October came to an end with striking news that could mark the financial industry’s history. Wirecard’s fate sees a new chapter, and a new fund aims to develop financial technology even further. Find some of the fintech highlights of last month right here:
UBS splashes the cash
UBS has decided to invest over €171 million in rising fintechs using a new fund called UBS Next, which targets modernization efforts.
The Swiss bank head of technology, Mike Dargan, explained that: “UBS Next is a further step to accelerate our innovation efforts as well as to identify and apply the latest technology for our client businesses. With our investments through close collaboration with Anthemis, we widen our access to fintech start-ups.”
It’s the bank’s most recent attempt to stay at the forefront of technology in core areas, such as cloud services and artificial intelligence.
Wirecard crumbles further
After Singapore ordered the company to cease all country operations and return money to customers within two weeks, the former unicorn sold its US operations, Wirecard North America, to Syncapay.
The company is a holding enterprise focused on high-potential payment solutions, which launched a couple of years ago. Several investment funds backed it. Wirecard will be combined with daVinci payments and rebranded as North Lane Technologies.
That’s just another development of Wirecard’s empire crumbling after a €1.9 billion financial scandal led the giant German payment processor to file for insolvency.
Giant Ant
We might see history being made soon. Financial technology group, Ant, backed by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, is set to make the biggest IPO (Initial Public Offering) in history. This news comes after predictions were made that its shares will sell for €29.5 billion when they are listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.
Ant runs Alipay, China’s primary payment system responsible for replacing cash and cards with digital payment solutions. It will sell only 11% of its shares, putting its valuation at €268 billion. The numbers look staggering, but further analysis proves Ant’s business operations’ sheer size, as the value of financial transactions for the year ending in June/2020 totaled €15 trillion.
Amid commercial wars between China and the United States, the 1.3 billion Alipay users will see its mother company Ant being listed in Asia, which is an unprecedented decision for a listing of this size. Jack Ma stressed that: “This was the first time such a big listing, the largest in human history, was priced outside New York City. We wouldn’t have dared to think about it five years, or even three years ago.”
And that’s it for the month! Follow this space to stay on top of the must-know fintech news.