Fintech Nexus Newsletter

It was only Thursday of last week when our lead story was about the challenges banks were facing in the Banking-as-a-Service space. Then Friday we learned that Blue Ridge Bank was hit with its second regulatory action in less than 18 months and is now deemed to be in a "troubled condition".

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has indeed decided to move on from Goldman in roughly 12 to 15 months. This will mean both the Apple Card and the savings account (that was rolled out just a few months ago) will need a new banking partn

Bhardwaj had reportedly held senior technology positions at various large banks including Citi, Fifth Third and Huntington. The trouble is those banks had no records of Bhardwaj ever being an employee let alone a senior technology executive.

In lieu of a solution that stops the crimes from happening in the first place, bank reimbursement is the only source of protection.

More positive signs for fintech as spend management unicorn Ramp closed another large funding round. The $150 million was officially called a Series D extension, but it comes at a $7.65 billion valuation, a significant improvement over the $300 million raised for the initial Series D, which was at $5.8 billion.

Visa is hosting its annual Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco this week, and yesterday, there were some major announcements. Some are calling this the biggest thing in card payments since the card chip.

Upstart has been a trailblazer when it comes to using AI in lending. They were the first fintech lender to make it a core part of their offering.

It is a bold or naïve CEO that prefaces a major announcement with the words, "This will shock the world". New PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said exactly that in his first public interview since becoming CEO. That was a week ago and he was referring to major announcements that would happen at the company's Innovation Day that it conducted yesterday.

In the new Apple iOS 17.4 update there is a little something for fintech enthusiasts: a new API called FinanceKit. This is another example of Apple edging its way into open banking after last November the company allowed UK users to connect outside accounts.

The fintech space, and the tech space more broadly, is enamored with company valuations. The term unicorn arose out of that fascination.