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Hi all, Julie here.

Happy official end of the summer! Definitely still feels like summer here in Austin, but I’m definitely not complaining. Praying for everyone from the south all the way to the North East that has been impacted by Ida!

Hope everyone is able to relax this weekend so you can get ready for our two events next week! First one is at the Arlo in SoHo on September 8 and the other is at fintech_devcon in Denver on September 9! Signups here:

​NYC​

​Denver​

Today's Partner, Laika

Speaking of events, this one by Laika and Plaid looks like a must watch!

Fintech businesses need to think of compliance as a core function if they want to gain trust and move upmarket. Enterprises expect far more comprehensive security programs and adherence to stringent industry standards to move through the procurement process.

Take a peek behind the curtain at Saastr. Join Eva Pittas, Co-Founder at Laika, and Dan Kahn, Global Open Finance Lead at Plaid for a fireside chat on the “Secrets of Enterprise Buyers.” This session will cover what you need to know when it comes to selling into enterprises and information security industry standards.

​More event details here​

Company News

Robinhood’s Early Deposit Feature

Robinhood is working on a new feature that will let customers get their paychecks early (sounds familiar…). A developer discovered the new feature in a beta version of an app update and told Bloomberg about it. It’s called “Early Direct Deposit” and the messaging reads: “Now you can get paid up to two days early...Because eligibility depends on your employer, we’ll let you know if you can get paid early on your next pay cycle.” Its checking and savings product hasn’t really taken off, so it’ll be interesting to see if this changes that. My guess is that it will help, but since so many other companies offer early deposit at this point, it won’t do nearly as much for Robinhood as it did for Chime a few years ago.

Brazil Delays Open Banking

Bummer. The roll-out of Open Banking in Brazil has been postponed. The initial scope of the third phase, which relates to the instant payment system Pix, was initially set to go live this week. Instead, the Central Bank moved the start date of phase three to the end of October.

Why? Sounds like it was thanks to the structure responsible for the governance of the implementation of Open Banking. Now, Open Banking in Brazil will be fully rolled out by September 2022 rather than the end of 2021 (assuming there are no other delays).

Big Move For India’s Underbanked

This week, eight Indian banks announced that they are currently or about to roll out a system called Account Aggregator to enable consumers to consolidate all their financial data in one place. The new system will make it possible for banks, tax authorities, insurers and other finance firms to aggregate data of consenting customers. Account Aggregator is built in part to also help consumers and businesses access financial services, such as loans, since the existing credit bureaus in India have data of only a fraction of the nation’s 1.4 B population. This sounds like a big step for India and fintech in the region. Will be keeping a close eye on this! If anyone is exceptionally familiar with the region, I’d love to chat :)

No One Knows the Definition of Immediate

The Federal Reserve didn’t receive many comments on FedNow, so it’s pushing back the deadline in hopes of getting more feedback. The deadline is now September 9, and the U.S. Faster Payments Council asked for an additional 60 days. If you wanna submit a comment, here’s the link.

Meanwhile In Canada...

Payments Canada has launched a new high-value payment system called Lynx, which will be able to process large value, time-critical payments with real-time settlement finality (along with enhanced cyber security and resiliency capabilities). It’s one part of Payments Canada’s payments modernization initiative, which includes a real-time payments system that’s currently being built. New products, services, along with the digitisation of manual and paper-based processes related to invoicing and payment reconciliation are set to be introduced late next year in what’s called the ISO 20022 message standard. It will also support Canadian financial institutions preparing to meet Swift's migration date for cross-border payments, expected to roll out at the end of 2022.

Funding and Deals

YC to $500M In 365 Days

This June, Jeeves emerged from stealth with $31M in equity and $100M in debt financing...this week, it announced a $57M round at a $500M valuation. Guess things aren’t slowing down in fintech funding yet. Calling itself the first “cross country, cross currency” expense management platform, Jeeves aims to help startups and other companies that typically rely on local financial infrastructure but have employees and operations in other countries. The company says that by using its proprietary Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure, any company can spin up their finance function “in minutes” and get access to 30 days of credit on a true corporate card (with 4% cash back), non card payment rails, as well as cross-border payments. Customers can also pay back in multiple currencies, reducing FX (foreign transaction) fees. It now covers more than 12 currencies and 10 countries across three continents, with Mexico as its largest market.

Crypto Watch

Sol On Fire

I hadn’t even heard of SOL until recently, but wow, it’s now the 7th largest crypto (just passed Dogecoin)! Programmable blockchain Solana’s SOL token rallied to new highs today, with its market capitalization jumping to $42B. Has anyone told Elon about this yet? They should send him Packy’s incredible deep dive.

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Julie VerHage-Greenberg is the co-founder of Fintech Today, where she focuses on editorial content and brand. Prior to joining, she was Bloomberg’s first fintech reporter, covering Robinhood from before it was a billion dollar company, breaking the news that Plaid was acquiring Quovo, and interviewing executives on Bloomberg TV and at several large conferences.

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