Merrill is intensifying its focus on Florida

Merrill is intensifying its focus on Florida

Merrill, Bank of America’s wealth management arm, is putting its resources where its customers are. The firm has 20 teams catering to ultra-high-net-worth individuals in Florida – those with at least $10M to invest – and plans to double that over the next few years.

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Square launches bank for merchants

Square launches bank for merchants

Square wants to be a one-stop shop for small businesses, and with the launch of industrial bank Square Financial Services, the new bank will offer businesses deposits and loans.

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Robinhood preparing to pay fine of more than $26M to settle prior probes

Robinhood preparing to pay fine of more than $26M to settle prior probes

Stock trading app Robinhood is in discussions with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to settle probes into options-trading practices and outages that took place in March of 2020

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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase files to go public

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase files to go public

Coinbase just filed its paperwork to go public through a direct listing, becoming the first cryptocurrency exchange that will list on the Nasdaq.

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Federal Reserve payments outage raises system-wide stability questions

Federal Reserve payments outage raises system-wide stability questions

A series of payments systems operated by the Fed went down for several hours on Wednesday due to an “operational error,” affecting multiple services, including the automated clearinghouse system (FedACH), a lifeline that connects financial institutions sending electronic credit and debt transfers.

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Bitcoin transactions drive Cash App activity as Square expands crypto business

Bitcoin transactions drive Cash App activity as Square expands crypto business

While gross payment volume and net revenue fell short of expectations, Square, in its fourth-quarter earnings report, said Cash App monthly users grew to 36 million in December, or 50% year-over-year.

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Streamlabs embeds creator tipping capability in website builder

Streamlabs embeds creator tipping capability in website builder

Streamlabs, a Logitech-owned company that specializes in tools to help streamers increase engagement, is including a tipping option in its mobile website builder Willow.

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Richmond Fed appoints bitcoin advocate Sunayna Tuteja as chief innovation officer

Richmond Fed appoints bitcoin advocate Sunayna Tuteja as chief innovation officer

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has appointed Sunayna Tuteja, TD Ameritrade’s former head of digital assets and distributed ledger technology, as its chief innovation officer.

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HSBC looks East as it angles strategy toward affluent consumers in Asia

HSBC looks East as it angles strategy toward affluent consumers in Asia

Although its pre-tax profit fell 34% in 2020 compared to the year prior, HSBC’s annual earnings beat expectations despite a tough year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Standard Chartered to use video KYC to tackle account onboarding in India

Standard Chartered to use video KYC to tackle account onboarding in India

Standard Chartered Bank India is rolling out a video KYC (know your customer) process for account onboarding, eliminating the need for customers to go to physical branches to validate documents.

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Stripe appoints central bank heavy hitter Mark Carney to board

Stripe appoints central bank heavy hitter Mark Carney to board

Stripe, a firm whose tools allow merchants to accept payments, has named Mark Carney to its board of directors. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, is currently the United Nations envoy on climate action and finance.

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Central bank-backed digital currencies gather momentum in The Bahamas and Sweden

Central bank-backed digital currencies gather momentum in The Bahamas and Sweden

A week after Canada’s central bank confirmed that its plans for a central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) have accelerated during the pandemic, government-backed digital currencies cleared hurdles in two other markets.

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Robinhood, Citadel and Reddit CEOs testify before Congress

Robinhood, Citadel and Reddit CEOs testify before Congress

Amid the GameStop trading frenzy in recent weeks, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee heard from tech CEOs, including Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, on Thursday, Feb. 18.

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FDIC appoints Sultan Meghji as first chief innovation officer

FDIC appoints Sultan Meghji as first chief innovation officer

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has appointed fintech executive Sultan Meghji as its first-ever chief innovation officer.

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