Tagged: insights

February 16, 2024 @ 2:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

2023 was a challenging year for the fintech market, with total global fintech investment dropping from US$196.6 billion across 7,515 deals in 2022 to a six-year low of US$113.7 billion across 4,547 deals in 2023 according to the Pulse of Fintech H2’23—a bi-annual report published… Read More

February 16, 2024 @ 10:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

More employees than ever — nearly 9 out of 10 — are feeling stressed about their finances, with almost half saying they’re just getting by. Despite budgets for salary increases reaching a 22-year high in 2023, 48% of workers are worried they “don’t have enough… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 6:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Though the venture market was in a state of declines over the past couple of years, much of the pricing pressure has not yet forced pre-seed or seed-stage valuations below the highs of 2021, according to an update from Pitchbook. While it’s true this area… Read More

February 12, 2024 @ 8:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Global Insurtech funding and deals slide to 6-year lows in 2023, according to an update shared by CBInsights. Insurtech startups had a “brutal” 2023, with funding and deals reaching 6-year lows — in line with the broader venture slowdown, the team at CBInsights noted. Nevertheless,… Read More

February 2, 2024 @ 2:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Corvus Insurance, the cyber underwriter powered by a proprietary AI-driven cyber risk platform, today released its Q4 2023 Ransomware Report. Featuring data collected from ransomware leak sites, the report shows “that while Q4 attacks were down slightly from Q3 2023, ransomware activity for the year… Read More

January 29, 2024 @ 8:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Construction activity and a strong job market have helped South Australia ascend to the top of the economic performance leaderboard, according to CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report. This is the first time South Australia has reportedly “ranked No.1 in the report’s 15-year history.”… Read More

January 23, 2024 @ 1:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The vast majority of consumers are “aware of the financial benefits of circular practices – particularly repair and second-hand shopping” – finds a new report from Klarna, the AI-powered payments network and shopping assistant. Drawing on insights from a survey of over 3,000 consumers “across… Read More

January 23, 2024 @ 6:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Crypto.com released its annual Crypto Market Sizing Report, showing that global cryptocurrency owners increased by 34% in 2023 – “rising from 432 million in January 2023 to 580 million in December 2023.” Similar to the previous year, this notable growth “continued despite several macro headwinds,… Read More

January 22, 2024 @ 10:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Despite a December rise, inflation is expected “to continue falling this year” says Yael Selfin, Chief Economist at KPMG UK. The KPMG UK team noted that the expected fall in the energy price cap in April “could see inflation returning to target by spring. Nevertheless, disruptions… Read More

January 22, 2024 @ 5:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Volante Technologies, the global firm focused on payments as a service, issued the results from its third annual mid-tier bank payments modernization report. The research report shows high interest and enthusiasm “for faster payment networks, with 78% of U.S. financial businesses saying it is a… Read More

January 20, 2024 @ 12:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Michael Nadeau, the founder of The DeFi Report who also helps startups and asset managers, has pointed out that Ethereum (ETH), the world’s largest smart contract platform, reached $10 billion in revenue “faster than any other major software company besides Google.” Although this may be… Read More

January 18, 2024 @ 10:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

ComplyAdvantage has launched its annual report into fraud, money laundering, and financial crime: The State of Financial Crime 2024. The latest research report identifies “the criminal use of artificial intelligence (AI) as an emerging fraud challenge while revealing that most financial institutions are investing in… Read More

January 16, 2024 @ 10:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Australians spent nearly AUD$200 more through the latest peak sales season in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the latest Digital Economy Index from global financial platform Airwallex. The Airwallex Digital Economy Index reportedly “records year-to-date spending per adult, as well as quarter-by-quarter snapshots of… Read More

January 15, 2024 @ 11:49 am By Omar Faridi  |  

CoinShares (Nasdaq Stockholm: CS; US OTCQX: CNSRF)  is reporting that digital asset investment products saw $1.18 billion inflows last week (subject to T+2 settlement), although this did “not break the record set at the launch of the futures-based Bitcoin ETFs which totaled $1.5 billion back… Read More

January 15, 2024 @ 5:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

‍Small business optimism returns in 2024, as half of SMEs anticipate growth this year, according to new research from iwoca – which claims to be one of Europe’s largest small business lenders. iwoca also mentioned that nearly half (47%) of small business owners “surveyed expect… Read More

January 14, 2024 @ 5:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Defining “competitiveness” in financial services is not a simple task, according to an extensive industry report. The aim of the report, produced by Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) in partnership with OMFIF, is to consider “the relative competitiveness of the European financial services industry against their… Read More

January 14, 2024 @ 5:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

bunq, a Dutch digital banking platform, has started describing itself as “the first AI-powered bank in Europe.” However, like most firms that claim to leverage AI, there is more hype than actual value being delivered to consumers. During the past few years, artificial intelligence has… Read More

January 14, 2024 @ 4:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Valmar Capital,  a digital assets multi-manager multi-strategy platform that brings together a broad array of crypto-strategies and emerging talent, has taken a look ahead to comment on key anticipated developments to watch in 2024. Valmar Capital, which says its approach is backed by institutional-grade infrastructure,… Read More

January 12, 2024 @ 9:36 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Fenergo, the provider of digital solutions for client lifecycle management (CLM), know your customer (KYC) and transaction monitoring, released its annual findings on global financial institution enforcement actions, which reveal that “the value of penalties imposed on firms surged 57% in 2023.” Penalties for failing… Read More

January 9, 2024 @ 8:14 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Financing a new business can be one of the biggest hurdles entrepreneurs face, according to an update shared by UK’s Starling Bank. Some 85% of UK startups launched in the last three years “have relied on the founder’s personal capital as the initial source of… Read More