Wall Street trading firm TrueEx is launching a derivatives platform for cryptocurrency and they have also entered into a partnership with ConsenSys; the partnership with ConsenSys will focus on building a benchmark for ether; the derivatives marketplace is pending review by the CFTC and is looking to list non-deliverable forward contracts for cryptocurrency. Source.
JoinedNov. 30, 2016
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Todd is the host of PitchIt: the fintech startups podcast, a weekly interview show featuring emerging fintech founders and leading venture capitalists. He is responsible for leading the content team which covers fintech through daily & weekly email newsletters, editorial, virtual events, and in-person conferences. He has been covering fintech, banking, and venture capital for more than 15 years, including speaking regularly at industry events.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering creating standards to boost blockchain development; the China Electronics Standardization Institute wants to help form a committee surrounding the issue and try to keep the country ahead of the curve; China has also participated in international efforts on blockchain technology focused on authentication and smart contracts. Source.
U.K. based personal financial management app Emma recently launched in December and has struck data sharing deals with Starling Bank and Monzo; the app also works across 17 banks to screen scrape data as the banks work towards compliance with open banking; Emma is a budgeting app that helps customers avoid overdrafts and sees a big opportunity with the open banking regulations; “We’re building a tech company, and we understand that the data [play] goes beyond just overdrafts — it’s about understanding when certain events happen, money can be saved or invested,” said Emma founder and CEO Edoardo Moreni to TearSheet. Source.
HSBC looks to become the first major UK based bank to comply with open banking; the bank plans to launch a new app that centralizes information about customers’ accounts; the current plan is set for release in the first week of May and the app will be named Connected Money; HSBC’s UK head of retail banking and wealth management Stuart Haire said the new challenger banks have been have been making progress on customer insight; there is still healthy skepticism about how fast open banking will catch on as incumbents have been slow to comply. Source.
A new report by BNY Mellon and the UN point to flaws in design and marketing that make financial products less available to women than men; the report finds financial firms are missing out on $7bn in credit card revenue, $14bn in personal loans and $4bn in housing; TearSheet sat down with a former financial services marketer in their latest Confessions series to talk about these issues; the interview covers the misconceptions in marketing to women customers, why women are still viewed as a niche customer when they are the majority and that banks don’t really understand their customers. Source.
Capital One’s chatbot Eno just turned one recently and the bank talked about what they learned this past weekend at SXSW; Carla Saavedra Kochalski, director of conversational AI products, tells TearSheet “We saw there was a huge need to build something smarter and more conversational, not only for those types of experiences but to allow customer service through texting.”; the technology is still limited and in most cases customers still interact on a simple basis like asking for an account balance or approving a questionable transaction. Source.
This week’s PeerIQ Industry Update covers the great jobs report as nonfarm payrolls rose by 313,000 in February which caused the Nasdaq to hit an all-time high; CommonBond saw their first AAA rating by Moody’s and KBRA rated the senior bonds for OneMain’s latest deal at AAA, AA and A; PeerIQ also took a deep dive into the recent Amazon checking account news; they cover the benefits of the partnership, the significance of the deal and who might be next to enter the space. Source.
Speaking to American Banker fintech firms Chime, Moven, Kabbage and more say the move by Amazon is a net positive; most comments showed surprise that it took the retail giant this long to make a move like this; the overall sentiment was positive, pointing out that the entrance of Amazon will increase knowledge of fintech and validating their thoughts on the need for improved consumer experience in banking; the fear that Amazon would just take over is overblown, there is room for the giant retailer and a lot of fintechs who cater to a specific market. Source.
The new plans will allow companies in the EU to apply for a pan-EU license so they can operate across borders; the current system is fragmented and underdeveloped because companies find it restrictive to try to move into neighboring markets; the broader plan is a set of 23 steps meant to help companies scale up across the Eurozone and protect investors. Source.
Banks are beginning to see that marketing Zelle within their own apps can be a challenge; “It’s not a simple feature you can roll out and say ‘try it.’ Explaining all these things means you have to prioritize because there just isn’t enough time so you have to be very selective,” says Mark Schwanhausser, director of the digital banking practice at Javelin and author of a new report looking at this issue, to TearSheet; banks have tried a number of ways to highlight Zelle as part of their banking experience, though the task has not been easy; as the brand grows and customers get accustomed to the difference the job will become easier. Source.