Chinese digital wealth manager Lufax plans U.S. IPO

Lufax, one of China’s largest digital investment management platforms, filed paperwork for a U.S. IPO this week. It joins Chinese financial services firms Ant Group and JD Digits, the fintech arm of digital retail marketplace JD.com, both of which went public earlier this summer.

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Greenwood raises $3M in seed funding for community-focused banking

Digital banking platform Greenwood seeks to serve communities traditionally ignored by the financial sector, particularly Black and Latinx communities.

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Wells Fargo trims headcount by 700 as pandemic affects bottom line

Wells Fargo announced that it is cutting more than 700 jobs in commercial banking.

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Macy’s invests in point-of-sale lender Klarna, announces five-year partnership

Retailer Macy’s is putting a lot of eggs in its “buy now, pay later,” basket, with an undisclosed investment in point-of-sale lender Klarna and a five-year partnership that will allow Macy’s customers to pay for goods in interest-free installments.

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Root files to go public at $6B valuation

Root, the parent company of Root Insurance, has filed paperwork with the SEC to go public, following in the footsteps of other large insurtechs Hippo and Lemonade which went public earlier this year.

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Seedrs merges with rival Crowdcube, reports $6M in losses

The merger of U.K.-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs with rival Crowdcube is creating a $181M (£140M) marketplace that will allow the general public to buy shares in startups.

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Bank of America connects banking and wealth management through Life Plan

Bank of America launched Life Plan, an end-to-end digital personal finance and financial wellness platform.

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Venmo launches credit card with 3% cash back rewards

PayPal-owned peer-to-peer payments app Venmo launched a credit card issued by Synchrony Bank, powered by the Visa network.

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Walmart pushes QR code-based payments in next-generation stores

Walmart is channeling Amazon Go in its new store designs, including cashier-free checkouts where customers can pay with QR codes through the Walmart Pay digital wallet.

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Coinbase vows to stay out of political debates, offers unhappy employees packages

Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, responded to employee concerns on its lack of a stance on social justice issues. The company has opted to enforce a policy not to engage on matters “when issues are unrelated to our core mission.”

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Facebook platform integration to include payments across apps

Facebook this week announced it’s testing a feature called Account Center, through which users will be able to sign into Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, and use a single Facebook Pay ID to make purchases within each of the platforms.

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Amazon tries palm payments as Square rolls out QR code-based ordering

Contactless payments got a major boost this week through new features rolled out by Amazon and Square.

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Business banking startup Azlo moves into subscriptions

BBVA-backed digital bank Azlo launched a subscription-based service called Azlo Pro, which includes invoicing, and automated budgeting for payroll and taxes.

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Goldman shuffles leadership at consumer banking unit

Harit Talwar, who has been Goldman Sachs’ global head of consumer business and the public face of its Marcus unit since 2015, is leaving his position, according to a Bloomberg report.

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Finicity launches new underwriting tools to help FIs reach new customers

Data aggregator Finicity, which Mastercard agreed to acquire in June in a deal valued at nearly $1B, launched a new product suite called Finicity Lend, which is designed to help lenders reach more consumers through a closer line of sight on transactions.

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