Gracie Lin’s Post

#EQLS 7 months on from the start of the strategic review, we are hopefully nearing a close wrt the potential takeover of international B2B payments & fintech platform Equals Money. Today the company said that Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC had decided not to submit a firm offer. But instead alongside its MoneyGram International subsidiary, was evaluating various potential strategic alternatives including commercial arrangements focused on #EQLS’ B2C business and technology. That said the other potential offeror – a consortium comprising Embedded Finance (ie Railsr) and TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. – are still considering whether or not to table a formal bid. And hence the ‘Put Up or Shut Up’ (PUSU) deadline has been further extended by another 4 weeks to 5pm 10 Jul'24 in order to allow further time for these discussions and due diligence to take place. To me, this comes down to whether #EQLS' institutional shareholders can agree a fair & acceptable price with the buyer. Disclosure: I own shares in Equals Money, who is also a Vox Markets client.

🚨 HSBC Shuts Down Zing After Just One Year 🚨 HSBC has confirmed the closure of Zing, its digital payments initiative, with hundreds of jobs at risk. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ddhrJTK6. When Zing launched a year ago, I wrote twice about why it was designed to fail: 1️⃣ Prerequisites for Digital Growth Initiatives (https://lnkd.in/d3BjpaE3) 2️⃣ Key Metrics for Digital Success (https://lnkd.in/d_uWnpDR) Still, it’s shocking to see HSBC in 2024 repeat every textbook rookie mistake: 👉 Operating under a separate brand. 👉 Razor-thin margins in a hyper-competitive space. 👉 A big-bang launch spanning multiple regions and products. 👉 Lavish promotions through traditional channels. 👉 Insufficient focus on fraud controls. This isn’t a one-off—other FSIs have tried and consistently failed even when not making every single of those mistakes, including in the exactly same product niche (!): BBVA’s Tuyyo, Santander’s PagoFX. But what’s truly puzzling is how such a flawed initiative got greenlit in the first place. 💬 What do you think? How can FSIs avoid falling into these traps in their quest for digital growth?

The BNY team is heading to #Beijing for Sibos later this month.   Hear from and meet with leaders across #BNY as they discuss the latest innovations in global payments and beyond.   Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eZagmgR5 #Sibos #Innovation #Payments

Leading Fintech firm, NPST is part of the Make in India initiative and listed on the NSE Small & Medium Exchange. Specialising in UPI payments and digital banking, NPST is operating as both a Tech. Service Provider (TSP) and a Payment Platform as a Service Provider (PPaaS). GFF not only highlighted #innovation through the launch of five products, it also showcased the human aspect with multiple teams coming together embodying #collaboration, one of the core values of NPST. Here's to NPST ... Simplifying the complex! #npst #gff #values

#MCExclusive 🚨 | As part of its attempts to address some of the concerns around the IPO process especially in the context of the role of merchant bankers, the SEBI will soon unveil tighter regulations for bankers 🏦📈 Ashish Rukhaiyar shares further developments on this👇 https://lnkd.in/dNzfvt_c #SEBI #IPO #Regulatiins #MerchantBankers

Big news in the payments world! 📰 Banking Circle announced yesterday its plans to acquire Australian Settlements Limited (ASL), marking a major step in expanding its footprint in Australia. This acquisition, subject to regulatory approvals, will integrate ASL's capabilities as an Australian authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) into Banking Circle's global payment infrastructure.

Citi has collaborated with Maybank Securities to bring global securities lending to retail clients of Maybank Securities in Singapore through the Citi Securities Lending Access™ (CSLA) platform, allowing clients to earn a portion of the fees paid by borrowers of securities and unlocking the potential to monetize otherwise idle assets. This collaboration marks the introduction of CSLA in Asia, which offers a solution that digitizes the entire securities lending lifecycle and democratizes the securities lending market. Read more here: https://on.citi/4gGl1uf

🚀UK Finance Successfully Completes Regulated Liability Network (RLN) Experimentation Phase🚀 UK Finance, alongside top financial institutions like Barclays, HSBC UK , Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander UK, Standard Chartered, Virgin Money and Visa, has concluded the RLN Experimentation Phase, exploring innovations in payments and settlement. Supported by leading DLT technology provider R3, also including other technology partners Quant, EY, Linklaters, DXC Technology, and Coadjute, this initiative is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in financial infrastructure. 🔑 Key Highlights : - Tokenization and programmable payments were trialed across several use cases, revealing potential benefits like fraud reduction, improved efficiency in home buying, and lowering costs of failed payments. - The RLN can serve as a common access point for fintechs, enabling them to connect with established payment systems and institutions. - The UK’s legal framework is flexible enough to support this innovation, with further regulatory collaboration needed to bring it to life. As the phase concludes, UK Finance invites more financial institutions and public bodies to engage in the next steps! Link to UK Finance Summary Paper Sep '24: https://lnkd.in/e36xqqv3 #UK #Payments #Innovation #Tokenization #DigitalAssets #TokenizedDeposits #Fintech #RLN #R3

🇦🇺 Numeral, a Mambu company now supports Australian payment schemes through Citi Australia! While we launched and initially focused on European payment schemes, we are committed to growing our footprint globally to support the needs of our current and future customers wherever we can. Through this new integration facilitated by Citi’s global payment platform, Numeral customers can now send and receive payments through the following schemes using Numeral’s API and dashboard: - Osko for instant payments - BECS for bulk payments - RITS for high-value payments through Australia’s RTGS payment system

Case Study: bunq, the second largest neobank in Europe, needed a vendor solution that would allow the neobank to address the changes required by the EBA for IRRBB and CSRBB. Given bunq’s rapid growth across the European Union, the challenger was also poised to automate some of the manual processes in Treasury Operations and find a vendor who could offer a holistic solution addressing both the regulatory needs of the team as well as a TMS. Read the full Case Study: https://lnkd.in/dyWJyXvM