Starling looks to list in the U.S.; Lloyds may buy Curve

Adrian Dennis/Photographer: Adrian Dennis/AFP/

London-based fintech Starling Bank is considering a public listing in the U.S., a key part of Starling's quest to expand in the States.

Starling has not released specific plans, though it believes it can get a higher valuation in the U.S. according to the Financial Times.

Starling's interest in the U.S. comes as the U.K. attempts to lure more fintech investment and follows London fintech Wise's decision to list in New York while maintaining a secondary listing in London.

Like Wise, the potential U.S. listing is part of a broader expansion strategy. Starling is a branchless bank — its customers manage all of their finances on an app.

Starling contends its branchless model is less expensive than a business that depends, at least in part, on branches. As part of its expansion, Starling is also planning to sell Starling's technology in the U.S.  Starling registered Engine — the fintech's software division — as a limited liability company in Delaware, and is seeking staff and an office in the U.S. Starling did not comment on the potential IPO. A public relations representative told American Banker that Starling's SaaS business will be key to its U.S. strategy. 

Other U.K. fintechs such as Monzo and Revolut are also expanding in the U.S., facing a market with well-established competitors in the payments technology industry, including PayPal, Stripe and Block. Monzo recently raised more than $400 million to fund its U.S. strategy, while Revolut has expanded its credit offerings in the U.S. in recent weeks. —John Adams 

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Lloyds Banking eyes Curve acquisition

London-based Lloyds Banking Group is reportedly in talks to acquire Curve, a payments company with a digital wallet designed to rival Apple Pay, for up to 120 million pounds ($161 million), according to Sky News. 

If negotiations are successful, a deal could be announced as early as September, according to Sky. 

Curve is a London-based payment company founded in 2016 that saw opportunity last year when the European Commission ruled that Apple had to open its payment technology to outside developers. Curve in May launched Curve Pay, its mobile wallet, on Android devices, with plans to launch on iOS later this year. 

The acquisition would provide Lloyds with a needed in-road into payments infrastructure, and could give the bank a workaround to fees Apple charges to use its payments services. 

Curve has raised over $300 million across 11 rounds of debt and equity funding, according to Crunchbase. —Joey Pizzolato

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Cash App rolls out contactless payments on iPhone

Peer-to-peer payment platform Cash App today launched Tap to Pay on iPhone for business sellers, allowing small businesses to accept contactless payments without the need for additional hardware. Credit card, debit card, Apple Pay and other digital wallet payments are supported. Square, Block's small business point-of-sale system, powers the payments functionality. 

"Tap to Pay on iPhone opens up sellers to businesses outside the Cash App community, to the growing share of customers who use contactless debit or credit card, or a mobile wallet," said Owen Jennings, head of business at Block, in a statement. "It's a powerful way to ensure micro and nano sellers never miss a sale." 

Cash App Business allows small and micro businesses to accept payments and track sales all within the Cash App app, according to the company.  —Joey Pizzolato

Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Checkout.com drops anchor in Canada

Checkout.com has launched Checkout.com Canada, part of the payment fintech's ongoing expansion beyond its London roots.

The company will open an office in Canada, following the opening of its San Francisco office earlier this year. Checkout.com cited internal research showing 18% of Gen Z consumers in Canada shop online at least once per day, and 48% of U.S. consumers say they plan to increase their use of e-commerce in the next 12 months. 

"North America is seeing a major shift in how people spend, and we are ready to help enterprise merchants capitalize," Zack Levine, head of revenue for Checkout.com, said in a release. "Through one integration point, merchants can access our full suite of online pay-in and payout capabilities across cards, bank rails, wallets, and popular methods like PayPal and Venmo, in addition to a variety of advanced solutions like pinless debit."

