Visa’s $5.3B acquisition of Plaid is facing scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which filed a petition with a court demanding answers to a series of questions. The DOJ will assess whether the acquisition violates antitrust law.
Read MoreThe banking-as-a-service ecosystem got a big boost this week through the release of APIs that allow clients’ programmers to build on top of the bank’s platform.
Read MoreBrex, a Silicon Valley-based card and financial product company that serves businesses, is rolling out a new function whereby e-commerce merchants will be able to get paid immediately.
Read MoreJPM Coin, the digital currency developed by JPMorgan Chase, is being used commercially by a “large technology client” engaged in cross-border payments, CNBC reported.
Read MoreChinese financial firm Ant Group, which oversees mobile payment platform Alipay is on pace to raise more than $34B in an IPO, when its shares begin trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Read MoreMicro-investing app Acorns, which also offers personal finance and banking capabilities, is teaming up with ZipRecruiter in an effort to expand its footprint and deliver more value to its client base.
Read MoreUBS Workplace Wealth Solutions, a unit within the financial firm that offers wealth and retirement solutions for workplace clients, is partnering with New York-based fintech FutureFuel.io to offer users a range of student loan repayment options, including reassessments, refinancing, roundups, “Give Back” (repayment through cash-back rewards), and other solutions.
Read MoreAlan, a 4-year-old Paris-based insurtech focused on healthcare, has rolled out a new feature that allows customers to take part in instant-message chats with doctors.
Read MoreJPMorgan Chase has launched a smartphone card payment reader called QuickAccept, along with free instant transfers to merchant accounts.
Read MoreThe New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has granted PayPal a conditional Bitlicense to partner with New York State-chartered Paxos Trust Company to allow its customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
Read MoreFidelity-owned financial planning tech firm eMoney Advisor has rolled out a new financial planning and wellness app called Incentive. The platform is made for financial advisers who will use the tool to help their clients.
Read MoreThe Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported that in 2019, 5.4% of American households were unbanked, the lowest rate since 2009.
Read MoreGlobal investment management company T. Rowe Price has appointed Raymone Jackson as head of diversity and inclusion.
Read MoreU.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a forum on digital payments hosted by the International Monetary Fund that it’s more important for the U.S. to get a central bank-backed digital currency right than to be the first country rolling it out.
Read MoreJPMorgan Chase launched Chase First Banking, a fee-free account to allow Chase customers to offer their children bank accounts. Chase’s kids account rollout follows the footsteps of fintechs seeking to create financial tools for parents seeking to teach their children budgeting and personal finance management habits, while offering capabilities to send payments to their kids, set spending limits, and receive alerts on account activity. Chase First Banking doesn’t include overdrafts, check writing, ACH transfers or wires, positioning itself as an educational and convenience banking tool for parents. Chase First Banking completes the circle of Chase’s products for young people, including Chase High School Checking and Chase College Checking, paths to help create a customer for life as needs change over time. Fintechs, including Current and Revolut have also introduced kids accounts. It’s telling that Chase chose to collaborate with Atlanta-based fintech Greenlight, which specializes in accounts for financial products for kids, instead of building the product internally.
According to Lindsay Davis, director of Caliber Intelligence "Chase is partnering for two reasons. The first is previous attempts to build the tech in-house have fallen short of customer expectation. The most notable failure was Finn, its neobank the firm shuttered just one year after launching. Another reason is deposits are at record levels during the pandemic which are the lifeblood of a bank. Fintech apps have also surged in popularity among next-gen customers and many are or have plans to get into digital banking which puts deposits at risk for bulge bracket banks. By partnering with fintech Greenlight, Chase can accelerate the time-to-market versus building the product in-house."
The 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.
