The hottest Fintech Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

Going cashless in Nigeria: How startups are digitizing payments in the country's trickiest verticals

Afridigest • 15 implied HN points • 02 Mar 24
💼 Business Payments Fintech Economics Startups
  1. Nigeria is a leading fintech hub in Africa, receiving a significant amount of funding in the sector since 2022.
  2. Despite fintech activity, cash remains prevalent in Nigeria, especially in everyday transactions like public transportation, informal economy vendors, and fuel purchases.
  3. Startups in Nigeria are innovating to overcome challenges in digitizing payments in tricky sectors, offering solutions like digital payment systems for transportation, mobile money for informal vendors, and e-wallets for fuel payments.

What Happened to the OCC's Chief Fintech Officer?

Fintech Business Weekly • 133 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
💼 Business Fintech Banking Regulation Investment Startups
  1. The OCC's Chief Fintech Officer mysteriously disappeared from his role, raising questions about his background and qualifications.
  2. CFPB Director highlights Apple and Google's control over mobile payments, calling out potential anti-competitive practices.
  3. FDIC's Q2 Banking Profile shows declining net income, slightly reduced net interest margins, and continued unrealized losses in banks' securities portfolios.

Big Changes Are Coming to FIN!

James Ledbetter's FIN • 15 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
💼 Business Fintech Investments Technology Media Finance
  1. Big changes are happening to FIN, with new editorial leadership and a vision for cross-platform expansion in the fintech industry.
  2. Investors are showing interest in fintech companies like Eigen Labs securing significant funding for innovations like restaking protocols and dub platform for copy trading.
  3. AI-driven fintech and regtech companies like Napier AI are experiencing growth through substantial funding to enhance compliance and security measures.
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Maryland Latest State To Issue EWA Guidance

Fintech Business Weekly • 126 implied HN points • 20 Aug 23
💰 Finance Fintech Bankruptcy Regulation
  1. Maryland issued guidance on earned wage access (EWA) products, following in the steps of Nevada and Missouri.
  2. CFPB Director Chopra announced new rulemaking to regulate data brokers and protect consumer data.
  3. Analysis of Dave's Q2 earnings shows discrepancies in metrics like average revenue per user, highlighting the importance of looking beyond official reports.

A brief guide to building your first lending product

Rohit’s Newsletter • 98 implied HN points • 14 Sep 23
💼 Business Fintech Startup Lending Compliance Regulations
  1. Building financial products like credit cards or loans requires careful consideration of compliance regulations, risk models, operations, and funding models.
  2. Fintech infrastructure products can assist in building credit products, but integration can be complex due to a lack of standard setup.
  3. To effectively build a lending product, break it down into steps like acquisition, underwriting, origination, funding, and servicing.

Open Banking +

Fintech Across the Pond • 19 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
💰 Finance Fintech Payments APIs
  1. Open banking lacks a scalable commercial model, hindering broader adoption.
  2. SPAA aims to address the commercial gap in open banking by introducing premium APIs.
  3. SPAA enables new payment features and access to enhanced data assets for better functionality.

Issue #95: X Is Getting Into P2P Payments, Circle Files For An IPO, And Revolut Gains Interest In Its HR Tech Offering

Fintech Radar • 18 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
💰 Finance Fintech Payments IPO
  1. Twitter (X) plans to introduce peer-to-peer payments, a logical starting point given its large user base and commerce opportunities
  2. Revolut's HR platform, Revolut People, attracts over 300 companies to its waitlist, surprising with strong interest in the offering
  3. Mastercard is developing an AI tool for small businesses, showing a cautious approach amid a potential trend towards more AI-focused innovations in the market

Dave & MoneyLion Q1: Some Progress, But Valuations Continue To Slide

Fintech Business Weekly • 133 implied HN points • 21 May 23
💰 Finance Earnings Regulations Fintech
  1. Dave and MoneyLion are experiencing progress in Q1, but their valuations are decreasing.
  2. SoLo Funds faces challenges with deceptive practices despite celebrating a consent order.
  3. Revolut is encountering hurdles with delayed financial filings and difficulties in obtaining a banking license due to ownership structure issues.

Afridigest Fintech Review: FairMoney's 'unfair' offer to buy Umba

Afridigest • 7 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
💰 Finance Fintech
  1. Nigerian neobank FairMoney made an offer to buy Umba, which includes a healthy premium.
  2. The South African Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group is examining stablecoin use cases and might respond with regulations this year.
  3. Nigerian governmental authorities have temporarily blocked access to global crypto exchanges to combat the rapid depreciation of the Nigeria naira.

Issue #101: Capital One To Buy Discover For $35.3b, Monzo Eyes £4b Valuation, And FairMoney In Talks To Buy Umba

Fintech Radar • 6 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
💼 Business Fintech Investments Acquisitions Startups Compliance
  1. Capital One's acquisition of Discover for $35.3 billion aims to boost competitiveness in the payments network but may face regulatory challenges due to concerns about bank consolidation.
  2. Monzo's potential £4 billion valuation in a funding round signifies ongoing investor interest in neobanks adapting to profitability and growth in the consumer fintech market.
  3. FairMoney's talks to buy Umba in a $20 million deal show a trend of consolidation in fintech markets like Africa, where companies navigate challenges to serve a growing demand for digital financial services.

Issue #94: Visa Unveils A Web3 Loyalty Program, HSBC Launches A Forex App Called Zing, And Consumer Advocates Take Aim At The Starbucks App

Fintech Radar • 14 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
💰 Finance Fintech Banking Cryptocurrency Investment Startups
  1. Visa introduces a Web3 loyalty program to reward customer interactions.
  2. HSBC launches a forex app named Zing to compete with fintechs like Revolut and Wise.
  3. Consumer advocates file complaint against Starbucks app, alleging deceptive practices in trapping customers to spend more.

