FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 21 February 2025
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of fintech this week, featuring Shift4, HSBC, NatWest and more.
Shift4 signs $2.5bn deal to acquire Swiss paytech Global Blue
Shift4 to acquire Global Blue for around $2.5bn
US payment processing firm Shift4 has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Global Blue, headquartered in Signy-Avenex, Switzerland, for an enterprise value of approximately $2.5 billion.
Founded in 1980, Global Blue provides tax-free shopping, payment and post-purchase solutions for retailers, acquirers and hotels, and currently operates across 52 countries globally.
Shift4 will fund the transaction with both cash and through a newly-subscribed $1.795 billion bridge loan facility from an undisclosed benefactor. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by Q3 2025.
Following this, Global Blue will delist its common and preferred stock from the New York Stock Exchange, where it has been floated publicly since June 2018.
HSBC offloads Bahrain retail banking operations to BBK
HSBC has agreed to sell its retail banking operations in Bahrain to the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), as the firm continues its strategy of divesting non-core global operations.
As part of the deal, BBK, which offers a range of retail and commercial banking services through its 16 local branches, will acquire all deposits, loans, and accounts of HSBC Bahrain’s 76,000 retail customers.
BBK anticipates the transaction to close in Q4 2025, subject to regulatory approval. The financial terms are undisclosed.
This sale aligns with HSBC’s ongoing efforts to streamline its global business. Last year, the bank sold its private banking arm in Germany, and also sold its banking operations in Argentina to Grupo Financiero Galicia for $550 million.
The agreement with BBK coincides with HSBC’s announcement of its 2024 annual results, in which the bank reported a $2 billion increase in profit before tax, bringing the total to $32.3 billion.
NatWest unveils five UK start-ups for inaugural Fintech Growth Programme
The start-up’s founders alongside NatWest’s David Grunwald and Lee McNabb (Image: NatWest)
NatWest has revealed the five start-ups selected to take part in its first Fintech Growth Programme, a ten-week initiative aimed at developing solutions to “lead the future” of banking and payments.
Launched in December 2024, the bank says the programme includes a mix of “workshops, mentoring and coaching” featuring NatWest’s Innovation team and “senior decision makers” and will enable the participating fintechs to tap into the bank’s “resources, expertise and networks” with the aim to help support the start-ups to scale up their businesses sustainably.
The five fintechs, selected after a “rigorous process of pitches, presentations and interviews”, are:
- Ask Silver, a provider of scam-checking tools
- Aperidata, an open banking-powered credit reference agency
- mmob, an embedded finance solutions provider
- Tunic Pay, an APP fraud prevention tech vendor
- Sprive, a savings app for homeowners
Former Revolut UK chief James Radford joins Volopa as CEO
James Radford, former CEO of Revolut UK, has been named as the new CEO of Volopa, the foreign exchange, payment and expense management subsidiary of London-headquartered fintech incubator Quantum Group.
Radford has also been appointed to Quantum’s board as director of banking and fintech, and will help guide the group’s plans to list on the London Stock Exchange next year.
Founded in 2011, Volopa is currently Quantum’s largest division by revenues, and sits alongside Forensic Control, Valkyrie, and cashback and rewards platform Verve within the group.
Radford brings over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently as CEO of Lycamoney, the mobile wallet and payment service unit of Lycamobile Group, which he has led since 2023.
Ibercaja Banco in Spain taps Mambu to power consumer finance spin-off
Ibercaja Banco to debut consumer finance entity in “early 2025”
Ibercaja Banco, one of the largest banking groups in Spain, has inked a six-year partnership deal with Dutch cloud banking technology provider Mambu to power the spin-off of its consumer finance unit.
The €97.9 billion-asset bank will transition its consumer finance operations to Mambu’s cloud banking platform as part of the spin-off, starting with its newly launched division, Ibercaja Technology Solutions.
In a statement, Mambu says this will lay the groundwork to “further modernise the bank’s legacy stack and evolve their portfolio to fully service the consumer lending line of business in the long run”.
This transformation, which the vendor adds will take a “staggered approach over the coming years”, is hoped to culminate in the launch of a dedicated consumer finance entity “in early 2025”.
