Today in FinTech: Accountable to Expand With Funding; Feds Plan Lending Rules Update

In today’s FinTech news, Accountable has fresh capital for its mission to ease accounting and tax handling for freelancers, while Western Union and PagaPhone are making it easier to send money to Mexico. Plus, the Federal Reserve is overhauling old lending rules for digital times.

Accountable Raises €10M Total in Extended Series A

Mobile tax and financial services firm Accountable is using the funds from its expanded Series A funding round for European expansion. The European startup will also use the fresh capital to roll out new financial products and services. Accountable aims to ease accounting and tax functions for freelancers and self-employed workers.

Western Union Collabs with PagaPhone to Grow Cross-Border Money Transfers

Western Union and PagaPhone are working together to make it easier to send funds from the U.S. to Mexico. Recipients in Mexico can use their PagaPhone SmartPay account to receive funds and U.S. senders can use any Western Union channel, including WU.com, the mobile app and retail locations.

Feds Propose New Low-Income Lending Rules

The Federal Reserve and other regulators are looking to update the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act to ensure lower-income consumers and businesses have equal access to lending. The current rules focus on banking activity around physical branches, which no longer work when so much financial activity is conducted over digital channels.

Block Remains Attractive to Wall Street Analysts

Block (formerly known as Square) shares are trading at 76 times the company’s estimated earnings. Led by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company has grown beyond point-of-sale services to include digital payments and cryptocurrencies with Cash App, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) services with Afterpay.

Shopify to Acquire eCommerce Firm Deliverr for $2.1B

Shopify is acquiring eCommerce fulfillment provider Deliverr for $2.1 billion in its largest purchase deal to date. The Canadian firm is competing with Amazon and this acquisition will help it build out its own fulfillment network to create a larger, broader logistics unit. ​​Deliverr facilitates two-day delivery for digital marketplaces that include Amazon and eBay.