The Fintech Nexus 5 is a little different this week. I reviewed the weekly Long Take by Lex Sokolin of The Fintech Blueprint, giving my five takeaways from the article.
Here is this week’s episode:
The top five news stories this week:
- The End of the Ill-Fated Acquisition: Goldman Sachs Offloads Greensky from Fintech Nexus – It has been quite the journey for Goldman Sachs and their coupling with Greensky. The acquisition was announced in September 2021 in an all-stock transaction that at the time was valued at $2.24 billion. Just over two years later Goldman is selling Greensky for a reported $500 million to a consortium led by Sixth Street and KKR. Apparently, a higher offer was on the table from Pagaya but Goldman turned them down.
- Fiserv, Plaid partner on consumer bank-data sharing from American Banker – Fiserv and Plaid announced a new partnership this week that will see Fiserv’s 3,000 banking clients be able to connect directly to Plaid’s more than 8,000 third-party applications. This is one of the biggest data-sharing deals ever and will make it easier for consumers to connect their bank account to outside apps.
- Big Banks Say Trouble Is Coming, but Their Earnings Are Still Strong from The Wall Street Journal – Three of the nation’s top four banks reported earnings today and it was positive news all around. Combined these banks earned $22 billion in net profit in the third quarter on $81 billion in revenue as higher interest rates led to significantly higher interest income. Jamie Dimon struck a somber tone on world affairs, though, calling now “the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
- Armed with $40M in fresh capital, fintech Stash says it’s moving toward an IPO from TechCrunch – Stash has raised $40 million in capital, not via traditional equity, but rather with a convertible note. New Stash CEO Liza Landsman said the reason for this mechanism was to provide the company “the runway to get to profitability without a valuation.” It is another indication of the continued bear market in later-stage VC funding.
- Long Take: The difference between Generative AI and Machine Learning for Finance from The Fintech Blueprint – Lex takes us through an AI journey here showing the significant VC investment in the space, the impact of AI on economic activity, he compares Generative Ai with the introduction of the personal computer and mobile phone, he explains the difference between machine learning and generative AI for financial services and shares the challenges that we may encounter along the way.