Cryptocurrency startup Basis, led by former Google employee Nader Al-Naji, raised $133mn from GV, Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners,...
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.
There were many new regulations added in the wake of the financial crisis in an effort to prevent the next recession; with the new administration some of the regulations have been removed and now regulators are looking at lowering a key piece of regulation; the supplementary leverage ratio requires banks to maintain capital on their balance sheet as protection; bankers have pointed out that the regulation has been hurting their ability to lend and operate; some regulators agree but there are others still on from the previous administration who believe it should stay in place; there is a fear that too much deregulation will push banks to revert back to practices that contributed to the financial crisis, striking the right balance is where regulators are currently focused. Source.
Denmark based Saxo Bank announced a partnership with Microsoft to host the bank’s entire technology stack on the Microsoft Azure cloud; the bank said the partnership will allow them to ensure scalability, flexibility and security in the digital infrastructure; Kim Fournais, the bank’s founder and CEO, tells Banking Technology “Saxo Bank was a fintech long before the term was created, and it is a natural step for us to also pioneer cloud-based solutions in financial services.” Source.
A survey by FT Confidential Research shows the online lending industry in China continues to consolidate from new regulations; the days of significant growth and platform expansion have ended as the government looks to weed out the smaller players; since 2016 the government has capped borrowing limits, shut down secondary markets and forced platforms to file with local regulators. Source.
RBS plans to launch a next generation mobile only bank by third quarter 2018; the project is expected to launch with more than one million users from the bank; reports also point to the bank pursuing a marketplace business model which values partnerships over lending as a revenue model; while it looks like it is rumors right now the bank is clearly moving more digital. Source.
Ernst & Young announced a new suite of blockchain audit technologies; EY Blockchain Analyzer looks to assist audit teams to gather transaction data from multiple blockchain ledgers; Paul Brody, EY Global Innovation Blockchain Leader, tells Crowdfund Insider, “Understanding exchanges and cryptocurrencies is the first step in our ability to develop tools to test various blockchain-based business contracts. EY Blockchain Analyzer will be utilized by the auditor to analyze transactions on a blockchain and help provide insight to the finance function.” Source.
Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Mick Mulvaney has testified on numerous occasions about the risk of data breaches; in December he helped put a freeze on data collection, though collection resumed a few weeks later without much talk or solutions; Mr. Mulvaney has not been clear on the types of breaches that have occurred and what has been done to plug the holes; experts believe this could be more about politics so the bureau is cast in a bad light. Source.
Despite the rumors of a spinoff and losing Amber Baldet JPMorgan Chase is still pushing forward with their Quorum blockchain; they recently tested the issuance of a $150 million, one-year, floating-rate Yankee certificate of deposit on the blockchain, in parallel with the actual issuance of the CD according to American Banker; in regards to the spinoff the bank has yet to completely deny the rumors, though they could spinoff parts of the group and still house Quorom within the bank. Source.
Goldman Sachs has been exploring the creation of a crypto trading desk and now has hired a former crypto trader; the bank hired Justin Schmidt as a vice president and head of digital asset markets; the move is seen as another step by the bank to eventually create a crypto trading desk as they have been rumored to be exploring this for quite some time; no major bank has started a crypto trading desk yet. Source.
According to a new report by CB Insights global fintech funding reached $5.4bn across 323 deals in Q1 2018; deal activity was highest in the U.S. and Asia, Europe on the other hand fell to a five quarter low; early stage companies in Europe were not receiving investments, though later stage companies were still having success; regtech, wealth management and digital banking led the way, while online lenders lagged behind. Source.