With the fintech world gathering in Las Vegas this week for Money20/20 there was quite a lot of fintech news. Interestingly, the CFPB was the most talked about story as they announced a new focus on opening banking, Marqeta launched an entire suite of banking products, Adyen is also getting into banking, and Cross River Bank will enable fintechs to offer Amex cards. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
CFPB announces open banking rule from Fintech Nexus – In a speech at Money20/20 this week CFPB director Rohit Chopra announced that the Bureau will be moving forward with an open banking rule to try to boost competition in banking and finance. He argues that it is too difficult to switch banks or credit card providers and the CFPB wants to help make that process easier.
Marqeta launches demand deposit accounts in banking push from BankingDive – Marqeta is moving beyond “modern card issuing” and is getting into banking as a service. Marqeta for Banking will offer a suite of seven banking products: checking accounts, direct deposit with early pay, ACH payments, free ATMs, cash loads, bill pay and instant funding.
Payments Giant Adyen Starts Offering Banking Services, Going Head To Head With Stripe, Square And PayPal from Forbes – Another fintech giant also announced they would be getting into banking this week. Adyen’s offering will be different from Marqeta, partly because they have a banking license in both the U.S. and Europe and they will be offering small business loans.
Cross River issuing AmEx cards on behalf of Fintechs from Fintech Nexus – For fintechs looking to offer credit cards there have been two games in town: Visa and Mastercard. That is about to change with this new partnership between Cross River Bank and American Express.
Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time from The Wall Street Journal – This article provides something of a history of crypto investing at a16z and a profile of the partner, Chris Dixon, who has been the driving force behind their crypto investments. There is a fascinating chart that shows the success of all nine a16z funds that were launched before 2020.
Ex-Goldman Sachs Partner Adam Dell’s Crypto Startup Stumbles from The Information – We were first introduced to Adam Dell when he founded Clarity Money that was sold to Goldman Sachs for $100 million two years later. He stayed on at Goldman working with Marcus until he left to found Domain Money. His latest startup is having challenges with more than half the people leaving as they undergo a significant pivot.
Small-Business Lender Fundbox Cuts 40% Of Workforce In Latest Fintech Layoff from Forbes – Fundbox becomes the latest fintech to announce a major round of layoffs with around 140 of the company’s 350 employees being let go. They are now back to their pre-pandemic size.
LendingClub has a warning about the marketplace model from Protocol – LendingClub kicked off the fintech earnings season with quite strong results for Q3 but the stock slumped on a weaker forecast for Q4. Not surprisingly, LendingClub is holding more loans on its balance sheet as marketplace investors slow down loan purchases in this rising rate environment.
New OCC office to focus on fintech from BankingDive – While the OCC has had an Office of Innovation since 2016, they will be opening an Office of Financial Technology early next year. It will incorporate the Office of Innovation and will focus specifically on bank-fintech partnerships.
The Only Crypto Story You Need, by Matt Levine from Bloomberg – Matt Levine is my favorite writer in all of finance and he has just published this epic tome on crypto. At 40,000 words this is not a quick read but in four sections Levine provides a complete explanation of the mechanics of crypto, its different components, and what it means for the financial system.
Every Thursday afternoon, the Fintech Nexus News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – click on the audio player below.