Tagged: covid-19

January 30, 2024 @ 7:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Prince’s Trust NatWest Youth Index 2024, released recently, finds half (49 per cent) of 16–25-year-olds in the UK think the cost of living crisis has had a worse impact on their life than the pandemic. As noted by the Natwest Group, it shows young… Read More

January 25, 2024 @ 10:43 am By JD Alois  |  

The British Business Bank has published an updated list of firms in which it holds equity. According to the bank, there are 44 additional companies now on the list bringing the total to 696 individual firms – as of December 31, 2023. The shares were… Read More

January 9, 2024 @ 8:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition to online banking, UK individuals are visiting their local bank branches less often and less frequently. Research courtesy of KPMG indicates that 21% of UK consumers haven’t visited a bank branch in the last year, up from 14%… Read More

September 18, 2023 @ 8:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The scams deluge that flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic and proliferates yet today has heightened the public’s fraud anxiety. Rampant fraud is also “reshaping individuals’ expectations about organizations’ obligations to protect them – and the compromises they are willing to make to enhance security” –… Read More

February 6, 2023 @ 4:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Post-COVID-19 holiday shoppers flocked to online sales “in unprecedented numbers in 2022, bringing along with it an increased risk of chargebacks.” Monica Eaton, founder of Chargebacks911, advises eCommerce merchants “to act now and protect themselves from first-party fraud.” As holiday shoppers navigated the post-COVID-19 inflationary… Read More

February 6, 2023 @ 10:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

In an analysis of its Health Saving Account (HSA) Database that was published recently, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that, “despite health care expenditures increasing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, average HSA balances increased during 2021.” In fact, the majority of… Read More

August 24, 2022 @ 11:07 am By JD Alois  |  

SaNOtize has raised $24 million in Series B funding in a rojnd led by global investment crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and Horizons Ventures. The Agricultural Bank of China International also participated in the funding round. OurCrowd enables accredited investors to gain access to unique venture capital… Read More

August 23, 2022 @ 8:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The New Zealand payment card market is expected to “gradually recover” from the COVID-19 pandemic to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.0% “between 2022 and 2026 and reach NZ$98.0 billion ($67.1 billion) in 2026,” forecasts GlobalData, a data and analytics company. According… Read More

August 16, 2022 @ 3:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic were a “hive of activity” for small businesses, with a striking 53% jump in applications to start new companies, according to an update from Fundbox. Now macro economic factors, from inflation to staffing shortages, “are posing significant challenges… Read More

July 11, 2022 @ 9:02 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Consumers from lower-than-average socioeconomic backgrounds found it challenging to access online banking during the COVID-19 outbreak, while many continue to depend on in-person banking services. This, according to an update from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The research, released in the… Read More

June 28, 2022 @ 10:26 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the University of Cambridge in the UK, along with the World Economic Forum and the World Bank, have published the Global COVID-19 Fintech Impact and Industry Resilience Study. CCAF has long been the leading research institute reviewing… Read More

May 30, 2022 @ 7:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Data from Mastercard’s (NYSE: MA) 2022 Borderless Payments Report has revealed “two in five (44%) global small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) fear they will never achieve the same revenue levels as before the pandemic, although online business and international sales offer a real lifeline.”… Read More

May 30, 2022 @ 6:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

When you expect the “unexpected,” you can set your business up to “weather turbulent times,” according to an update from Adyen. If the past few years of the global pandemic have done anything, “they’ve proven that adage true.” When it became clear that the retail,… Read More

May 28, 2022 @ 1:52 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Stable, the ‘home of hedging’ for the $5 trillion agricultural commodity industry, recently revealed that it has finalized a $60 million Series B. The investment round has reportedly been led by Acrew along with key investors Greycroft, Notion Capital, Syngenta and Continental Grain Company also… Read More

May 9, 2022 @ 6:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Hilary Wiek, CFA, CAIA Lead Analyst, Fund Strategies & Sustainable Investing, notes that when Pitchbook last reported their benchmark returns, performance “was through June 2021.” The research report also mentioned that vaccines “were available, masks were coming off, and many office workers had resumed their… Read More

May 6, 2022 @ 8:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The small business lending market has has reportedly returned to pre-pandemic levels of activity. This, according to nearly a third of brokers (30%) surveyed in iwoca’s latest SME Expert Index. And nearly another third (31%) believe the market will “return within 6 months, based on… Read More

February 28, 2022 @ 3:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

European marketplace lender October recently commented on the French state-guaranteed loans. On March 2020, the French State announced an “exceptional package of €300Bn state-guaranteed loans (PGE) to support SMEs during the Covid-19 crisis.” Since the launch of this first state-guaranteed loan via the October platform… Read More

February 27, 2022 @ 9:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) notes that they have made enhancements to the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme. The Financial Secretary confirmed in the 2022-23 Budget today (23 February) that the application period for the 80% Guarantee Product, the 90% Guarantee Product and the Special… Read More

February 23, 2022 @ 4:25 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The Financial Health Network this week released Financial Health Pulse Points data from Q4 2021. The analysis shows sample account balances declined by an average of $1,500 over the fourth quarter, double the $750 recorded in the same quarter of 2020. Average fourth quarter account balances… Read More

February 21, 2022 @ 8:45 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Galileo, a Fintech payments company, recently shared a series of predictions for the trends that will shape payments in 2022. The payments space was undoubtedly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, with innovation accelerated out of necessity and towards a more human-oriented and connected finance industry…. Read More