JPMorgan Chase takes on Square and PayPal with smartphone card reader, faster deposits for merchants - Chase's new QuickAccept service lets businesses take card payments within minutes, either through a mobile app or a contactless card reader, and users will see sales hit their Chase accounts on the same day. Read more
Fintech startups broke apart financial services - now the sector is rebundling - As fintech companies mature, many no longer aspire to be the best at one thing. That could mean not only new revenue sources for fintech companies, but also additional venture capital to startups and even a surge in M&A activity. Read more
PayPal and Venmo will offer and accept cryptocurrency for all online payments - PayPal announced it would begin supporting cryptocurrencies for the first time, allowing any PayPal account holder to store, buy, and sell popular virtual currencies starting later this year. The announcement makes PayPal arguably the most significant company in the financial tech sector to adopt support for virtual currencies. Read more
Does a digital euro challenge the dollar’s global dominance? - The thing we found most interesting about the paper was that, if a digital euro indeed does happen, the ECB seems to have something in mind that would open up the possibility of participants outside the single currency area having access to digital wallets. Read more
Google Cloud launches Lending DocAI, its first dedicated mortgage industry tool - The tool, which is now in preview, is meant to help mortgage companies speed up the process of evaluating a borrower’s income and asset documents, using specialized machine learning models to automate routine document reviews. Read more
Brazil’s central bank just revolutionized instant payments - Next month, the Central Bank of Brazil will debut a new instant payments tool. Called PIX, it promises hassle-free transactions within seconds for anyone with a mobile phone and a bank account. And it comes free of charge. PIX has received more than 39m requests by prospective clients, both corporate and individual, eager to lock in access “keys” to the service. Read more
Billtrust to go public via SPAC in $1.3b deal - Billtrust, a B2B provider of cloud-based software and integrated payment processing solutions, will change its name to BTRS Holdings once the transaction closes. With a cash balance of around $200m and no debt, going public will allow it to grow organically and inorganically, the company said. Read more
PayPal in talks to buy crypto firms including BitGo - Palo Alto based BitGo was founded in 2013 by Chief Executive Officer Mike Belshe. It offers digital wallets that require multiple signatures for transactions, as well as offline vaults for storing Bitcoin and rival currencies. Read more
WhatsApp to offer in-app purchases, cloud hosting services - Facebook said its WhatsApp messaging app would start to offer in-app purchases and hosting services, as it moves to boost revenue from the app while knitting together e-commerce infrastructure across the company. Read more
Why central banks want to create their own digital currencies like bitcoin - A guide from the Wall Street Journal on what digital currencies issued by central banks could mean for users, banks and the economy. Read more
Amazon launches a program to pay consumers for their data on non-Amazon purchases - Amazon has launched a new program that directly pays consumers for information about what they’re purchasing outside of Amazon.com and for responding to short surveys. Read more
Goldman-backed Brazilian fintech Iugu goes on hiring spree to face big banks - Iugu's platform helps smaller companies automate billing, saving time with back-office tasks. It recently got a central bank license allowing it to create an account for its clients that the CEO said “is something we can use to replace their banks altogether.” Read more |
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