This week, CCG Catalyst Consulting and the Arizona Bankers Association partnered to create the Arizona Fintech Council, an entity that will allow new opportunities for financial institutions and fintechs to work together and build proofs of concept as part of Arizona’s regulatory sandbox.

With 2021 starting off with prospects for the growth of embedded finance, or adding financial services into a range of new use cases (including non-financial ones), the fintech OG – personal finance tech companies – are growing, including Culver City, Calif.-based Albert.

This week, data aggregator Plaid launched FinRise, an incubator aimed at early-stage fintech founders from underrepresented (BIPOC) backgrounds.

Barron’s, citing unnamed industry sources, is reporting that Plaid is exploring avenues to go public in light of the recently-announced termination of an agreement that would allow Visa to acquire the data aggregator for $5.3B.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, Visa and Plaid decided to terminate a merger agreement inked nearly a year ago that would allow Visa to acquire the data aggregator for $5.3B.

Bank partnerships come in all shapes and sizes. In addition to the bulge bracket banks like Goldman, community banks and credit unions are ramping up their partnerships.

Retail giant Walmart announced that it will launch a fintech startup that will offer “innovative and affordable” financial solutions for consumers.

SoFi, the 10-year-old financial services company that started as a lender and expanded to banking, investing, and mortgages is going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) associated with investor Chamath Palihapitiya, multiple sources reported.

There are major bets being made on the future of automation and financial services, as shown by a $25M Series B investment in startup Ushur, which helps insurers automate interactions with customers, and a partnership between Santander UK and Personetics that will support a digital money management platform offered by the bank.

The merger of U.K.-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs with rival Crowdcube is creating a $181M (£140M) marketplace that will allow the general public to buy shares in startups.

Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, former president and CEO of Israel-based Bank Leumi, joins a group of fintech executives, including Yuval Tal, founder of payments company Payoneer, and Galia Beer-Gabel, a former head of business development at PayPal, to launch Team8 Fintech, a $100M fintech fund.

A group of large fintech startups, spearheaded by robo-adviser Betterment, have formed the Fintech Equality Coalition. The group’s mandate is to enhance access to services and grow career advancement opportunities for the Black community.

As the Trump administration eyes a TikTok ban amid security concerns, U.K. fintechs see it as a customer acquisition channel, pulling in quarantine-weary TikTok users who may be open to changing their money habits.