NAPLES, Fla., July 29, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mbanq, a global leader in Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), announces the launch of Estu, a financial and lifestyle mobile app for students in the USA, powered by Mbanq’s digital finance technology and compliance solutions. Estu’s app is live. It offers students a seamless way to manage their finances with an account and debit card, as well as solutions to manage academic responsibilities and social engagements.

Estu’s app, now available for download on both the App Store and Google Play, is designed specifically for students. It features a suite of tools to simplify financial management and to get the most out of the student experience. With an Estu account and debit card, students can manage finances efficiently. It adds a calendar of exclusive student events and the ability to connect with local and global student communities to enrich their social lives.

Key Features of Estu:

Students can manage their finances with the Estu debit card and benefit from secure financial transactions through Mbanq’s integrated payment system. This includes checking accounts, P2P transfers, ACH, wire, domestic and international transfers, and contactless payments.

Estu connects students with exclusive mainstream and unique underground brands, offering beautiful experiences, products, and discounts to enhance student life. Estu’s exclusive partnerships provide users with special deals on purchases such as concert tickets, tech gadgets, food and drinks, books, and more.

Additionally, students can easily keep on top of their academic and social schedules. The app’s calendar feature helps students stay organized by syncing their schedules with their phone calendars, receive alerts for classes and assignments, and plan their academic responsibilities more effectively.

Currently, Estu is open to further partnering with brands to bring their products and services to improve student life for the 2024-25 academic year.

Estu is built on Mbanq’s BaaS platform, which combines cutting-edge technology with meticulous regulatory compliance. Vlad Lounegov, CEO of Mbanq, says, “Estu’s unique value proposition of meaningful connections, events, and financial tools positions Estu as a pioneering platform in the neobanking space for students.

“With Mbanq’s resilient support, FinTech platforms like Estu can quickly launch innovative financial products while ensuring regulatory compliance. Our comprehensive ‘as-a-service’ portfolio, including compliance, lending, back office, and dispute resolutions, makes it easy for FinTechs to launch and thrive.”

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Raul Wald, Founder & Chief Visionary Officer at Estu, adds, “Mbanq’s open banking APIs, technology and compliance solutions have enabled us to create a modern digital experience for students.

“Estu provides a more enjoyable experience for students, simplifying the process of organizing and managing their day-to-day lives. By streamlining the time-consuming tasks of personal finance management, Estu allows students to concentrate on their personal and academic growth.”

Mbanq is a leading FinTech provider with a global presence. Known for its meticulous regulatory compliance, modern technology, and industry-specific solutions, Mbanq empowers traditional banks, neobanks, credit unions, and FinTech platforms to create and operate digital finance at any scale. Mbanq’s white-label mobile apps and open banking APIs ensure a modern digital experience while maintaining compliance and innovation. www.mbanq.com

Based in Boston, USA, Estu is a student life FinTech that integrates every branch of student life into one service. The company’s mission is to make student life more economical through personalized financial services, exclusive experiences with brands, and seamless academic integration. Estu is not a bank. Estu is a financial technology company. Banking services are provided by Mbanq’s Banking partner, Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC. www.estulife.com

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Contacts

Emma Nguyen
emma.nguyen@mbanq.com

Scottish FinTech Aveni has raised $14 million to bring AI to the financial services field.

The company announced its Series A on Monday (July 29), saying it would use the funding to build on its efforts to create artificial intelligence (AI) products and large language models (LLMs) specifically for the financial services industry.

“The financial services industry does not need AI models that can quote Shakespeare, it needs AI models that deliver transparency, trust and above all correctness,” Joseph Twigg, Aveni’s CEO, said in a news release. “The way to achieve this is to develop small, highly tuned language models, trained on financial services data, reviewed by financial services experts for specific financial services use cases.”

According to the release, the new financing will allow Aveni to develop FinLLM, a financial services-specific large language model, in collaboration with new investors Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide.

The funding comes at a time when the financial services sector has shown some reluctance to embrace AI.

