Prohibition of return commisions?

August 09, 2022

Also:

  • ☠️ Vipps mobile 

  • 📑 European Tech Voices

  • 🫤 Libra-Diem-Aptos

  • 🐥 Tweet of the week

  • 🏆 Fintech logo rankings

💸 Prohibition of return commissions

We've previously written about how hard it is to compare the different fund prices in Norway:

One of the changes MiFID II has brought is more transparent pricing of how much the platforms get in kickbacks from the funds. Transparent pricing should be good news for the users, but the reality is different: [...]

Previously, a fund cost the same across all the different distributors. However, after MiFID II, the result is that you need a spreadsheet to find out where it is cheapest for you to invest.

In June, the Financial Authority in Norway sent a proposal to the Ministry of Finance to prohibit return commissions when selling savings products to non-professional customers. The Consumer Council in Norway has argued for this change since 2019, stating that the current system of retrocession fees is the most significant source of conflicts of interest in the funds' industry. The Netherlands and UK prohibited retrocession fees in 2012 and 2014, respectively. These prohibitions have resulted in the emergence of self-service funds, supermarkets, Robo-advisers, and lower prices. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for other kickback solutions for resellers of loans.

☠️ Vipps mobile

Vipps lost 54 million NOK on their cellular subscription service in 2021.

There is no hiding that we believed in development aligned with other growth cases in Vipps. We haven't had that exponential growth.

– Vipps CEO Rune Garborg

This is a slightly different tune than what he wrote in November 2020 as a response to Leonard Kongshavn and me when we questioned if it was the proper focus for Vipps to try to disrupt the Norwegian mobile market.

Of course [a cellular subscription service is the right choice for a Norwegian fintech company], when payment and identification are the core for delivering mobile services and internet access. – Rune Garborg in DN

Vipps now have almost 20 000 customers, which so far has cost them NOK 3 500 per customer. I guess it's a question of time before their cellular subscription adventure is over...

📑 European Tech Voices

Stripe has created a report that examines the European tech ecosystem's strengths and the regulatory environment's role. One of the key findings is that only 20% of startups believe that Europe will be the global tech leader in the next decade. Based on what respondents say, more needs to be done to reduce friction, ease the regulatory burden, and accelerate growth when market conditions improve. You can read the whole report here.

🫤 Libra-Diem-Aptos

As we've covered before, Meta - previously known as Facebook, tried to launch a stablecoin-based payments system called Libra and rebranded it to Diem. Libra-now-Diem ground to a halt after concerns from regulatory bodies and the general public, with Facebook-now-Meta abandoning the project in January 2022.

They also had a crypto wallet and a crypto-based money transfer pilot named Novi, formerly Calibra (are you keeping up?). In July, Facebook-now-Meta announced they'll be shutting down Calibra-now-Novi.

But the story doesn't stop there: Two weeks ago, Aptos announced their $150M Series A funding round financing a "new" Level 1 Blockchain. I wrote "new" because it's technically a revival of Libra-now-Diem, and I guess the new name is Libra-Diem-now-Aptos.

🐥 Tweet of the week

🏆 Fintech logo rankings

We came across this article on Fintech logo rankings this summer and had to share it.

"This list is a reflection of my personal tastes developed over 15+ years working in marketing and countless hours spent copying and pasting fintech logos into PowerPoint decks. [...] 

All ties were broken by my wife, who has excellent taste and a healthy disinterest in fintech."