How to Solve the Problem of Living Paycheck to Paycheck

A majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Across the thousands of B2C fintech pitch decks I’ve reviewed over the years, I can’t tell you how many have contained some version of that statement. The purpose of its inclusion is to underline a broader point – Americans are financially unhealthy – and to make…

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The BaaS Flight-to-Quality

3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Two different Bets on the Future of BaaS Compliance   What happened? New products in the exciting world of BaaS compliance! From Socure: Drawing on deep, hands-on knowledge from partnering with more than 80% of all sponsor banks and more than 400 fintechs, Socure launched Control Center to help sponsor banks…

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Fintech Grab Bag

The plan for today’s newsletter is for me to empty my notebook of all the idle observations, half-formed thoughts, dumb questions, and minor follow-ups that haven’t made it into the newsletter in the last few months. I’ll also be answering a few questions that I’ve gotten from the Fintech Takes community. Call it a Fintech…

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The Imperative to Protect Consumers’ Ability to Pay

There’s an inherent tension in financial services between the business of lending money and the critical role that lending plays in the functioning of our society. As a business, lending is unusually sensitive to external conditions. When interest rates go up or the capital requirements imposed by regulators become more stringent, lenders will logically respond…

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Come On Canada, This is Embarrassing!

3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Open Banking Comes to Apple Wallet  What happened? iPhone users in the UK got a new financial services feature: Apple Pay users across the UK can now take advantage of a new feature that taps into the open banking framework to let them connect cards and view their account balance…

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Black Friday: Notes on the Economy and Credit Environment

The first annual Fintech Takes Lending Summit, which took place earlier this month, featured a bunch of interesting sessions. Two, in particular, stand out in my memory because they were absolutely chock-full of great data. The Macro Picture: The Economic Forces Shaping the Lending Environment, presented by Amy Crews Cutts, former Chief Economist at Equifax. …

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