Look, no big SPAC news this week! But we do have IPO news, BNPL, digital banking and even Brexit coverage. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know from Coindesk – The first mega-IPO of the year is in the works as Coinbase filed their S-1 this week for their coming direct listing.
More than half of Square’s revenue now comes from bitcoin trading from PaymentsSource – Staying with crypto it was fascinating to see Square’s earnings this week. Square’s Cash App generated $2.17 billion in revenue in Q4, 81% of which was from bitcoin trading (making them a significantly bigger player than Coinbase).
Federal Reserve Financial-Services Systems Disrupted for Hour from The Wall Street Journal – The Federal Reserve payments systems went down for several hours this week reportedly die to operator error.
Fintech Sector Needs Brexit Lift, U.K. Government Warned from Bloomberg – The U.K. released their long awaited report on fintech this week with recommendations for easing visa restrictions for tech talent, new IPO rules, creation of fintech stock indexes and relaxing capital raising rules.
Fintech firm Klarna is raising $1 billion at a $31 billion valuation, sources say from CNBC – A new mega-round is coming for Klarna, the only one of the big four BNPL players (the others are PayPal, Afterpay and Affirm) that is still a private company.
Stripe, Afterpay Join Forces To Expand BNPL To More Merchants from PYMNTS.com – Stripe will be offering a BNPL solution for all its merchants through Afterpay, starting with the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
There Are Banks For Black Americans And LGBTQ Consumers: We Need A Bank For Everyone from Forbes – Ron Shevlin looks at the personalized offerings from many of the new challenger banks and how they are different to what traditional banks are doing.
New FDIC CIO: ‘Technology is the best enabler of banking the unbanked’ from Banking Dive – The FDIC finally has its first Chief Innovation Officer, Sultan Meghji, who among other things will focus on bringing more underserved people into the financial mainstream.
Varo unveils the Varo Believe Program for American to build Credit from IBS Intelligence – Varo launches Varo Believe, a program aimed at helping people build credit through a unique credit card offering and credit monitoring services.
Kabbage Co-Founder Muses On Alt Lending, Fintech Trends, And More from Forbes – Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage, talks with Forbes about fintech trends, the small business outlook, and how fintechs will replace banks as the face of money management.
