PwC's FinTech Insights - September 2023

PwC insights of the month

Bharat@100: Achieving sustainable FinTech regulations

India@75 has built itself a robust FinTech ecosystem. To drive this growth further, especially in the financial service sector, Bharat@100 envisions taking financial inclusion to the next level through the rising trajectory of the FinTech industry and introduction of inclusive regulations. To facilitate this, we hope that India will remain true to its goal of building a democratized regulatory landscape across the digital financial services sector. Moreover, increased regulatory oversight and parallel alignment of existing initiatives and regulations will echo India’s forward-looking approach to the FinTech-enabled growth of the financial services sector. To know more about India’s approach towards achieving sustainable FinTech regulations, read more here.

FinTech: A force multiplier in our response to the climate emergency

Data and technology have a crucial role to play in the battle against climate change. Even small efforts toward sustainable decisions can make a significant impact. The FinTech industry can leverage its massive talent pool and cutting-edge technologies to enable a sustainable transition in businesses by accelerating responsible consumerism and greening financial markets at the same time. To know more about how FinTech can help in our response to the climate emergency, read more here.

From around the web

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

AlphaSense landed USD 150 million Series E funding at a valuation of USD 2.5 billon for investing in the expansion of its product offering, especially in generative AI. Read more
Panacea Financial, a digital financial services company for medical practitioners in the US, has collaborated with Bankjoy, a domestic banking technology provider, to deliver a comprehensive range of digital banking solutions. Read more
In an effort to modernise cross-border payments, Visa has enhanced its stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle's USDC stablecoin by launching new pilot programmes with multiple leading merchant acquirers. Read more
Ampla, a New York-based company that offers financial and capital solutions to consumer brands, has obtained a USD 258 million credit facility to support its Growth Capital offerings and continue developing their all-in-one platform for Consumer Brands. Read more
The ‘Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Anti-Surveillance State Act’ was recently approved by the US House Committee on Financial Services. As per this act, the Federal Reserve will not be allowed to issue a CBDC. Read more

The Financial Action Task Force crypto travel rule came into effect in September 2023 which stipulates that crypto businesses in the UK would be required to collect, verify and share information about crypto asset transfers. Read more
Swiss crypto firm Taurus, a start-up specialising in crypto security and tokenisation, has partnered with a global bank to extend the bank's global digital asset custody and tokenisation services. Read more
Revolut launched RevTags, a global payment solution for business transactions, which allows businesses to perform cross-border transactions instantaneously at zero fee. The service was introduced for 29 currencies within the Revolut network. Read more
Tuum, the modular core banking platform, announced a strategic partnership with Paymentology, a global card issuer processor. The partnership was aimed at introducing an all-inclusive pre-integrated card payment processing and core ledger solution for the EMEA market. Read more
Apple has launched a new wallet app in the UK market that is integrated with the UK's open banking framework. This will allow users to access their current account balance (from supporting banks) under their cards from within the app, and also while making a transaction through Apple Pay. Read more
German FinTech Upvest supported the smart money app, Plum, to expand its products across Europe through the provision of the former's investment API, which enables Plum to provide its customers in the EU with a range of investment opportunities. Read more

Open API banking solution provider Codebase Technologies has partnered with a digital commerce company based in Dubai, UAE, to launch a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution for corporates, FinTechs and start-ups operating in the Levant. Read more
The UAE’s Tabby will relocate HQ to Saudi Arabia ahead of IPO on Tadawul, after inking MoU with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Investment. Read more
7sab has received a license to provide digital payment services in Qatar from the Qatar Central Bank (QCB). With this step, ten FinTech companies are now authorized to offer digital payment services in Qatar. Read more
BENEFIT, an innovator in FinTech and electronic financial transactions services, announced the signing of an agreement to acquire the Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB). It will accelerate sustainable investments in Bahrain’s FinTech ecosystem, thereby paving the way for a robust, future-ready financial services sector. Read more
Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has won an award for launching the first biometric Visa card, which will use the customer’s fingerprint to authorize point of sale (POS) transactions. Read more

