Tagged: covid-19

May 13, 2020 @ 11:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has prepared its virtual assistant Arti to answer common COVID-19 mortgage holiday questions from the country’s residents. Nationwide’s team of mortgage, technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals have been working on an initiative that involves developing, testing, and launching a… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 9:19 am By JD Alois  |  

We have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that online capital formation platforms focusing on early-stage ventures continue to do pretty well in spite of the ongoing pandemic. Earlier today, Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang tweeted out some numbers indicating robust performance on the platform during… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 7:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  A blog post recently published by the World Economic Forum notes that SMEs throughout the world have been struggling to maintain operations due to the COVID-19 outbreak, nationwide lockdowns, and resulting economic challenges. WEF’s blog acknowledges that traditional lending models have been an obstacle… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 10:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Standard Chartered Bank has introduced a wide range of self-service requests for customers based in India. The new services will be available via the Standard Chartered Mobile app and through the institution’s online banking portal. Standard Chartered bank’s customers in India will now be able… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 8:34 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Former Westpac executives, Andrew Walker and Chris Lumby, has reportedly raised $33 million for their new home loan fintech startup, Verteva. Verteva is described as an ambitious financial technology start-up building a transformative digital alternative for customers in the home lending space. The Australia-based startup… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  In March, it was reported that CoinDCX had secured $3 million in funding through a Series A investment round, led by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange (BitMEX) operator, HDR Group. At that time, Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO at CoinDCX, said the crypto space in India was developing… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 9:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based digital bank RazorPay announced on May 11, 2020 that it’s planning to recruit more staff members for key positions across its engineering and product design teams. As previously reported, the banking challenger had revealed that there had been a significant increase in the number… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 9:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

San Francisco has earned a bit of a bad rap the past couple of years. Questionable leadership has led long-time inhabitants to complain about the rising level of crime and the increasing squalor of the city. The high cost of living/rent and California’s reputation as… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 6:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The COVID-19 crisis has significantly reduced the revenue generated by some of the largest banks in Australia. The pandemic may present opportunities to banking challengers such as 86 400 to gain market share. As the nation’s Big Four banks try to deal with a dramatic… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 2:56 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The developers of the Loom Network, a platform-as-as-service blockchain initiative, seemed to have abandoned their project or become inactive. However, representatives from Loom reportedly told Cointelegraph that the project is not “dead,” as several social media users and community members had claimed. After CEO Matthew… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 2:48 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fitch Ratings is out with a note on the impact of COVID-19 and US marketplace loan portfolios. According to Fitch, the Coronavirus and affiliated rise in unemployment will lead to “significant performance degradation in U.S. Marketplace Loan (MPL) portfolios.” Even more grim is that Fitch… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 10:54 am By JD Alois  |  

Rightangled, a healthtech firm that is currently offering COVID-19 testing, has launched a crowdfunding offering on Crowdcube – quickly topping its £50,000 target now standing at £354,131 backed by 655 investors. Rightangled is offering equity in the company at a pre-money valuation of £9.5 million…. Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 8:25 am By Omar Faridi  |  

United Kingdom’s trade group, TheCityUK, recently recommended that the country should update its regulatory framework for Fintech, as the COVID-19 crisis has made it challenging for businesses to operate while following traditional models of finance. There are around 1,600 Fintech companies based in the UK…. Read More

May 10, 2020 @ 7:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Turkish Fintech firm Figopara confirmed on May 7, 2020, that it has secured $1 million in funding from its second investment round. Existing investors World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Turkish angel investor Revo Capital took part in Figopora’s latest round. Founding partners Ahmet… Read More

May 10, 2020 @ 6:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

David Parker, co-chief investment officer at the Bahrain Economic Development Board (an organization responsible for attracting inward investment into the Kingdom for key areas such as technology development and supporting the local financial and banking industry), recently confirmed that the country aims to position itself… Read More

May 10, 2020 @ 6:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

PT Cashlez Worldwide Indonesia, which is reportedly the nation’s first Fintech payment company to be publicly listed, saw its share price increase from Rp 350 (appr. $0.23) to Rp 384 within minutes after trading began on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Cashlez said it will… Read More

May 9, 2020 @ 5:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Zurich-based Numbrs, a mobile banking app provider, will be laying off 62 employees after investors backed out of a deal to allocate funds toward the development of the firm’s business. In August 2019, the Fintech firm claimed that it was valued at around CHF 1… Read More

May 9, 2020 @ 1:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based digital payments platform Simpl has reported a significant increase in transaction volume for online orders of daily essentials. The company claims there has been a 30-35% increase in the number of transactions involving the purchase of essential items. The change in consumer spending habits… Read More

May 8, 2020 @ 2:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Boston-based Fintech firm Flywire recently confirmed that it will be downsizing its operations, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting economic challenges. The payment processing firm reportedly laid off 12% of its workers (around 60 employees), according to estimates from industry participants. Flywire will also… Read More

May 7, 2020 @ 12:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Canada has decided to postpone its upcoming Open Banking review due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Canadian government-led Open Banking policy review was scheduled to consult stakeholders on applicable standards, in order to provide better consumer data protection. The review was supposed to take place… Read More