Coinbase announced a new customer support like to help users and expand customer service operations; according to Business Insider the call agents can only handle verification issues and unlocking accounts; the company has seen their user base skyrocket but at the same time the amount of issues and complaints have also gone up dramatically; adding more support is something they hope will help to provide an overall better experience. 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 Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), J. Christopher Giancarlo, told government technology executives at an event that blockchain technology is in our national interest; Coindesk reports that the chairman said, "Distributed ledger and blockchain technologies ... are going to challenge orthodoxies that are foundational to our financial infrastructure."; he also discussed agencies moving beyond just talk of implementation but to actually try to use the tech within their agency's. Source.
10x Future Technologies will soon announce a new funding round of over $40mn from China's Ping An and global consulting firm Oliver Wyman; the funds, according to Banking Technology, will help to speed up technology development and expand the company into Asia. Source.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is beginning to give community bankers in the US headaches; the law applies to all companies processing and holding data of people who reside in the EU; if a EU citizen visits your website you could be subject to the law; community banks are starting to enlist legal help to better understand how they can protect themselves from steep penalties. Source.
While the crackdown on bitcoin in China has hurt the value of the digital currency, prices have stabilized and traders are confident this is a blip on the radar; what traders are more focused on is the technology behind the currency and the blockchain protocol has not been affected; there are also reports that say the crackdown is temporary and China has become less central as overall volume has dropped. Source.
Deposit marketplace Raisin moved into the UK market by acquiring Manchester-based fintech PBF Solutions; Tamaz Georgadze, Raisin’s CEO and founder, tells AltFi “The acquisition of PBF gives us the opportunity to significantly broaden our offer to UK savers and deposit takers." Source.
Real estate alternative investment platform AlphaFlow raised $4.1mn led by Resolute Ventures and Point72 Ventures; they plan to use the funds to scale partnerships with lenders and investors, accredited individual investors and investment managers; they also plan to hire more individuals for the data science and engineering division and potentially look at more asset classes int the future. Source.
Raisin is looking to expand on their deposit marketplace by offering a term deposit product to European SMEs; this will allow SMEs to earn money on their cash instead of dealing with negative interest rates that have been prevalent across Europe; currently Raisin has enlisted Banco BNI Europa from Portugal, Younited Credit from France and Greenhill Bank from Germany in the product. Source.
Google is expected to launch a mobile payments app in India next week; Google Tez, which means fast in Hindi, will offer a comprehensive set of payment options beyond existing products like Android Pay according to Banking Technology; it also plans to support Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Paytm and MobiKwik. Source.
The recent regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency markets, specifically in China, has dropped the worldwide market cap to $98.95bn; as recently as two weeks ago the market cap was up around $180bn; while the size of the market continues to fluctuate, it remains to be seen where prices will head when regulatory crackdowns pass. Source.