The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | June 12th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Monetary policy

RBI has approved the First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) framework. The announcement was made at the second bi-monthly monetary policy meeting last week. Banks and NBFCs can partner with Indian FinTechs through FLDG schemes. Data-tech NBFCs and FinTechs are expected to benefit greatly from this decision. Additionally, the move will strengthen the digital lending ecosystem

According to RBI, “arrangements between Regulated Entities (REs) and Lending Service Providers (LSPs) or between two REs involving default loss guarantee (DLG), also known as FLDG, have been reviewed by the Bank and are permitted subject to the guidelines laid down.”

According to the guidelines, FLDG arrangements complying with these guidelines will not be considered synthetic securitizations and/or loan participation arrangements.

Amazon and Affirm announced that eligible US merchants offering Amazon Pay can now seamlessly add Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout as a payment option at checkout. This brings Affirm’s pay-over-time technology, used by millions of customers on Amazon.com and the Amazon mobile app, to Amazon Pay’s simple and secure payment solution.

“We know customers want convenient and flexible payment options—whether they are checking out on Amazon.com or using Amazon Pay,” said Omar Soudodi, director of Amazon Pay. “With Affirm on Amazon Pay, merchants can offer a pay-over-time option to their existing customers and have another way to reach new customers.”

“Digital wallets are an increasingly critical part of the shopping experience and are expected to account for over half of the e-commerce transactions worldwide by 2025,” said Libor Michalek, President of Affirm. “In addition, customers want more choice and flexibility when paying online. By integrating Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout, thousands of merchants can offer their customers personalised payment options and increased spending power through Amazon Pay’s convenient and secure checkout experience.”

Operational expense cuts

Singapore-based business-to-business (B2B) payment infrastructure firm Thunes has raised a total of more than $60 million in its Series C funding round.

The Series C was led by UK hedge fund Marshall Wace, which contributed $30 million to the round, as revealed back in March. San Francisco-based Bessemer Venture Partners and new Southeast Asian private equity firm 01Fintech have provided the rest of the cash.

Speaking on the funding announcement, Thunes CEO Peter De Caluwe said the paytech will use the new cash injection to “further scale our capabilities, launch new solutions, open new segments and make the network even more robust, resilient and efficient”. He added the firm will also look to “deepen our presence in strategic markets, including China, Latin America, and the Middle East”.

✂️Global card issuing platform Marqeta has closed its office in Australia as part of operational expense cuts. A spokesperson for Marqeta says the company will instead by servicing its Australian customers, which include buy now, pay later (BNPL) firms Afterpay and Zip, out of its US headquarters in Oakland, California.

“All existing Marqeta customers in Australia will continue to be supported by our US office. This doesn’t impact their business,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson adds that “all recently signed customers that are currently being onboarded will be supported” and the company will “continue to support our global customers who want to expand into Australia”.

The decision to close the office has impacted eight roles in Australia and Singapore, including that of Marqeta’s now-former country manager for Australia and New Zealand, Duncan Currie, who revealed the move on LinkedIn, writing that the company’s head office decided to “close the APAC offices with immediate effect” at the end of May.

What is the buzz

A crackdown on crypto has led the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file charges against Binance and Coinbase this week.

In addition to Binance Holdings, which operates Binance.com, the largest crypto asset trading platform in the world, as well as BAM Trading Services (which, together with Binance, operates Binance.US), and Binance’s founder Changpeng Zhao, the regulator has filed 13 charges against them.

Separately, Coinbase has also been charged by the SEC for allegedly “operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency” and for “failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program”.

In a blog post, Binance said it is “disappointed” in the move and intends to “defend our platform vigorously”, while Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted: “Instead of publishing a clear rule book, the SEC has taken a regulation by enforcement approach that is harming America. So if we need to avail ourselves of the courts to get clarity, be it.”