A report last month by the Financial Times (FT) said that concerns about regulations and job losses have prevented banks from adopting AI products.

“The big banks will definitely not adopt [the technology] as quickly as any of the FinTech,” said Tom Blomfield, co-founder of neobank Monzo and group partner at Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator. 

He also noted that generative AI will “make banks more efficient and able to provide the same products at a cheaper cost.”

The report cited a study by Capgemini that said only 6% of retail banks were prepared for widespread AI implementation, as well as an estimate by McKinsey that AI could add up to $340 billion in value per year to the global banking sector.

“People don’t understand that it’s there as a productivity tool,” Nasir Zubairi, CEO of FinTech accelerator Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, told the FT. “They still genuinely believe it will take away their jobs.”

Meanwhile, a recent report by the U.S. House Financial Services Committee’s AI Working Group spotlighted the technology’s potential to expand access to credit, enhance fraud detection and improve customer service.

However, the report also also warned of challenges involving data privacy, potential bias in algorithmic decision-making and the need to make sure AI systems comply with the law.

ROME – A new analysis of the Vatican’s financial situation by an Italian news outlet contains both good and bad news for papal finances, pointing to relative success in efforts to contain ballooning deficits but also seemingly irreversible long-term declines.

According to an overview of the most recent financial data published July 26 by La Repubblica, Italy’s most widely read daily newspaper, the Vatican’s annual operating deficit grew by roughly $5.4 million in 2023, a lower figure than in past years. The report suggested the result was due to the impact of both spending cuts and also efforts to generate more realistic appraisals of the value of Vatican properties.

Among the cost-cutting measures adopted in recent years include new limits on hiring and contracting, as well as efforts to increase the rents collected on some Vatican properties which are leased commercially and to put others up for sale.

The report cited a recently completed financial statement approved by the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, led by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx. According to the report, the deficit for 20234 amounted to over $90 million, with income of $1.25 billion and expenses of $1.34 billion.

Income in 2023 actually grew by $30 million, according to the financial statement, but expenses also went up by $36 million due to the impact of inflation.

The statement also indicated that the size of the 2023 deficit could still shrink somewhat depending on what the actual performance of the Vatican’s investment portfolios match projections.

The Repubblica analysis also found that income from the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which supports the works of the pope, amounted to $52.5 million in 2023, an increase over the $47.2 million collected in 2022.

Nonetheless, the net gain from the collection was offset by the fact that the fund’s reserves were once again draw upon in 2023 to support the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s chief administrative bureaucracy, to the tune of almost $98 million.

Moreover, the long-term trend in income from the fund is clearly downwards. According to the Repubblica analysis, collections dropped 23 percent overall from 2015 to 2019, and are poised for further reductions.

To some extent, those declines may be related to financial scandals, such as the aborted $400 million purchase of a former Harrods warehouse in London that resulted in the criminal convictions of nine figures for fraud, including Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu. Given that Peter’s Pence also is sometimes viewed as a referendum on the popularity of the current pope, various controversies surrounding Franci may also have had an impact.

More basically, however, most observers believe the core factor is that much of the Peter’s Pence income derives from wealthier nations, where Catholic populations, and therefore Catholic giving, have been in decline for decades.

Declines in income are especially worrying for Vatican accountants today, given concerns about an aging workforce and unfunded pension obligations down the line. There’s also alarm that rising costs and declining income could eventually compel the Vatican to either trim its payroll or cut salaries, or both, at time when both the volume and the complexity of the workload from around the world is increasing rapidly.

The financial statement reportedly approved by the Council for the Economy concerns the Holy See, and mostly excludes both the Government of the Vatican City State, which is responsible for administration of the physical territory – including income, for example, from the Vatican Museums – and also excludes the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called “Vatican bank,” which for 2023 showed $33.2 million in income and a total of $5.9 billion in client assets.

However, it’s considered improbable that income from either the city state or the IOR will be sufficient in coming years to offset the Vatican’s broad deficits, leaving it unclear for the moment how the losses will be sustained.