This week we learned that the SEC is looking to expand its enforcement actions against crypto, Stripe is nearing the close of its monster round, Goldman is being probed by more regulators, India and Singapore are linking their instant payment systems and Green Dot is partnering with fintechs to help them with cash transactions. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
Stablecoins Attract Scrutiny in SEC’s Drive to Control Crypto from The Wall Street Journal – The SEC is not satisfied with its current enforcement actions in the crypto space so it is now planning to target stablecoins. According to securities lawyers, this is going to be a tougher row to hoe than their previous efforts.
Stripe’s Search for Billions Nears an End, But It Hasn’t Been Easy from The Information – Stripe has been in the news every week lately as more information keeps leaking out about this massive funding round, a Series I. According to The Information, the fintech leader is close to lining up $4 billion in funding commitments.
Goldman Sachs Discloses Expanded Probe Into Its Credit-Card Business from Bloomberg – In a regulatory filing on Friday Goldman Sachs disclosed that the probe into its credit card business has expanded beyond the CFPB to include other government agencies.
India and Singapore link UPI and PayNow in cross-border payments push from TechCrunch – India and Singapore have linked their digital payments systems, UPI and PayNow. With around $1 billion in annual cross-border transactions, this is not a huge payments corridor but it does signal the shape of things to come. Eight banks from Singapore and India are participating in the launch.
Green Dot Sees Demand From Unbanked Cash-Paying Customers from PYMNTS – The underserved populations in this country still rely disproportionately on cash payments. Now, Green Dot is seeking to leverage new fintech partnerships to help it serve this community. Its newest partners include Broxel, Greenwood and Paymentus.
Sam Bankman-Fried Hit With Additional Bank Fraud Charges in New Indictment from CoinDesk – The news keeps getting worse for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He has been hit with a new set of federal charges involving bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitter.
Where Banks Will Invest Their 2023 Technology Budgets: AI, APIs, CRM from Forbes – Ron Shevlin shares some of the findings from the annual What’s Going On in Banking study from Cornerstone Advisors. Banks say they will be focusing their technology spending on five areas in 2023: conversational AI, commercial digital banking, CRM, real-time payments and APIs.
Wall Street Banks Are Cracking Down on AI-Powered ChatGPT from Bloomberg – The banking industry is not taking kindly to ChatGPT. First, it was JPMorgan and now Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank have all said they will be banning the use of the AI tool by employees.
Cross River exec named CEO of American Fintech Council from BankingDive – One of the leading fintech trade associations, the American Fintech Council, has been without a leader for several months. This week we learned that fintech veteran, Phil Goldfeder, will be leaving Cross River next month to take the CEO role.
Fintech Earnings Season Continues with Coinbase and Block from Fintech Nexus – We continue to cover earnings for many of the leading fintechs. This week Coinbase reported pretty dismal earnings but were above analysts’ low expectations and Block reported another solid quarter, also beating expectations.
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