Revolut Africa Expansion, PayPal’s $10B Meltdown, Starling’s Next Move & More!

In this episode of Banking Without Borders, we cover some of the biggest fintech stories of August 2025:

• PayPal’s $10 billion chaos — how a broken fraud system nearly caused mass unauthorized withdrawals, and why German banks had to step in.
• N26 leadership shake-up — founders pushed aside as regulators and investors demand stability.
• Starling acquires Ember — what this means for business banking and Making Tax Digital in the UK.
• UK bank branch closures — one in three branches gone in just five years, replaced by “banking hubs.”
• Revolut’s bold move into Africa — starting with Morocco, but can they actually get licensed?
• Plus: the latest UK interest rate changes and savings accounts to watch.

Join Jonny and Jan as they unpack the news, share insights, and debate what these moves mean for the future of banking and fintech.

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:05:02
Unknown
Okay, so welcome back to another episode of Banking Without Borders. We've got a lot to discuss today. First up PayPal.

00:00:05:02 - 00:00:09:17
Unknown
they almost took €10 billion from their customers in unauthorized direct debit payments.

00:00:09:17 - 00:00:13:18
Unknown
How the hell does that happen? I don't know, but thankfully German banks intervened and stopped them.

00:00:13:18 - 00:00:18:05
Unknown
Speaking of Germany, we'll be discussing N26, who is currently undergoing a coup

00:00:18:05 - 00:00:20:10
Unknown
their co-founder and CEO being pushed out.

00:00:20:10 - 00:00:24:04
Unknown
Stagnant bank? Sorry. I mean Starling Bank. They've gone in the quietest

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Unknown
up called Emba. They're an accounting startup and

00:00:26:17 - 00:00:32:08
Unknown
obviously got upset because we keep calling them stagnant. So now they're trying to innovate and be creative and have bought themselves a new business.

00:00:32:08 - 00:00:37:12
Unknown
Also, the British high street is starting to look more and more bare, with 1 in 3 bank branches closing down.

00:00:37:13 - 00:00:41:04
Unknown
They are literally closing faster than blockbuster in the noughties.

00:00:41:04 - 00:00:44:14
Unknown
And finally, Revolut are going into Africa,

00:00:44:14 - 00:00:48:15
Unknown
starting with Morocco. At least they're going to attempt to get licensed as a bank in Morocco.

00:00:48:15 - 00:00:53:02
Unknown
That is a really interesting move. But first, Jan, I'd like to talk about PayPal

00:00:53:02 - 00:01:02:16
Unknown
because this is staggering to me. How on earth did they almost take 8.4, I believe, or €8.6 billion from their customers?

00:01:02:16 - 00:01:11:23
Unknown
It's scary if you ask me. Johnny, what essentially happened was that PayPal's internal fraud detection system malfunctioned, and instead a set of filtering or bad requests.

00:01:11:23 - 00:01:16:22
Unknown
What's normally supposed to do? It pushed out millions of debit requests.

00:01:16:22 - 00:01:21:17
Unknown
Without valid, CPA mandates, into the CPA rails

00:01:22:07 - 00:01:27:14
Unknown
Wait wait wait wait what what. Wait there. You have to explain CPR mandates.

00:01:29:06 - 00:01:30:18
Unknown
Okay.

00:02:05:02 - 00:02:10:02
Unknown
Yeah.

00:02:17:18 - 00:02:25:06
Unknown
Yeah.

00:02:29:16 - 00:02:30:07
Unknown
Yeah,

00:02:30:07 - 00:02:34:17
Unknown
It comes off the back of PayPal's reputation just gradually diminishing.

00:02:34:17 - 00:02:42:04
Unknown
I mean look at their share price for example. They're not very well regarded as a company that you'd want to invest in right now. And generally they've got a pretty awful reputation.

00:02:42:04 - 00:02:43:08
Unknown
The thing that you mentioned that

00:02:43:08 - 00:02:49:02
Unknown
is so frightening is the people that could have potentially had the money removed and not been able to pay for like everyday stuff as a result.

00:02:49:02 - 00:02:55:11
Unknown
And how long would it have taken for that money to be recuperated? It's quite shocking really, when you think about a company that's got to be

00:02:55:11 - 00:02:56:17
Unknown
20 plus years old,

00:02:56:17 - 00:02:59:08
Unknown
still making mistakes like this.

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Unknown
It just goes to show really just what a

00:03:01:09 - 00:03:02:04
Unknown
honestly pile of

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Unknown
I personally dislike PayPal, but honestly what a mess it is

00:03:06:07 - 00:03:06:22
Unknown
as a company.

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Unknown
people, they do get got to get their

00:03:16:01 - 00:03:16:09
Unknown
in order,

00:03:16:11 - 00:03:23:03
Unknown
Yeah.

00:03:23:22 - 00:03:26:21
Unknown
Oh yeah. I mean, so much bad PR

00:03:26:21 - 00:03:30:01
Unknown
you know, we don't need to go into too much detail, but like are you familiar with honey,

00:03:30:01 - 00:03:46:11
Unknown
the coupon scanning application or extension that you could have in your, your your Chrome. And they were essentially catching, the affiliate revenue from, creators. By basically embedding themselves into the,

00:03:46:11 - 00:03:47:20
Unknown
affiliate link at the last minute.

00:03:47:20 - 00:03:54:07
Unknown
really awful, nefarious behavior, like just basically stealing money from creators, which they certainly didn't deserve.

00:03:54:07 - 00:04:12:08
Unknown
be honest with you, Yann, maybe one day PayPal will cease to exist. Most companies tend to cease to exist eventually, but I think PayPal could be one of those companies that could be like, you must think of PayPal as too big to fail, possibly at one point. But now I just think that the possibly that lifespan is running out and we don't.

00:04:12:08 - 00:04:18:12
Unknown
Do we even need PayPal? I don't I don't think so.

00:04:18:14 - 00:04:27:03
Unknown
But good. Good for the German banks. Good for the German Max.

00:06:07:22 - 00:06:14:13
Unknown
I know they had a shot in the UK for maybe a year. I can't recall how long it was. I think it was back in 2020 2021.

00:06:14:13 - 00:06:16:17
Unknown
eventually had to close down the UK operations.

00:06:16:17 - 00:06:22:18
Unknown
really like the offering the N 26 have and it really felt like a direct competitor for Revolut.

00:06:22:18 - 00:06:37:12
Unknown
Revolut are still led by Nicholas Dron, Ski and Vladimir Sancho and they've seem to be able to make it work and to drive it forward. Whereas N26, it looks like their co-founders, will no longer be the driving force of the leadership of the company,

00:06:37:12 - 00:06:38:12
Unknown
which is interesting.

00:06:38:13 - 00:07:07:23
Unknown
And I know this happens quite frequently with startups across different industries whereby, like the original entrepreneur startup founder has to step aside eventually because there's just a different level of leadership required at that scale in terms of governance. And investors prefer someone who's experienced as a CEO rather than someone who's never done it before. But I really hope 1026 would be a great challenger for Revolut potentially hopes as well that make it back to the UK.

00:07:08:01 - 00:07:13:15
Unknown
But this could be a big turning point for them and it could. It could change the trajectory of the business entirely.

00:07:28:23 - 00:07:42:02
Unknown
Well I'll just just take Starling Bank for example. This isn't just an attempt at a Segway but and Boden you know she'd worked in banking all her life and she even she stood down as the CEO of Starling Bank.

00:07:42:02 - 00:07:48:00
Unknown
possibly to do with the fact that they cooked up a few things, in terms of, like the bounce back loans here in the UK.

00:07:48:03 - 00:08:14:13
Unknown
There was a couple of regulation regulatory problems happening, but she stepped down, and I just don't think I just don't think she could handle it either. But, you know, has it helped Starling Bank? That's I don't know that that's up for discussion because as you as we've seen over the past couple of months, over the past year, they haven't really made any moves towards trying to expand, trying to reach more customers.

00:08:14:15 - 00:08:21:12
Unknown
And it would appear that they're actually trying to build their business banking on more than their personal banking arm.

00:08:21:12 - 00:08:27:21
Unknown
And this is most evident by their recent acquisition of a bookkeeping and accountancy startup called Ember.

00:08:27:21 - 00:08:36:13
Unknown
This is a really interesting move and for a number of reasons, but Ember is basically a software like QuickBooks or Xero that you might be familiar with.

00:08:36:13 - 00:08:38:07
Unknown
Yeah, and most people in the UK will be,

00:08:38:07 - 00:08:56:03
Unknown
you know, they offer software, but they also offer access directly to accountants and they have like a subscription model, and they serve customers Revolut, HSBC, Lloyds. So they're working with a number of banks. But now Starling Bank of acquired them. They will be exclusively

00:08:56:03 - 00:08:57:23
Unknown
embedded into Starling Bank.

00:08:57:23 - 00:08:58:08
Unknown
And

00:08:58:08 - 00:09:03:08
Unknown
customers using Revolut using HSBC. The current user services won't be able to access them anymore.

00:09:03:08 - 00:09:15:15
Unknown
That's one reason why I think maybe selling Bank of Acquired Ember, because a lot of those customers might go, well, I don't I want to use Ember, but I don't necessarily care too much for HSBC. And I'm being told that now I can't use Ember.

00:09:15:17 - 00:09:24:01
Unknown
There might be customers out there that will go well. Ember's available at Starling Bank. Maybe I'll shift my business banking over to Starling because they do have a pretty compelling proposition.

00:09:24:01 - 00:09:27:05
Unknown
So this could be a means of trying to get reach more customers.

00:09:27:05 - 00:09:30:14
Unknown
Possibly one reason, but there are many other reasons for acquiring Ember, and

00:09:30:14 - 00:09:33:19
Unknown
one of them is because of something known as making tax digital.

00:09:33:19 - 00:09:39:14
Unknown
Helen in the UK, sole traders and I believe landlords,

00:09:39:14 - 00:09:40:08
Unknown
will have to

00:09:40:08 - 00:09:41:13
Unknown
submit quarterly

00:09:41:13 - 00:09:42:18
Unknown
tax reports

00:09:42:18 - 00:09:44:05
Unknown
in 2026,

00:09:44:05 - 00:09:47:20
Unknown
and you'll have to use authorized software by the government.

00:09:47:20 - 00:09:52:02
Unknown
Yeah. And, and one of those pieces of software is Ember.

00:09:52:02 - 00:09:54:15
Unknown
So that could be also really strong. And compelling for business

00:09:54:15 - 00:09:57:11
Unknown
banking, for them, for their current customers and also for attracting new customers.

00:09:57:11 - 00:10:13:12
Unknown
Starling do have like a free tier. And they also have something known as the business toolkit, which is like 7 pounds for business banking. But it's like it's really basic. You'd probably still need QuickBooks and zero. So by getting Ember into the system as well, that 7 pound tier, they could probably charge more for it as well.

00:10:13:14 - 00:10:20:20
Unknown
I mean, Ember I think have like a 60 pound subscription per month, maybe even. And it goes up to like 160 pounds per month.

00:10:20:20 - 00:10:31:15
Unknown
So we're talking about like a really advanced accounting software. So I can see like Starling possibly like looking to charge their customers like significant amounts of money to have access to some of that,

00:10:31:15 - 00:10:38:17
Unknown
Yeah. Sounds like it sounds like a really clever move, Johnny. Maybe that will double even the path for, for future growth for them.

00:10:38:17 - 00:10:43:12
Unknown
what we're seeing here in the UK is quite interesting as well, is that there are a lot of bank branches closing down again.

00:10:43:12 - 00:10:47:23
Unknown
I mean, I know you don't spend a huge amount of time in Germany, but are you seeing this across Europe as well with,

00:10:47:23 - 00:10:51:07
Unknown
these legacy incumbent banks closing down their branches,

00:10:51:07 - 00:11:03:23
Unknown
Yeah. I believe across the world even, for sure in Germany. If I think back, yeah. I grew up on a village right there used to be two banks in there. Now there's none. We're seeing this trend across the country and across the

00:11:03:23 - 00:11:11:21
Unknown
the continent, I believe. And it's mainly due to, to to challenger banks like Revolut, Starling, N26

00:11:11:21 - 00:11:12:01
Unknown
And

00:11:20:09 - 00:11:32:14
Unknown
it's a sad reality. But those guys, they just they just die right at some point. And, there's just no, no demand for, for, for branches anymore. When was the last time you've been to a to a branch personally?

00:11:32:14 - 00:11:47:06
Unknown
I mean, probably minimum five years ago, and it was probably just to pay cash in, possibly cash that I was gifted as well. Typically for Christmas, it was either, cash or check at Christmas still is today. So that's usually why I visit.

00:11:47:06 - 00:11:48:06
Unknown
34% of

00:11:48:06 - 00:11:55:19
Unknown
UK bank branches in the last five years have closed down. But what they're doing is they are essentially consolidating into these banking hubs.

00:11:55:19 - 00:11:58:03
Unknown
Yeah, which are actually run by the post office here.

00:11:58:03 - 00:12:00:11
Unknown
I think this is quite good. I think this is as good as we need.

00:12:00:11 - 00:12:28:04
Unknown
And it possibly gives people that lose their jobs as a result of these branches closing in. A place to live, a place to live. You go to live in the hub. You go to live in the post office surrounded by parcels. No, a place to work, which I think is possible. But that's the thing. And that is sad, really, that a lot of people will probably lose their jobs as a result of this, but also at the same time, like, you just got to wake up to the fact that if you work at a branch, your job

00:12:28:04 - 00:12:32:00
Unknown
lifespan is probably running short, and you need to think about what you're going to do.

00:12:51:02 - 00:13:11:21
Unknown
yeah. And the banks are reportedly redirecting the cash into digitizing or improving the digital offering. To compete with the likes of Revolut, Chase, Monzo. I mean, look, I've used some of these legacy bank apps, and honestly, I don't see I don't see how they're really investing that heavily into the infrastructure or the the UI or, you know, the intuitiveness of their apps.

00:13:11:21 - 00:13:13:15
Unknown
A lot of them are so clunky and awful

00:13:13:15 - 00:13:22:19
Unknown
that you think, why are you really taking those savings and pumping them into like, having a better digital first offering for your customers? I, I honestly, I'm not convinced by that.

00:13:22:19 - 00:13:25:01
Unknown
Talking of digitalization, Yann,

00:13:25:01 - 00:13:49:23
Unknown
Africa, a continent where some people don't have roads, they don't in some cases, or I mean, in some cases, people don't have access to water, but soon Morocco or Moroccans may have access to rev points, which is fascinating. So Revolut have applied for a banking license with bank al Maghreb, Maghrib.

00:13:49:23 - 00:13:52:16
Unknown
That's Morocco's central bank, pronounced awfully,

00:13:52:16 - 00:13:54:13
Unknown
if approved, which

00:13:54:13 - 00:14:01:10
Unknown
we'll talk about the likelihood of that given I think it's been ten years since they approved a foreign bank for a license in Morocco.

00:14:01:10 - 00:14:03:15
Unknown
Why would they go to Morocco first?

00:14:03:15 - 00:14:12:12
Unknown
it's a good question, Johnny. Morocco. It's obviously a very touristy country. Gets about 14 million visitors annually. Mainly from

00:15:23:14 - 00:15:34:20
Unknown
It's a great idea in theory, Yann. But what is the likelihood of them actually getting authorized? I don't want to make assumptions, but I'm just going to. Because it's fun. I'm going to assume that in Morocco.

00:15:34:20 - 00:15:44:15
Unknown
there will be people lobbying against this, like old financiers, central bankers, people that rely heavily on banking as a business.

00:15:44:15 - 00:15:57:03
Unknown
They make tons of money, tons of profit, and they're going to have brown paper bag stuffed with cash that they can just hand over to the central bankers and go, hey, don't let this bank be authorized. Don't authorize Revolut because they're going to steal our market share.

00:16:24:14 - 00:16:29:16
Unknown
Yeah.

00:16:29:18 - 00:16:35:00
Unknown
Yeah.

00:16:37:01 - 00:16:45:06
Unknown
I understand that they've hired an exact from Uber, which is quite interesting to me to run this operation from Casablanca.

00:16:47:17 - 00:16:50:16
Unknown
Really?

00:17:11:08 - 00:17:13:14
Unknown
in other markets was probably pretty similar.

00:17:13:14 - 00:17:19:18
Unknown
let's have a quick chat about the, the European Union, the UK interest rates. Yeah. And you want to just round up the EU rates first?

00:17:19:18 - 00:17:23:04
Unknown
So not a lot has happened. That was mainly due to the fact that the base rate was,

00:17:23:04 - 00:17:23:10
Unknown
not,

00:17:23:10 - 00:17:23:23
Unknown
reduced.

00:18:39:16 - 00:18:47:18
Unknown
And in the UK the Bank of England reduced the base rates now 4%. So we did see a bit of a shift in the rates. And also some new providers and banks coming into play.

00:18:47:18 - 00:18:55:22
Unknown
Chase UK still remain at the top with the best easy access count for 0.75%. Now that is for, new account holders.

00:18:55:22 - 00:19:06:03
Unknown
A lot of people watching this probably already have a Chase UK account, but if you don't, that's available. It's a pretty solid rate. Still, given that the base rate is 4%, 4.75% is extremely good.

00:19:06:03 - 00:19:15:03
Unknown
Kahoots owned by Santander, also have an easy access account, which is 4.4% now. That drop from 4.5 after the base rate changed, which is still pretty good.

00:19:15:05 - 00:19:18:00
Unknown
We've got some notice accounts which

00:19:18:00 - 00:19:29:02
Unknown
have yeah, pretty solid rates. GB bank up a 4.58% notice account this 120 days stream bank have a 90 day notice at 4.45% is pretty good.

00:19:29:02 - 00:19:32:11
Unknown
And then we have the Jamaican National Bank coming into play.

00:19:32:11 - 00:19:38:11
Unknown
The Jn Bank have a one year fixed at 4.39%, and a two year fixed a 4.41%.

00:19:38:12 - 00:19:42:06
Unknown
Then there is also a cash Isa from Plum 4.35%.

00:19:42:06 - 00:19:47:00
Unknown
Yeah. Cash ISAs have taken a bit of a hit recently. Palm is the current market leader for cash Isa.

00:19:47:00 - 00:19:50:20
Unknown
So that's all we've got for today. Thank you very much for tuning in and watching another episode.

00:19:50:20 - 00:19:52:22
Unknown
Let us know what you think about some of the topics.

00:19:52:22 - 00:19:55:09
Unknown
do you hate PayPal as much as me?

00:19:55:11 - 00:19:56:17
Unknown
I'd love to hear from you.

00:19:56:17 - 00:19:59:07
Unknown
Thanks, everyone, for listening. It's been a pleasure, as always.

00:19:59:07 - 00:20:00:12
Unknown
See you in the next episode.

00:20:00:12 - 00:20:01:19
Unknown
Thanks for the outro. Yeah,

00:20:02:01 - 00:20:02:16
Unknown
goodbye.