Mastercard has launched their in house content studio to help broaden the institution’s brand; the idea is to make themselves look as if they are a tech company; they have hired a content team and have already started making Storylabs in series; the move is part of a wider trend in financial services as companies like JPMorgan Chase, WealthSImple and Acorns have all been producing content; they also recently started a podcast named “Fortune Favors the Bold” by journalist Ashley Ford. 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 UK’s Financial Conduct Authority released a report on algorithmic trading to help set boundaries around the market; the report lays out best practices and presents guidance on how firms can implement AI in trading; the FCA does voice concerns at too much automation and talks about human intervention to avoid big issues occurring; the report was written to help trading firms comply with the Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). Source.
Citi and PNC striking a deal with HighRadius is the latest example of banks forming partnerships to improve commercial payments; HighRadius has already done partnerships with Bank of America, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Starbucks; HighRadius uses artificial intelligence to help automate some of the slower more paper driven processes in commercial payments. Source.
Revolut and Global Processing Services (GPS) have partnered to allow the UK based digital bank to launch their multi-currency FX app for the Asia Pacific region; Revolut will start with New Zealand, Singapore and Japan; while Revolut has moved much of their processing in house they are supported by GPS for this product. Source.
The Community Home Lenders Association and the Community Mortgage Lenders of America sent a joint letter to the CFPB asking for more clarity around surprise audits; the companies cite exemptions for small banks but they don’t have the same type of exemption for small nonbanks; they believe if the state regulator in which they operate requests a formal action then an audit can go ahead but surprise audits should not be permitted. Source.
Stash is fresh off a $37mn series D that will see the company double in size and expand into other banking products; the company helps customers invest on behalf of their kids; the typical Stash customer is 29 and makes $50k a year, they help them get more control of their financial lives and invest; “We offer education for these users to help them build the right financial habits from day one, and that doesn’t just stop at investing,” said founder and president Ed Robinson to TearSheet. “Our mission is to help our users throughout their whole financial lives.” Source.
Online lenders in China have started to self inspect how they run their companies as the government has been a lot more proactive in oversight than in year’s past; the government fears that borrowers are becoming over indebted and are borrowing to pay back other lenders; some of the top lenders fear the government crackdown could cause other panic and trigger outcomes that would be even worse than a few online lenders shutting down; right now it seems as if lenders are in limbo wondering what the future will hold. Source.
After gaining approval from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Starling Bank has seen their partners grow; Starling now counts PensionBee, WealthSimple, Habito and Kasko as partners; the company plans to announce about 25 partners this year alone; Starling’s Chief platform officer, Megan Caywood, says the new partners take the marketplace to the next level. Source.
UK based Arrowgrass will offer investors fintech exposure through a new vehicle listed on the AIM Market; the $97mn IPO named TruFin, is the first time investors will have access to one of the country’s p2p platforms in Zopa; “Listing on AIM will allow us to provide further capital to our subsidiaries and scale faster, and take advantage of any developments in the current financial services market,” said Henry Kenner, chief executive officer of TruFin plc, to AltFi. Source.
Paytm is looking to expand beyond their Indian roots and Canada is their first test case; “Paytm Canada is our beta test, or our warhead to get an entry into new geography beyond India,” said founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma to TearSheet; while their bill pay products help top build customers their big revenue driver is when businesses pay them fees to accept payments; the current test case in Canada has Paytm signing up thousands of Canadian companies where they incentivize customers to pay bills with cash back offers; having a large Indian population in Canada has helped the company gain early success, but expanding to markets like the US is a different type of challenge. Source.