Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and others have launched or will launch their own robo products to compete with slicker startups; after seeing the success of startups in the space the banks realized they needed to improve their offerings to keep customers and attract newer, younger ones; the trend to move away from white labeling technology to building their own is a recent one as some traditional players like UBS, State Street and John Hancock are still using services from SigFig, Motif or NextCapital. Source.
The big question in fintech for the last few years is what will happen when firms like Facebook, Google, Amazon...
There has been talk about one the big tech firms becoming a bank and potentially forever changing financial services; event without a banking license big tech firms are making noise in the finance market; Amazon and PayPal have been extending billions in loans and banks have started testing technologies like Alexa; the tech firms have also amassed a trove of data that could end up being as important as banking data; as banks become more digitized we will begin seeing a further mixing of interests to help offer the best experience as possible to the customer. Source.
2019 saw a number of big moves from big tech companies when it came to financial services and 2020 is...
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has formed a partnership with quant hedge fund MANA Partners that will help the bank test algorithms to stay compliant with MiFID II in Europe; the testing environment allows for traders to see if algorithms are safe and how they affect other traders; the move is seen as part of a trend by banks to cut costs and get more efficient within their trading practices. Source.
A study from WalletHub says 67 million Americans will not being able to pay their credit card bills due to...
BioCatch is a behavioral biometrics company that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to combat fraud; the company monitors over 5 billion transactions per month and focuses on detection through behavior as opposed to endpoint security; the round was led by Maverick Ventures; American Express Ventures, NexStar Partners, Kreos Capital, CreditEase, OurCrowd, JANVEST Capital and other existing investors also participated in the round. Source
BioCatch tracks the behavior of users on websites to gauge whether they are a real customer or a fraudster; they...
While the recent revisions to the tax code were done along party lines, the newly proposed updates to Dodd-Frank have the backing of a bipartisan group of legislators; the bill is looking to target banks in the $50bn to $250bn range who many feel have been disproportionately effected by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law; changing the definition of the banks from systemically important financial institutions or SIFI’s will free up the banks from certain requirements; while their is optimism for a deal that crosses party lines, Congress has a ways to go as they look to get this done later in the month. Source.
Bitcoin looks to be headed towards $10,000 and the overall market cap for digital coins has surpassed $300bn; Ethereum, bitcoin gold and bitcoin cash have all reached all time highs as the appetite for these currencies continues to rise unabated; while concerns of a bubble persist the prices continue showing more strength by the day. Source.