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Digital remittance outfit Remitly has hired investment banks to lay the ground for an initial public offering at a $5 billion valuation, according to Reuters. 
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Ripple is to acquire a 40% stake in Asian cross-border payments specialist Trianglo.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Ripple to expand the reach of On-Demand Liquidity with its digital asset XRP for RT money transfers and funding.
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Israeli fintech Rewire, which has developed a cross-border international banking service for migrant workers, has secured $12 million in a funding round led by Viola Fintech and including contributions from BNP Paribas and strategic banking partner Standard Bank.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Rewire raises $12 million funding round to expand EU footprint for migrants to deposit money into a digital bank account, a debit and a remittance service.
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Global payments giant Mastercard has said it will invest $300 million as a cornerstone investor in the planned London float of payments processor Network International.
Vineet Anand's insight:
MC to place a $300 million investments in Network International for its upcoming London IPO!
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Barclays, the Mastercard Foundation and Ripple have joined in a $1.7 million funding round for overseas remittance startup SendFriend.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Remittance market now has another start-up SendFriend vying for the $650 billion market that will use XRP as the vessel to move funds. A highly competitive space, with SendFriend looking at US to Philippines corridor as their initial pipe.
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Samsung Pay users can now wire money intentionally through their mobile phones and save in fees compared to sending money overseas via conventional remittance route. Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday that it has begu
Vineet Anand's insight:
Samsung Pay to venture into remittance business including US! I question the strategy as this is a very price sensitive, with speed and transparency playing an important aspect. Western Union, Zoom, MG and other entrenched apps are meeting the needs of current smartphone users for account to account; and agent payouts. Unless proven wrong, believe this strategy will not help build a greater user base for Samsung Pay as other remittance brands are well entrenched, established and competitive.
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Boosting financial inclusion in developing markets will require work to broaden access to payment services, possibly through the creation of infrastructure modelled on Europe's new Target Instant Payment Settlement (Tips) and, in the longer term, the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), says ECB executive board member Benoît Cœuré.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Driving financial inclusion thru faster payments - a proven model for African developing markets to embrace!
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UK money transfer firm WorldFirst has shuttered its US operations to ward off any regulatory objections to a proposed take over by Ant Financial
Vineet Anand's insight:
$700 million deal by Ant Financial deal to move forward excluding US operations. Ant's had is fair share of regulatory and political challenges with Moneygram deal that fell thru.
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Alibaba's financial service brand Ant Financial is in advanced talks to buy UK currency transfer service WorldFirst, according to reports by Sky News.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Ant Financial to acquire Worldfirst; past two years attempts at acquiring MG have been futile for AF.
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London-based money transfer outfit Azimo has closed a $20m Series C investment round led by Japan's Rakuten Capital.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Azimo's latest funding round of $20 million to drive profitability in 12 months.. reduction in customer acquisition costs seems to be driving improvement in margins. Compare acquisition costs with likes of Xoom and WU to evaluate trajectory!
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Yolt, the UK money management app backed by Dutch banking giant ING, has added a host of new features, including a money transfer comparison service.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Yolt adds money transfer comparison capabilities!
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Ant Financial, the financial services arm of Chins's Alibaba, is taking a stake in Mynt, a mobile payment and credit service owned by Philippin
Vineet Anand's insight:
Ant on shopping spree with taking stake in Mynt - Philippine based mobile and credit service company
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UK money transfer service WorldRemit has raised $45m in financing from TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. and Silicon Valley Bank, taking its total funding to nearly $200m.
Vineet Anand's insight:
WorldRemit total funding now reaches $200 million after recent round of $45 million. It has generated $39 million and undertakes 4.8 million transactions a year!
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Finextra: BlackBerry has set out plans to grab a slice of the African mobile money market, beginning with the launch of a feature in Nigeria that lets users send money to each other through the BBM messaging service.
Vineet Anand's insight:
BlackBerry Pay in Nigeria - that is correct BBM to launch P2P services with airtime or Fastmonei or money transfer using Interswitch processor. BBM has 22 million registered users in Nigeria, an asset that might have been undervalued or even overlooked while the Canadian phone maker continues to brace challenges from Apple, Android and Samsung!
