News Nuggets | 2 May: Revolut in Brazil; WeChat's Digital Yuan Expansion

Revolut Launches in Brazil

The UK-headquartered fintech giant, Revolut has entered the Latin American markets by launching its service in Brazil. The company onboarded Glauber Mota from BTG Pactual to lead the rollout in Brazil.

"Our mission is to unlock a borderless economy with financial products that are accessible and easy to use and that allow our customers to use their money efficiently," said Nik Storonsky, the Co-Founder and CEO at Revolut. "We will start with the global account and crypto investments, but this is just the beginning."

Revolut, which has a customer base of 25 million, now plans to enter India, Mexico, and New Zealand. It has already built a team of over 400 employees to go live in India.

XS.com Hires South Africa Country Director

XS.com has expanded its team with the latest hiring of Chanelle Tsoka as the South African Country Director. Tsoka will be in charge of the broker's African expansion efforts.

In the role, Tsoka will lead the regional operations and will be leading a team of business development managers, customer service representatives, and marketing specialists.

Mohamad Ibrahim, the Group CEO at XS.com, said: "Chanelle will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of our operations for this important part of the world, including developing and executing our strategic plan for South Africa – ensuring it is in line with XS Group’s overall objectives. She will be in charge of identifying new business opportunities, building relationships with local partners and stakeholders, as well as ensuring that XS.com’s products and services meet the needs of the local market."

ESMA Recognises 4 New Third Country CCPs

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced on Tuesday the recognition of four additional third-country CCPs (TC-CCPs), bringing the total number of such TC-CCPs to 39.

The newly recognized TC-CCPs are Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Clearing Berhad (Malaysia), Taiwan Futures Exchange Corporation (Taiwan), Cámara de Riesgo Central de Contraparte de Colombia S.A. (Colombia), and Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Clearing House Ltd (Israel).

"The recognition of these four TC-CCPs follows the conclusion of standard Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between ESMA and their respective supervisory authorities," ESMA noted.

Further, the European financial market regulator withdrew the recognition of six Indian TC-CCPs on 30 April.

WeChat Expands Digital Yuan Acceptance

Chinese supper app WeChat has expanded the acceptance of digital yuan payments to its short video and mini-app platforms. It came as an effort to boost the adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is still under pilot.

WeChat started to support digital yuan payments in early 2022. Its latest announcement detailed that e-CNY payments will be only available to merchants that accept a digital currency. WeChat users need to link their real-name verified central bank wallet to WeChat Pay to use the digital currency on the platform.

TNS Launches Financial Infrastructure Services in Canada

Transaction Network Services (TNS) announced the deployment of network connectivity in all major Canadian financial exchange markets, allowing brokers, analysts, traders and investors within the TNS community to access Canadian markets.

The expansion into Canada includes seven exchanges: TradelogiQ, NEO Exchange, Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), Nasdaq Canada, CBOE MATCHnow, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and Montreal Exchange (M-X).

TNS' offerings in the country include colocation and ultra-low latency Layer 1 connectivity, managed hosting services, and Canadian data feeds.

"This market launch across Canada connects millions of financial buyers and sellers and brings them up to speed on the world’s first globally deployed, highly reliable, and fast commercial backbone," said Jeff Mezger, TNS’ Vice President of Product Development for its Financial Markets business.