NEC APAC, the regional headquarters of NEC Corporation in Southeast Asia, has signed an agreement with TASConnect to develop a joint technology solution that seeks to revolutionise the way organisations measure, monitor, manage and enhance financial performance, ultimately driving sustainable growth and improving their organisation's working capital efficiency. Read more
Singapore-headquartered business-to-business (B2B) SaaS FinTech finbotsAI has signed an agreement with one of India’s largest agri enterprises to transform credit risk management using artificial intelligence (AI). Read more
Crunchfish, a Swedish company specialising in digital cash platforms, has joined forces with LISNR, a data-over-audio technology solutions provider, to enable offline payments for merchants and banks in the APAC region. Read more
Kasikornbank, Thailand’s second-largest bank by assets, has launched a USD 100 million fund targeting artificial intelligence (AI), Web3, and deep-tech FinTech startups in APAC. Read more
Standard Chartered is launching a multibank connectivity service through a partnership with the Singapore-headquartered financial connectivity platform Starfish Digital. Read more

Fonepay and NPCI International Payments Limited are set to offer payment solutions between Nepal and India, and plan to launch the first QR code-based payment solution between Nepal and India. Read more
PhonePe has launched Indus Appstore Developer Platform for Android app developers to register their apps on the platform. The apps will be listed on the soon to be launched ‘Made-in-India’ Indus Appstore which will offer a localised experience in 12 languages. Read more
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase discontinued all services for its users in India from 25 September 2023. Read more
Paytm has launched a new device, ‘Card Soundbox’, which will enable merchants to accept both mobile and card payments across different networks with tap and pay. The QR code on the soundbox will also enable merchants to accept QR-based payments. Read more
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched ‘Hello! UPI’ which is based on humanmachine interaction and facilitated by AI-enabled transactions. Hello! UPI will allow users to give voice commands to transfer funds and input UPI PIN through the UPI app, telecom calls and IoT devices. Read more
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is planning to expand its services to include financial products such as credit, insurance, investments and gift cards. This change follows the platform’s successful forays into the food, grocery, fashion, travel and electronics industries. Read more
WhatsApp announced a host of new features to enable in-app shopping by roping in multiple Indian leading online payment solutions companies to enable users to pay businesses via cards, UPI and more. Read more

Incumbent FinTech initiatives

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

The State Bank of India has integrated UPI with its digital rupee, or CBDC, app with an aim to enhance user convenience. Read more
YES Bank has enabled UPI interoperability on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s CBDC app. Read more
Indian Bank has announced its partnership with a leading credit card company, aimed at introducing state-of-the-art, mobile-first and contactless metal co-branded credit cards. Read more
Axis Bank announced the launch of ‘NEO for Business’, a transaction banking platform curated for Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Read more
In an effort to better serve its clients, Indian Bank launched a number of digital projects, including lending up to INR 25 crore to MSMEs. The bank under its mobile application ‘IndOASIS’ introduced various features including the facility to book flights, hotels, buses, etc. Read more

Regulatory developments

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

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) signed an MoU with the Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI) aimed at expediting the adoption of digital lending partnerships between banks and lending service providers (LSPs), co-lending collaborations, and more. The MoU aims to enable this by way of developing standard protocols for such aforementioned alliances. Read more
The Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE) adopted an upgraded code of conduct to strengthen customer protection measures among the association’s members and the FinTech digital lending industry. Read more
RBI released a list of 15 large non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) falling in the upper layer category which will be subject to enhanced regulatory requirements as prescribed in its Scale-Based Regulations (SBR) in 2022. Read more
India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is developing a cryptocurrency intelligence and analysis tool to combat cyber fraud, surveilling the dark net and monitoring cryptocurrency wallet addresses involved in transactions. Read more
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced that it is aiming to implement the onehour trade settlement cycle to replace the current T+1 settlement by March 2024. Read more

Top FinTech deals and partnership news – India

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

Start-up	Sector	Amount raised	Lead investors	Source
Perfios	SaaS	USD 229 million	Kedaara Capital	Read more
Brine Fi	Cryptocurren cy	USD 16.5 million	Goodwater Capital, UpSparks, Pantera Capital, Elevation Capital, others	Read more
Origa Leasing	Leasing	USD 4 million	Credence Family Office	Read more
HotelYaari	Fractional property ownership	USD 2 million	Alios Ventures	Read more

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 August 2023 are listed below.

Financial firm	Partnered with	Sector	Purpose	Source
Falcon	Shivalik Small Finance Bank	Banking	To create a technology platform that enables the bank and tech companies to launch products faster in a cost-effective manner	Read more
NPCI	Cashfree payments	Payments	To launch ‘AutoPay on QR’ for subscription-based enterprises	Read more