US banks move ahead with a touch of GENIUS - TWIF UK & Europe (21/07)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

We’ve got a few super exciting events coming up over the next 3 months - mark your calendars and RSVP early!

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

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Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Payments platform Two raised €13m in funding.

🇪🇺 AI debt collection fintech Murphy raised a $15m round from Lakestar, Northzone, Seedcamp and ElevenLabs.

🇪🇺 Tokenised infrastructure provider Spiko raised a $22m Series A.

🇬🇧 Payments provider Yetipay raised £3.5m.

🇬🇧 Merchant of Record solution Paddle raised a $25m round from CIBC Innovation Banking.

🇬🇧Wealthtech Proxymity raised a $26m Series C from Mitsubishi UFJ.

🇬🇧 Insurtech Laka raised a €8.8m Series B from Creandum, R Europe, LocalGlobe, Motive Partners and Autotech Ventures.

🇬🇧Underwriting automation solution Heron Data raised a $16m round from Insight Partners.

🌍 Insurtech Bowtie raised a $70m Series C from Sun Life.

🇪🇺 Dutch accounting fintech Ageras acquired Dutch payroll provider Employes.

🇬🇧 Embedded finance solution Finmo secured an EMI licence.

🇬🇧 Digital wallet Curve is rumoured to be acquired by Lloyds Bank.

🇬🇧 Neobank Starling is rumoured to be considering a US listing as part of its plans to expand to the continent.

🇬🇧 Neobank Monzo released a home insurance product.

🇬🇧 Shares in cross border payments firm Wise fell after it reported Q1 earnings that missed forecast.

🇬🇧 Digital debt collection provider Debtist launched in the UK.

🇬🇧 The FCA has outlined its BNPL oversight proposals which includes affordability checks, support for people experiencing financial difficulty and a complaints process.

🌍 Spend management provider Ramp is to launch AI Agents to automate some finance operations.

🇪🇺Crypto exchange OKX is integrating with PayPal to enable crypto purchases across Europe. The exchange also joined the Global Dollar Network and integrate its stablecoin USDG.

🇪🇺 Ripple is seeking to bring its RLUSD stablecoin to Europe via Luxembourg.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank and Aberdeen Investments used tokenised real-world assets as collateral for FX trades.

🇬🇧 Standard Chartered has launched digital asset trading for institutional clients allowing clients to custody with their chosen custodian which includes their own custody solution.

🇬🇧 The Governor of the Bank of England has warned UK banks not to issue a stablecoin.

🌍 Crypto onramp provider MoonPay has integrated with Revolut Pay to enable 1 click crypto purchases.

🌍 Crypto exchange Kraken launched a US regulated derivatives offering.

🌍 HSBC completed a trial of an e-HKD CBDC.

🌍 Crypto exchange Deribit has partnered with Circle to enable rewards for eligible USDC holders.

🌍 Global bank Citigroup confirmed they are looking at issuing a stablecoin. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also said the bank is to be more involved in stablecoins. Bank of America says work is already underway for their own stablecoin.

🌍 Crypto infrastructure firm Talos acquired blockchain data provider Coin Metrics for over $100m.

🌍 US Congress passes the GENIUS act, the first major piece of crypto legislation. President Trump shortly after signed it into law.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank has rolled out a new AI knowledge hub for its employees.

🇬🇧 Barclays was fined £42m for AML failings.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank signed ZBD as a customer, with the latter also securing an EMI licence.

🇬🇧 Cross border payment platform Wise signed UniCredit as a customer to power an international payment service for the banks retail clients.

🌍 JPMorgan is reported to be preparing to charge fintechs for access to consumer bank data.

🌍 Card issuer Highnote added instant payments to its product suite.

🌍 Anthropic has launched Claude for Financial Services, an AI solution targeting analyst, portfolio managers and underwriters.

🌍 Open banking platform Plaid signed Xero as a customer.

🇪🇺Wordline launched AI payments routing to increase authorisation rates.

🇬🇧 Faster Payment operator Vocalink was fined £11.9m by the Bank of England for risk management failures.

🇬🇧 The Bank of England has set out its approach for delivering its National Payments Vision.

🌍 A US judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Apple, Visa and Mastercard colluded against merchants,

🌍 Cash App has added Tap to Pay on iPhone.

🌍 Activist investor Elliott Management has acquired a stake in Global Payments.

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