We could call this Jack Dorsey week. We woke up Monday morning to the news that Jack Dorsey would be resigning as Twitter CEO. We all wondered what this would mean for Square. We got some idea on Wednesday when Square announced it was changing its name to Block. Also making news this week was Capital One for eliminating overdraft fees, New York Community Bank for minting stablecoins, David Marcus for quitting Facebook, and much more. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
Jack Dorsey’s Square changes corporate name to Block from CNBC – Just two days removed from his decision to quit Twitter, Jack Dorsey decides to change Square’s name to Block, effective December 10. At the same time, Square Crypto will change its name to Spiral.
Capital One Is Latest Bank to Ditch Overdraft Fees from The Wall Street Journal – Capital One has become the largest bank so far to completely eliminate overdraft fees, foregoing $150 million a year in revenue.
Why New York Community Bank is minting stablecoins from American Banker – This is a big deal. A large community bank will become the first to mint a new stablecoin in partnership with Figure. The big draw for bank customers is instant settlement.
Facebook’s top crypto executive David Marcus is leaving the company from TechCrunch – As if Facebook wasn’t having enough challenges with its ever-changing crypto project, now the lead architect has quit. David Marcus made it pretty clear that he will be starting something new very shortly. We can’t wait to learn about it.
‘Winner-Take-Most’: Anthony Noto’s Ambitions for SoFi Take Shape from The Information – This was an interesting portrait of SoFi CEO Anthony Noto and it also revealed the dynamics behind the changing definition of a member inside the company.
A fintech helping banks enter the cloud hits $1 billion valuation in JPMorgan-backed investment from CNBC – Thought Machine is a fintech we will be hearing a lot more about in 2022 and beyond I expect. It made a name for itself earlier this year by landing JPMorgan as a client and now America’s largest bank is participating in the funding round that makes Thought Machine a unicorn.
Fundbox, a fintech focused on SMBs, raises $100M at a $1.1B valuation from TechCrunch – Also joining the unicorn ranks this week is small business fintech Fundbox with a $100 million Series D.
Digital Bank Nubank Cuts Valuation Target From $55 Billion To $42 Billion from Forbes – The world’s largest digital bank is going public next week on the NYSE and even with this downsized valuation, it will likely be the largest fintech IPO ever.
TikTok launches new tips feature powered by Stripe from Silicon Republic – TikTok is adding a fintech component to its business with this partnership with Stripe that will allow users to tip their favorite TikTok creators.
Americans’ Top Brands Of 2021 Shows The Rising Importance Of Fintech from Forbes – This week Ron Shevlin looks at the growing popularity of fintech brands among the different demographic groups.
Every Thursday afternoon the LendIt Fintech News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on LendIt TV, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – just click on the audio player below.
