The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | May 30th

By Gaia Lamperti

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

Smells like banks’ IPOs

🇮🇩 HSBC Holdings has been examining an initial public offering of its Indonesian business, with plans for a share sale in Jakarta at an advanced stage.  The strategic move aims to tap into the fourth most populous country’s market and, while HSBC has yet to file a formal IPO application, the local regulator is aware of its intention, as Bloomberg reports. Indonesia’s watchdog said at the time that this process would likely take several years.

💥UK challenger bank Atom Bank is considering a SPAC merger on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of $700 million. The mobile-only bank has been looking at prospects for an IPO after achieving profitability in June last year. Allegedly, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) run by Wilbur Ross, former commerce secretary under the Donald Trump administration, is in talks with Atom Bank over a potential merger.

Core banking going strong

🏦 Core banking platform Thought Machine doubled its valuation to $2.7 billion, after announcing a Series D raise of $160m led by Singapore’s Temsek holdings. Investors also include several large banks like Chase, Morgan Stanley, and ING. The UK’s Lloyds Banking Group also extended its contract with Thought Machine until 2029. Core banking deals tend to be very long because they’re mission-critical and providers rely heavily on how effective their customers are at launching and scaling their products.

🇨🇦 Core banking vendor Temenos has been selected by Canadian Tire Bank (CTB) as the firm looks to replace its legacy systems with Temenos’ suite of solutions and modernise its operations. The core banking upgrade forms part of parent company Canadian Tire Corporation’s omnichannel digital-first growth plan. The firm aims to enhance customer acquisition, loyalty and engagement rates within its CTB financial arm.

Where is the buzz

Barclays Bank is announcing more branch closures across the UK and plans to shut an additional 27 sites this year. By the end of the year, it will have shut down 103 branch locations, blaming the shift away from the high street to online and mobile channel take-up among consumers. Lloyds, TSB, HSBC and NatWest have all this year opted to shutter more branches. So far, in 2020, 214 bank branches have closed, and a further 272 are scheduled to shut by the end of December.