Fintech Nexus Newsletter

Speaking at an event yesterday, CPFB Director Rohit Chopra said his agency is looking at "price gouging" in credit reporting. With credit reports required for selling mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, mortgage lenders have no choice but to pay for them. Some lenders have shared that the costs for credit reports have increased by up to 400% since 2022.

It has been a busy last few days for the CFPB and their fintech work. For the third consecutive day this week our lead story concerns actions taken by the CFPB. This time it is around BNPL. The CFPB is proposing new rules that would essentially lump BNPL in with credit cards when it comes to consumer protections.

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.

It has been the talk of the crypto world all week. SEC watchers noticed early this week that the regulator appeared to be getting ready to approve an ETF for funds holding Ethereum.

Last month, it was Chase, this month, it is PayPal launching a new ad business. PayPal has hired Uber's former head of advertising to run PayPal Ads, the new division that will be selling targeted ads based on its customer data.

Here is another use case for generative AI. BNPL giant Klarna is using Gen AI to run marketing campaigns and generate images.

As the price of bitcoin goes, so goes Coinbase. Bitcoin hit an all-time high in the first quarter, and Coinbase reported its best-ever results. The company made $1.18 billion in net income on total revenue of $1.64 billion. Those are impressive numbers, any way you look at them.

Fintech infrastructure is still hot. As earnings season wraps up, we heard from nCino yesterday as they reported on their fiscal first quarter, which ended on April 30.

When it comes to the adoption of generative AI in finance, we are still at the top of the first inning. That is why it was really interesting to read Penny Crosman's article yesterday about what is top is mind for bankers when it comes to Gen AI.

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.