Financial Technology Weekly | Issue 22

Sustainable project management software Banyan Infrastructure raises $25 million in Series B funding

Banyan Infrastructure, a provider of management systems for sustainable infrastructure, has announced a $25 million Series B round of funding led by climate software investor Energize Ventures and followed by new investors SE Ventures, Elemental Excelerator and existing investors VoLo Earth, and Ulu Ventures.

 

Information link:

http://www.ocn.com.cn/touzi/202303/rlkox15151902.shtml

Comment: Sustainable infrastructure is making leaps and bounds at the technical level. However, the management of sustainable projects is still largely manual, with financing still relying on the manual transfer of emails, spreadsheets and documents in various formats.

 

JP Morgan invests in metaverse payments platform Tilia

Recently, metaverse payment platform Tilia announced an investment from financial giant JP Morgan Chase and Seoul-based fintech company Dunamu. In addition to the investment, Tilia will work with JP Morgan Payments to enhance its existing capabilities across its processing platform, including offering more payment and expense options, expanding payment currencies and support services. JP Morgan made its first investment in Tilia in October last year.

 

Information link:

https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20230314A0A47S00

Comment: Since its inception, Tilia has raised approximately $22 million in cumulative funding to provide KYC-compliant micropayments and token services for online gaming, creator platforms, social commerce and other digital world services.

 

Bloomberg agrees to acquire front office technology provider Broadway Technology

Bloomberg has reportedly agreed to acquire Broadway Technology, a provider of front office technology to sellers, for an undisclosed sum. Bloomberg said the acquisition will enable it to offer a low-latency execution management product optimised for interest rate trading and provide further innovation in multi-asset software.

 

Information link:

https://finance.stockstar.com/IG2023031400007521.shtml

Comment: Two years ago, ION Group sold Broadway Technology's fixed income business, including the underlying software and brand, to a consortium of buyers led by Broadway Technology's chief executive.

 

Payment processing platform Stripe raises $6.5bn at a significant discount to platform valuation

On 15 March 2023, payment processing platform Stripe announced a US$6.5 billion funding round with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs and Temasek. The company said that the funding will be used to provide liquidity to "current and former employees" and to meet tax obligations related to equity awards. CNBC reported in January that Stripe could make a decision on a public offering next year, and in November 2022 Stripe announced an 11% layoff after leadership admitted it had misjudged the continued growth rate of the internet economy.

 

Information link:

https://news.pedaily.cn/202303/510143.shtml

Comment: After this financing, the platform is valued at $50 billion, down significantly from $95 billion in 2021.

Insurtech Socotra announces its entry into the European insurance market

Open API provider Socotra says it will broaden its presence in the European insurance market. founded in 2014 and headquartered in Texas, USA, Socotra has grown rapidly in 2022, with revenue growth of 71%, consumer numbers up 75% and year-on-year growth of 117% in the number of policies managed by its SaaS platform.

 

Information link:

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230221005261/en/Insurance

Comment: Socotra accelerates product launches, improves flexibility and reduces IT spend for insurers such as AXA and MS Amlin

 

Insurtech Insured Nomads and specialist insurance division Hotspot Cover launch new products

Insurtech Insured Nomads has partnered with specialist insurer Hotspot Cover to offer a travel insurance product for high-risk areas. The new product, called World Explorer Hospot, is designed to protect consumers visiting risky areas.

 

Information link:

https://fintech.global/2023/02/16/insured-nomads-and-hotspot-cover-launch-travel-insurance-for-high-risk-regions/

Comment: The partnership between the two companies will provide policyholders with a comprehensive and proactive travel insurance product that includes medical expenses and crisis response services to protect them on their travels.

 

Parametric Insurtech Blink Parametric and Firemelon enter into a partnership

Parametric insurance technology company Blink Parametric has entered into a strategic partnership with Firemelon to provide all travel insurance providers on Firemelon's Magenta Insurance System platform with easy access to Blink Parametric's real-time parametric insurance solutions.

 

Information link:

https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20230117A0766O00#:~:text

Comment: Firemelon is a Northern Ireland-based provider of travel insurance analytics OA and management systems, developing and servicing insurance distribution and claims systems for over 30 leading travel insurance brands over the past two decades, operating in the UK, European, South African, US and Canadian markets.

 

Pet insurance technology Kanguro enters Florida

Kanguro Insurance, a pet insurance technology, has announced the availability of pet health insurance products for Florida consumers, with bilingual English and Spanish services throughout the entire insurance consumption process. With pet health care in the US being expensive and often unpredictable, Kanguro hopes to solve this pain point by providing consumers with a simple and clear all-digital insurance consumer platform that simplifies the process of purchasing and using pet insurance policies.

