Fintech Nexus Newsletter

The fintech soap opera that is the Synapse saga took another turn yesterday. We learned less than three weeks ago that TabaPay was acquiring Synapse out of bankruptcy. Now, that deal appears to have fallen apart as disagreements between Synapse, Evolve Bank and Trust and Mercury remain unresolved.

We had an update from the Federal Reserve on FedNow this week. There are now 400 banks participating in the instant payments network as either a sender or receiver. They launched last July with 35 institutions and have been growing steadily since then. The last public statement that I have heard was when FedNow chief, Mark Gould, spoke at the American Fintech Council's Policy Summit in November when they had 200 banks on the platform.

The SEC is at it again. Over the weekend we learned that the SEC has sent a Wells Notice to Robinhood regarding its crypto activities.

During the height of the 2021-22 fintech VC boom, no sector was hotter than spend management. Companies like Brex, Ramp and Navan all raised massive rounds at multi-billion dollar valuations. While the category has cooled off, like most areas of fintech, it is still attracting capital from some big names in venture capital.

The slow-moving dumpster fire that is the Synapse-Evolve meltdown has turned into a nightmare for many fintech customers. Synapse acted as a middleman between banks and fintechs, but there have been several disagreements between Synapse and these banks and fintechs. Consumers who assumed their money was safe are caught in the middle.

By Peter Renton Since Visa announced late Monday their new $100 million fund focused on generative AI startups much has been written....

Anyway you slice it, we have not been doing a good job in stopping money laundering. It is estimated that we only catch 1-2% of all illicit money flowing through the banking system. Yet as an industry, we spend many billions of dollars in this fight.

We haven't talked about crypto for a while in this newsletter. Coinbase reported earnings yesterday so this provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on the state of crypto.

The New York Community Bank saga has occupied the headlines for much of the past month. But the bank may finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, NYCB received a $1 billion infusion of capital from a group that included former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former OCC head Joseph Otting.