Page 7 - Fintech Sector

Fintech ups and downs in the first quarter of 2024 as funding declines

There were two initial public offerings in Q1CY24 and none the same time last year. Five fintech firms raised $446 million in Q1, according to Tracxn.

Revolut gets RBI nod to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments in India

Revolut India on Friday said it has received an in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) including prepaid cards and prepaid wallets in the country. This enables it to operate as a domestic player in the market, the global fintech firm said in a statement. This approval builds upon the existing licences which Revolut India has successfully obtained from RBI to operate as a Category-II Authorised Money Exchange Dealer (AD II) and to be able to provide multi-currency forex cards and cross-border remittance services, it said. It also puts Revolut in a unique position in India, to be able to offer customers both international and domestic payment solutions on a single platform, it said. Revolut, a London-based neobank and financial technology company, has been gearing up for its entry into India, working closely with the RBI over the past two years. This licence and the approvals that preceded it are an encouraging ...

Indian fintech startup funding surges 59% in Q1 CY2024: Tracxn report

India ranked third globally in terms of funding raised by fintech companies, behind the US and China, the report said

BharatPe rejigs senior management of payment, lending unit verticals

Fintech firm BharatPe is learnt to have rejigged senior management of its payment and lending unit verticals, according to sources. The company has elevated its banking and alliance Chief Business Officer Sandeep Indurkar as CEO of payment vertical -- Resilient Payments Pvt Ltd. CEO BharatPe's Zillion -- erstwhile Payback India -- Rijish Raghavan will now handle device business of the company. The company's head for consumer lending vertical Kohinoor Biswas will handle Zillion in place of Raghavan. All three will report to BharatPe's CFO and interim CEO Nalin Negi. An emailed query sent to BharatPe elicited no response. There has been no change in the merchant app vertical. The company has seen improvement in business with 182 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue from operations to Rs 904 crore in FY23, while loss before tax fell to Rs 886 crore from Rs 5,594 crore during the period. A significant progress was made in reducing loss before tax, from Rs 5,594 crore to Rs 886

CY24 trend so far: Two unicorns, but funding to startups down 29%

India 4th-largest recipient of funding

Ambit Finvest raises Rs 690 crore from Daiwa Securities, existing investors

Non-bank lender Ambit Finvest on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 690 crore from a Japanese securities group and other existing investors. Japan-based Daiwa Securities Group, which has been a partner for Ambit Group in other businesses, will get a minority stake for its Rs 415-crore investment, a statement said. The remaining Rs 275 crore has been raised from existing shareholders, including the parent, the statement said. The company is engaged in providing secured and unsecured business loans, as well as used vehicle loans, to micro small and medium-sized enterprises in India over the last two years, and has invested in branches and technology, the statement said. Classified as a systemically important Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), it has helped over 68,000 MSME business owners by offering them business loans for various requirements. It has disbursed over Rs 6,000 crore worth of loans since its inception in 2018 and currently has over Rs 3,800 crore in assets under managem

US sanctions Russian fintech firms accused of enabling sanctions evasion

The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on a collection of fintech firms and people, mostly in Russia, accused of enabling sanctions evasion. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person and 2 people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, thus enabling potential sanctions evasion," according to U.S. Treasury. Included in Monday's sanctions are a group of Moscow-based fintech companies and a Russia and UAE-based virtual currency exchange, among others. Lawmakers and administration officials have voiced concerns that Russia may be using cryptocurrency to avoid pain from the avalanche of sanctions imposed on banks, oligarchs and the energy industry in response to Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Experts say an increased reliance on cryptocurrency would be an inevitable avenue for Russia to try to

Paytm UPI: Transactions decline to continue till new customers added

The Reserve Bank of India had mandated Paytm to shift existing users to a new handle after the Paytm Payments Bank was asked to stop transactions after 15 March

Growing fast, fintech needs a way to keep watch on itself

Global banking generated $6.5 trn as revenue in 2022: Fintech had 5% of the same. But by 2028, fintech revenues are expected to grow three times faster

Cashfree Payments launches product solution to cut fraudulent transactions

Cashfree's 'RiskShield' enables customers to add limits on the frequency and cumulative sum of transactions that an individual customer is permitted to pay on a periodic basis

Loan distribution by FACE members rise by 12.2% to 24.8 mn in Q3FY24

The report added that 12 per cent of loans distributed between April and December 2023 went to women

Startup Mahakumbh: Fintechs must abide by regulations, say investors

The advice comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India has cracked its whip to get erring fintech's to comply to the existing rules

Fintechs lead small-ticket loans' volume with 77% market share: Study

On the value front, fintechs cornered 29 per cent of small ticket loans disbursed in FY18, which rose to 51 per cent in FY24 (till September 2023)

Paytm gets nod to continue UPI via State Bank of India, three others

Four banks-- Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, YES Bank will act as Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to Paytm

Paytm receives third-party application provider licence from NPCI

Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and YES Bank will act as Payment System Provider (PSP) banks to Paytm

Paytm Payments Bank plans to cut about 20% of staff as business halt looms

Paytm Payments Bank has decided to lay-off staff in certain divisions, including operations, the sources with direct knowledge of the matter said

Fintechs lead small-ticket loans' volume with 77% market share: Report

Fintechs accounted for 50% of the loan volumes disbursed with a ticket size less than Rs 1,00,000 in FY18

As regulatory regime tightens in country, fintech has a long march

Pressure is mounting on companies to get cracking on corporate governance with top-class independent directors on their boards

85% of Paytm wallet users unaffected, rest to link apps to banks: RBI Guv

As many as 80-85 per cent Paytm wallet users will not face any disruption because of regulatory actions, and the remaining users have been advised to link their apps to other banks, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of India on January 31 barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) from accepting deposits, credit transactions, or top-ups in any customer accounts. The deadline for linking the wallet attached with PPBL with other banks has been fixed for March 15, the governor said, ruling out any further extension. The time given up to March 15 is sufficient and there is no need for further extension, he said, adding that 80-85 per cent Paytm wallets are linked to other banks, and the remaining 15 per cent have been advised to move on to other banks. He said that the RBI has taken action against a regulated entity, which in this case is PPBL and has nothing against Fintech companies. Instead, Das stressed that the RBI favours innovation in the financial ...

Paytm PB failed to use mechanism for detecting suspicious transactions: FIU

Paytm Payments Bank failed to put in place an internal mechanism to "detect and report" suspicious transactions as stipulated under the anti-money laundering law and was unsuccessful in conducting due diligence of its payout service, the FIU said in its order that imposed a fine of Rs 5.49 crore on the digital entity. The federal financial intelligence gathering and dissemination agency said in its March 1 order that these charges against the bank, a registered reporting entity with the FIU under the PMLA, were "substantiated" after more than four years of investigation and a show cause notice that was issued against it on February 14, 2022. After the Union finance ministry issued a press statement on the FIU action, a Paytm Payments Bank spokesperson had said that the penalty pertains to issues within a business segment that was discontinued two years ago. "Following that period, we have enhanced our monitoring systems and reporting mechanisms to the Financial Intelligence Unit ...