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…
Read MoreCome 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…
Read MoreBlack 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. …
Read MoreCapital One, Being Tricky
3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: HMBradley Pivots to Infrastructure What happened? HMBradley, the consumer neobank, is no more: We’re announcing that beginning November 15th, HMBradley is beginning a wind-down of our consumer deposit and credit card programs over the next 30 days. Since the start, we have been on a mission to bring a better…
Read MoreAll Right, Let’s Do This One Last Time.
My name is Alex Johnson. I was bitten by a radioactive charge card. And for the past four years, I have been the one and only fintech newsletter writer obsessed with credit builder products. I’m pretty sure you know the rest. What’s the Right Price for Credit Building? I wasn’t planning to write about credit…
Read MoreAffirm and Klarna Bounce Back
3 FINTECH NEWS STORIES #1: Sell Compliance Tech to Incumbents! What happened? A fintech infrastructure provider raised a seed round: Greenlite, a startup that vets bank and fintech customers using generative A.I., raised $4.8 million in seed funding led by Greylock and Y Combinator. Greenlite acts as a co-pilot for compliance analysts at banks and…
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