WORKWEEK

3 Fintech News Stories #1: Should You Protect Customers From Themselves?  What happened? NatWest is the latest big UK bank to introduce limits on its customers’ ability to purchase crypto: The bank is putting a daily limit of £1000 and a 30-day payment limit of £5000 to crypto exchanges “to help protect customers from losing…

The conversation around SVB – which I have found to be both exhausting and enlightening, in very unequal measures – has shifted from diagnosing what happened to prescribing what should happen next in order to prevent more Twitter-fueled bank runs. These prescriptions range from absurd (bitcoin does not fix this, and a de-evolution away from…

What happened? Janet Yellen, Jerome Powell, and Martin Gruenberg shared an update: After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consulting with the President, Secretary Yellen approved actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, in a manner that fully protects…

I was planning to write about something else this week, but then this happened: Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect insured depositors, the FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of…

#1: How Were Your Grades?  What happened? Revolut claims that it was profitable in 2021: Financial technology giant Revolut reported its first-ever annual profit in 2021, according to financial accounts released Wednesday, as subscriptions to its paid packages and overall usage of its app grew sharply. The company reported revenues of £636.2 million ($767.1 million)…