It feels a little like 2015 as there was a lot of talk about bank-fintech partnerships this week. Of course, today the number and breadth of these kinds of partnerships is far greater than in 2015 but the OCC is concerned about them. We also had news from Revolut as they look to take on PayPal, Binance is making stablecoin moves, Coinbase is suing the U.S. Treasury and more. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
Regulators take a tough look at small banks’ partnerships with fintechs from American Banker – The recent enforcement action by the OCC against Blue Ridge Bank has put the spotlight on bank-fintech partnerships.
OCC zeroes in on bank-fintech partnership risk from BankingDive – In a speech this week, OCC acting head, Michael Hsu, said that the growth of fintech is changing the risk profile of banking “in profound ways.” He even compared it to the rise of shadow banking in the financial crisis. I completely disagree with that analogy but fintechs have been warned: beef up your compliance efforts.
Revolut Wants to Compete With PayPal and Apple at Online Checkouts from Bloomberg – UK-based fintech giant Revolut is looking to get deeper into payments. Revolut Pay is a one-click payment feature designed to compete with the likes of PayPal and Apple. The company has signed up a slew of retailers already and will differentiate itself from the competition by being faster and charging lower fees.
Binance to stop supporting USDC, the second largest stablecoin from TechCrunch – Curious news from Binance this week as they said they will convert customers’ holdings of USDC, USDP(Pax Dollar) and TUSD (True USD) into its own stablecoin, BUSB. No mention of Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin. User holdings will be converted on September 29.
Crypto exchange targets Treasury sanctions in national security clash from The Washington Post – The Tornado Cash story keeps developing. This week we learned that Coinbase is bankrolling a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury challenging its authority to sanction software. Many people, including some Coinbase employees, have used Tornado Cash for legitimate purposes.
Despite A Late Start, Bank-Owned Zelle Moves More Money Than Venmo And Cash App Combined from Forbes – I am only an occasional user of Zelle but the instant payment app has been crushing it, processing way more than Venmo and Cash App combined. Now, even small businesses are starting to get into the act, offering Zelle as a way to bypass merchant processing fees.
Apple Pay Tops Mastercard in Annual Transactions at $6 Trillion: Report from Crowdfund Insider – According to a report from Apple Insider, Apple Pay (including Apple Card) processes over $6 trillion in transactions a year. The report is a little misleading saying it is higher than Mastercard when in reality Apple Pay includes a huge number of Mastercard transactions. This $6 trillion number is way higher than I expected and if true speaks to astounding adoption in recent years.
Walletmor gets under your skin with their new payment implant from Fintech Nexus – If carrying a phone to pay is too much of a hassle for you, then you can always get an implant in your hand. A company is now offering a way to implant a chip with an NFC connection to allow you to pay with just a flick of your wrist.
Liz Truss: Fintech Friend or Foe? Industry Reacts to New PM from The Fintech Times – The UK has a new prime minister (and a new monarch), so The Fintech Times sought out the opinion of various fintech leaders to give their perspective on what the Liz Truss appointment means for UK fintech.
Crypto Investor FTX Ventures to Take 30% Stake in SkyBridge Capital from CoinDesk – We can’t go a week without mentioning Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX. The prolific crypto investor has taken a 30% stake in Anthony Scaramucci’s company, SkyBridge Capital.
Every Thursday afternoon, the Fintech Nexus News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on Fintech Nexus TV, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – click on the audio player below.
