#353
The Times They Are A-Changin’

Women of Wall Street ask 'who's next' after Citi picks Jane Fraser as CEO - Last year, when a group of White, male bank bosses testified before a House committee, Representative Al Green asked if they thought their successors would look any different than them. None raised a hand. Change is in the air - who is next? Read more

Verifone has acquired 2Checkout - E-commerce payments company, 2Checkout, has been acquired by global POS provider Verifone, which itself was taken private in 2019 for $3.4b. 2Checkout has more than 17,000 customers. Read more

Kenyan borrowers shamed by debt collectors chasing Silicon Valley loans - Tactics, known as debt-shaming, have become highly controversial in Kenya, where a flood of small loans, once championed as a way to lift people out of poverty and enable hard-working borrowers to fund businesses or cover unexpected costs, has also created a market for unscrupulous debt collection. Read more

Fintech can come out of the shadows - So why are New York and other states fighting the OCC’s authority to charter national banks that engage in many core banking services but happen not to take deposits? They could simply be protecting turf. Or they could be worried about losing the money they earn from licensing shadow banks? Read more

Mortgage refinancings boom, even as coronavirus hits economy - The mortgage market recorded its best quarter in years this spring, a reflection of how the housing market is booming in 2020 even as much of the economy stumbles. Lenders issued $1.1t in home loans between April and June. Read more

Fidelity Investments applies its proven Peter Jubber to its unproven bitcoin unit and its launch of Fidelity Digital Funds - By launching Fidelity Digital Funds under an 18-year seasoned exec, the Boston giant is signaling no let-up by putting something scarcer than capital into the crypto-pot -- its seasoned talent. Read more

Why are European banks merging? Badwill hunting? - If European banks want to catch up with American and Chinese ones, they must push for consolidation to improve their return on capital and help them make the big investments in technology platforms and data analysis required to keep up with digitization. An ECB accounting change could help encouraging some of these new alliances. Read more

Mastercard launches digital currency kit for central banks - Mastercard's platform—or "sandbox" in tech parlance—will let central banks issue digital versions of their currency in a controlled environment, and test how those currencies plug into existing bank and payment networks, and to see if they are practical for consumers to buy goods and services. Read more

Robo-advisers make slow progress gaining ground with investors - Robo-advisors collectively managed $631b in assets in the US as of June 30, or 13% more than they did a year ago, according to Backend Benchmarking. Use is highest among millennials and so-called Generation X households (those born between the mid 1960s and early 1980s), with 13 percent and 10 percent respectively enrolled. Read more

Klarna’s value hits $10b with latest investment round - The Stockholm based company is currently in talks with investors, aiming to raise $500m as it looks to fuel the expansion of its growing digital payments and online shopping business in the U.S. market, a new report states. The $10b figure represents a near-doubling in the company’s value, with Klarna previously weighing in at $5.5b in August of 2019. Read more

Blockchain services firm Diginex is going public - The Hong Kong based digital asset exchange and operator is merging with publicly traded 8i Enterprise Acquisition Corp, a British Virgin Island SPAC, as it plans to list on the Nasdaq later this month. Read more

Apple Pay eyeing QR code transactions - Since its launch, Apple Pay transactions at brick-and-mortar retailers relied on NFC and an iPhone near the payment terminal to make a contactless purchase. While these transactions are routine, the NFC method isn’t the only way Apple envisioned how to communicate the payments. While QR codes have been commonplace for years, their use has faded amid tech solutions. But COVID-19 has given new purpose to it as a way to enable touchless commerce. Read more

Shopify, suddenly worth $117b, is one of the biggest pandemic winners - With business booming in the midst of the pandemic, e-commerce enabler Shopify is now worth more than eBay, Best Buy, Etsy, Nordstrom, Macy's, Foot Locker, L Brands and Urban Outfitters—combined. Read more

Digital Currency Group reveals acquisition of Bitcoin and crypto exchange Luno - DCG has acquired the London-based but emerging market-focused bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Luno for an undisclosed sum. Luno has 5m users in 40 countries and said it has seen record growth of its customer base in 2020. Luno has regional offices in Malaysia, Nigeria, Indonesia, and South Africa, reflecting its emerging market focus. Read more

How programmable digital assets may change monetary policy - The high velocity of digital assets as programmable money, and/ or as a security that can be pledged as collateral, offer a way for central banks to rely less on traditional money metrics as a monetary policy tool; if this holds true when applied to traditional finance, then what’s old in monetary policy may become new again. Read more