General News

April 7, 2020 @ 9:05 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital asset exchange Bitfinex announced on Tuesday it is offering a new Staking Rewards Program that will allow users to earn rewards by holding funds on the Bitfinex platform. The Bitfinex team revealed that the program was designed to provide users with “another avenue” to… Read More

April 7, 2020 @ 8:20 am By JD Alois  |  

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all UK businesses. But smaller firms and early-stage companies may end up bearing the brunt of the impact as these companies can be less well prepared to endure an ongoing economic shutdown. Today, the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) is… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 5:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Xpension, a German digital corporate pension and life insurance brand, announced on Monday it secured €25 million through its Series C funding round, led by HPE Growth with participation from  Cinco Capital, led by Lars Hinrichs (Founder of XING and Chairman of Xpension), and Armada… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 2:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, will establish a facility to facilitate lending to small businesses via the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by providing term financing backed by PPP loans. The news was distributed in a very brief… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 2:10 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

HUMBL, a U.S. fintech that delivers mobile payments and financial services, announced on Monday it has teamed up with One Kiosk, a Nigeria fintech specializing in local merchant ordering and deliveries, to pilot the HUMBL Mobile Pay, HUMBL Point-of-Sale (POS) and HUMBL Hubs delivery network,… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 11:31 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Marketplace lending company Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) announced on Friday it launched a pre-application system for small business owners interested in funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, which is offered by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA). Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 11:14 am By JD Alois  |  

On March 10, 2020, the Bank of England, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to reduce Bank Rate and to introduce a new Term Funding Scheme with additional incentives for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (TFSME). Today, the Bank is announcing that the TFSME will open for… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 10:42 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based fintech Chip announced on Monday it has appointed Philip Wright as its new CFO. Chip reported that prior to joining its team, Philip was the CFO at Auto Service Finance and Babylon Health. He also leadership roles at Funding Circle (Interim Financial Operations Director)… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 9:58 am By JD Alois  |  

Last week in advance of the opening up of federal subsidized programs to backstop small businesses in the US crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendio CEO Brock Blake took to Twitter to criticize the lack of coordination between the US Department of Treasury and the… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 9:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Legendary banking CEO Jamie Dimon has published his annual letter to investors that typically deals with the performance of JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). This year’s letter that always garners a broad readershp, has taken a different tone as the bank, as well as the rest… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 9:25 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Online lending platform Lendio recently announced it has launched an application for small businesses to access the $349 billion in government funds set aside for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Lendio reported that the Paycheck Protection Program is part of the $2 trillion CARES Act… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 8:04 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Although the public seems concerned that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) may be transmitted by handling physical cash, scientific evidence indicates that the risk is relatively low when compared with various other frequently touched objects, such as PIN pads. A paper recently published by the Bank for… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 7:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Swedbank AB, a Nordic-Baltic banking group headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is reportedly sponsoring a global hackathon, which will try to find solutions to deal with the  deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The event, which is scheduled to take place between April 9-12, 2020, aims to be… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 7:43 am By JD Alois  |  

Nextfin, an investment aggregation platform, is echoing the sentiment of many other platforms in the early-stage funding sector by calling on the UK government to expand both the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) to encourage private investments in SME’s. EIS… Read More

April 6, 2020 @ 7:01 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Nationwide has halted its plans to offer business banking services, and has reportedly returned £50 million in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) bailout funds to the Banking Competition Remedies Board. In May 2019, Nationwide received a £50 million grant from the RBS bailout fund, in… Read More

April 5, 2020 @ 9:53 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital bank Revolut recently announced plans to move non-UK customers in Central and Eastern Europe in its newly licensed Lithuanian entity before the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020. The company went on to share more details about its response to Brexit…. Read More

April 5, 2020 @ 10:17 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang has announced a new initiative to help entrepreneurs and small companies during the COVID-19 crisis. Distributed in an email today, Crowdcube announced the launch of Save Our Startups (SOC). Simultaneously, Crowdcube posted an open letter directed to UK Prime Minister Boris… Read More

April 4, 2020 @ 4:48 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) cautioned an SEC Committee about the potential for fraud during the COVID-19 outbreak. NASAA is the lobbying group that represents state and provincial securities regulators. Christopher W. Gerold, NASAA President and Chief of the New Jersey Bureau… Read More

April 3, 2020 @ 3:57 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly arrested Russian rapper Maxim Boyko for cryptocurrency laundering. According to the Moscow Times, Boyok was arrested at a Miami condo this past weekend. The Affidavit submitted to support Boyko’s arrest revealed that the rapper “knowingly and intentionally conspire… Read More

April 3, 2020 @ 1:23 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Tencent Holdings Limited, a leading provider of Internet value-added services based in China, announced on Friday it is deepening its collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) through a $10 million donation to WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, as well as an agreement to open… Read More