Checkout.com enables sellers to offer payments via their own site or through links to mobile wallets, occupying a market that includes PayPal, Block and Stripe. The company has used partnerships to reach into new markets, including a collaboration with Splitit and Alipay to gain access to merchants in Western and Asian markets, and Xiaomi, a China-based mobile technology company, to reach Chinese consumers and merchants. —John Adams  

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

PayPal expands crypto reach in Europe

Crypto exchange OKX has integrated with PayPal to support cryptocurrency purchases and deposits in the European Economic Area. Users can fund OKX accounts through a PayPal balance, a PayPal-linked bank account, debit and credit cards. No added setup is required after an initial link between an OKX and PayPal account. PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo for years have supported cryptocurrency purchases. PayPal has also issued a stablecoin, PYUSD, building a payment network through a series of partnerships. 

OKX recently registered under Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets MiCA regulation, signaling a plan to offer regulated digital asset products. MiCA is the European equivalent of the Genius Act, providing regulatory cover to cryptocurrency firms by mandating consumer and privacy protections.. 

"Integrating with PayPal is a major step in our mission to make crypto more accessible to everyone," said Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, in a release.. "PayPal is a household name in Europe and beyond." —John Adams 

David Gray/Bloomberg

Australia pilots tokenized asset settlement, CBDC

The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre have selected a group of banks and fintechs to participate in the next phase of Project Acacia, a joint initiative designed to explore how advancements in digital payments and existing settlement infrastructure could potentially support the development of Australian wholesale tokenised asset markets. 

Twenty-four use cases will be tested over the next six months, including 19 pilot use cases involving real money and asset transactions, and five proof-of-concept use cases involving simulated transactions, according to an RBA release. 

Asset classes included in the pilot are fixed income, private markets, trade receivables and carbon credits, and settlement assets include stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). New ways of using banks' existing exchange settlement accounts at the RBA will also be allowed. 

"Ensuring that Australia's payments and monetary arrangements are fit-for-purpose in the digital age is a strategic priority for the RBA and the Payments System Board," said Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA, in a statement. "Project Acacia represents an opportunity for further collaborative exploration on tokenised asset markets and the future of money by the public and private sectors in Australia.

"The use cases selected in this project will help us to better understand how innovations in central bank and private digital money, alongside payments infrastructure, might help to uplift the functioning of wholesale financial markets in Australia," he said. 

Lead use case participants include: Australia and New Zealand Banking Corporation, 

Australian Payments Plus, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation, among others. —Joey Pizzolato

Fiserv

Fiserv's Clover adds tools for bosses

First Data's Clover point of sale system has added workforce management technology from Homebase, a platform for small business technology. 

The integration will enable Clover to support scheduling, time tracking and employee management. These functions will exist alongside Clover's payments and other merchant services on a web dashboard.

The capabilities include self-service employee tools that let workers sign up for shifts or cover another worker's shifts; mitigating early clock-ins and streamlining overtime expense management. Other tools include messaging for communications between management and staff.

Clover has been a key tool for Fiserv since the bank technology seller acquired the point of sale platform from First Data. Fiserv has gradually added non-payment services to Clover in an effort to capture more of its merchants' payments business as rivals such as Block and Stripe add more services for small businesses..

Fiserv has also used Clover as an introductory product when expanding in international markets. —John Adams  

Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg

Belgian spend management fintech acquires Norwegian AP automation firm

Belgium-based spend management fintech Rydoo has acquired Norway-based accounts payable automation company Semine for an undisclosed amount, Rydoo CEO Sebastien Marchon said in a blog post yesterday. 

Semine uses artificial intelligence to automate once-manual tasks associated with a company's accounts payable departments, and counts more than 10,000 companies as its clients, according to its website. 

Rydoo will use Semine's AP solution to bolster its spend management offering. "Accounts payable and employee expenses are two sides of the same coin. Yet, they've been handled in disconnected systems for too long, leading to inefficiencies, manual work, and blind spots," Marchon wrote. "By combining them under one roof, powered by AI and automation, finance teams get a smarter, more complete solution for spend control, compliance and strategic decision-making." —Joey Pizzolato