The news broke late Friday that Google was dropping their plans to offer a bank account which was a surprise to pretty much everybody in fintech. Mastercard is jumping in with both feet into BNPL, we have a new CFPB director, new CDBC guidelines from the BIS and now you can get your paycheck sent directly to Coinbase. Here are what I consider to be the top news stories in fintech this past week.
Google Is Scrapping Its Plan to Offer Bank Accounts to Users from The Wall Street Journal – This came as a surprise to me but it seems that Google is abandoning plans to offer its Plex bank accounts to users with around 400,000 people on the waiting list. The big question is why? Ron Shevlin thinks it might have been pressure from big banks.
Mastercard enters ‘buy now, pay later’ battle with new installment loan program from CNBC – Mastercard installments is coming to merchants in the US, UK and Australia very soon and will allow any business to offer BNPL options. I think this is really big news and is the latest sign that this form of payment is here to stay.
Senate confirms Rohit Chopra to lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from The Washington Post – It was a long time coming but finally, the Senate took a vote on the new CFPB director and Rohit Chopra was confirmed to lead the Bureau.
New money: Central banks lay out operating manual for digital cash from Reuters – The BIS released a research publication this week outlining how a CBDC could be designed and how it could be interoperable with the existing monetary system (full report here).
Coinbase to let you deposit part of your paycheck into your Coinbase account from TechCrunch – Direct deposit is coming to Coinbase where you will be able to convert your paycheck directly into crypto.
Former Robinhood Employees Launch Parafin, a Finance Startup for Small Business from The Wall Street Journal – A new small business lending fintech has launched taking the lending-as-service approach. They already have a big client, as Parafin will be powering the financing arm of Mindbody.
Tom Brady, Tiger Woods join growing surge of NFTs from LendIt Fintech News – NFTs continue their movement into the mainstream with big time celebrities getting involved.
Fintech firm Upgrade is getting into buy now, pay later with short-term installment loans from CNBC – Renaud Laplanche’s Upgrade will be getting into BNPL as they will allow users to pay off small purchases in four months without incurring any interest expense.
DeFi Platform Mistakenly Sends $89 Million; CEO Begs Return from Bloomberg – Another entry in the crypto “big oops” category as DeFi platform Compound sent $89 million worth of crypto to their users by mistake after an update Wednesday that contained an error. Not a good look for DeFi.
Affirm says crypto investing will soon be available to customers with savings accounts from CNBC – In an investor presentation this week Affirm CEO Max Levchin shared that soon their customers will be able tp invest in crypto.
