On this week’s episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about the hype regarding BNPL and whether it’s dying out, how high-interest rates and a challenging financial landscape are negatively impacting female-owned businesses in the UK and how G10 Bank works as a fintech, with Dock technology, to provide digital banking services to Brazilians in favelas.

Expanding upon their conversation from Episode 141, the Podcast Team continue to discuss buy now pay later (BNPL) – this time exploring the hype around the technology. The trio speak about what is more important: regulation or education in order to keep the BNPL hype alive.

The conversation then turns towards the low funding female founders are getting in the UK. Bignell, Bleach and Harrison exchange views on whether this is because of the current economic climate or because of something else entirely. They then try and work out if there is a viable solution to the problem.

Finally, Dock and G10 Bank’s collaboration to bring financial services to Brazilian favelas is discussed. Understanding the importance partnerships have on democratising finance, all three members of The Fintech Times Podcast team agree efforts like these reflect what fintech really stands for.

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Read the articles discussed in this episode:

Industry Voices That “BNPL Is Definitely Not a Dying Trend” as Hype Remains

High Interest Rates Negatively Impact 74% of Female Business Owners in the UK, Tide Reports

Dock Opens Digital Bank Branch to Democratise Access to Digital Banking in Favelas

Female business owners are putting growth plans on hold due to high interest rates, according to the latest survey by Tide, the UK-based business financial platform.

As interest rates in the UK continue to sit around the five per cent mark, Tide reveals that around 38 per cent of female business owners have put growth plans ‘on ice’. The findings emerge from Tide’s Female Business Owners UK Index, which examines the challenges that women in the UK face when launching and expanding their businesses.

Overall, of 458 female founders surveyed, 74 per cent explained that high interest rates had negatively impacted their business during the last six months. Of these, 40 per cent struggle to plan for the long term alongside the current macroeconomic conditions – with 21 per cent using all of their profits to repay business loans.

Inflation (38 per cent), energy costs (25 per cent) and difficulty accessing finance (25 per cent) emerged as the biggest factors negatively impacting their businesses in the last six months.

While challenges and barriers remain across the UK for female business owners, 74 per cent still expect revenue to grow in the coming year – with 18 per cent believing this growth will be significant.

Tide supporting female founders in the UK

Female-led businesses make up just 20 per cent of all new businesses in the UK. Despite progress, overall only 5.6 per cent of women in the UK run their own business – much lower than developed economies such as Canada (15 per cent) and the US (11 per cent).

Heather Cobb, SVP member engagement at Tide, commented: “In the UK, participation of women in entrepreneurship remains stubbornly low compared to other advanced nations.

“Our research shows high interest rates create additional barriers for fledgling female entrepreneurs already struggling with issues like childcare and low self-confidence. I’m delighted to see that Tide’s female members are positive about 2024, however, we’re also calling on the UK to do more to encourage and nurture female entrepreneurs – especially as major political parties prepare for an election year.”

Through a content programme made up of videos, events and other engagements, Tide is aiming to promote gender equality and remove barriers to female entrepreneurship. The company is also helping 200,000 women in the UK and 500,000 women in India launch new businesses by 2027. Tide had already onboarded 100,000 female-led businesses by early 2023 – 10 months ahead of its 2023 end-of-year target.

Amid growing skepticism about CommEx — Binance’s mysterious buyer in Russia — the newly launched firm has continued denying Binance’s ownership involvement.

On Sept. 29, CommEx issued an open letter to the community, reiterating that the company is not owned by Binance, which announced its exit from Russia by selling the firm to CommEx.

“Although we do not disclose our UBO, we want to make it clear that we are not owned by Binance,” CommEx wrote on its website. A spokesperson for CommEx declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the reasons it won’t share any information about its owners.

“We are a vibrant and efficient start-up team, made up of dozens of passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds,” CommEx said in the announcement, adding that some of its core members are former Binance veterans.

The CommEx announcement said the firm has been developing its platform for six months, during which time they onboarded some ex-Binance employees. “This has allowed us to learn from Binance’s product and operations experiences, establishing indirect connections with them,” CommEx added.

The announcement confirms that former team members of Binance’s division in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are part of CommEx, despite Binance having no ownership in the exchange.

Former employees at Binance CIS will join or may have already joined the new firm, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 28. “We think that is a good thing,” he added.

Some answers about Binance/CommEx.

There will be crypto transfers between Binance & CommEx as users migrate with their funds. There are also older transactions during the testing phase of the integrations. This is expected.

A few ex-Binance CIS team members may join their team,…

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 28, 2023

In addition to hiring some ex-Binance employees, CommEx has taken things like design, APIs and even terms of use from Binance. “We asked for this to ensure a smooth user experience,” CZ wrote.

The Binance CEO also stressed that CommEx does not provide services to users based in the United States and Europe. CZ noted that European and U.S. residents will face IP and Know Your Customer blocks when trying to assess CommEx. “This is a term we asked for in the deal,” CZ stated.

According to data from CommEx representatives in the firm’s official Telegram group, CommEx users can trade without completing any KYC checks for up to 2 Bitcoin (BTC), or about $54,000 at the time of writing.

Related: Binance successor in Russia: Everything you need to know about CommEx, so far

CommEx’s unwillingness to disclose information about its owners, paired with having ex-Binance employees and similar website design and APIs, has fueled chatter about Binance being the company’s owner in disguise.

Adam Cochran, a partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, believes that CommEx is “just another shell company by Binance.”

On the other hand, some crypto observers believe that such a move would undermine Binance’s whole decision to leave Russia. “Obviously U.S. authorities could quickly determine if the new owners were simply straw men for Binance. This would make the situation look even worse than if Binance just held onto the business,” Lesperance & Associates founder David Lesperance told Cointelegraph.

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