This week in fintech
By Hauken from Stacc
issues
✋ No more benefits on your credit cards!
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Norway has just submitted a proposal to ban the offer of additional benefits for credit cards. The thought is that a stricter regulation in this field will make fewer people take up credit, and it is unfortunate …
Layoffs all around
We wrote about Klarna firing ~ 700 employees (1% of the company) a few weeks ago. This week the layoffs expanded over the whole Fintech scene, and especially crypto:Crypto.com fires 260 people (5%) LinkBlockFi is laying off 170 people (20%) LinkThe Payment st…
Apple Pay - but later
Following the financial crisis, increasingly stringent capital requirements have been introduced for banks. The Norwegian authorities have taken stricter action than in most other countries:The largest Norwegian and foreign banks, so-called IRB banks, can use…
EU forces Apple
In early May, the EU's competition department concluded that Apple had abused its market position by refusing other mobile wallets to access the NFC chip for the iPhone. Even Westerveld, leader of People and Brand in Vipps, is pleased and thinks that Apple's …
A tough week for Lunar and Klarna
The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has stopped Lunar Banks' acquisition of Instabank that we wrote about in April. The reason is Lunar's financial position and the bank's access to «financial resources.»Lunar now plans to raise more money. Lunar is…
Status and trends for Norwegian Fintechs
The Finance Sector Union of Norway has, together with Ontogeny Group, launched this year's report on the status of the Norwegian fintech market. Some of the key findings include:The number of companies is growing, but few of the companies are growing largeMaj…
A credit check solution where ID-theft is impossible?
Last week someone hacked into Norkart, which provides IT systems for map and property information in Norway. Personal data for more than 60 percent of Norway's population may be leaked, causing an increased risk of ID theft.Norkart recommends the 3.3 million …
🥊 The battle of accounting and banking continues
Over the last few years, the biggest trend in the corporate banking market is undoubted that banking and accounting are merging. Cicero has written a new report titled "The battle of SME is continuing" where they believe the accounting system will be the pref…
The mortgage dilemma 🏠
Since 2010 the price of apartments in Norway has increased by 79% (compared to 22% KPI). This naturally excludes many from the housing market. So how can this be fixed? Obos has been trying rent-to-own solutions, but the big threshold for many is still the ma…
Unpredictability from the Financial Supervisory Authority
This is edition #100 of the newsletter. Little did I know when I started writing weekly about fintech news on our Slack, that it would come to this. But here we are. I'm probably going to write more about this later on, but for now, here is a word cloud from …
To the moon for Lunar?
Two weeks ago, we wrote about Lunar raising more money for acquisitions. This week they announced that their first move was buying Instabank for NOK 1.29 billion.Who is Instabank?Instabank is a traditional consumer loan bank established in Norway, Sweden, Fin…
Nordnet's brilliant move
When it comes to mortgages, the banks are all fighting for the best customers: Secure payers with a good economy and a low probability of loss. Nordnet is targetting this group with their new mortgage solution. Rather than letting the loan to value ratio defi…
🛑 The end of the road for Sbanken
DNB trying to buy Sbanken has been an uphill battle for over a year. Still, suddenly last week, everything changed: The Competition Appeals Board was unanimous in its decision to let DNB buy Sbanken, without further action from the bank. This caught many by s…
The Nordic Fintech Playbook
The playbook for becoming a large Nordic Fintech company is apparently finding a US celebrity, giving them some shares, and using them in your campaigns. Klarna has done this with Snoop Dogg, and now Lunar is following with Will Farrel. Lunar recently signed …
Why life can't be simpler
Last week we wrote about The European Commission removing Russian Banks from SWIFT. Most people miss that SWIFT is not a payment system but a messaging system (like email) used by over 11 000 banks in over 200 countries. Patrick McKenzie from Stripe has expla…
Financial warfare
Last week we wrote about GDPR essentially banning large parts of the web due to requesting data from outside the EU. This got me thinking about checking where the content you request from your site is located? I, therefore, spent parts of my weekend creating …
GDPR banning essential parts of the web
Last week German court ruled that embedding Google Fonts violates GDPR. Austrian and French court has already ruled that using Google Analytics breached GDPR by transferring IP information across the pond. All this means that at the moment, essential parts of…
Biometric BankID incoming
I'm going to start this week with a little plug: I've written about some of the projects that our department in Stacc has worked on (and can talk about) over the last year:
What if KYC was stored in an identity hub?
Do you know all the same questions you have to regularly answer and check off when you become a customer in a bank? What if that data was stored in your identity layer? In Norway, that would mean that BankID kept your KYC information and that you could author…
Jetpacks, Digipost and the death of Google Analytics
Digipost has entered a new agreement with Neonomics to make it easier for their 2,7 million users to pay their bills. Four of five invoices in Norway today are either eFaktura or AvtaleGiro. Digipost is in this new agreement targetting the remaining 80 millio…