Paul LaRusso

When every transaction tells a clearer story, everyone wins. Sicredi introduced richer transaction data across call centers and digital channels with Ethoca Consumer Clarity™. The results were immediate and meaningful. Chargebacks dropped 22% and total disputes declined sharply. 1 in 4 members interacted with Digital Receipts in the first 3 months, showing strong demand for a more transparent experience. See how Mastercard partners with financial institutions to deliver clarity at scale. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gH73iKdy #Mastercard #cybersecurity #B2B #chargebacks

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🚨 BREAKING: Nubank Gets Conditional Approval to Establish a U.S. National Bank 🇺🇸! See here press release https://lnkd.in/ePJ-C2CW Today, Nu Holdings (Nubank) received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form a de novo national bank - Nubank, N.A. This marks a major milestone in its strategic expansion into the US. That was fast... 120 days from its application. Cristina Junqueira - Nubank co-founder, will lead the U.S. bank’s launch, while former Central Bank of Brazil president Roberto Campos Neto will serve as Chairman of the Board. 💡 Why this matters beyond the headline This isn’t just another fintech foray into the U.S., it’s a well-capitalized global challenger moving from partnerships and licenses abroad to owning a regulated U.S. banking vehicle. With 127M+ customers globally, Nubank is now scaling beyond its Latin American base and staking a claim in the core financial services arena. This conditional approval also signals a broader trend: regulators are increasingly open to traditional national charters for digital banks, blurring the line between incumbent institutions and agile tech-focused challengers. ⚠️ The Nubank difference Built its own tech stack - not duct-taped legacy APIs. Like Chime, Revolut. Already operates under multiple licenses across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia. 🔍 The bigger picture: The U.S. race for licenses Revolut was looking to buy a bank now looking to apply again for a bank charter, bunq just (re)applied. Owning tech + owning a license = speed + control. Together, that’s a full-stack model legacy banks can’t match. ⚠️ Message to Community Banks & Credit Unions Nubank isn’t chasing Wall Street. 👉 It’s coming after Main Street. If your institution is still tied to: 40-year-old cores Limited mobile UX Slow product launches …you’re exactly the kind of bank Nubank plans to outpace. 🔑 Bottom line The time to modernize is now. Digital is the relationship, especially with Gen Z & Millennials. Core matters - if you don’t own your stack, you can’t compete on speed or scale. Embedded services (lending, payments, shared finance) are no longer optional- they’re table stakes. 👉 Agora Financial Technologies is built like a challenger bank - but for community banks & credit unions. Through our modular side-core platform, we deliver everything that Nubank and competitors could deploy. The clock is ticking. Let’s talk modernization.

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Great post Virginia Varela When we met with Travis Hill on our last Florida Bankers Association DC trip, I mentioned the same concern. Experienced regulators are an asset to any bank executive who wants to run a safe, sound and profitable bank. Regulators are sometimes put in the position of enforcing poorly constructed regulations because of the disconnect between legislation and rule making. As banking and finance become more complex with the addition of crypto and AI, the need for experience and intelligence in bank regulation and supervision is more critical than ever. Miki Bowman Kathy Kraninger Rodney E. Hood

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#LatinAmerica has always been a region defined by ambition, creativity, and resilience, yet merchants operating here still face structural barriers that slow growth: fragmented financial systems, inconsistent settlement infrastructures, unpredictable FX environments, and limited access to specialized financial services. For OKTO, the question has never been whether these challenges can be solved, but how we build a model that turns complexity into a competitive advantage for merchants. Our strengthened alliance with S8 Capital is a decisive step in that direction. This partnership allows us to reimagine what a modern financial operating system for merchants should look like, where regulated payments and settlement rails work seamlessly alongside liquidity, treasury, FX, token-based capabilities and more, all within a single, coherent framework. The future of merchant financial infrastructure will be defined by transparency, speed, and the ability to make informed decisions in real time. It will reward companies that can match operational execution with financial sophistication, and it will belong to merchants who have a partner capable of helping them navigate both. This is what it means to #PlayDifferently. Proud of the work already done, and excited for what this unlocks for our partners.

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Banco Industrial-Backed Zigi App Sets a New Standard in Banking Innovation With Thought Machine Technology “Zigi embodies the future of banking innovation,” said Paul Taylor, CEO and Founder of Thought Machine. “Their engineers are using Vault Core to drive continuous innovation, proving that rapid iteration and secure scaling are now possible for even the largest financial institutions in Latin America.” https://lnkd.in/e8bDA5Gc Ciara S William Montgomery Winela Kulman Barry O'Connell Alex Pacheco Michel C. Luisa Lopez #fintech #finance #banking #paytech #payments #fintechnews #paymentsnews

