Top 5 FinTech deals of March 2021 (UK & Europe version)

By Megha Bhattacharya

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digitalisation for the financial services industry. Amidst the unprecedented market volatility, the industry’s appetite for digital technology has been on the rise. The new year saw some significant deals being undertaken by FinTech companies.

Check out the top FinTech deals that took place in March 2021 (UK & Europe) :

• Bitpanda and Contis

European neobroker Bitpanda launched a new Visa debit card – Bitpanda Card, powered by Contis’ zero-balance Buffer technology. The zero balance technology aims to remove the need to liquidate assets before spending. This allows digital assets in Bitpanda accounts to be automatically converted to fiat at point-of-sale, both online and in-store. According to Bitpanda, the card can be linked to any asset in a user’s portfolio and through the app, cardholders can easily switch, from cryptocurrency to gold, and spend in real-time.

Recently, Contis, a Banking-as-a-Service and payment solutions provider, teamed up with FinTech Pin4 in a bid to enable account holders to access cash via their mobile phones which they can instantly collect at any enabled ATM, including any of 12,000 Cardtronics ATMs across the UK, without the need for a card or pre-registration.

• Mambu and Raisin

FinTechs Raisin and Mambu teamed up to provide the latter with a cost-effective company pension plan. Mambu will integrate Raisin Pension integration for achieving a higher employer contribution and promising return on investment while simplifying digital administration. According to Raisin, the pension platform will enable German businesses to address the growing disparity between workers’ company pension and the amount needed to retire.

The Raisin Pension ETF also provides Mambu and employees with their own pension cockpits through which to track the development of their portfolio and pension entitlements within an online account. Mambu employees will be able to pay regular contributions via deferred compensation, which are invested in low-cost, broadly diversified exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

• Nordic API Gateway and Santander Consumer Bank

Nordic API Gateway has teamed up with Santander Consumer Bank with an aim to deliver open banking capabilities for the Bank’s new consumer-focused money app – Prosper. The application is expected to offer its Nordic users a complete financial overview across banks by leveraging account aggregation and payment initiation services. According to Nordic API, the collaboration is expected to enable Santander to boost its multi-banking personal finance management app. Prosper is currently being rolled out in Denmark with plans to launch across the rest of the Nordics.

Recently, Nordic API Gateway announced that it has teamed up with FinTech Horde, enabling the FinTech to manage loans and receive better loan opportunities by consolidating credit card debt. Horde has also rolled out a social lending platform for allowing friends and family to lend each other money in a structured way. The new social lending platform is already being launched in Norway this week and is expected to be further expanded in the Nordics in the future.

• Equifax UK and Curve

Equifax UK teamed up with UK consumer FinTech and payment card app Curve in a bid to deliver verification and ID solutions to its personal finance product, Curve Credit. The offering allows consumers to pay later via instalments on transactions made with their Curve card. The agreement will provide Curve Credit with market-specific scores that assess a customer’s credit risk and affordability, helping to make accurate credit decisions at the point of application and allowing new customers to be onboarded quickly.

Equifax also announced that its subsidiary has acquired transaction data analytics company AccountScore with an aim to boost its Open Banking and insights capabilities. The acquisition will see Equifax enhance its consumer and commercial product offerings, combining traditional credit bureau information held by Equifax with bank transaction data, facilitated by AccountScore.

• Nordea Bank and AxiomSL

Risk and regulatory reporting solutions provider AxiomSL recently announced that it has been selected by Nordea Bank. The partnership is expected to support the Bank’s regulatory reporting requirements in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Nordea Bank will implement AxiomSL’s RegCloud, a fully managed, cloud-based risk and regulatory reporting platform used by financial institutions to source, calculate and reconcile large volumes of disparate data to comply with complex and evolving regulatory requirements.

According to Nordea, it will be able to comply with FINREP, COREP, AnaCredit, and Securities Holdings Statistics Group (SHSG) reporting requirements by leveraging the platform’s adaptable data-dictionary and end-to-end automated processes. RegCloud will aggregate multiple data sources and rapidly process massive data volumes, while delivering trusted information to meet regulatory mandates across the European Banking Authority (EBA) and National Central Bank (NCB).