Apple’s Monday event was dominated by Hollywood stars who were drawn to Cupertino by the company’s good taste and aggressive push into an array of new content services, games, subscriptions, and original programming.
Read MoreIn a deal with very interesting synergies, digital investing app Robinhood made its first-ever acquisition this week: for a millennial-targeted media firm called MarketSnacks.
Read MoreIt seems as if the news breaks monthly with the “biggest deal ever” in some aspect of fintech. That’s why it was only mildly shocking this week when word came out that bank technology giant FIS agreed to pay $35 billion for
Read MoreLooking ahead ten, perhaps even twenty, years into the future, what will be the hot sectors to invest in? Well, if we knew exactly what those would be, we’d be soothsayers, but the manager of one of the world’s largest pension funds has some interesting ideas in that regard.
Read MoreThat’s the refrain of YG’s 2018 hit song, “Big Bank,” which features 2 Chainz, Big Sean, and Nicki Minaj. Along the way, the song also makes a salient point apropos of today’s college admissions reality: People with big money win out over those with little money.
Read MoreLast month, the White House issued an executive order laying out how the U.S. would maintain American leadership in AI. Putting aside the fact that the order assumed, perhaps inaccurately, that the U.S. is the world’s AI leader, it was criticized for being long on blather and short on meat (what a surprise)
Read MoreFor any technology vendor, selling to large corporations can be an exhaustive and time-consuming process. The sales cycle is incredibly long, and even getting the ear of the right executive can be nearly impossible. But a CNBC report this week shows the lengths to which some vendors will go to get the attention of top security executives in an ever-increasing and competitive marketplace.
Read MoreIt seems as if the news breaks monthly with the “biggest deal ever” in some aspect of fintech. That’s why it was only mildly shocking this week when word came out that bank technology giant FIS agreed to pay $35 billion for Worldpay in the largest digital payments M&A deal to date. The deal is part of an escalating arms race among the financial technology sector’s biggest players.
Read More“At least for the foreseeable future, quants aren’t going to displace traditional fixed-income traders. Bonds—and especially munis—are by definition less homogeneous than equities and don’t lend themselves to perfect automation.” That’s the assessment by Bloomberg’s Brian Chappatta. In the past, Chappatta has made the point that muni-related roles have been a relative Wall Street oasis for job seekers with the required skills.
Read MoreAlthough most of the $8.5 billion in bets made during the NCAA Men’s Division 1 will be illegal, things are changing thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision last year to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. The result? It is possible to bet on the games legally; however, there remain plenty of impediments and ambiguities in the way (depending on where you live).
Read MoreIn recent years, it’s been made evident to us that the World Economic Forum never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. That became abundantly clear after speaking to several people who recently returned from Davos. Yes, it’s true that the foundation behind the annual Davos forum has increased the amount of programming dedicated to acknowledging the problematic effects of globalism.
Read MoreThere’s always talk of whether investment in fintech firms will begin to slow down, or even dry up one day soon. Some have spoken of a fintech bubble; but things appear to still be going well for fintechs... or at least the more established and notable ones.
Read MoreArtificial intelligence has probably at this point displaced the blockchain as the most buzzed about (and written about and falsely characterized) technology there is. There’s no shortage of Ted talks and think pieces about how AI will affect — or replace — workers in virtually every industry.
Read MoreAs foreign challenger banks and US financial services entities of all stripes eye the US digital bank market opportunity, Varo Money is a name to watch closely. Led by Colin Walsh and backed by Warburg Pincus and the Rise Fund, Varo was granted preliminary approval by the OCC to form a de novo national bank last September.
Read MoreOne thing that’s clear is that the future of retail banking is all about the customer journey. For example, take The Financial Brand’s Top 10 Retail Banking Trends for 2019. The annual report found that “For the first time ever, the use of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced analytics was ranked first, replacing improving the customer experience as the number one trend…the importance of innovation was also a trend that increased in importance in this year’s survey.”
Read MoreThe Financial Revolutionist is weekly newsletter and blog focused on the torrid pace of financial innovation. Today, thanks to the exponential rate of technological change, explosion in global trade and new regulations ushered in by the Great Financial Crisis, a new financial revolution is under way. In this battle, virtually every aspect of the greater financial services sector is subject to rigorous challenge. With the Financial Revolutionist, we are aspiring to create a boots-on-the-ground and highly opinionated assessment of important financial innovation developments in the past week.