Issue #100 🎉 🥳 : Revolut Expands Into Offering eSIMs, FIS Partners To Offer A2A Payments, And Temenos Gets Hindenburged

Fintech Radar • 6 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
💰 Finance Fintech Payments Banking Startups Investment
  1. Revolut ventures into telecom by introducing phone plans in the UK with eSIMs, aligning with its all-encompassing super app vision.
  2. FIS partners with Banked to offer pay-by-bank solutions, a move towards A2A payments that could challenge traditional card schemes.
  3. Temenos faces allegations from Hindenburg Research, highlighting the challenges in large corporate tech transformations and the need to address accusations.

Afridigest Fintech Review: On boldness, Brass, and Binance

Afridigest • 3 implied HN points • 11 Mar 24
💼 Business Fintech Africa Finance
  1. One fintech financing transaction and two fintech M&A deals were announced, showcasing growth and activity in the African fintech space.
  2. Significant news of the week included M-Pesa celebrating 17 years, Binance stopping Naira services, Lemfi's move to China, and Flutterwave streamlining its product offerings, indicating shifts and changes in the industry.
  3. Key companies and executives highlighted in this Fintech Review include Binance, M-Pesa, Brass, Flutterwave, Interswitch, Mastercard, and more, offering insights into the major players and leaders shaping the African fintech landscape.

Issue #98: Apple Card Tops 12m Users, Ramp Announces An Acquisition, And Mastercard Launches A Gen AI Tool

Fintech Radar • 6 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
💰 Finance Fintech Acquisitions
  1. Apple Card has over 12 million users and provided $1 billion in cashback rewards last year, showing challenges in acquiring users for embedded financial services.
  2. Fintech Ramp's acquisition of Venue highlights the competition in SMB banking to be a central hub for financial operations.
  3. Mastercard introduces Decision Intelligence Pro, using Gen AI to enhance transaction risk assessment, indicating the potential for Gen AI in compliance within the fintech sector.

Issue #97: PayPal Fails To Excite The Market With Its New Features, TikTok Wants Every Post To Be Shoppable, And Klarna Drops A Subscription Product

Fintech Radar • 6 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
💰 Finance Fintech Payments Subscription Mergers & Acquisitions Investments
  1. PayPal failed to impress the market with its new features, losing momentum after an initial spike in stock value.
  2. TikTok is testing a feature to make every post shoppable, aiming to boost its e-commerce business with enhanced shopping experiences.
  3. Klarna introduced a $7.99 subscription plan 'Klarna Plus' to generate recurring revenue as it gears up for its IPO, reflecting mixed opinions on the BNPL industry.

What IS OCEN? What would it look like?

Turnaround • 494 implied HN points • 05 Oct 20
💼 Business Fintech Lending Credit Banking Small business
  1. OCEN is a new credit infrastructure that could revolutionize lending in a way similar to how UPI transformed payments.
  2. It is a protocol, not a switch, and its potential lies in the consumer products that can be built on top of it.
  3. OCEN aims to address India's credit distribution problems by making access to credit easier for the Next Billion Users and SMEs, potentially reducing the concentration of capital.

#63 - Roy Sheinfeld, LNM fam & Lightning friends

LN Markets’ Newsletter • 39 implied HN points • 10 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Bitcoin Lightning Network Cryptocurrency Blockchain Fintech
  1. Roy Sheinfeld is dedicated to revolutionizing Bitcoin's role to a medium of exchange.
  2. Lightning Network is evolving with improvements like splicing, asynchronous payments, and stuckless payments.
  3. Key advice for building a business in the Bitcoin space: Embrace the community, prioritize open communication, and seek partners, not just investors.

The Googlisation of Payments; B2B fintech pricing: Pricing model definitions; Embedded fintech revenue model;

Fintech Wrap Up • 39 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
💼 Business Fintech Payments Generative AI
  1. Payments platforms can be attractive for advertisers to invest in due to access to data and trust
  2. Embedded finance is changing how customers and businesses interact with financial services
  3. Financial institutions can generate revenue by offering bundled fintech services through subscription tiers

Google SQL Translator API, StackOne €3.3M, Salt Security Developer Portal

The API Changelog • 2 implied HN points • 12 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Fintech Security Events Funding
  1. Google introduced a unified SQL translator API for BigQuery, aimed at enhancing efficiency in translating jobs and supporting various SQL dialects.
  2. StackOne secured €3.3M in seed funding to improve its AI-powered unified API for SaaS enterprises, acknowledging its potential in streamlining SaaS integrations.
  3. Salt Security launched a Developer Portal as a centralized resource to automate API security, focused on improving developer experiences and enabling secure API integrations.

Tray.io AI-Augmented API Management, Dwolla Open Banking, JetBrains UI Testing API

The API Changelog • 2 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Fintech Security
  1. Tyk introduces AI-augmented API management for collaborative integration and microservice creation, reducing technical debt and operational costs.
  2. Dwolla unveils Open Banking Services enhancing payment functions for seamless business integration and operational efficiency.
  3. JetBrains releases Compose Multiplatform 1.6.0 with a UI testing API, improving cross-platform UI testing and accessibility on iOS.

More Vertical Fintech, Please

Equal Ventures • 39 implied HN points • 23 Feb 23
💼 Business Fintech Market Analysis Investments Business Models
  1. Combining vertical software with fintech can create powerful business opportunities, leveraging market nuances to enhance efficiencies and insights.
  2. It's challenging to build defensible financial services independently, but merging them with workflow software can increase market size and potential revenue streams.
  3. Markets with low digital penetration offer ripe opportunities for vertical SaaS and fintech integration, attracting investments across various sectors for this innovative approach.