Surveys by finance site Smart Money People and RFI Group both point to an important time for UK based digital banks; Starling Bank and Monzo were the top two banks in customer satisfaction according to Smart Money People; RFI Group found UK customers willing to use a digital only bank dropped from 78 percent to 54 percent in the past year; while the digital only banks please customers more they are beginning to run up against incumbent competition for a similar experience; digital only banks need to begin thinking about building long term businesses as the old guard catches up. 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.
WorldRemit recently entered the U.S. market and already expects it to be their biggest market by year end; remittances sent from the U.S. back to home countries have risen to $66bn from $50bn in the last 5 years; immigrants are becoming more tech savvy and companies like WorldRemit see big potential as apps like WhatsApp have helped move people to use their phones more and more; WorldRemit has been driven in large part by relying on a number of different partners to help set up their expanding network; tax issues are still a big concern and recently receiving the NY approval, a 2 year effort, sets the company up to focus on scale. Source.
News of Amazon in talks with JPMorgan Chase and Capital One to offer a checking account product has brought up a number of regulatory questions; key questions include who owns the customer, what is Amazon’s role in the accounts, who regulates Amazon in this instance and will Amazon need to become a bank; while details of the deal are not fully known regulators will be keeping a close eye on the partnership. Source.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been hit with a class action lawsuit that alleges insider trading during their launch of bitcoin cash; the plaintiffs are accusing the exchange of tipping off insiders prior to the official launch; prices of bitcoin cash spiked ahead of the launch and Coinbase did say they would conduct an investigation into the matter, plaintiffs claim the results have yet to be revealed. Source.
BBVA has announced their Open Talent competition which is dubbed as the world’s largest fintech competition; the competition is in its tenth year and will focus on banking, data, money management and financial decision-making; the winner will take home $186,000 and finalists will take part in an immersion week which will show them how to work with a big corporate, become a customer of the bank and more. Source.
According to Visa 96 percent of U.S. payment volume took place on chip cards, with the large majority being chip and signature cards; starting next month major card brands will look to move customers to the chip and PIN cards that have been widely adopted across Europe; Merchants will be able to turn cell phones into terminals instead of buying expensive POS terminals with pin pads; wide adoption will take time as smaller retailers might not see the benefits as quickly and large retailers have invested a lot in the current technology. Source.
U.S banks closed more than 1700 branches in the year dated June 2016 to June 2017, one of the largest drops on record; more than half of U.S. customers still prefer opening an account at a a branch, when compared to the UK market which shows more than half of customers would rather open accounts digitally; leading vendors like NCR and Diebold have seen revenues drop with the branch products pointing to a decline in the importance of the branch; while branches are still looked at as important to U.S. banks bottom line the trend still points to less branches and more digital in the coming years. Source.
Grameen America wants banks and social impact investors to help fuel a doubling of their loan portfolio in the next 5 years; most of the new money to lend will come from their inaugural Small Business Fund and the remaining amount is where they will turn to banks and social impact investors; “It's a way to appeal to impact investors who are interested in this kind of concept as opposed to pure philanthropy,” says David Gough, CFO, to American Banker when talking about the company’s shift to impact investors to fuel growth. Source.
Citi thinks startups are missing out on a big opportunity and is inviting startups to disrupt institutional banking; Citi has taken a close look at thousands of fintech startups so far and has taken a position in about 30 so far; “Contrary to the common belief, I think there is more opportunity for collaboration with fintech than disruption,” Naveed Sultan, global head of treasury and trade solutions for Citi said during a fireside chat reported by TechCrunch. “Particularly on the institutional side.” Source.
Stash is now letting customers invest in single stocks as it looks to broaden their product offerings; the company allows customers to by portions of shares for a minimum of $5; the new offering allows investors to invest in single companies as opposed to single strategies as they have with themed ETFs; the average investor on Stash is 29 years old and has a household income of $45,000 a year. Source.