Thunes’ ‘Pay the World’ Vision Now Includes WeChat’s 1.3B Users

A newly released list of FTX’s creditors reveals the scope of the bankrupt cryptocurrency company’s collapse. The 116-page document, filed by the company late Wednesday (Jan. 25), shows that FTX owes money to investment firms, tech companies, banks, media outlets, state governments, the finance ministries of Vietnam, India and Japan and other crypto firms.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping increase access to financial services in Africa. In recent years, advances in machine learning, a type of AI, have had a profound effect on the delivery of financial services, helping to democratize access in Africa’s emerging economies. For example, it is being used to...

Regulatory scrutiny post-FTX’s dramatic implosion has prompted a crisis of confidence in other industry actors. Perhaps no other firm has bee affected more so than rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance, itself in no small way responsible for the chain of events that led to FTX’s multi-billion-dollar evaporation in November of last year.

FINN has launched its car subscription service for businesses in the United States. This business-to-business (B2B) service, which is already offered in Germany, allows businesses to access six- or 12-month contracts and dedicated customer success managers, FINN said in a Thursday (Jan. 26) press release. “Traditional B2B providers in the...

Trustly has closed its acquisition of Ecospend to grow its offerings in the United Kingdom. The acquisition brings together Trustly’s global payments platform for digital account-to-account (A2A) transactions and Ecospend’s payment initiation services and data services, Trustly said in a Friday (Jan. 27) press release. “This is an...

The world's first human-monkey hybrid has been successfully created in a laboratory, according to shocking research from Chinese scientists. This horrifying development occurred in 2021, after a team of researchers from the United States and Spain traveled to China in order to get around regulations that forbade this kind of research in their own nations.

New York is considering a bill that would let consumers pay state agencies with cryptocurrency. The legislation, now in committee before the state assembly, proposes that crypto be used as “a means of payment of fines, civil penalties, rent, rates, taxes, fees, charges” owed to state agencies, according to the bill, introduced last week by Assemblyman Clyde Vanel.

Unifiedpost and Munich Re have teamed up to provide invoice financing in Europe. The new strategic partnership will bring together Belgium-based Unifiedpost’s eInvoicing technology and customer base with Munich Re’s insurance expertise and financial capacity, the companies said in a Wednesday (Jan. 25) press release. The invoice financing...

Sam’s Club is adding new locations across the United States to strengthen its omnichannel capabilities. The Walmart-owned membership warehouse club said in a Thursday (Jan. 26) press release that it plans to open more than 30 new clubs over the next several years, starting with one in Florida in 2024, and five new distribution and fulfillment centers this year, starting with one in Georgia in the third quarter.

The U.S. Justice Department is continuing its investigation into Visa's debit card practices. The payments giant is cooperating with the probe, which is "seeking additional documents and information focusing on U.S. debit and competition with other payment methods and networks," Visa said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Friday (Jan. 27).

FinTech Optasia, Ecobank and MTN are partnering to launch a mobile money microloan service in Guinea. In a Thursday (Jan. 26) press release, the Dubai-based FinTech announced that the services will be offered to MTN’s subscribers in the country under the Ecobank product name “Prêt Xpress.”. As...

Amazon is raising the amount Prime members must spend to get free grocery delivery. Effective Feb. 28, members must order $150 for free delivery from Amazon Fresh. For smaller orders, there will be three tiers of services fees: $3.95 for orders between $100 and $150, $6.95 for those between $50 and $100 and $9.95 for those under $50, according to Amazon’s website.

--- Across the world, insurance companies and InsurTechs are exploring how to use digital solutions to improve nearly all aspects of the insurance process. In Europe, for example, close to 90% of insurance firms have embarked on some sort of digitization initiative to improve the customer experience, especially for digital-first customers. The use cases are seemingly endless.

Smaller banks that sought to serve once-hot sectors like cryptocurrency are now exiting those verticals. This, as long-time crypto industry partner Silvergate Bank reports steep quarterly losses tied to $8.1 billion in withdrawals while it looks to reshuffle its digital asset business offerings, and Voyager Digital-servicing Metropolitan Commercial Bank and FTX-linked Moonstone Bank have both announced they are closing their crypto business lines and exiting the turbulent space.

Cryptocurrency industry regulation in the post-FTX era has emerged as a pressing concern for the new Congress. It is no less pressing a concern for American consumers. This, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed in an interview Wednesday (Jan. 25) with the American Economic Liberties Projects (AELP) that the prior administration “essentially gave the green light” to a cryptocurrency market “full of junk tokens, unregistered securities, rug pulls, Ponzi schemes, pump and dumps, money launderings and sanctions evasions.”

Angle Health says it has raised $58 million to grow its digital-first health insurance platform. The company will use the Series A round to expand its platform, which launched in 2021 and covers tens of thousands of patients across the country, Angle said in a Wednesday (Jan. 25) news release.

Tenable will invest up to $25 million in startups that can help its cybersecurity efforts. Those ventures will be part of the company’s new corporate investment Tenable Ventures, the firm said in a news release Thursday (Jan. 26). “Tenable Ventures will focus globally on early-stage startups developing novel capabilities...

With restaurants struggling to maintain profits, legacy B2B payment practices may drain revenue they can’t afford to lose. Although many restaurants have adopted consumer-facing innovations to stay competitive in a tight market, backend systems tend to lag behind. The July 2022 PYMNTS/Paytronix collaboration, “Restaurant Readiness Index,” found that this holds especially true for independent table service restaurants, as only 13% are powered by digital channels.

Dubai Investments has acquired a 9% stake in Monument Bank. The Emirati investment company announced the news in a Thursday (Jan. 26) press release, with Vice Chairman and CEO Khalid Bin Kalban saying, “Investment in Monument Bank provides the Group a unique opportunity to foray into [the] digital banking space in one of the most advanced and regulated markets at an early stage.”

LendingClub’s results showed that higher interest rates are cutting into investors’ demand to buy loans. The company said in its earnings materials on Wednesday (Jan. 25) that marketplace revenue is down 28% as a result. Quarterly loan originations were $2.5 billion in the latest quarter, down from $3.1...