June 16, 2024 @ 6:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

With U.S. auto insurance rates up 11.2% on average during the past year—and insurers still losing an average of five cents “on every dollar of premium they collect—sky-high premiums do not appear to be leveling off anytime soon.” According to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S…. Read More

June 16, 2024 @ 1:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Nordic Capital, which claims to be one of the most active and experienced investors in Technology & Payments globally, announced that it will join Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth, disruptive companies, as an investor in One Inc, a digital… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 10:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Xero, the global small business platform, released regional and industry data about small business labor productivity. The Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) report, Small business productivity: Industry and regional trends, is based “on anonymized and aggregated data from more than 240,000 Xero small business customers… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 10:19 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has released the first edition of the ‘Practical Guide on Venture Capital and Private Equity in Malaysia’ early this week, aiming to clarify the Malaysian policy landscape for fund managers, service providers, and investors in these sectors. The guide provides… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 9:12 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Qiro Finance, a Singapore-headquartered decentralized finance (DeFi) startup founded by Akshay Poshatwar and Nishikant Bahalkar, announced a successful $1.2 million funding round to develop a decentralized credit protocol aimed at bridging the significant credit gap in emerging markets. The startup said it is innovating at… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 8:58 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Even though credit card fraud is increasing in the United States, a report from security.org said it is still poorly understood. As more people use cards and spend digitally, it opens the door for fraudulent activity; in 2023, an estimated 52 million Americans suffered credit… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 7:15 pm By Michael Wong  |  

BayaniPay, a US and Philippines-based global payments automation process provider announced that it has raised an additional $3 million in funding to expand its international payment capabilities. This capital injection, led by Wavemaker Partners, PTGB, and Talino Venture Studios, will be used to finance the… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 7:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has added 2 new companies to e-payment services providers, e-Money services providers and e-payment systems operators register. Continuing its efforts to encourage innovation in financial services, enhance electronic payment services and regulate these activities, ensure providing high-quality, efficient and… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 5:56 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

TransUnion’s Q2 2024 Consumer Pulse study shows that consumer concerns about inflation and interest rates reached their highest levels in two years. Despite these concerns, they come as 55% of Americans remain optimistic about their household finances over the next year – the same percentage observed in Q2… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 5:03 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

European Blockchain Sandbox Brickken, a Barcelona-based startup that tokenizes real-world assets, has been selected to participate in the European Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) Regulatory Sandbox. This regulatory sandbox will provide legal certainty for decentralized technological solutions, including blockchain, by identifying deployment obstacles from… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 3:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Over 25% of the 474 investigations carried out by the MFSA in 2023, were related to persons or entities which were suspected of undertaking licensable activities without having obtained the necessary authorizations, or scams. These investigations include suspicious activity or dubious schemes which “appeared to… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 12:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth, today announced a partnership with full-service hospitality management company Brittain Resorts & Hotels. Now, approved hotel guests can book accommodations “at more than 15 hotels and resorts and pay over time… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 11:54 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, Neon Money Club, a lifestyle finance platform that created The Cream Car on the Amex Network, launched the interactive financial wellness game and resource center Get the Bag. Get the Bag is designed to use raw fun to educate people on financial fundamentals. Inspired by No Internet… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 11:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Figure Technology Solutions, the technology platform streamlining the private credit and housing markets, announced the launch of Figure Connect, a blockchain-based multi-seller, multi-buyer marketplace of private credit loans. Figure Connect brings Figure’s broad and deep capital markets buyer universe “directly to Figure’s loan origination partners.”… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 10:08 am By Michael Wong  |  

Ant Group, the Fintech arm of Chinese tech major Alibaba, ramped up its research and development expenditures to a record 21.2 billion yuan ($3.05 billion) last year, according to its latest sustainability report. This move highlights the company’s increasing focus on technology innovations, including artificial… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 9:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

OKX‘s investment arm, OKX Ventures, announced that it has become a founding member of SOFA.org, an open-source and non-profit decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on developing a DeFi ecosystem that facilitates atomic, blockchain-based settlements of financial assets. Through its collaboration with SOFA.org, they seek “to… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 9:21 am By Michael Wong  |  

AccountsIQ, a cloud-based accounting platform, has raised €60 million (about $64 million) in a Series C funding round anchored by business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) growth equity fund Axiom Equity. The investment is set to bolster AccountsIQ’s product development, enabling the firm to integrate advancements in… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 9:07 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, professional services firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP announced the arrival of financial services partner Mike Katz in its New York office. Most recently overseeing legal, regulatory and policy across deals, strategic advisory and regulation for a venture capital firm in the digital asset… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 8:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

BVNK, a London-based firm focused on payments innovation, enhanced its stablecoin liquidity operations by leveraging Talos’ advanced trading technology and extensive partner network. This collaboration has added new liquidity providers “at significantly reduced integration times, resulting in a nearly two-fold increase in trading volumes –… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 7:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Finance released its latest Household Finance Review for Q1 2024, exploring trends across household, spending, saving, and borrowing. Mortgage borrowing in Q1 was down “compared with the same period the year before, despite growth in mortgage applications at the end of 2023.” Consumer spending… Read More