Happy New Year everyone! The first week of the year is in the books and already there has been big news in fintech. TikTok is partnering with JPMorgan on instant payments, Jack Ma is ceding control of Ant Group, Accenture finds digital wallets are becoming more popular, Visa is doubling down on crypto, and women fintech founders are still finding it very difficult to raise money. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
TikTok’s Parent ByteDance Pushes Into Payments With Help From J.P. Morgan from Forbes – JPMorgan has been quietly partnering with TikTok to build a real-time payments infrastructure so TikTok creators can be paid instantly. TikTok users spent $3.4 billion on the platform in 2022 and a significant percentage of this is now being paid out instantly. This is a partnership to watch.
Jack Ma Cedes Control of Fintech Giant Ant Group from The Wall Street Journal – In late-breaking news out of China we learned today that the dominant Chinese fintech company, Ant Group, will no longer be controlled by Jack Ma, its founder. While he has not had an executive role at Ant for some time, nor does he sit on the board, he had voting control, and the agreements that allowed that control have now been terminated.
Digital Wallets Could Cost Banks Billions in Lost Payments Income from The Financial Brand – A new report from Accenture on alternative payment methods shows that digital wallets are gaining serious traction and could put tens of billions of dollars in revenue at risk for banks. Nearly half of U.S. consumers regularly use at least one digital wallet from the likes of Apple, Google, or PayPal.
‘We are committed to saying Visa should be a crypto-native company’: Cuy Sheffield on Visa’s crypto strategy from Tearsheet – While the crypto winter is in full swing Visa is maintaining a positive and proactive approach. Visa has partnered with 65 crypto companies for debit or credit cards and is still committed to being the bridge between crypto and payments.
Why is it still so hard for female fintech founders to get VC funding? from American Banker – Penny Crosman takes a look at the state of VC funding for female fintech founders and paints a bleak picture. In fintech, it is estimated that 1% of VC funding goes to female-led companies. The Artemis Fund is trying to change this, they met with 2,000 women-led startups in 2022 (not all fintech).
Goldman Sachs’ consumer banking unit head steps down from Reuters – The head of Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Swai Bhatia, is stepping down after almost two years in the role. This is not a big surprise as Goldman has decided to de-emphasize the Marcus business and they are reportedly in the process of winding down their personal loan offerings.
Experts look forward to the new year in fintech from Fintech Nexus – We interviewed a bunch of industry experts to get their take on what 2023 holds for fintech and some interesting themes emerged.
Silvergate Raced to Cover $8.1 Billion in Withdrawals During Crypto Meltdown from The Wall Street Journal – Silvergate Bank is an FDIC-insured bank that has been focused on crypto for many years. It has seen an old-fashioned run on the bank as customers have withdrawn $8.1 billion during the crypto debacle in the fourth quarter. The bank has had to liquidate assets at a steep loss to meet these obligations.
Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud and Other Charges from The New York Times – SBF was in New York this week to answer charges in Federal District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. A tentative trial date has been set for October 2.
U.S. subpoenas hedge funds in probe of crypto exchange Binance from The Washington Post – Federal prosecutors have been examining hedge fund dealings with leading crypto exchange, Binance, a process that has been ongoing for several months. Several subpoenas have been sent to unnamed hedge funds to hand over records of their communications with Binance.
Coinbase reaches $100M settlement over background check failures from TechCrunch – Coinbase has agreed to pay a $50 million fine to the New York Department of Financial Services over claims that the company violated anti-money laundering laws by failing to conduct adequate background checks. Coinbase has also agreed to spend $50 million to improve its compliance program.
