On Thursday, Uber partnered with Mastercard, Marqeta, and Branch to power the Uber Pro Card.
Payday lender, Advance America, and its representative association, the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), have filed a motion with the court to halt regulatory pressure on banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the motion follows the decision by U.S. Bancorp and four other banks to end their relationship with Advance America citing regulatory pressure as a factor; regulators say they have done nothing to pressure banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the court motion is part of an ongoing litigation process involved with a court case filed by Advance America and the CFSA in 2014. Source
The Federal Reserve released its Consumer Credit report for October on Wednesday; the report showed an increase of $16 billion in total consumer credit; revolving credit increased by $2.3 billion and non-revolving credit increased by $13.7 billion; the increase resulted in a seasonally adjusted annual rate of growth of 5.2%; at 5.2% the rate is the slowest since June; consumer spending was also down in October with a 0.3% increase signaling caution from consumers in spending and borrowing. Source
PayPal's upbeat earnings call came with the announcement of Schulman's departure and prudent guidance for 2023.
In a report by Moody's Investor Services, the rating agency has downgraded the global asset management industry to negative; factors for the downgrade are focused on active management performance, global regulation and increasing costs; a McKinsey report published last month pointed to the new fiduciary rule, set to be enacted in April 2017, as an industry altering step as advisers will be forced not to consider their self interests with high commissions when servicing their clients; capital has continued to flow from actively managed funds to ETFs with costs being significantly lower. Source
Recent data shows that startups raised $118 million in Q1 via ICOs or initial coin offerings, down significantly from $6.9...
Chris Skinner writes about the five phases in the development of the fintech industry; phase one was from 2005-2014 and...
Challenging conditions have companies cutting funding from product development and workforces - some believe innovation is a better answer.
Polychain Capital, a hedge fund that focuses on investing in digital assets such as bitcoin and ether has raised $10 million; the funding comes from venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures; the company launched in September with $5 million from 30 investors and is led by Olaf Carlson-Wee who was also the first employee of Coinbase; according to Olaf: "There will be many types of assets codified into the blockchain, and they are all not just going to be on the bitcoin blockchain — it's going to be a number of different assets here. And the best way to invest in that is a diversified portfolio." Source
Earlier this week, the UK launched its bank referral scheme to help extend credit to small businesses not funded by nine of the UK's largest banks; it seems that UK banks outside of the UK consortium are also increasing their efforts to provide alternative options for business borrowers; this week NatWest announced it has added iwoca to its alternative lending panel, Capital Connections. Source