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Cristina Junqueira, Co-founder & Chief Growth Officer in Nubank, shared insights on the company impressive scaling across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, and its future direction. Currently: - Brazil is fully profitable and remains Nubank’s strongest market. - Mexico is the fastest growing and is expected to reach profitability soon. - Colombia is still in the early investment phase. A key highlight is Nubank's choice to expand into the United States: 1. The U.S. is the world’s largest and most profitable credit market, aligning perfectly with Nubank’s strength in digital credit. 2. High fees combined with low customer satisfaction present a significant opportunity for a transparent challenger. 3. There is a natural entry point with 62 million U.S. Latinos, many of whom are already familiar with Nubank and underserved by traditional banks. 4. Nubank's NYSE listing and global investor base create strong alignment with U.S. capital markets. 5. Access to top credit-risk, fintech, and engineering talent is essential for achieving global scale. 6. The strategy remains consistent: a low cost, fully digital platform that excels in simplicity, trust, and data-driven risk management, which can be replicated across markets. Nubank is not just expanding; it is positioning itself to become a global digital banking leader, with the U.S. as its next strategic frontier. The bank listed on the U.S. exchange in 2021 and reached profitability in 2023, surpassing other fintechs in the same industry. #Fintech #Banking #Strategy #DigitalBanking

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📍A €3.9 trillion question. At this year’s FCI conference in Brazil, I had the privilege of hosting Trade Treasury Payments (TTP)'s closed-door roundtable, with contributors from across the factoring ecosystem; banks, NBFIs, platforms, and fintechs. We asked one question: - Can factoring remain relevant in a world of embedded finance, B2B marketplaces, and decentralised data? Delighted to share the results in our latest report: Factoring 2030: Threats, Thresholds, and the Next Transition, produced with FCI Produced in collaboration with: 🧠Federico Avellán Borgmeyerr, Efcom 🧠Paul Bowerr, FGI 🧠Kevin Dayy, Lendscape 🧠Doaa Hafezz, Egypt Factors (FCI Excom) 🧠Karol Leszczyńskii, Comarch 🧠Ian Milnee, MonetaGo 🧠CA Pankaj Mundraa, 360TF 🧠Nives Rudežž, OTP banka d.d. (FCI Excom) 🧠Filiz Ünall, Association of Financial Institutions 🧩 We covered: 1 • Maturity, consolidation, and the limits of incrementalism “We’re extending more credit to the same customers, not bringing in new ones.” Factoring volumes are up, but the number of unique clients remains flat. Efficiency is rising, but so is concentration, and with it, systemic risk. 2 • Disintermediation and the shifting centre of gravity “It’s no longer a question of whether large corporates will enter the space. They already have.” Amazon, Carrefour, and Flipkart are embedding finance. Factors must decide: compete, collaborate, or concede? 3 • Data fragmentation and the infrastructure paradox “We moved from documents to data, but didn’t agree what the data should look like.” The risk of digital siloes is real. Interoperability can’t be an afterthought. 4 • Capital access, emerging markets, and the blended gap Factoring penetration remains below 1% of GDP across much of Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. “The capital is there, but it won’t move without guarantees, standardised reporting, and enforceability.” 5 • Registries, risk, and the role of the state “If you don’t regulate factoring, you deregulate fraud.” Turkey and Egypt show that public invoice registries work. But implementation without enforcement is just window dressing. 6 • From throughput to transformation Factoring isn’t dying. But unless it aligns across infrastructure, policy, and players, it risks becoming structurally peripheral. Thanks for the challenge, and a sincere thanks to A. Betül Kurtulus, Aysen Cetintas, Neal Harm, Tanya Leigh Naysmith and Gwendoline de Viron for making this idea a reality. If you're around London and would like a copy, DM me pick up from our offices in Brick Lane. Between now and the end of the year, we have at least six more roundtables planned: in Singapore next week, in New York the week after, Geneva for the WTO PF, Frankfurt for Sibos, and 1+ in London after that. DM me Eleanor, Carter or Joy if you want to get involved. #factoring2030 #fci #receivablesfinance #embeddedfinance #smefinance #datainteroperability #b2bpayments

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How can regulators build trust in open banking? In the Dominican Republic, the Superintendencia de Bancos de la República Dominicana put this idea to the test through an IFC - International Finance Corporation Technical Sandbox. They used standardized APIs and a shared data dictionary to strengthen supervision, improve data quality, and foster innovation. In our latest blog, Ivan Santana Duval shares key lessons on how technical sandboxes can help regulators experiment safely, build trust, and prepare for open finance. 📖 Building Trust in Open Banking: Lessons from the Dominican Republic’s Technical Sandbox: https://bit.ly/4ozg0HP #OpenFinance #Fintech #DigitalFinance

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Bank Appoved - Nubank is a digital bank with 127 million customers mainly in Latin America, and this marks a stepping stone for its entry into the US market. Management noted that once they receive the complete approval, Nu will operate under a comprehensive federal framework and bring its app-based banking model to Americans. David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nu Holdings, noted,

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