 

Information link:

https://www.investorsobserver.com/news/qm-pr/7830798132965507

Comment: With as little as $20 per month, this highly personalised pet insurance product allows policyholders to receive payouts of up to 90% of their pet's medical costs within a matter of days.

Central Bank of Nigeria releases PSD2-style open banking legislation

Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the approval of operational guidelines for open banking, becoming the first country in Africa to adopt open banking regulations. early 2021, the CBN had also released a regulatory framework on open banking. Financial institutions and start-ups including Sterling Bank, KPMG, PwC, Ernst & Young, Paystack, Teamapt, Wallet Africa, OnePipe, Mono, Switch, Lendsqr, Palmpay, Carbon and Trium have expressed support for this regulatory development.CBN said the PSD2-style legislation will increase access to financial services for local residents, expand financial inclusion and improve the efficiency and competitiveness of financial services in Nigeria.

 

Information link:

https://www.weiyangx.com/420595.html

 

HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary for £1

HSBC announced on 13 March 2023 that it had acquired Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary (SVB UK) for £1 in a transaction that was completed immediately, according to media reports. The tangible share capital of Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary is expected to be approximately £1.4 billion and the acquisition transaction will be financed from existing resources. As at 10 March, the SVB UK subsidiary had approximately £5.5 billion in loans and £6.7 billion in deposits. The acquisition transaction will be funded from existing resources. Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary is said to have more than 3,300 UK customers, including start-ups, venture capital-backed companies and funds, with many depositors with deposits below the £85,000 threshold covered by the FIS.

 

Information link:

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/613884818

 

Former Fannie Mae president takes over as new CEO of Silicon Valley Bank

On 13 March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank welcomed a new CEO - Tim Mayopoulos, former Fannie Mae and president of technology company Blend. he said that the regulator is now moving all deposits to the newly formed Silicon Valley Bank N.A. is not only open, but also doing business as usual. Greg Becker, former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, Daniel Beck, former CFO and SVB Financial Group have been sued by shareholders together.

 

Information link:

https://finance.stockstar.com/IG2023031600009344.shtml

 

FDIC considers Friday auction of SVB and Signature Bank

FDIC regulators are reportedly asking financial institutions interested in acquiring bankrupt Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank to submit offers by Friday, March 17. The goal is to sell both Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in their entirety. If the whole cannot be sold, a partial sale of the two banks could also be considered. Only bidders with existing banking licences will be allowed to study the banks' financial situation before submitting an offer, the two sources said. The buyer of the signature bank would reportedly have to agree to give up all of the bank's cryptocurrency operations. The FDIC has declined to comment, and neither Signature Bank nor Piper Sandler, which is running the auction, immediately responded to requests for comment.

 

Information link:

http://stock.hexun.com/2023-03-16/207980635.html

Singapore Government sets up skills council to develop green skilled workforce

In view of the rapidly growing green economy sector, Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry will work with the Institute of Skills Development to set up a Green Skills Council to match industry leaders with training providers to develop green technical staff suitable for industry needs. The government will initially focus on current industry needs such as training employees to make sustainability disclosures and ensuring they have the skills required for new growth areas in energy such as renewable energy and energy storage systems. In the initial phase, the Commission will identify the skills required for a sustainability reporting and auditing function in the energy sector and develop a training framework. The committee will continue to work closely with industry to identify emerging needs for green skills. To encourage more Singapore businesses to take advantage of opportunities in the green economy, the Government has expanded the upgraded Enterprise Development Grant to provide up to 70 per cent subsidy for sustainable development projects until 2026.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/money/forex/forexinfo/2023-03-13/doc-imyktfsz5594155.shtml

 

First new energy REITs hotly subscribed to provide new investment and financing model for green transformation of energy sector

This week, the first two new energy REITs - CITIC CIBIT NEDC New Energy REIT and AVIC Jingneng PV REIT - were offered to public investors. The two new energy REITs, which were originally scheduled to be offered from March 14 to 15, were both "sold out" on the first day of the offering, ending the public investor offering early and launching a proportional placement. Industry insiders said that the debut of new energy projects in the field of public REITs marked the successful exploration of innovative financing models for asset-heavy industries in the field of new energy in China, and also provided the capital market with a new channel for green financial investment to support the real economy.

