Benzinga | Dec 16, 2021 08:08PM EST

Fintech Focus For December 17, 2021

One Big Thing In Fintech: Digital banking continues to gain momentum year-over-year with 73% of respondents to a JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) citing mobile app usage once a week or more (up 8% YOY), and 62% citing it's a service they cannot live without (up 7% YOY).

Source: Chase

Other Key Fintech Developments:

* FIS is to add to InnovateIN48.

* Temenos, MSFT collaborating. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

* GIANT raises $5M seed round.

* Silverflow closes $17M round.

* Percent added a new offering.

* Tiger Global backs CreditBook.

* Alchemy teams up on domains.

* Bridgesplit adds $4.25M raise.

* Nansen secures $75M round.

* Qapital intros money planning.

* Rapyd surveying on payments.

* Kredivo, IKEA are teaming up.

* Galoy raises $3M seed round.

* Rally hiring Novi legal leaders.

* Circle collabs with Endaoment.

* Aztec secures $17M for Web3.

* Avant launches Avant Banking.

* Lambda256 adds $60M round.

* ViewTrade, Seminario partner.

* VizyPay is adding leadership.

* Fable Fintech adding API hub.

* Casavi brings home Series B.

* JustiFi added $6.5 for platform.

* Clikalia secures $518M round.

* CFPB doing BNPL deep dive.

* AIB signed new deal with IBM.

* Astra added Cross River offer.

Watch Out For This: Melania Trump is getting in on the latest crypto craze -- NFTs.

The former first lady announced Thursday that she is selling an NFT, or a non-fungible token, titled "Melania's Vision" -- her first public endeavor since leaving office almost one year ago

Source: CNN

Interesting Reads:

* A B747 hits supersonic speed. (NYSE:BA)

* TikTok threats prompt closure.

* Voodoo invests in DLT games.

* Why Powell pivots on inflation.

Market Moving Headline: The U.S. stock market rally charged into mid-December with good odds to end 2021 at record highs after a year of soaring inflation, COVID-19 variants, and an increasingly unstable labor market. Investors may need to add the risk of war, a potential misstep in monetary policy, and a cyberattack to their list of concerns for 2022.

Source: S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI)