The fintech world has been abuzz with news, and this week's roundup is packed with exciting developments. In a shocking turn of events, Bench, a fintech company that had raised over $110 million in venture funding, suddenly shut down, only to be acquired days later. This unexpected move has left thousands of customers and hundreds of employees reeling. According to TechCrunch's Charles Rollet, the shutdown was so sudden that one customer, who had kept years of data on Bench's website, only learned of the shutdown when contacted by TechCrunch for a reaction.

In other news, Thomson Reuters has acquired tax automation company SafeSend in an all-cash transaction valued at $600 million. Founded in 2008, SafeSend serves a cloud-based platform designed to streamline the processing and sharing of sensitive financial documents. This acquisition marks a significant move in the fintech space, highlighting the growing importance of automation in financial services.

Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev has been named Yahoo Finance's "comeback stock" of the year, and in an interview with TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos, he shared his thoughts on the company's resurgence. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan's mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million in a new funding round to bolster its digital presence in the Central Asian nation. The bank plans to develop new AI and tech products and attract more tech-savvy customers.

In another significant funding round, South African fintech Tyme Group has secured $250 million in a Series D round, pushing its valuation to $1.5 billion. Notably, the funding was led by Nu Holdings, which owns Latin America's most valuable fintech, Nubank, investing $150 million for a 10% stake. This investment highlights the growing interest in fintech companies in emerging markets.

However, it's not all good news for fintech companies. PayPal is facing two new lawsuits, one alleging that the company excluded the founder of venture firm Andav Capital, Nisha Desai, from its diversity and equity program because she is Asian. Another lawsuit claims that PayPal-owned browser extension Honey is cheating creators out of money. These lawsuits add to the growing scrutiny of fintech companies and their practices.

In other news, a U.S. online gift card store, MyGiftCardSupply, has secured an online storage server that was publicly exposing hundreds of thousands of customer government-issued identity documents to the internet. This security breach highlights the importance of data protection in the fintech space.

On the IPO front, digital payments firm MobiKwik's shares surged 82% to ₹507.5 ($6) on their first day of trading, with the Indian fintech's $69 million IPO coming amid fierce competition from larger rivals. Aye Finance, a lender targeting small- and medium-sized businesses in India, is seeking to raise $171 million from its initial public offering. Meanwhile, digital bank Chime has filed its confidential paperwork with the SEC, eyeing an IPO in 2025.

Finally, despite the current economic uncertainty, many fintech companies are still hiring, although the number of open roles has decreased in recent months. Three crypto industry groups are also suing the Internal Revenue Service to block new regulations that require decentralized finance (DeFi) entities to report customer information. As the fintech space continues to evolve, it's clear that there will be many more developments to come in the new year.