PwC's FinTech Insights

Green bank deposits: A gateway to sustainable financing

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a circular on ‘Framework for the acceptance of green deposits’. The framework’s objective is to aid depositors to achieve their sustainable agenda, address greenwashing concerns and facilitate flow of credit to green projects. These deposits would be interest-bearing and received by the regulated entities (REs) for a fixed duration, the proceeds of which would be earmarked to be used for the purpose of financing green projects alone. To access PwC’s point of view (PoV) on this development,

From around the web

June 2023 witnessed significant developments in the global FinTech ecosystem. A few of these developments are outlined below.

Pismo, a start-up in Brazil’s payments infrastructure space, was purchased by Visa for USD 1 billion in cash. Read more.
Bahamas-based Capital Union Bank has selected a web banking solution to power its new online banking platform and is set to upgrade its core banking system with new modules and features based on joint innovation with the vendor. Read more.
A new consortium of industry players called SardineX was formed by Sardine – a fraud detection platform – as an initiative to curb the rapid rise in payment fraud. Read more.
New-Mexico-based State Employees Credit Union (State ECU) has hired Apiture, a developer of digital banking solutions, to update its online and mobile banking functionality. Read more.
US stock trading app Robinhood has signed an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based credit card platform X1 for USD 95 million in cash. Read more.
Google Cloud has announced the release of a new tool called Anti-Money Laundering AI (AML AI), which is an artificial intelligence-powered application that assists financial institutions in detecting money laundering. Read more.
Colombia’s central bank, Banco de la República, has partnered with Ripple to explore new use cases for blockchain technology. Read more.
Payments Canada has undertaken a second review of its upcoming real-time payments system, RealTime Rail (RTR), further delaying its launch. Read more.
Nasdaq is set to acquire financial services risk management and regulatory software provider Adenza for USD 10.5 billion from an American software investment firm. Read more

Social trading app Shares has received EU stock trading license. Read more.
European open finance FinTech Fabrick has raised USD 44 million to finance its next phase of growth. Read more.
One Trading, the digital asset exchange formerly operating as Bitpanda Pro, has raised USD 33 million in funding and announced that it is now fully independent from Bitpanda. Read more.
Volt, a UK-based PayTech which is building a global infrastructure for real-time payments, has raised USD 60 million in a Series B funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). Read more.
The UK has entered into a financial services cooperation agreement with the EU which aims to establish a constructive and mutually beneficial relationship between the UK and the EU in financial services. Read more.
Intesa Sanpaolo, an Italian banking major, has gone live with Isybank – its new digital bank with the vendor Thought Machine's Vault Core. The new digital bank aims to attract tech-savvy customers and outlines the bank's investment into technology for its growth. Read more.
OVpay, a contactless public transportation payment system, has been fully implemented nationally in the Netherlands. It enables users to tap-in and tap-out using a debit card, credit card, or digital wallet. Read more.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has introduced stringent rules for firms to advertise crypto assets. This includes the introduction of a 'cooling-off period' for first-time investors and the ban on 'refer a friend' bonuses. Read more.
French FinTech Aria has been launched in the UK with the aim to become the default deferred payment infrastructure provider for the economy and B2B marketplaces.

Paysend and RemotePass, the global onboarding and payroll platforms, have announced a partnership to facilitate instant and more cost-effective transfers to international workers in 80 countries. Read more.
Visa announced the launch of the new Visa Africa FinTech Accelerator programme to help Africa’s expanding start-up community. Read more.
NymCard, a leading player in banking-as-a-service (BaaS) acquires Spotii, a direct-to-consumer BNPL service. Read more.
Umg Alholol Trading Co. and Drahim App have received permits to test their open banking solutions in Saudi's regulatory sandbox. Read more.
EdfaPay, a Saudi-based FinTech start-up that helps companies use their smartphones for payment, has raised USD 3.2 million in a seed funding round. Read more

Stables launched Asia Pacific’s first stablecoin virtual prepaid card to allow users to transact using stablecoin balance on instore or online purchases. Read more.
Philippines has signed an MoU with India to enhance the cooperation between the two countries in the FinTech domain. They have also formed a joint working group (JWG) to identify areas for partnerships in innovative technologies, including FinTech, financial inclusion and other related areas. Read more.
Hitachi Payment Services, an integrated payment solutions provider, launched its digital payments innovation hub to collaborate with FinTech start-ups across India and the extended Asia-Pacific region. Read more.
Singapore-based FinTech start-up Thunes, which operates a global business-to-business, cross-border payments network, has raised USD 25 million.Read more.
Ripple has obtained In-Principle Approval of the Major Payments Institution License approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Read more

