FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 26 April 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week, featuring Jordan Kuwait Bank, Monese, Temenos, Aspiration and more.
TabaPay to acquire assets of BaaS fintech Synapse
TabaPay offers Synapse a lifeline with acquisition
Payment processor TabaPay is to acquire the assets and affiliates of US-based Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform Synapse Financial Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
San Francisco-headquartered Synapse filed a Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy petition earlier this week. The company had previously laid off over half of its workforce in 2023, namely through restructuring efforts instigated in June which impacted 18% of its workforce, followed by a further 40% cut in October.
According to Forbes, the acquisition, subject to the approval of a bankruptcy court, will involve California-based TabaPay acquiring Synapse’s brokerage, lending, credit and debit card issuing platforms, with Sankaet Pathak, CEO and founder of Synapse, due to join the firm as part of the deal.
Pathak says that TabaPay’s “longstanding profitability, robust balance sheet, and complimentary suite of solutions” will enable the fintech to “double down on our core product”.
Monese to split business in two amid mounting financial woes
UK-based fintech and banking services provider Monese has enlisted Interpath Advisory to assist with an internal restructuring effort which will result in its consumer-facing money app and business-facing, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) unit XYB being split into two separate companies.
Confirming the split with FinTech Futures this week, Monese says its business “has developed in two different directions: the original B2C business and now the new and fast growing B2B PaaS business”.
While it states that it’s “exploring the best organisational and capital structure for the company” in an endeavour to “maximise shareholder value”, the fintech did not disclose the exact timeline of when the restructuring is due to be completed.
Jordan Kuwait Bank to digitise transaction banking functions with iGTB platform
JKB partners iGTB
Jordan Kuwait Bank (JKB) has partnered with Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB), the transaction banking arm of Indian banking tech provider Intellect Design Arena, to implement its Digital Transaction Banking (DTB) offering.
The platform is to be applied across cash management, payments and trade finance functions, while the bank will also seek to leverage its partner’s Digital Customer Experience suite (CBX) and mobile banking services to upgrade its digital offering throughout the corporate financial supply chain.
The endeavour is being underpinned by the open finance platform eMACH.ai, which was launched by Intellect Design Arena last year.
Temenos concludes CEO search with appointment of Jean-Pierre Brulard
Temenos, a core banking software heavyweight, has concluded its extended search for a new chief executive officer (CEO) with the appointment of Jean-Pierre Brulard, effective 1 May 2024.
Brulard will join directly from US-based cloud computing and virtualisation technology company VMware, where he spent 14 years working across various leadership roles.
Speaking on the appointment this week, Thibault de Tersant, non-executive chairman of the board at Temenos, says Brulard’s “management of the migration of the VMware business model to subscription and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) whilst delivering annual recurring revenue (ARR) and revenue growth was a critical factor in his appointment”.
The position became vacant in January 2023 following the resignation of Max Chuard – a 20-year Temenos veteran and its CEO for four years.
Andreas Andreades, a long-standing executive at Temenos who took on the role of CEO while the permanent replacement search was taking place, will retire after 25 years of service.
Former Tesla exec Tim Newell to spin off Aspiration’s consumer financial services division
Tim Newell will lead the new standalone company (Image: LinkedIn)
Former Tesla executive Tim Newell has reached an agreement with climate finance company Aspiration Partners to spin off its consumer financial services division.
The new standalone company will continue to operate under the Aspiration brand name and will now act as an independent neobank offering a “new generation of climate-friendly financial products”.
Newell is set to serve as the spin-off’s CEO, while Mission Financial Partners, which he founded last year, will serve as its operational entity.
Mission Financial Partners will run as a fintech and not a bank, with banking services on the Aspiration platform to be supplied by Coastal Community Bank.
The entirety of Aspiration’s consumer business management team and employees have agreed to join Newell as the founding team of the new venture.
