Fintech Nexus Newsletter

On Friday, the CFPB announced it was suing mobile peer-to-peer lending platform SoLo Funds for multiple issues. SoLo Funds targets minority and other underserved borrowers with short-term loans of up to $575. This is a challenging population to serve and a difficult niche to profit from.

We learned a couple of weeks back that the former head of Marcus, Swati Bhatia, had taken a job at Santander to lead U.S. consumer and business banking. Yesterday, we learned more details about what this new job is going to entail.

Today, a new global report was released from Nasdaq and Oliver Wyman on illicit money flows and the numbers are sobering. The Global Financial Crime Report quantifies the total amount of illicit financial activity and the number is an eye-popping $3.1 trillion. Included in this number is bank fraud covering payments, checks and credit card fraud which is estimated at around $450 billion.

It has finally happened. More than a decade after receiving the first spot bitcoin ETF application the SEC gave its approval yesterday. While this was widely expected, it wasn't a slam dunk as demonstrated by the tight vote: 3-2 in favor with SEC Chair Gary Gensler providing the deciding vote.

Stripe has, for some time, been one of the leading fintech companies globally when it comes to scale. But the numbers it revealed today in its annual letter are truly staggering. It processed $1 trillion, around 1% of global GDP, through its platform in 2023. It crossed that milestone just 15 years after it was founded.

Greenlight has been a leader in helping young children and teenagers develop financial skills. Its app is used today by more than six million parents and children. While the company was traditionally focused on a direct-to-consumer model, it is increasingly developing partnerships with large banks to accelerate its growth.

Savings and investing fintech Acorns has been relatively quiet since it acquired the UK neobank for kids, GoHenry, six months ago. Now...

BNPL is showing no signs of slowing down. Consumers love this fintech innovation and now everyone seems to want in on the action.

Much has been written about the looming end to the Apple-Goldman Sachs relationship (we even produced a cartoon about it). And while this is a big deal for Goldman and Apple, the average Apple Card holder likely does not give it a second thought.

It has been the talk of the crypto world all week. SEC watchers noticed early this week that the regulator appeared to be getting ready to approve an ETF for funds holding Ethereum.