Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
PayPal Enters Installment Loan Business Targeting Fintechs Affirm And Afterpay from Forbes – The already hot buy-now-pay-later space just got even hotter. PayPal is now joining the fray with “Pay in 4” which is basically a direct copy of what Afterpay does but with lower fees.
BankThink: Colo. ‘true lender’ settlement is path forward for bank-fintech partnerships from American Banker – This op-ed captures exactly why the Colorado settlement is a big deal for the bank-fintech partnership model. It provides a sensible framework for other states to follow.
Why BofA – Not Fintechs or Amazon – Should Keep Bankers Awake at Night from The Financial Brand – Interesting piece about Bank of America and their digital initiatives. Based on the data in this article it appears they are the big bank leader when it comes to digital banking.
Insights: COVID-19 Performance Report, Volume 11 from dv01 – The latest edition of the dv01 performance report includes data from August. Despite government support running out at the end of July the American consumer is proving to be resilient when it comes to paying back personal loans.
The Fintech 250: The Top Fintech Companies Of 2020 from CB Insights – This week CB Insights released their third annual Fintech 250, a list of the top private #fintech companies impacting all areas of finance. Lots of great names on the list.
BankThink It’s time to tie banks’ business models to customer well-being from American Banker – It is a travesty that banks offer products that are often misaligned with their customers’ interests. Todd Baker and Corey Stone propose a new regulatory framework where banks would be evaluated on their impact on financial health. Great idea!
Nobody Wants An Online Bank (And Other Wisdom From Investing $100 Billion In Fintech) from Forbes – With $100 billion invested in fintech in the last three years Ron Shevlin provides four lessons that VCs and fintech entrepreneurs should have learned.
Wealthfront launches automatic savings, investment feature from Banking Dive – Wealthfront’s launch of their Autopilot tool this week is a big deal. It is the first step to a world of autonomous finance where machines execute on a plan that automatically optimizes your finances.
Varo’s No Fee Overdraft saved Americans more than $100 million over the past year from Tearsheet – I hate overdraft fees but banks made $11.7 billion from them in 2019 with most of that coming from people who could ill afford the fee. Varo has a no-fee overdraft that allows consumers to overdraw their account by up to $50, saving its customers $100 million since August 2019.
Ocrolus Maps the Fintech Lending Ecosystem from Lend Academy – Ocrolus resurrect the old Orchard Lendscape providing an up to date Fintech Lending Market Map which is a great resource for the industry.
