Tagged: covid-19

April 21, 2020 @ 12:32 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Economic activity in Indonesia has slowed down significantly following the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. According to local reports, some businesses in the trillion-dollar economy have shut down completely. Peer to peer (P2P) lending platforms are also experiencing major challenges, which include having to deal with… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 11:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Easypaisa, a local provider of online financial services, teamed up with Zakat and Ushr department of the Government of (the province of) Punjab, in order to distribute funds to locals who have been impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and resulting… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 11:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Filecoin, a highly-anticipated decentralized storage network (under development), announced that there will be more delays before its mainnet can be officially launched. Filecoin’s developers have postponed the release date for their mainnet to between late July and late August 2020. As mentioned in a recent… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 3:46 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Branch, a U.S.-based insurtech startup, announced on Monday it is set to give back 15% of monthly insurance premiums to its auto policyholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Branch, the compassionate initiative recognizes clients’ reduced driving due to shelter in place orders… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 1:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fintech PrimaryBid has launched a call to action to empower “ordinary investors” to purchase shares in deeply discounted offerings. Earlier this month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a series of measures aimed at assisting companies to raise new share capital in response to… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 11:45 am By JD Alois  |  

An MIT professor believes that a new digital identity certifying an individual’s health status could be key to re-opening the economy that has been crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic. MIT Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland says digital tools can certify a person’s health to create safe… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 9:24 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

HDR Global Trading Limited, operator of the BitMEX cryptocurrency trading platform, announced on Monday the launch of its COVID-19 Response Fund. The company reported that it has granted US$2.5 million towards the global effort to respond to the pandemic. The HDR Global Trading COVID-19 Response… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 9:16 am By JD Alois  |  

In a widely anticipated move, HM Treasury announced a new package of bailout programs for early-stage ventures that did not qualify for programs initially set into place to support the COVID-19 battered economy. There have been profound concerns that younger, entrepreneurial firms that require ongoing… Read More

April 20, 2020 @ 8:48 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

BillGO, a U.S.-based bill pay and real-time payment systems provider, announced on Monday it has launched a bill pay relief hub specifically for Americans who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to BillGO, the payment relief can come in a variety of forms, including:… Read More

April 19, 2020 @ 10:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital asset custody provider BitGo has reportedly laid off 12% of its employees. Several professionals working in BitGo’s marketing and sales departments have been laid off, according to sources familiar with the matter. The layoffs are the latest to hit the blockchain and crypto industry,… Read More

April 19, 2020 @ 9:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The developers of Baseline, an enterprise-grade smart contract and tokenization platform created by Microsoft, Ernst & Young (EY), and Ethereum development studio ConsenSys, aim to solve a number of flaws reportedly found in Apple and Google’s proposal for Coronavirus (COVID-19) tracking projects. Google and Apple… Read More

April 19, 2020 @ 7:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Crowdfunding Network (ECN), the group that represents online capital formation platforms across Europe as well as the UK, has recently completed a survey of member platforms and several non-member platforms seeking to gain insight as to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The… Read More

April 18, 2020 @ 4:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Many Fintechs are actively engaged in supporter consumers and businesses in the battle to survive in an economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, some funding has dried up putting some startups at risk. This may include Fintechs. Yet one report expects that Fintechs may… Read More

April 18, 2020 @ 2:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which is considered the world’s largest and “most representative” business organization, has requested governments and reserve banks across the globe to nullify any rules or laws that prevent the use of paperless trading. The ICC said that authorities must… Read More

April 18, 2020 @ 11:28 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Smart money app Snoop is launching its services, which aim to assist consumers with better managing their finances during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Established by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, a former executive at digital bank Virgin Money, the Snoop Fintech app leverages Open Banking standards and technology,… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 3:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

SME Marketplace lending platform Funding Circle (LSE:FCH) has been approved by the British Busines Bank as a lender under the  Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). The online lender becomes one of a handful of Fintechs in the UK facilitating the program. Funding Circle said… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 12:28 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based digital banking group Starling Bank announced on Thursday it has launched a new tool that helps business customers to find the appropriate Government coronavirus support scheme for them. Starling Bank further revealed that the tool asks users a series of questions related to their… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 10:37 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Online lending platform Lendio announced on Friday it facilitated more than 50,000 small businesses across the U.S. through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Lendio reported that PPP applications approved through its online marketplace and bank partnerships total more than $5.5 billion. As previously reported, the… Read More

April 17, 2020 @ 10:13 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is telling customers of financial institutions to stop going to brick and mortar locations during the COVID-19 pandemic. MAS is urging consumers to use digital, email, and telephone channels as far as possible. Of course, MAS is telling the… Read More

April 16, 2020 @ 9:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

The fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the consumer lending market should come as no surprise to anyone. As the jobless rate has jumped, borrowers are having to make difficult decisions as their income has tanked. Now we have some solid data provided by… Read More