Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! It’s good to be back. This week, we’re looking at the wild ride that was Bench’s shutdown and acquisition; dozens of companies that are hiring in the fintech space; lawsuits against PayPal; an IPO update; and more!This edition is a bit longer than normal since we were on a hiatus for a few weeks. Happy New Year, btw! Here’s hoping for a peaceful and joyful year for us all.To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.Image Credits:d3sign / Getty ImagesIt’s always news when a company that has raised more than $110 million in venture funding suddenly folds. But it’s even more eyebrow-raising when days later, that same company — in this case, Bench — gets acquired. Sadly, thousands of customers and hundreds of employees alike must be feeling the whiplash. In this deep dive, TechCrunch’s Charles Rollet breaks down the details of what led to Bench’s shutdown and just who swooped in to buy this fintech, which was backed by the likes of Shopify and Bain Capital Ventures. One tidbit: The move was so sudden that one customer who kept years of data on Bench’s website, and was even featured on its front page before it went offline, learned of the shutdown only when TechCrunch called him for a reaction. Thomson Reuters’ officeImage Credits:Pascal Le Segretain / Staff / Getty ImagesWe kicked off the new year with news that Thomson Reuters had acquired tax automation company SafeSendin an all-cash transaction valued at $600 million. Founded in 2008, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based SafeSend serves a cloud-based platform designed to streamline the processing and sharing of sensitive financial documents.TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos interviewed Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev about his company being named Yahoo Finance’s “comeback stock” of the year, and much more. Catch up here.Image Credits:TBC UzbekistanUzbekistan’s mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, raised $37 million in a new funding round to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation by developing new AI and tech products and attracting more tech-savvy customers. Tyme Group, a South African fintech, 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.Image Credits:Bryce DurbinLast week wasn’t a great one for PayPal. First, Dominic-Madori Davis broke the news that PayPal is being sued by the founder of venture firm Andav Capital, Nisha Desai, who claims she was excluded from the payment giant’s diversity and equity program because she is Asian. Then another new lawsuit alleges that the PayPal-owned browser extension Honey is cheating creators out of money.Meanwhile, Zack Whittaker reported that a U.S. online gift card store, My