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Finextra: The top 20 non-bank money transfer providers based in the UK now account for over £40 billion of foreign exchange per year, saving customers over £900 million annually, according to data compiled by FXcompared.
Vineet Anand's insight:
It has been apparent for a while the rise of digital remittance non-bank firms are bringing lower fees, transparency, and faster delivery of funds as compared to traditional banks. TransferWise is slated driving $500,000 per month in remittance volumes. Banks need to be worried about its B2B remittance space, which is a bigger market, large transaction size, and part of existing relationship. This research indicates UK customers save about 36% on a PS10,000 transaction to Australia!
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The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, and WeChat, a leading social communication platform owned by Tenc
Vineet Anand's insight:
WUConnect platform now offers money transfer service via WeChat, messaging service owned by Tencent, with ~650 million MAU's. Recipients can receive funds at retail location, mobile wallet or bank account!
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Finextra: Azimo and MasterCard-controlled outfit HomeSend have teamed up to enable users throughout Europe to send money to loved ones in Africa and Asia through their mobile phones.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Mobile-money accounts to receive funds in real time! Interesting to see the transaction size as mobile-money will likely have limitations to withdrawal say for GBP 1000 in PHP and if there is an associated charge to remove funds from wallet for cash.
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Finextra: Kenya's Equity Bank has officially launched its mobile money service Equitel in a bid to take on the hugely popular Safaricom-owned M-Pesa.
Vineet Anand's insight:
M-Pesa faces competition on its own turn from Equity Bank that will be offering MT, loans and insurance services in addition to voice/SMS/data!
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Finextra: PayPal is forcing its way into the booming market for international remittances with a proposed $890 million acquisition of money transfer startup Xoom.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Post Paydient acquisition, Xoom appears to be less strategic in nature - it definitely has more value to Xoom than to PayPal. Limited assets Xoom brings to PayPal and with small 1.3 million user base the acquisition per user is ~$684; seems a bit expensive asset to acquire. PP has the cash right now on its books to acquire.
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Finextra: CurrencyCloud, the London-based firm that runs the back-end processing for some of the world's most promising money transfer startups, has roped in Sapphire and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten as heavyweight investors in a new $18 funding round.
Vineet Anand's insight:
CurrencyCloud now processing $12 Billion / year and has been growing significantly supporting FX rates for Transferwise, Azimo, Fidor, and Payoneer. Interesting to see Rakuten making investments with CurrencyCloud.
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London-based online and mobile money transfer startup Azimo has raised $20 million in funding to support expansion in Europe and to new markets in North America and Asia.
Vineet Anand's insight:
$600 billion remittance market is getting more attention from investors - Azimo $20 million, Transferwise $58 million and WorldRemit $100 million since start of 2015! Digital frontier is becoming competitive for the established players Western Union and MoneyGram.
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Finextra: MasterCard has launched a service designed to make it easy and fast for businesses, governments and others to send money to consumers around the world.
Vineet Anand's insight:
P2P, Mass Payments, and business will be able to leverage and send money to consumers for cross-border payments. This service will disrupt the P2P online space of existing big MSB players and online / digital players like Azimo, Transfast, Xoom! Visa indicated similar capabilities being launched soon.
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Finextra: The UK government has set out its approach to digital currencies, vowing to start applying anti-money laundering regulation to exchanges but also promising to put cash behind research into the potential of blockchain technology.
Vineet Anand's insight:
AML requirements for digital currency operators in the UK will be introduced likely later this year. Blockchain technology is being appreciated for its distributed ledger management for other use cases by treasury!
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Finextra: UK-based currency exchange outfit World First has launched an international payments app for the Android-powered smartwatch market.
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Not only do women move half of global remittances, they send a greater percentage of their wages than men. In a press release related to this year's
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Curated by Vineet Anand
Payment Industry leader passionate about Fintech, Innovation in Banking, Product Management & Strategy, driving revenue growth through client management, business development and P&L focus.
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Remitly making IPO moves with $5B valuation!