 

Information link:

https://cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/1657914910/62d1c61e02001cqc3

 

China calls for discussion of EU carbon tariffs under WTO framework

The EU plans to introduce formal legislation on CBAM in April this year, with a transition period starting on 1 October this year. Under this mechanism, the EU will impose "carbon tariffs" on imports of goods from six sectors - cement, steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen - which will have a significant impact on exports to Europe from companies with high carbon emissions. In response to the EU's proposal to introduce a "carbon tariff" in 2026, China's proposal points out that the WTO is an important forum for monitoring and reviewing trade policies, and that trade policies aimed at achieving environmental objectives should be consistent with the basic principles and rules of the WTO and avoid constituting protectionist measures and green barriers to trade. China proposed that a multilateral thematic discussion on the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism be held at the Trade and Environment Committee meeting in June this year. China's proposal has also been echoed by other WTO members.

 

Information link:

https://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202303162663983119.html

 

Panasonic's first integrated hydrogen fuel cell energy utilization project in operation

The demonstration project uses Panasonic's 5kW pure hydrogen fuel cell product as the basis for designing a zero carbon building (Green House) with hydrogen fuel cells as the main energy supply method, together with a solar power generation system and energy storage system, and a self-developed EMS control system to coordinate the three different energy supply methods to achieve zero carbon emissions throughout the building. The 5kW pure hydrogen fuel cell will be available in the Chinese market in April 2023.

 

Information link:

http://stock.hexun.com/2023-02-28/207863196.html

Dealers Association releases basic corporate asset securitisation regime that will help revitalise stockpiles of assets

The US regulator said on Sunday it had closed New York-based Signature Bank, the second financial institution they have closed since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Depositors at Signature Bank will be able to withdraw their deposits in full, the banking regulator said. To contain the losses and avoid a larger crisis, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have developed an emergency plan to guarantee deposits at Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank using the Federal Reserve's emergency lending authority.

 

Information link:

https://www.cls.cn/detail/1291461

 

Central Bank of Nigeria releases PSD2-style open banking legislation

Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the approval of operational guidelines for open banking, becoming the first country in Africa to adopt open banking regulations. early 2021, the CBN had also issued a regulatory framework on open banking. Financial institutions and start-ups including Sterling Bank, KPMG, PwC, Ernst & Young, Paystack, Teamapt, Wallet Africa, OnePipe, Mono, Switch, Lendsqr, Palmpay, Carbon and Trium have expressed support for this regulatory development.CBN said the PSD2-style legislation will increase access to financial services for local residents, expand financial inclusion and improve the efficiency and competitiveness of financial services in Nigeria.

 

Information link:

https://www.weiyangx.com/category/express

 

AliCloud supports the launch of SSE's new trading supervision system

The new trading supervision system of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), powered by AliCloud, has recently gone live. The new system, deployed on the SSE's private cloud, has a real-time transaction data processing capacity of over 500,000 transactions per second and an overall message processing capacity of 10 million per second, with significantly reduced computational latency, enabling it to cope with the continued growth in transaction volume and complexity of future business. The new system is based on AliCloud's full real-time computing and analysis engine combination Flink+Hologres and the core technology of the cloud-native data warehouse AnalyticDB, which is privately deployed and independently developed and designed. The system has been upgraded to improve the processing performance and comprehensive analysis capability, with a focus on data processing timeliness and data analysis agility. AliCloud will continue to strengthen its data governance and data application capabilities by leveraging its technologies in big data, database and cloud-native to promote the deep integration of technology and financial business and serve the stable and healthy development of the financial market.

 

Information link:

http://stock.10jqka.com.cn/hks/20230316/c645559719.shtml

 

New York's Signature Bank shut down by US regulators

US regulators said on Sunday it had shut down New York-based Signature Bank, the second financial institution they have shut down since the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank. Depositors at Signature Bank will be able to withdraw their deposits in full, the banking regulator said. To contain the losses and avoid a larger crisis, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have developed an emergency plan to guarantee deposits at Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank using the Federal Reserve's emergency lending authority.

 

Information link:

https://www.cls.cn/detail/1291461

Morgan Stanley becomes the first financial institution to officially access GPT-4

On 15 March 2023, OpenAI announced six use cases when it launched GPT-4, including Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (MSWM) using GPT-4 to organise the mobilisation of its client-facing knowledge base. Morgan Stanley subsequently stated that it is currently "the only strategic wealth management client with early access to OpenAI's new product" and that its wealth management division will use GPT-4 to "capture, process and synthesise content in the form of global company, industry, asset class, capital market and regional insights". Its wealth management division will use GPT-4 to "acquire, process and synthesise content that draws on MSWM's own extensive intellectual capital in the form of insights into global companies, industries, asset classes, capital markets and regions". McMillan, head of analytics, data and innovation at Morgan Stanley, which is leading the project, said that GPT-4 technology is already being used to convert all think tank content into a more accessible and actionable format; the bank has previously been testing the tool with 300 advisers and plans to roll it out widely in the coming months.

