Tagged: coronavirus

January 11, 2021 @ 7:33 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Over 160 physical bank branch locations are shutting down permanently between now and the end of the lockdown period, which has been tentatively scheduled for late March 2021 in the UK.  As first reported by the Daily Mail, these bank branch closures will come as… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 6:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Myanmar-based Wave Money, a mobile financial services provider, facilitated 12 trillion Myanmar kyat (appr. $ 8.7 billion) in total transactions during 2020 as the country’s residents increasingly began using digital financial services following the COVID-19 outbreak. Wave Money confirmed that these transaction volumes were nearly… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 1:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Two New York City bars could potentially make history by selling for Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency that’s currently trading at almost $41,000, up from only $3,800 back in March 2020 (which was when the digital asset crashed briefly along with the broader financial markets… Read More

January 9, 2021 @ 5:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital payments in Saudi Arabia surged by 75% last year, as consumers increasingly began shopping online following the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, cash withdrawals from ATMs and other payment points declined 30% during the same time period. Point of sale (PoS) refers to a location where… Read More

January 8, 2021 @ 11:23 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Cross River, a bank that delivers advanced financial and compliance products/services to the fintech industry, announced earlier this week t will be participating in the next round (Round B) of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  In the initial round of… Read More

January 8, 2021 @ 8:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Finance, a trade association for the UK banking and financial services industry, has noted that after the extension of government support from November 2020, an estimated £600 million  in funding was provided via the topping-up of current Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) facilities. Lending… Read More

January 7, 2021 @ 10:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India’s B2B digital commerce platform Udaan has secured $280 million in funding via its extended Series D investment round from new and existing investors. Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital are listed as new investors. They’ve joined Udaan’s existing backers which reportedly includes Altimeter, DST Global,… Read More

January 7, 2021 @ 8:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Linked Finance, an Ireland-based peer to peer lender, has reportedly been added to the country’s COVID-19 credit guarantee scheme. Notably, the P2P platform is the country’s first non-bank lender to be included. Linked Finance, which is one of Ireland’s largest P2P lending platforms, is now… Read More

January 4, 2021 @ 10:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dubai‘s economy is projected to grow by 4% this year, driven by the government’s (fairly) effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dubai government has taken several measures to extend support to local businesses and individuals. It also launched four stimulus packages valued at 6.8… Read More

January 3, 2021 @ 6:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

San Francisco-based SoFi, a financial services firm that helps people “get their money right—save, spend, borrow, and invest in one app,” has noted that 2020 was a year to remember. Industries were forced to adapt to changing consumer behavior, capital markets fluctuated wildly, and people… Read More

January 3, 2021 @ 12:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The limit on contactless payments might be increased from the current £45 to £100 in one of Britain’s very first steps away from European Union guidelines. The upper limit on touch-free or contactless payments might be raised to £100 after the suggestion was made to… Read More

January 2, 2021 @ 3:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, says it remains committed to innovating in 2021 in an increasingly “decentralized” world. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao or CZ has shared his thoughts and reflections looking back at 2020 and the firm’s goals for the new year. Zhao… Read More

December 31, 2020 @ 10:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Anil Stocker, CEO and Co-founder at UK-based MarketFinance, one of the world’s largest peer-to-peer (P2P) invoice finance platforms, notes that like many of the businesses they support, MarketFinance spent the past 10 months dealing with major changes and challenges, “finding ways forward against all the… Read More

December 31, 2020 @ 5:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

2020 was a challenging year for the entire world. The ongoing health crisis surprised everyone as the world dove into a pandemic, pummeling the global economy and impacting everyone. In many respects, Fintech emerged as a beneficiary of COVID-19. Digital transformation of financial services were… Read More

December 29, 2020 @ 11:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech Unicorn SoFi notes in its end of year review that we just experienced the “longest bull market run in history.” The SoFi team states that 2020 has been quite a memorable year. During these unprecedented times, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, industries have been… Read More

December 29, 2020 @ 9:27 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Biz2Credit announced on Tuesday it has opened applications for anew round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.  The PPP is part of the $2 trillion CARES Act signed on March 27, 2020, aimed at getting small business owners back on their feet and millions of Americans… Read More

December 29, 2020 @ 8:22 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  Online lending platform Lendio announced on Tuesday it has relaunched its online application for small business owners to access the government funds that are set aside for additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. As previously reported, the PPP is part of the $2 trillion… Read More

December 28, 2020 @ 11:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Wealth management tech platform Addepar notes that the broader financial industry had to deal with “extraordinary challenges.” The Fintech firm pointed out that local economies and communities have been “deeply affected by the fallout from this global pandemic.” The Addepar team now believes that it’s… Read More

December 27, 2020 @ 9:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brian Bartaby, CEO at Proplend, a UK-based peer to peer (P2P) lender, has stated that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about how the platform will perform in 2021 after almost managing to reach profitability this year despite COVID-19 related challenges. Bartaby added that Proplend, which mainly focuses… Read More

December 26, 2020 @ 1:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) focus and support for contactless payments and the entry of WhatsApp into the nation’s Fintech sector is expected to lead to an increase in digital transactions. Although most business sectors have struggled to maintain operations due to the COVID-19… Read More