Web browser Opera to buy digital challenger Fjord Bank - FinTech Futures

#fintech #acquisitions #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #mergersandacquisitions

Opera , a freeware web browser founded in Norway, intends to buy Lithuania-based fintech start-up Fjord Bank.

The digital challenger was founded in 2017 by Norwegian and Swedish investors Svein Ovrebo, Joakim Mandorsson and Stig Myrseth.

The deal, agreed in May, saw Opera acquire a 9.9% interest in Fjord Bank via a share subscription on 3 July 2020. The acquisition of the remaining 90.1% of Fjord Bank is pending regulatory approval.

In December 2019, the digital challenger landed a specialised bank licence from the European Central Bank (ECB).

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Web browser Opera to buy digital challenger Fjord Bank - FinTech Futures

Opera, a freeware web browser founded in Norway, intends to buy Lithuania-based fintech start-up Fjord Bank. The digital challenger was founded in 2017.

UK challenger Monument to tap Britain's mass affluent - FinTech Futures

#fintech #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #affluence #afluent #startups #startupstrategy

Monument Corporation, a new UK fintech challenger, is looking to tap Britain’s mass affluent population. Co-operative Bank’s former chief executive, @Niall Brooker, is chairing the venture. Mintoo Bhandari, a former managing director at Apollo Global Management – one of the world’s largest alternative investment manager firms, is leading the venture alongside Brooker.

The start-up reckons around 3.5 million consumers fall into this bracket, which it defines as people with a net worth between £250,000 and £5 million.

Through the last 18 months of the building process, Monument has interviewed roughly 1,800 mass affluent consumers. It says 93% of these respondents “expressed dissatisfaction” with their current banking provider. “Increasingly, private banking is focused on the ultra-high net worth and lags when it comes to embracing modern technology,” says Bhandari.

The start-up also says it is the first bank to offer an entirely digital lending journey for buy-to-let and property investment lending of up to £2 million. The bank will offer live chat, video and co-browsing features.

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UK challenger Monument to tap Britain's mass affluent - FinTech Futures

Monument, a new UK fintech challenger, is looking to tap Britain's 3.5 million mass affluent population with savings and lending products.

How A Tech Entrepreneur Broke Records With A $189M Valuation Pre-Launch On The Road To $1B

#fintech #banks #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #startups #startupstrategy

Fintech is forecast to achieve a #CAGR of 25% through 2022, reaching a market value of $309B. Traditional banks’ legacy approach to IT holds them back from being more customer-centric. And in a recently published World Retail Banking Report, 2020 by Capgemini and Efma, 78% of financial services leaders said cybersecurity is the biggest obstacle to collaborating and becoming more customer-centric.

Fintech startups excel at #analytics, #AI and #machinelearning to see how they can become more empathetic and helpful to customers. Fintech startups are also succeeding today because their design provides customers the freedom to interact with them as they want and treat cybersecurity as a part of customer experience. There’s been a 667% increase in spear-fishing email attacks related to Covid-19 since February alone, further underscoring the need for designing in cybersecurity to the platform level.

Fintech startup leaders are delivering excellent user experiences with apps based on adaptive design today. They’re also able to scale how many credit cards can be on a single account and integrated into a single card using polymorphic technology that thwarts fraud attempts.

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How A Tech Entrepreneur Broke Records With A $189M Valuation Pre-Launch On The Road To $1B

Bottom Line: Traditional banks aren't innovating fast enough to improve credit card fraud, endpoint cybersecurity, AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and more intuitive user experiences creating new opportunities for startups. Fintech is forecast to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% through 2022, reaching a market value of $309B.

Finin: COVID19 Crisis A Great Opportunity for Neo-Banks

#fintech #startups #startupindia #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks

Finin claims to be India’s first direct consumer digitized bank that eases the customer money management, investment, savings account through digital mode using advanced AI driven technology and payment programs. Suman Gandham, Founder & CEO, Finin – The Future of Banking explains to Techplus Media Group how neo banks are changing wealth management in India.

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Finin: COVID19 Crisis A Great Opportunity for Neo-Banks

Finin claims to be India's first direct consumer digitized bank that eases the customer money management, investment, savings account through digital mode using advanced AI driven technology and payment programs. Suman Gandhan, Founder & CEO, Finin - The Future of Banking explains how neo banks are changing wealth management in India.

Startup Strategy: How can challenger banks differentiate themselves?

#challengerbanks #neobanks #digitalbanks

Please read what John Ellmore, Director, Know Your Money, has to say on how challenger banks are distinguishable for their modern fintech practices and how they further can differentiate.

Challenger banks have distinguished themselves by revolutionising the banking process. They pose a disruptive presence to retail banking across the value chain. It’s no secret that challenger banks employ attacking business models. With market saturation not far away, challenger banks can differentiate themselves more than ever and stand out from the crowd by -

1. Leveraging data they collect to generate insights, realise value and effect a hyperpersonal approach to their customers

2. Challenger banks would be well advised to seek streams of income from beyond the realm of traditional banking.

3. Driving down costs with digital capabilities by using data and analytics and leverage automation and AI to drive down the cost to serve, minimise human touchpoints and improve both cross-sell ratios and service levels.

4. Challenger banks would be well advised to vie for the finest talent by looking beyond the usual rewards to both attract and retain their workers.

5. Evolve the business strategy models

6. Reshaping the fintech ecosystem

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How can challenger banks differentiate themselves?

Challenger banks are distinguishable for their modern fintech practices-but with market saturation never far away, how can they further differentiate?

Startup Strategy: Lanistar partners with Jumio ahead of "polymorphic" debit card launch

#fintech #kyc #videokyc #video #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #strategy #startupstrategy

Lanistar, a UK-based fintech set to launch a “polymorphic debit card” later this year, has partnered with Jumio for its onboarding.

California-based mobile payments and identity verification firm Jumio will help Lanistar verify users remotely.

Customers will submit a picture of their government-issued ID and a corroborating selfie with certified liveness detection. Jumio can also verify secondary documents, should a user need to submit them.

Jumio’s customers to date include Monzo, Middle East-based Bank ABC, Airbnb and easyJet.

The US fintech cites Signicat data, which suggests nearly 40% of potential new accounts go down the drain due to clunky onboarding.

Key takeaway:

Neobanks should be able to adopt remote KYC methods such as video KYC so that prospective customers are not frustrated while onboarding, which is very crucial that may impact the customer base.

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Lanistar partners with Jumio ahead of "polymorphic" debit card launch - FinTech Futures

Lanistar landed a $2.5 million seed investment in March.

FinTech Startup Funding Alert: Memo Bank launches business offering and lands €20m

#fintech #bank #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #lending #lendingsolutions #lendingtech #startups #smesector #smes #fundingalert #startupfunding

Formerly known as Margo Bank, the newly named Memo Bank, a French fintech, is launching its exclusive business offering, which is set to tap small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Alongside its launch and lending licence, the start-up has landed a €20 million funding round led by Paris-based, BlackFin Capital Partners | Investors in Financial Services, and existing French investors, Daphni and Bpifrance Digital Venture.

The bank targets SMEs that generate over €2 million a year and houses more than ten employees. Its key focus will be on delivering paperless credit lines to businesses in just a few days, directly competing with France’s online lenders, rather than the country’s neobanks.

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Memo Bank launches business offering and lands €20m - FinTech Futures

Memo Bank has launched its business offering which is set to tap SMEs, in addition to obtaining a licence and securing a €20 million funding round.