FinTech start-up Lendingkart has raised USD 24 million in long-term debt funding from EvolutionX Debt Capital, a growth-stage debt financing platform. Read more.
Proxgy, an IoT technology start-up from India has launched AudioCube for UPI and CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) payment notifications. Read more.
Electronic vehicle (EV) financing start-up Revfin has raised USD 5 million in debt funding. Read more.
Google announced plans of opening its global FinTech operations centre at GIFT City in Gujarat through its existing USD 10 billion India digitisation fund. Read more.
Atlanta-based Greenlight Financial Technology announced the launch of its India operations and set aside investments of over INR 100 crore to establish and expand its India operations. Read more.
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has launched B2B transactions, exploring enablement of financial products. Read more.
The Tamil Nadu government has initiated the development of FinTech City and Fintech Tower projects in Chennai, with an investment potential of INR 12,000 crores. Read more.
Zaggle, a B2B SaaS FinTech company, has introduced a platform enabling companies to automate expenses on their own. Read more.

Incumbent FinTech initiatives

Here are a few incumbent FinTech initiatives launched by Indian financial institutions in June 2023:

PhonePe launched its merchant lending marketplace which allows banks and NBFCs to offer credit to its merchant base of 35 million merchants. Read more.
PhonePe launched its own payment gateway which offers free onboarding to new merchants. Read more.
PhonePe has launched account aggregator (AA) services after acquiring an RBI licence. Read more.
Bank of Baroda has launched interoperable cardless cash withdrawal (ICCW), a UPI-based cash withdrawal facility at ATMs. Read more.
South Indian Bank has launched a digital platform for hassle-free account opening. Read more.
Fino Payments Bank has partnered with Hubble, a FinTech firm, to introduce India’s first spending account. Read more.

Regulatory developments

Given below are a few important regulatory developments in the Indian FinTech sector.

The RBI permits first loss default guarantee (FLDG) between FinTechs, banks and NBFCs, allowing a 5% default loss cover for bank-FinTech deals. Read more.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) prescribed a standard format for seeking the trading preference of clients for the same product in different exchanges. Read more.
The RBI has expanded the scope of e-RUPI digital voucher where non-banking prepaid payment instruments companies can now issue vouchers. Read more.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has directed banking and non-banking issuers of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) to ‘stop UPI in a co-branding arrangement’. Read more.
The SEBI introduced a supplementary process for trading in the secondary market based on blocked funds in an investor's bank account, instead of transferring them upfront to the trading member. Read more.
The SEBI has approved reducing the IPO-listing timeline to three days, mandating enhanced disclosure requirements for certain classes of foreign portfolio investors, and strengthening the investor grievance handling mechanism. Read more

Top FinTech deals and partnership news – India

Investments

The Indian FinTech ecosystem received a significant amount of funding in the month of June 2023. A few of these are highlighted below.

Start-up	Sector	Amount raised	Lead investors	Source
Indifi	Lending	USD 35 million	Finnfund, CX Partners, ICICI Venture, and other institutional investors	Read more
Lentra	Lending	USD 27 million	MUFG Bank, Dharana Capital	Read more
Scapia	Travel FinTech	USD 9 million	Matrix Partners India, Tanglin Venture Partners, and others	Read more
KarmaLife	Payments	USD 5.3 million	LogX Ventures, Singularity Holdings, Artha India Ventures, and others	Read more
Basic Home Loan	Lending	USD 4.7 million	Venture Catalysts, Dexter Angels, Gruhas, IIM Indore Alumni Angel Fund, and CommsCredible Venture Fund, and individual investors	Read more
BharatNXT	B2B FinTech	USD 1.2 million	Panthera Peak Ventures, Spiral Ventures, and other investors	Read more
TransBnk	Transaction Banking	USD 1 million	8i Ventures, Growthcap Ventures, Leadway Ventures LLP, and Growth Sense, some family offices, and individual investors	Read more
CloudBankIN	Lending	USD 0.4 million	Upekkha, and Kube VC and individual Angel investors	Read more

Partnerships

The FinTech ecosystem saw a diversified set of partnerships built across different sectors. A few handpicked partnerships that developed in the Indian FinTech space in June 2023 are listed below.

Financial firm	Partnered with	Sector	Purpose	Source
Fino Payments Bank	Hubble	Payments	To introduce first spending account	Read more
IndusInd Bank	Wise	Payments	For instant inward remittances from US and Singapore	Read more

Acquisitions

Acquirer	Acquiree	Sector	Purpose	Source
CRED	Spenny	Savings and Investments	To boost savings and investment offerings	Read more
CredFlow	TechBiz	ledger	To Scale Up Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Offerings	Read more