Tagged: covid-19

February 22, 2021 @ 12:44 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

BBVA announced on Monday it achieved a record number of new customer growth in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. BBVA reported that it added a total of 7.3 million new customers worldwide, of which 2.4 million became BBVA customers through the app or the web. According… Read More

February 22, 2021 @ 7:38 am By Omar Faridi  |  

An article from Global Capital notes that more securitizations of United Kingdom government-backed SME loans are being carried out in private. Last month, Funding Circle had reportedly finalized a deal with Sixth Street and Barclays. Since the UK’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) was… Read More

February 22, 2021 @ 7:34 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Chris Macklin, Chief Risk Officer at Assetz Capital, a peer-to-peer lender that originates secured loans, has provided a loan book update. As noted in a blog post by Assetz Capital, Macklin explained how the platform managed the loan book during the COVID-19 pandemic and shared… Read More

February 21, 2021 @ 9:48 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

San Francisco-based Carta, a firm that helps private and public companies, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership, has published its private markets report for Q4 2020. Carta’s report, which was posted on February 17, 2021, notes that venture capital managed to close out 2020… Read More

February 21, 2021 @ 7:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fundrise, a real estate investment platform using Reg A+ to provide access to “eREITs and eFunds,” notes that it’s hard to imagine a single person or industry who may have been left untouched by the unprecedented events of 2020 (following the COVD-19 outbreak). Fundrise is… Read More

February 21, 2021 @ 6:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

OnDeck notes that the Small Business Administration (SBA) and US Treasury Department have resumed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for First Draw Loans (on the week of January 11, 2021, and on January 13, 2021). OnDeck, which was acquired by Enova (NYSE:ENVA) last year, has… Read More

February 21, 2021 @ 3:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  Record-breaking funding, massive initial public offerings and unprecedented valuations are all now a part of what may be described as the Fintech “gold rush.” From September of last year until January 2021, the Fintech industry in Israel acquired around $1.4 billion in funding, which… Read More

February 20, 2021 @ 7:48 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

European online lender October notes that in March 2020, the French State had announced a package of €300 billion in State-guaranteed loans (PGE) in order to support small and medium-sized enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the amendment voted on in April 2020, lending marketplaces… Read More

February 19, 2021 @ 5:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A recent SWNS research study has revealed that 40% of US-based consumers under the age of 40 are not optimistic that they’ll be able to succeed in achieving their financial goals. The study of 2,000 Americans (between the ages of 18–40) found that around 58%… Read More

February 19, 2021 @ 3:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ledger Vault has reportedly entered into agreement with Nexo in order to secure and protect clients’ funds. Ledger Vault aims to provide institutional-grade self-custody to Nexo. Through the partnership, which was announced on February 10, 2020, the companies will be focused on providing clients with… Read More

February 18, 2021 @ 8:10 am By Omar Faridi  |  

After disrupting the world of finance, particularly how cross-border transactions are settled, TransferWise Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus says he wants to develop solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Hinrikus confirmed that he’s launching a new startup called Certific, which will be focused on improving the overall… Read More

February 15, 2021 @ 9:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Payments platform Adyen (AMS:ADYEN) notes that the COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated consumers’ adoption of digital platforms and services. Technically “timid” grandparents have also become a lot more comfortable with video conferencing in a post COVID world, the Adyen team writes in a blog post. People… Read More

February 14, 2021 @ 10:42 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

  UK-based challenger bank Tide recently announced its Tide Charity has donated £175,000 to small businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Tide, the charity launched in November 2020 in partnership with the Daily Mail, Karren Brady, and The Federation of Small Businesses. Its mission is… Read More

February 14, 2021 @ 9:10 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Aaron Cummings, Portfolio Manager at LendInvest, a leading UK based Fintech firm focused on the property finance sector, recently commented on his role, which is to deliver on development loans. Cummings also offered insights regarding what good portfolio management is all about. Cummings, who reportedly… Read More

February 13, 2021 @ 6:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at UK challenger bank Starling notes that it may be argued that “financial anxiety” is a by-product of the way that we respond to a particular situation, and not necessarily a result of the actual situation. Starling says that focusing more on what… Read More

February 13, 2021 @ 2:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Thrasio, a company that acquires and then aims to quickly grow third-party sellers on Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has finalized $750 million in new funding, raising the firm’s valuation to around $3 billion to $4 billion. The investment round was led by current investors Advent and… Read More

February 12, 2021 @ 10:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 outbreak brought the world to a halt, and we’re now may be just beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel, due to the increasing availability of testing facilities and the vaccine rollout. However,… Read More

February 11, 2021 @ 7:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We’ve been trusting robots to manage money more than we “trust” ourselves, according to a recent study from Oracle and personal finance specialist Farnoosh Torabi. The global survey of over 9,000 individuals across 14 different countries revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has “increased finance-related stress… Read More

February 9, 2021 @ 11:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Yann Murciano, CEO at online peer to peer lender Blend Network, who had previously explained in an interview with CI last year that we’re witnessing the “democratization of property investing” in the 21st century. As covered in December 2020, the Blend… Read More

February 9, 2021 @ 7:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Paris-based Société Générale S.A. (GLE.PA), a French multinational investment bank and financial services company with around €1.3 trillion in assets, has decided to allow its workers to work from home for up to two days every week. Société Générale’s management reportedly reached an agreement with… Read More