This week's edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news and developments from Singapore.
Ant International Raises $1.2 billion in Series A funding
Ant International, the Singapore-based business arm of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has secured $1.2 billion in Series A funding. Existing supporters Ant Group and Alibaba Group Holding participated in the equity round along with a number of unnamed international institutional investors.
The capital will be used to...
- The OCC conditionally approved Upstart to establish a branchless, full-service national bank just four months after the company applied.
- The charter would let Upstart originate loans nationwide, accept FDIC-insured deposits, and reduce its reliance on third-party banking partners while preserving its existing loan-purchaser network.
- The approval reflects growing fintech interest in bank charters, but the OCC’s rejection of Wise’s application shows that regulatory approval is...
- Intuit launched a QuickBooks-native business credit card that combines spending, expense management, and accounting in a single platform.
- The move puts Intuit in more direct competition with spend management fintechs like Ramp, Brex, and Expensify by eliminating the need for multiple corporate spend tools.
- With native access to QuickBooks data and nearly 100 million customers across its ecosystem, Intuit enters the market with significant underwriting, distribution, and cross-selling...
More and more credit unions and community banks are weighing the challenges and opportunities of deploying AI-powered solutions for their members and customers. Yet, while there is much attention paid to the technical details of integrating AI-based technologies into banking operations, there is often less focus on the critical issues of AI governance: the rules, policies, and processes that ensure that a given use of AI is safe, non-discriminatory, and transparent.
With this in...
- ANNA Money has acquired Business Data Group (BDG) and UK Business Forums (UKBF) as part of its goal of building an AI-powered operating system for small business founders and owners.
- BDG is a leading, UK-based independent company formation platform. UKBF is a 160,000-member, online community of small business owners, freelancers, and other professionals.
- Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.
AI-powered,...
