We have crypto news, of course, as well as buy-now-pay-later, and postal banking is somehow back in the news. Climate risk is on tap at the Fed and China continues to crackdown on fintech. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
US Bank launches bitcoin custody service as institutions race to cater to crypto demand from CNBC – US Bank becomes the largest bank in this country to offer bitcoin custody services, in partnership with NYDIG, citing demand from institutional investors.
Return of The Postal Bank: Another New Rival or a Bad Joke? from The Financial Brand – The Postal Service is rolling out a pilot program in four cities (Washington DC, Falls Church, The Bronx and Baltimore) with a very limited offering of banking services. Basically, they will cash a check for you if it is less than $500.
Affirm, Sezzle buy now-pay later options arrive at Target from Payments Dive – Target becomes the latest big retailer to announce a BNPL deal with not one but two fintech companies.
Fed moving forward with plans to test banks’ climate risk: Brainard from American Banker – Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said this week that the Fed is moving forward with an exercise to measure the impact of climate change on banks.
China’s Central Bank Governor Vows More Fintech Crackdown from Bloomberg – China continues to be determined to root out any financial innovation it does not like, this time it is in the name of anti-monopolistic policies.
The Fintech 250: The Top Fintech Companies Of 2021 from CB Insights – The annual list of the 250 most promising private fintech companies is out from CB Insights with this cohort having raised $73.8 billion since 2016.
Facebook down, and so was its digital payments site Novi from LendIt Fintech News – We all know Facebook went down on Monday but Novi, its digital payments offering that has yet to launch, also went down.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Looks to Rein in Crypto Exchanges, Digital Assets and Stablecoins from Crowdfund Insider – The SEC Chairman testified before the House Financial Services Committee this week and provided some insight into his thinking on digital assets.
Fintech’s Explosive Growth Has Regulators Scrambling from Bloomberg – With the rapid rise of fintech in the last couple of years regulators are finding it difficult to keep up with the pace of change and this author thinks the government should do more to reduce the risks of a fintech failure.
Masterworks raises $110M to sell fractional shares of physical art — not NFTs from TechCrunch – It was a quiet week for funding rounds with Masterworks, the physical art marketplace, leading the way, raising $110m making them the latest fintech unicorn.
Every Thursday the LendIt Fintech News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on LendIt TV, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – just click on the audio player below.
