Fintech Nexus Newsletter

The New York Community Bank saga has occupied the headlines for much of the past month. But the bank may finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, NYCB received a $1 billion infusion of capital from a group that included former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former OCC head Joseph Otting.

Savings and investing fintech Acorns has been relatively quiet since it acquired the UK neobank for kids, GoHenry, six months ago. Now...

There are big changes coming to the world of interchange. Today, in a historic settlement, Visa and Mastercard have agreed to cap card interchange fees as they seek to end a legal fight that has spanned almost two decades.

Fraud is going to be top of mind for all financial institutions in 2024. Banks and fintechs alike are constant targets of fraud attacks. It was interesting to read this morning about the experience of Regions Bank when it comes to check fraud.

On Friday, the CFPB announced it was suing mobile peer-to-peer lending platform SoLo Funds for multiple issues. SoLo Funds targets minority and other underserved borrowers with short-term loans of up to $575. This is a challenging population to serve and a difficult niche to profit from.

While it is not yet a wave, fintech consolidation is starting to pick up. And yesterday we learned of another deal, this one in the investing space. While this deal was telegraphed a few months ago there was an official announcement yesterday. Leading investment fintech Yieldstreet is acquiring the real estate platform Cadre.

When the CFPB released their long-awaited proposal on open banking rules in October there was cautious optimism from both banking and fintech groups. Fast forward two and a half months, when everyone has had a chance to fully digest the 299-page proposed rulemaking, there are many suggestions for improvement. With the 60-day comment period ending this week, the CFPB has received over 11,000 comments.

Goldman's push into consumer finance continues to be a disaster. While CEO David Solomon had grand plans, the entire move has proven to be an unmitigated disaster.

The OpenAI story was eclipsed yesterday by monumental news in the world of crypto. The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, has agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines to the U.S. government for violating anti-money-laundering requirements. 

The CFPB continues its attack on all kinds of junk fees charged by banks. This time they are targeting credit card late fees.