The Week in Review
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
Truist makes play for SMB merchant acquiring
Truist has launched ‘Truist Merchant Engage’, a new integrated merchant services platform targeted at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Truist Merchant Engage provides SMBs a digital and integrated banking and merchant services platform that simplifies banking and payments acceptance for merchants. The platform features real-time dashboards, dynamic onboarding, product discovery, and self-service tools. Truist is using the Pollinate platform to support its new merchant initiative – Truist represents the first US bank client for Pollinate.
Strong move by Truist to focus on merchant acquiring; business that most banks have ceded to processors and other third-party providers.
Monzo fined £21MM
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Monzo £21MM over its "inadequate" anti-financial crime systems and controls that were in place between October 2018 and August 2020. Given failings in its financial crimes prevention framework, the FCA required a comprehensive, independent review and imposed a requirement preventing Monzo from opening new accounts for high-risk customers. However, between August 2020 and June 2022, it repeatedly failed to comply with the terms of the requirement, including signing up over 34,000 high-risk customers, some with implausible addresses such as 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and Monzo’s own headquarters.
Surprising to note that Monzo’s systems were unable to flag basic customer details such as addresses… or the alerts were just ignored!
Consumer credit growth slows
US consumer credit growth slowed in May impacted largely by a contraction in revolving credit. According to data from the Federal Reserve, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2% to $5.04T. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3.2% to $1.29T, while nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 2.8% to $3.74T.
Revolving credit has been choppy over the last several months indicating some pull back in credit card balances.
Colombia to launch instant payments scheme
Colombia is getting ready to launch its instant payment scheme, Bre-B in September. Bre‑B will enable 24/7 real‑time transfers between banks and digital wallets using universal identifiers like mobile numbers, national IDs, or custom alphanumeric keys . Early adoption is already underway with major Colombian banks like Bancolombia, Davivienda, BBVA Colombia, and Banco de Bogotá integrating Bre‑B-compatible transfers to prepare users and systems ahead of the full launch.
The Bre-B service has been developed by Colombia’s central bank, Banco de la República and ACI.
Revolut to raise new funding
Revolut is in talks to raise new funding at a $65B valuation. According to industry reports, Revolut is looking to raise about $1B via newly issued shares and the sale of some existing stock - US-based investment firm Greenoaks is in talks to lead the private funding. The new valuation would represent a significant increase given Revolut was valued at $45B last year.
Revolut continues to be Europe’s highest valued fintech startup.
Emirates signs preliminary deal for crypto payments
Emirates has signed a preliminary deal with Crypto dot com that will allow its customers to make payments through the crypto trading platform's payment service. The arrangement, which is expected to come into effect next year, is aimed at tapping into "younger, tech-savvy customer segments who prefer digital currencies", according to an Emirates executive.
In recent years the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Dubai have been emerging as a key hub for crypto companies and the move is in keeping with the progressive and innovative nature of Dubai.
Apple, Visa and Mastercard win dismissal of merchant antitrust lawsuit
Apple, Visa, and Mastercard have won the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and causing merchants to pay inflated transaction fees. The lawsuit, filed by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits and other businesses, was brought on behalf of a proposed class of thousands of merchants alleging that Visa and Mastercard paid Apple what amounted to a “very large and ongoing cash bribe” of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep it from competing with them. The US District Judge overseeing the case ruled that the merchants had not provided enough evidence to support their claim that Apple illegally declined to launch a competing payment network to rival Visa and Mastercard.
A bit of an odd lawsuit in that there is no evidence of Apple trying to become a payments network; in fact it has successfully monetized the existing Visa/Mastercard networks for its Apple Pay service.
Bilt raises new money and announces launch of new credit cards
Bilt announced that it has raised $250MM in new funding at a $10.75B valuation. Bilt also announced the expansion of its housing and neighborhood focused loyalty and payments platforms and the launch of a new credit card program, Bilt Card 2.0. The new card program is expected to launch in February 2026 and will include three card products, a no-fee card, a card with $95 annual fee, and one with $495 annual fee. Wells Fargo Bilt cardholders will be “seamlessly moved” to Bilt’s new card platform when Bilt Card 2.0 launches. Card processing will be handled by Cardless and First Electronic Bank will be the issuer / BIN sponsor.
Bilt is doubling down on a neighborhood and community focused value play (recall it acquired Banyan in March) with credit cards and rent / housing payments as a core element of its strategy.
Chase to charge fintech companies
According to Bloomberg, “JPMorgan Chase & Co. has told financial-technology companies that it will start charging fees amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars for access to their customers’ bank account information – a move that threatens to upend the industry’s business models. The largest US bank has sent pricing sheets to data aggregators — which connect banks and fintechs — outlining the new charges, according to people familiar with the matter. The fees vary depending on how companies use the information, with higher levies tied to payments-focused companies, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.”
This Friday afternoon news story has taken the industry by surprise with much speculation on the future of open banking, pay by bank, and regulation, as well as the economic model of data aggregators (Plaid, Finicity) and the fintech firms that use bank customer data.
Lloyds in talks to buy Curve
According to Sky News, Lloyds Banking Group is in advanced discussions to acquire Curve for up to £120MM. Lloyds sees Curve as a strategically important asset as it pushes deeper into digital payments. Curve is also viewed as somewhat of an Apple Pay competitor but with more favorable pricing and without the regulatory overhang of Apple Pay in the UK. (Note, Curve did not get much traction in the US and suspended its US operations in 2024).
If a deal does go through it would represent a discount to Curve’s £133MM valuation in 2023… but Curve has also been experiencing financial issues and this may prove to be a rational exit.