During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
Lendit Fintech Digital – First Impressions by CrowdFund Insider – We launched LendIt Fintech Digital last week and Timothy Li provides his first impressions of our new initiative.
U.S. Expected to Revise Small-Business Aid Program by The Wall Street Journal – The drama of the PPP Loan program continues. According to the WSJ it now appears likely that the government will change the rules around forgiveness which is good news for the millions of businesses who have taken out loans.
Kabbage Is Revived By Processing PPP Loans by PYMNTS.com – Even though Kabbage did not really get their PPP Loan program going until Round 2, they have already helped 110,000 small businesses with a median loan size of just $14,000. Great going Rob Frohwein, Kathryn Petralia and team.
Plaid Launches API Exchange To Accelerate Open Banking And Digital Transformation by Forbes – Today Plaid has launched Plaid Exchange, a new platform that provides banks with “API connectivity in a box”. Ron Shevlin has the lowdown on the new platform and what it means for banking and fintech.
SoFi just cut 7% of staff based on performance reviews, and is eliminating a team by automating it away. The moves come a month after the fintech announced a $1.2 billion acquisition. by Business Insider – It looks like SoFi is the latest fintech company to cut their workforce. They are laying off 7% of their workforce or just over 100 people.
Shopify Launches Debit, POS Credit Tools For Merchants by PYMNTS.com – At their virtual Reunite conference today Shopify announced the launch of a new business bank account and a buy now pay later product. It is becoming more of a fintech company every day.
Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield moves from UK CEO role to president by TechCrunch – More big news out of Monzo. Founder Tom Blomfield is stepping down as CEO and will take on the President role while the US CEO will become the new leader of the UK digital bank.
Aspiration, the LA-based fintech focused on conscious consumerism, raises $135 million by Techcrunch – Aspiration is a socially conscious digital bank with 1.5 million customers and now a big cash war chest after this $135 million raise.
Brian Brooks will become acting comptroller of the currency by American Banker – On May 29 Joseph Otting is stepping down as head of the OCC, to be replace by Brian Brooks, who came from Coinbase and was also an advisor to Avant and Spring Labs. So he knows fintech.
