it seeks to move beyond providing capital.

The Apple Card’s new feature tackles one of credit’s biggest problems from Fast Company – Apple announced Apple Card Family this week allowing users to share an Apple Card with a family member including children (for a contrarian take read Timothy Li’s piece in Crowdfund Insider).

Alphabet’s CapitalG leads $40 million round in fintech Mantl from TechCrunch – MANTL calls itself the “Shopify of account opening” promising to make it easy for community banks and credit unions to open accounts digitally and they have just raised a $40 million Series B.

Goldman Sachs replenishes top ranks of consumer bank division from Reuters – After several high profile departures from their consumer bank Goldman Sachs announces new additions to its senior executive ranks.

Revolut plans “multi-million-pound” Indian expansion under new CEO Paroma Chatterjee from AltFi – Leading UK-based digital bank Revolut has its sights set on the Indian market with a new local CEO and a commitment to hire 300 people there.

Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force from CNBC – Large banks see central bank digital currencies as the next big financial disruptor despite the Federal Reserve’s cautious approach.

How Robinhood Made Trading Easy—and Maybe Even Too Hard to Resist from Bloomberg – Really interesting read on the design principles behind Robinhood and why it became so popular.

This week was mostly about Coinbase. The leading crypto exchange went public via a direct listing and provided a seminal moment in the history of crypto. And we had lots of big news from the big banks. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.

Coinbase’s Public Listing Is a Cryptocurrency Coming-Out Party from The New York Times – With Coinbase now a public company it brings bitcoin and crypto into the mainstream.

The World Is Watching as Coinbase Goes Public from Coindesk – There are other companies waiting in the wings to see how the Coinbase listing plays out.

How Payment Processor Stripe Became Silicon Valley’s Hottest Startup from The Wall Street Journal – This number says it all: more than 500,000 businesses became Stripe customers during the pandemic as business migrated online.

Buy bank stocks after Citi, Goldman Sachs, BoA and JPMorgan earnings wowed, says this research group from MarketWatch – The big banks kicked off earnings season this week with some record numbers.

PNC’s ‘low cash mode’ gives users 24-hour overdraft buffer from Banking Dive – This is one of the first products I have seen from a big bank that actively tries to reduce the amount of overdraft fees charged to their customers.

JPMorgan Chase poached a top Marcus exec along with key hires from Wells Fargo and Google to support a ‘huge agenda’ for digital banking from Business Insider – Yet another senior exec has jumped ship from Marcus and JPMorgan is the beneficiary this time as they look to beef up their digital banking efforts.

Trustly CEO Hints at Dual U.S. Listing After Stockholm IPO from Bloomberg – Another fintech unicorn is going public as Swedish digital payments firm is looking to go public soon at a $9 billion valuation.

ConsenSys raises $65M from JP Morgan, Mastercard, UBS to build infrastructure for DeFi from TechCrunch – Blockchain tech leader ConsenSys has raised $65 million from some of the leaders in traditional finance.

Latin America’s Fintech Boom from Andreessen Horowitz – Great rundown by the leading fintech VC on why Latin America is probably the most exciting region in the world right now for fintech.

How Fintechs Are Rewriting the Rules Of Credit from Forbes – A look at how one new fintech company, Esusu, is helping bring credit to underserved communities.