General News

February 13, 2024 @ 5:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Federal Trade Commission data show that consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, “marking the first time that fraud losses have reached that benchmark.” This marks a 14% increase “over reported losses in 2022.” Consumers reported losing more money “to investment… Read More

February 13, 2024 @ 5:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

During the rise and fall of an “unprecedented” bull market across 2021 and 2022, founders and investors had to navigate a wild ride of ups and downs, the team at Carta noted. That volatility diminished in 2023. The startup ecosystem trundled “along at a slow… Read More

February 13, 2024 @ 7:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ), the global modern card issuing platform enabling some of the world’s most innovative embedded finance solutions, announced its new customer, Internet Travel Solutions (ITS), a provider of travel management software that will utilize Marqeta’s comprehensive credit card platform to launch a multi-use… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 10:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Financial activities–from paying bills to checking bank balances to sending money to friends–have increasingly “moved online, making digital literacy critical to managing our finances,” according to an update from Capital One. Adam Davis, Vice President, Financial Health, Inclusion, and Liquidity at Capital One, said: “Financial… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 6:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Though the venture market was in a state of declines over the past couple of years, much of the pricing pressure has not yet forced pre-seed or seed-stage valuations below the highs of 2021, according to an update from Pitchbook. While it’s true this area… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 6:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Businesses in Australia are reportedly faring well despite changing economic conditions, says Westpac’s latest business snapshot. Australian businesses are largely managing “slowing consumer demand and are cautiously optimistic as they head into 2024.” Westpac’s latest Quarterly Business Snapshot), which “analyzes millions of daily business banking… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 9:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Finance has announced the appointment of Thierry d’Argent, CEO of Societe Generale UK; Saif Malik, CEO, UK, Standard Chartered; and Mickey Schiller, CEO of Leumi UK, to its Board, effective 8 February 2024. TS Anil, CEO, Monzo; and Kelly Devine, Divisional President UK &… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 6:30 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs survey signalled a drop in recruitment activity across Scotland at the start of 2024. Both permanent staff placements and temp billings “fell sharply in January, with the latter posting the first decline in three months.” Subdued… Read More

February 11, 2024 @ 11:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm and a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), announced that it has reached an agreement to buy Innopay, a consultancy firm specialized in digital transactions. Innopay will complement Oliver Wyman’s existing payments consulting capabilities. Terms of the transaction,… Read More

February 11, 2024 @ 11:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

HSBC (NYSE: HSBC) announced a partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate climate mitigation and resilience through financing and support for companies in the Google Cloud Ready – Sustainability (GCR-Sustainability) program. GCR-Sustainability is a validation program for companies with solutions available on Google Cloud that help… Read More

February 10, 2024 @ 6:14 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Cryptocurrency media major CoinDesk has announced the appointment of Sara Stratoberdha as its new CEO as part of a major restrucuting following its acquisition by crypto exchange Bullish. Stratoberdha, previously in charge of business development at Bullish, takes over from Kevin Worth, who stepped down… Read More

February 10, 2024 @ 6:05 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Findings from the newly released Q4 2023 Quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report (CIIR) from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) reveal that credit card debt is “at a historical high, driven in part by Millennials further building on their credit portfolios.” This comes at a time when an anticipated reduction in interest… Read More

February 9, 2024 @ 1:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fenergo, the provider of digital solutions for Know Your Customer (KYC), Transaction Monitoring and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM), announces that its software-as-a-service (SaaS) CLM solution is now available on AWS Marketplace. Available directly through AWS Marketplace, Fenergo’s CLM can be “implemented, enabling financial institutions (FIs)… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 3:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

The debt train keeps on running. A New York Fed report published today shares that total household debt has now topped $17.5 trillion as of Q4 2023. If you compare it to the same quarter in 2022, when total debt stood at $16.9 trillion, this… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 9:40 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

The American Fintech Council (AFC), an industry association representing fintech companies and banks, this week announced that earned wage access (EWA) provider ZayZoon has become its newest member. An EWA provider for small and mid-sized businesses, ZayZoon joins a growing group of diverse industry-leading EWA… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 8:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Phasecraft – the startup led by top academics developing world-leading quantum algorithms – has won a £1.2 million UK Government contract as part of the UK’s Quantum Catalyst Fund. Phase One of the Fund saw Phasecraft awarded “a contract for a feasibility study to explore… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Cross River Bank, a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, announced that its Principal Finance Group closed $825 million of capital commitments in 2023. The new investments, which “include senior secured credit facilities as well as programmatic asset purchase arrangements, provide specialty finance… Read More

February 5, 2024 @ 11:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Binance, which agreed to a massive $4.3 billion+ settlement with US regulators yet continues to face major operational challenges globally,  is pleased to welcome back their former Senior Vice President of Compliance Steve Christie, who is taking on the role of Deputy Chief Compliance Officer… Read More

February 5, 2024 @ 6:11 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The latest data breach yearly recap by Surfshark shows that 300 million accounts were breached in 2023, with the United States ranking first with 97 million breaches. Russia takes second place with 79 million. France (10M), Spain (8M) and India (5M) are far behind in… Read More

February 4, 2024 @ 1:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Businesses in the United Kingdom have reportedly entered the new year with renewed positivity as overall confidence rose to the highest level for nearly two years. The Barometer – which measures businesses’ confidence by assessing their trading prospects and optimism in the economy – shows… Read More