Carvana is working with Wells Fargo and Bank of America on plans for a US initial public offering (IPO); the company is one of a few specialist providers selling used cars and offering auto financing through the internet with automated towers storing vehicles in cities such as Austin, Dallas and Nashville; Reuters reports the company has a valuation of $2 billion and is planning for its IPO in the first half of 2017. Source
The share of cash in 2016 accounted for 12.6 percent of GDP and the forecast includes the share being 11.2 percent by 2021; while new forms of payments are being adopted and card payments still used widely, cash will still play an important role; a few of the main reasons for continued cash usage is people prefer to use cash for small transactions, 27 percent of U.S. consumers are unbanked and fraud has become more widespread which can cause people to use cash more. Source.
Around the world cash usage is on the decline as governments from India to Kenya to Sweden promote cashless payments...
As digital finance continued to grow retailers started to experiment with the idea of cashless stores; the idea was met...
According to a recent survey by the Bank of International Settlements, over 70 percent of central banks are studying central...
CBOE CEO Edward Tilly told the Financial News that recent criticism about bitcoin futures was “uncalled for”; “I think letters like that and cheap shots to our regulator, the CFTC, are uncalled for to make it seem this was an overnight self-certification without the proper amount of CFTC involvement,” explained Mr. Tilly; he explained that the Options Clearing Corporation clears the contracts for the CBOE and was comfortable with their decision of bitcoin. Source.
The CBOE will launch bitcoin futures on Sunday December 10th and said that trading will be free for the first month; “We are committed to encouraging fairness and liquidity in the bitcoin market. To promote this, we will initially offer XBT futures trading for free,” commented Ed Tilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CBOE; CBOE’s bitcoin futures will trade on CFE un the ticker XBT. Source.
Current Expected Credit Loses Standard or CECL goes into effect in 2020, though banks are now starting to experiment with technology solutions to solve the problem it causes; the requirement forces banks to put potential loan losses on their books when they put an asset on their books; right now it can take a bank almost a week to go through a largely excel driven process; beginning to implement changes now can help banks stay ahead and begin using technology to solve other data driven problems; Bank Independent of Sheffield, Alabama has said since using technology from Sageworks they have cut down time from a week to a day. Source.
The Celo Foundation has announced they have signed up 50 founding members for the Alliance for Prosperity; the new crypto...
Louis Beryl, CEO of marketplace lender, Earnest, speaks with Jim Cramer about the firm's credit evaluation process; Cramer discusses Earnest's lending specialization which focuses on student loan refinancing but also includes personal loans; Beryl primarily talks about Earnest's edge in credit underwriting which considers a borrower's full financial profile including additional details on assets and bank accounts; this is facilitated by direct connection to online banking accounts; Beryl says Earnest has passed the $1 billion lending mark with $300 million saved for clients using the company's online lending technology. Source