The Luna Foundation Guard has acquired another $1.5 billion in bitcoin for its UST reserve through an OTC sale of luna, its governance token.
Luvleen Sidhu took over as CEO of BankMobile in January after serving as president and chief strategy officer; their strategy...
Lyft has announced a set of tools to better serve their drivers; the incentives include bank accounts, debit cards as...
Buffalo, New York-based M&T is the latest bank to announce changes that will save customers money but also reduce service-fee revenue.
M-Pesa is now in 11 countries, has more than 30 million users and helped to lift thousands of people out of poverty; Business Insider took a trip to Kenya to get a look at how the app works and the effect it has had on the region; 80 percent of mobile banking in Kenya is done through M-Pesa and people use the service for groceries, paying off debts with friends and more. Source.
Investing startup M1 Finance decided in December that charging 25 to 40 basis points was not working, so it decided to allow users to use their platform for free; since shifting to the free model the company has seen more than $1mn a day come onto the platform; rival robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront think the move is an act of desperation, though both companies offer or have offered some version free services; CEO of M1 Brian Barnes tells Business Insider, “M1 is very limiting from a trading perspective but it is a phenomenal tool for building a portfolio for the investments you want." Source.
Digital investment startup M1 Finance drooped their assets under management fees to zero in December; the company plans to make money through back end services and charges fees fopr paper statements, wire transfers and transferring to another brokerage; “It’s taking a similar approach to how the rest of financial services works,” CEO Brian Barnes said to TearSheet. “Banks make money on cash, assets, transaction revenue and the ability to cross sell — the more users, the more assets, and the more money M1 will make.”; the company current holds more than $100mn assets under management. Source.
M1 is a unique company in the investment space, letting users open an investment account, checking account, debit card or...
Amazon has a number of clients using Alexa for financial advice and solutions architect Felix Candelario says, "Natural language processing is the new rocket science."; clients include UBS, LPL, Fidelity, Capital One and Betterment; overall, machine learning innovation is providing for new technology solutions and pairing it with voice automated interactions adds a new element of service for customers. Source
Simility, a machine learning adaptive fraud prevention product, raised $17.5mn from PayPal, The Valley Fund and Trinity Ventures; the company helps to prevent fraud and abuse in real time using machine learning and big data analytics; Rahul Pangam, Co-Founder and CEO of Simility, tells Crowdfund Insider, “Digital disruption in the financial and commerce sectors has resulted in the need for a fraud and risk management solution that goes beyond legacy.”; the company plans to build out data science teams and continue expanding globally. Source.