Monoup news digest: main updates from fintech industry

We wrap up the week with important fintech news that is currently impacting online businesses. In Western payment sector, a major deal has taken place: Worldpay has once again changed ownership while remaining with some of old ones. How did this happen? Will explore further.

Additionally, we will discuss a large-scale project by Ukrainian neobanks and Uzbekistan's prospects for free P2P payments.

Today's roundup includes everything you might have missed but need to know about fintech and iGaming. We have gathered the key information and present it in a concise and understandable format. Even if you are not a payment expert, you will still understand everything, as our media is created primarily for businesspeople. Enjoy your reading!

Global Payments to acquire Worldpay

Worldpay payment system got a changed ownership structure. This time, it is being acquired by another payment institution, Global Payments.

The deal involves both current owners of Worldpay: GTCR and Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), which jointly own the company following a deal concluded in July 2023. In that deal, GTCR acquired 55% of the shares, while FIS retained 45%.

Under the new deal, FIS will acquire Global Payments' Issuer Solutions business for $13.5 billion as part of its stake in Worldpay. GTCR will receive a mix of cash and shares as compensation for its stake and will retain 15% of Global Payments' shares after the deal is completed.

Although at first glance this seems like an insignificant change in ownership and merely a structural adjustment, it could influence the future plans of payment system's operations. It is expected that Worldpay will implement technological and operational improvements, particularly in the area of anti-fraud, where work has already started. The coordination of efforts among these three companies in this deal will help elevate payment system to a qualitatively new level, which is likely to be noticed by merchants.

VOLT to assist SumSub with KYC verification

KYC solutions provider for iGaming industry, SumSub, has focused on improving its services and will collaborate with the flagship open banking provider VOLT. In the modern payment world, with advent of AI, we have seen not only an advancement in the quality of services but also an increase in fraud and in a variety of fraudulent schemes.

To effectively combat this while providing identity verification services, SumSub will add VOLT's Penny Drop functionality to its offerings. During this process, user (undergoing verification) will need to send 1 cent via VOLT's payment technologies from their bank account after uploading their documents. VOLT will then transfer the necessary information to Sumsub, which, in turn, will be able to verify whether the bank account belongs to the same person as the documents received during verification process. All of this will occur online within minutes. This highly accurate process will prevent fraudsters from uploading fake or someone else's documents for verification.

In any case, doing this will no longer be as easy. The new process involves comparing data with bank's database, which serves as a trusted source.

Ukrainian neobanks cover the world

One of the founders of Monobank, Dmytro Dubilet (who also previously worked at PrivatBank), is operating his own fintech project. It has already been named a "factory" for producing neobanks. The project is called Fintech Farm and is actively operating worldwide, launching fintech products similar to Monobank itself.

Recently, Roarbank opened in India and has already gained over 100,000 registrations. The startup operates on basis of Unity Small Finance Bank.

Additionally, Fintech Farm has other banks that follow the same operational strategy:

• Leobank in Azerbaijan;
• Liobank in Vietnam;
• Simbank in Kyrgyzstan.

Business model for all products is the same: a functional and convenient application based on a traditional bank, operating without branches entirely online.

To avoid obtaining a license independently, neobanks partner with an already operating traditional bank of medium or low tier in the country and launches its services on its basis. Large banks are usually not interested, as they often have similar services or applications, and the terms of cooperation are likely not the best. However, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have found their way and are working with suitable partners.

In Ukraine, Monobank quickly became a very successful bank, operating on the basis of the not-so-notable Universal Bank. The founders expect similar results in India and other countries. With an experienced team and an already established operations, the plan is to make all these projects top-tier in each market and literally cover the world with quality fintech solutions from Ukraine.

Uzbekistan's changing payment landscape

This week, Uzbekistan government made several important announcements regarding payment services that could potentially change a lot in the country.

The authorities aim to eliminate various QR codes from the functionality of many payment methods currently operating in the country. The idea is not new but effective. Plan is to create a single unified QR standard that all payment services will use.

Additionally, Central Bank of Uzbekistan is discussing the possibility of connecting individual persons to local Instant Payment System. The A2A technology is currently only available to entrepreneurs and allows for 24/7 business payments every day.

If it becomes available to individuals, P2P (peer-to-peer) transfers in the country will become instant and very cheap. Although they could even be free, they likely won't be, as this would hinder market competition and eliminate existing fintech companies. Nevertheless, government believes this service will be in demand, as there is already notable interest from the audience. Similar services from private companies are gaining momentum right now and government is not going to miss out.

These are the updates Monoup has gathered for you this week. Remember that you can receive news on Telegram, where we publish all the main news daily as short messages.