The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | June 26th

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.

India’s FinTech operation center

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company will establish a global FinTech operation in Gujarat and contribute $10 billion to the digitisation fund of the country. He made this announcement after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington earlier in the day.

“It was an honour to meet PM Modi during the historic visit to the US. We shared with the prime minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund. Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund. A report by ANI quoted Pichai as saying, “We are opening a FinTech operation center in GIFT City, Gujarat.”

Google announced in July 2020 that it will invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years to help the country adopt digital services quickly. In December, Pichai announced that one-fourth of the $300 million India Digitization Fund (IDF) would be dedicated to Indian startups.

Pichai added, “We are continuing to invest through that, including in companies working on artificial intelligence. As part of that, we have a 100-language initiative. We are bringing bot to more Indian languages very soon.”

☁️Puerto Rico-based Segura Bank has selected Temenos to power its upcoming cloud-based digital bank offering targeting “mid to high earners in Latin America”.

Segura Bank said it will utilise Temenos’ banking platform on Microsoft Azure to develop digital banking services “faster and at lower cost” as the bank looks to scale across the continent. Temenos’ cloud-native core banking platform will be used for transaction processing, managing customer accounts, and ensuring compliance and efficient know-your-customer (KYC) checks.

The new digital bank will offer US dollar financial products to help protect Latin American consumers from currency fluctuations and devaluation, enable easier international transactions, and provide access to global markets. It is expected to go live in the coming months.

Send money through chat

⚙️Fortis, a US-based PayTech company announced it has expanded into Canada and acquired fellow embedded payments provider SmartPay.

By expanding into Canada, Fortis will be able to offer its embedded payment technology to Canadian software platforms and businesses, with firms able to access the full suite of Fortis’ solutions via API integration with their existing payment software. The roll-out supports credit card processing and Interac debit acceptance, with electronic funds transfer (EFT) for B2B and recurring payments clients coming soon.

Fortis has also acquired fellow embedded payments solution provider SmartPay, saying the company has “strong partnerships” in the enterprise software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) ecosystems. SmartPay founders and former managing partners Mike Sheffey and Nate Schloss will join the Fortis leadership team as part of the

Jordan Ahli Bank announced the launch of Qawn, Jordan’s first social payment app, changing the way users send and receive money through built-in chat capabilities.

Qawn runs on Vault Core, the cloud-native core banking platform built by the banking technology company Thought Machine. Vault Core’s Universal Product Engine allows financial institutions to build and launch any financial product to meet customers’ specific needs, as Jordan Ahli Bank has delivered with Qawn. Vault Core operates in real-time and integrates seamlessly with other technology platforms through APIs.

Paul Taylor, CEO and founder of Thought Machine said, “We are delighted to partner with Jordan Ahli Bank – both the bank and Thought Machine share the same vision for the future of financial services. There is a huge opportunity to transform the way financial services are delivered across the Middle East – with modern technology at the forefront. Bringing Qawn to the market is just the start – we look forward to expanding our partnership with Jordan Ahli Bank to bring further innovative financial solutions to Jordan and elsewhere in the MENA region.”

Qawn’s user-centric approach allows individuals to send and receive money, request payments through chat, or use QR (Quick Response) scan for hassle-free financial management. With support for both Arabic and English languages, Qawn is accessible to a diverse user base.

What is the buzz

The former parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Financial Group, has agreed to sell its investment banking division, SVB Securities, to a group led by Jeff Leerink, the founder of SVB Securities, and backed by the Baupost Group hedge fund.

SVB Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US back in March following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

As per the agreement, the bidding group will acquire SVB Financial Group’s investment banking business for a combination of cash, repayment of an intercompany note, the assumption of certain liabilities (including significant deferred compensation obligations), and a 5% equity instrument in the buyer entity.