 

Information link:

https://www.weiyangx.com/category/express

 

Li Minji, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC): Accelerate the promotion of relevant legislation in the field of wealth management

Li Minji said, from the demand side, the high-quality development of the economy provides a solid guarantee for the growth of wealth of Chinese residents, and the policy of "housing and housing without speculation" has accelerated the transfer of residents' wealth from real estate to financial assets, and the popularization of wealth management will promote the simultaneous growth of the number of wealth clients and the scale of management, as well as stimulate investment consulting, tax planning, pension At the same time, it will stimulate the demand for diversified and comprehensive wealth management such as investment consulting, tax planning and retirement investment. From the supply side, a series of financial measures such as the construction of multi-level capital markets and the transformation of wealth management products into net value under the new regulations on asset management have been implemented, broadening the investment channels of assets, promoting the accelerated transformation of wealth management institutions and promoting the innovation of financial products, which is conducive to the sound and sustainable development of the wealth management industry.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2023-03-09/doc-imykfutc0047143.shtml

 

CITIC joins hands with 26 leading asset management institutions to draw a new blueprint for wealth management

The 26 asset management institutions held in-depth discussions and expressed constructive views on enhancing customers' wealth management experience, enriching the connotation of retirement finance, building a risk management system and constructing a wealth management financial ecology together. It is believed that the future cooperation between CITIC United Fleet and the head asset management institutions will be closer in product selection, investment advice and education, and open ecological construction.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/quanshang/qsyj/2023-03-19/doc-imymkuia0499660.shtml

 

China Asset Management, BlackRock CITIC Capital, Schroder CBC Capital, Goldman Sachs ICBC Capital disclose key figures

The four joint venture wealth management companies - Huihua Wealth Management, BlackRock CITIC Wealth Management, Schroder CBC Wealth Management and Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management - have completed the disclosure of their wealth management business reports for the second half of 2022. In terms of the size of products in existence, Huihua had the highest product size of $50.967 billion as at the end of 2022, Schroder CBC and BlackRock CITIC had product sizes of $18.082 billion and $6.740 billion respectively, and Goldman Sachs ICBC had product sizes of $151 million. In terms of the number of products in existence, Huihua had the largest number of wealth management products at the end of 2022, at 174. The numbers of Schroder CBC Wealth Management, BlackRock CITIC Wealth Management and Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management products were 35, 5 and 1 respectively. Of the four companies, Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management's first product was established on 17 November 2022.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2023-03-14/doc-imykvzpr8360199.shtml

Fed plans to launch FedNow, an instant payment tool, in July

On March 15, 2023, the Federal Reserve announced that it will officially launch its FedNow service in July. The Federal Reserve's goal in developing the FedNow service is to facilitate the availability of instant payment services by financial institutions nationwide, 24/7, regardless of size or geographic location. Currently, over 120 institutions are participating in the program pilot, including lenders such as Exchange Bank and Exchange Bank and payment service providers such as Alacriti Payment and ECS Fin.

 

Information link:

https://www.36kr.com/newsflashes/2173487260086536

 

Meta reduces digital stash, launches fintech tools like Meta Pay

On March 13, 2023, Meta's head of fintech, Stephane Kasriel, tweeted, "We are currently phasing down NFT and focusing instead on supporting creators, individuals and businesses in other ways." Last year, when the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, Meta launched a service to support creators sharing NFTs on its Instagram and Facebook platforms.

 

Information link:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/usstock/c/2023-03-14/doc-imykutui5263189.shtml

 

International Money Week 2023 to be held on 20 March to promote financial education for young people

"Global Money Week (GMW) is an international initiative of Children And Youth Finance International, a non-profit organisation that promotes financial education for young people. In 2020, the OECD International Network for Financial Education ("OECD/INFE") took over the GMW secretariat. "In 2020, the OECD International Network for Financial Education ("OECD/INFE") takes over the responsibilities of the GMW Secretariat and plans to hold the 2023 International Money Week from 20 to 26 March.

 

Information link:

https://finance.stockstar.com/IG2023031300003528.shtml

 

"Buy now, pay later" platform Sezzle plans to list on Nasdaq

On 13 March 2023, fintech platform Sezzle announced plans to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market, a technology-driven, integrated Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform founded in 2016 and headquartered in the US, whose mission is to Sezzle is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2019.

 

Information link:

https://caifuhao.eastmoney.com/news/20230314154755262592350

 

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