The 2018 Joint Economic Report included a section dedicated to cryptocurrencies and blockchain for the first time; the report provides an overview of the nation’s economic status and provides ideas for the next year; this is a big sign for the emerging market as the report is put together by members of the House and Senate; the report says blockchain can be used to help fight cybercrime and protect the nation’s economy and infrastructure; it also states that congress, regulators and the public need to better understand the new technologies. Source.
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.
While the focus of the new bill that recently passed the Senate has been on banks, it could effect fintech is a big way; the bill releases restrictions on banks, especially smaller one’s, where they can better leverage technology and potentially hurt the market share of fintechs; banks were heavily restricted after the financial crisis when many of these regulations went into effect; if the bill were to be signed then fintechs would have to start ensuring they can be long term sustainable businesses. Source.
- Mortgage Rate Competition Index Widens
- Fintech referral platform bags series A fundraise
- Monzo Milestone: Challenger Bank Hits Half A Million Current Accounts (Video)
- SoFi prices 1st student loan ABS with medical residency refis
- Airbnb Now Features RealtyShares as First Multifamily Financing Solution
- Affirm, a startup founded by PayPal co-founder, just launched Apple Pay Credit Card without the plastic
VersaBank is a digital only Canadian bank and has created a cryptocurrency vault similar to a safety deposit box; the bank shared that it has signed two memorandums of understanding with a cryptocurrency exchange and a crypto fund; the new vault called VersaVault is expected to roll out in June. Source
The challenger bank will be a standalone digital bank aimed to compete against Monzo and Revolut; according to Sky News, the project is so confidential that very few people are familiar with the project internally; sources state that Mark Bailie, the bank’s former COO is leading the new venture with tens of millions of pounds of backing for the new platform. Source
Two new working groups were created yesterday, Innovate Finance and City of London Corporation created Fintech Strategy Group and a consortium of fintech companies in Italy creating ItaliaFintech; the groups are meant to help fintech companies collaborate with traditional financial firms and work alongside regulators who want a better understanding of new business models; the working groups come after the European Commission laid out their Fintech Action Plan last week. Source.
The proposed crypto ad ban on Twitter would block ads related to cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges and ICOs; Twitter would be following Google and Facebook who have already instituted blocks on these ads; the ban would come sometime in the next few weeks and would include exceptions; the bans have been seen as proactive steps to root out scams. Source.
The share of cash in 2016 accounted for 12.6 percent of GDP and the forecast includes the share being 11.2 percent by 2021; while new forms of payments are being adopted and card payments still used widely, cash will still play an important role; a few of the main reasons for continued cash usage is people prefer to use cash for small transactions, 27 percent of U.S. consumers are unbanked and fraud has become more widespread which can cause people to use cash more. Source.
Alipay has partnered with Openpay in Mexico to further their expansion into the Americas; users of Alipay will now be able to use the service to make purchases at businesses that are affiliated with Openpay; Souheil Badran, President of Alipay Americas stated, “An increasing number of Chinese consumers are shopping for products in Mexico that they can’t find at home, and they want to be able to purchase those items with the payment method they use most often. Our partnership with Openpay not only connects Mexican merchants with Chinese consumers seeking their products and services, but also opens new revenue channels for merchants in Mexico. We are thrilled to be partnering with Openpay as we continue to expand the reach of Alipay throughout the Americas.” Source
Affirm announced they are partnering with merchants to make financing available in-store; Affirm InStore works similar to their online point of sale solution where customers can pay for purchases over time with fixed installments; the company also announced that consumers will be able to add a newly issued Affirm virtual card via Apple Pay. Source