Weekly Wrap: Varo is a bank and a big week for payments startups

Varo Money officially announced today it is shedding the “banking startup” title, as the company has finally received its banking charter after a three-year journey. Whether more fintechs will follow suit remains to be seen. “A banking charter comes with capital requirements and regulatory oversight that will not be appealing to all fintechs,” said Julie Hill, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law who focuses on banking and commercial law. Startups Remitly and TransferWise, meanwhile, scored big funding rounds and boosted their valuations. Find this and more in today’s edition of The Weekly Wrap, featuring JJ Hornblass, Bianca Chan, Rick Morgan and Patrick Kandianis, CEO and co-founder of Quatromoney, for the week ending July 31, 2020.