General News

December 4, 2023 @ 11:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Globally, the peak minute of shopping occurred on Black Friday at 2:09 pm ET on November 24, 2023, according to an update shared by Square. Cities with the largest volume of sales were New York, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, and Miami. Over the Black Friday… Read More

December 4, 2023 @ 10:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

PitchBook,  a Morningstar company providing comprehensive, accurate, and “hard-to-find” data for professionals doing business in the private markets, notes in an update that VCs say AI [artificial intelligence] leads innovation, are cautiously optimistic about IPOs, and are cognizant of geopolitical risk. In a note from… Read More

December 4, 2023 @ 9:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Regulation Crowdfunding, or Reg CF, experienced a solid month during November. A total of 135 new issuers sought to raise money under the exemption, generating $55.2 million in investor commitments. Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) monthly update shares that November offerings increased from the previous month… Read More

December 3, 2023 @ 6:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Estateguru reveals that they have now added Google Authenticator, which should help with providing additional security for clients’ accounts. As noted in a blog post by Estateguru, cybercrime is on the rise “in the digital age, and the days when a simple password was enough… Read More

December 2, 2023 @ 4:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bitcoin’s price continued to rise in November and the crypto recovery broadened to a wider array of market segments, the Grayscale team noted. Grayscale also mentioned in a report that financial markets relaxed “about certain macro risks, including the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East… Read More

December 1, 2023 @ 4:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC), the parent company of LendingClub Bank, America’s digital marketplace bank, released key findings from the 26th edition of the Reality Check: Paycheck-To-Paycheck research series. The Seasonal Financial Distress Deep Dive Edition “examines the impact of seasonal spending on consumers’ ability to… Read More

December 1, 2023 @ 4:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

CME Group, which claims to be one of the world’s leading derivatives marketplaces,  announced that open interest in its deeply liquid U.S. Treasury futures “set a new record of 21,428,757 contracts on November 24.” This year, the notional value of open interest “in CME Group… Read More

December 1, 2023 @ 10:02 am By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the UK government announced a “world’s first” agreement with big tech to help battle online fraud, the most common type of crime in the country. The UK government is partnering with the likes of Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Match Group, Microsoft, Snapchat,… Read More

December 1, 2023 @ 5:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Transitioning to a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future, $13.5 trillion in investments will be needed by 2050, particularly in the production, energy and transport sectors, according to a World Economic Forum report. The Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023, “published in collaboration with Accenture, takes stock of… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 6:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

KPMG has commented on the recently released Bank of England money and credit data. Karim Haji, Head of Financial Services at KPMG UK, comments on today’s Money and Credit Data from The Bank of England: “Consumer borrowing was down slightly in October, which could be… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 4:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) released findings highlighting global e-commerce fraud that occurred during the start of the 2023 holiday shopping season. Based on insights from TransUnion’s global device risk consortium, the analysis found 3.6% of all global e-commerce transactions “reviewed during the Cyber Five days were… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 3:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bitcoin ownership is widely distributed across a variety of groups, according to an update from Grayscale. The report reveals that 74% of Bitcoin (BTC) owners currently hold less than about 0.01 worth of Bitcoin (~$350 as of November 6th, 2023). The research report also mentions… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 11:35 am By Omar Faridi  |  

eToro, the trading and investing platform, is today announcing its next step in the ongoing diversification of its offerings with the launch of an interest on cash feature. Accessible via eToro Options, interest on cash offers account holders 4.9% APR on cash balances within eligible… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 8:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Business confidence in the United Kingdom reportedly rose “to 42% in November, a three-point increase, to reach the highest level since February 2022, before the energy crisis which followed the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.” The rise in business confidence in the UK is… Read More

November 30, 2023 @ 4:33 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to welcome the listing of Asia Pacific’s first ETF to “track Saudi Arabian equities – the CSOP Saudi Arabia ETF (Stock code: 2830 / 82830).” This ETF, which tracks the FTSE Saudi Arabia Index, “provides investors… Read More

November 29, 2023 @ 1:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC), the parent company of LendingClub Bank, America’s digital marketplace bank, released key findings from the Reality Check: Paycheck-To-Paycheck research series. The Holiday Shopping Deep Dive Edition examines “the financial lifestyles and spending choices of U.S. consumers going into the 2023 holiday… Read More

November 29, 2023 @ 8:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Lower inflation levels around the globe should allow central banks to slash rates, according to a recent repot which also noted that US equities could potentially reach a record level of 5000 on the S&P by year-end. Few have experienced today’s macro uncertainty in their… Read More

November 29, 2023 @ 4:12 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Deloitte’s Financing the Green Energy Transition report found that new cost-reducing finance instruments can “help de-risk green projects in developing economies while making investing in these projects more attractive, helping to fuel a global just energy transition.” Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will… Read More

November 28, 2023 @ 11:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Finastra’s annual survey reveals that, despite global economic uncertainty, US financial institutions are primed to invest in artificial intelligence (AI), Banking as a Service (BaaS) and embedded finance, “striking an optimistic tone for innovation.” The ‘Financial Services: State of the Nation Survey 2023’ finds that… Read More

November 28, 2023 @ 1:08 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Crastorehill, a company majority owned by Finch Capital, Europe‘s growth investor, has successfully acquired open banking players “as part of their buy-and-build strategy.” This move positions Crastorehill as “the 100% shareholder of Qwist (formerly finleap connect) and ndgit, harnessing their complementary strengths to lead the… Read More