October 9, 2020 FinTech Monitor

BFC FinTech Monitor 5th – 9th October

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Around the World

  • CB Insights has published its Third Annual Fintech 250 report, which lists the top 250 FinTech startups worldwide. In this year’s edition, the majority of FinTech startups listed (54%) were based in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom and India. There were also 2% fewer unicorns listed this year as compared to last year.
  • According to an ING survey conducted in 13 European countries, consumers remain skeptical about open banking concepts despite wanting all their financial services available in one app.
  • Italian authorities, as part of a national program to stimulate non-cash transactions, are enticing residents to switch from cash to cards by promising EUR 300 in cashback rewards and entry into a EUR 300 million lottery.
  • Visa and American startup Swipe have reached a deal regarding the development of a B2B payment solution. Specifically, Visa Payables Automation will make it possible to transfer funds from a virtual Visa card to suppliers who cannot accept digital payments.
  • Jesse McWaters, vice president of global digital policies for Mastercard, recently expressed his opinion that tech giants will not become the financial institutions and credit card companies of the future. Rather, they will continue to develop new ways of serving the financial needs of their customers, such as the Apple-issued Mastercard credit card.
  • Chris Larson, co-founder of the California-based FinTech startup Ripple, discusses why he believes that China is ahead of the U.S. in the technology race, specifically noting China’s willingness to prepare legal frameworks for the development of blockchain and other high-tech projects.
  • Alan Waxman, founder and managing partner of Digital Horizon Alan Waxman, is predicting that a mass investor will, sooner or later, become interested in cryptocurrencies and push its development. In preparation, he warns that financial institutions need to upgrade their outdated infrastructures and payment platforms.

Russia

  • Russia has been named a top-10 country in terms of advanced digital banking by Deloitte. This, however, is due mostly to the country’s largest retailers pushing the country in this direction and not necessarily the banking system itself.
  • FinWin-2020, the largest Russian forum on ecosystems and marketplaces for financial and related industries, is scheduled to be held in Moscow on October 22, 2020. Register for online or offline participation here.
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysts are predicting that Russia may remain the global leader in growth of non-cash payments through 2024 thanks to an average annual compound growth rate of revenue from such payments at a level of 2.8-7.8%.
  • Company magazine, in its Mobile Banking as a Mirror of Digital Transformation study, has found that, although Russian bank regularly allocate funds for the development of mobile apps, this does not always translate into an increase in number of users.
  • Raiffeisenbank has presented a multi-banking platform for corporate clients. The platform is a single SAP-based interface that will unite the internal management systems of all banks the company works with, provided that those banks are ready to join the project.

Ukraine

  • A draft bill has been registered with Parliament that will limit bank commissions for acquiring services (i.e. accepting bank cards to pay for goods and services). If passed, the financial burden placed on businesses to perform card transactions will gradually be reduced until they match European levels.
  • Alena Degrik Shevtsova, CEO of LeoGaming, discusses what FinTech solutions are still absent in Ukraine and how Ukraine’s financial technology market has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Belarus

  • Residents of Belarus will no longer be able to anonymously top up Yandex.Money wallets. Instead, they will need to go through an identification process that can be completed using Sberbank Online from BPS-Sberbank.
  • Imaguru Startup HUB is conducting an anonymous survey on the state of the startup ecosystem in Belarus in 2020. Click here to participate.

Kazakhstan

  • Residents of Kazakhstan have been using credit cards more actively to pay for goods and services, as evidenced by 8.2 million credit card transactions in September 2020 (up 50.8% year-on-year). There are a total of 42.7 million payment cards in circulation in the country (up 41.8% from 2019).

Kyrgyzstan

  • International and national payment systems have stopped working in Kyrgyzstan. The National Bank is also urging financial institutions to suspend activities and strengthen security measures until the political situation in the country stabilizes.

Uzbekistan

  • Apelsin has become a digital branch of Kapitalbank, with work now underway to launch lending services, international transfer services, a marketplace and more. Russia’s Tinkoff is being considered as a model for its further development.
  • The interbank payment system Uzcard is preparing to cancel bank commissions for online deposits. It is expected that this will increase the attractiveness of remote banking services as well as attract free money from the population.

Azerbaijan

  • Yelo Bank has launched a new internet banking service for business clients. According to the bank’s press service, the project was developed jointly with U.S.-based Middleware and is based on Corezoid Process Engine technology.

Armenia

  • Attacks by hidden cryptominers on Armenian users has dropped sharply, with only 1.35% of computers being affected in the second quarter of this year.

Prepared by BFC