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The Crypto Tug Of War

Online lender SoFi to go public via SPAC backed by Chamath Palihapitiya - The merger with Palihapitiya’s SPAC, Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V, will value SoFi at $8.65b. SoFi was last valued at $5.7b in private markets, and has raised cash from venture capital giants such as SoftBank and Peter Thiel. Shares of the SPAC buying SoFi rose 29% in Thursday trading after the announcement. Read more

UK fintech review to propose changes to visa and listing rules - The review has been tasked by ministers to come up with ideas on how to support the UK’s buoyant fintech sector. The government sees the industry as a key area of focus as it considers where to prioritize future industrial strategy efforts after Brexit. London has been the centre for much of the fintech industry in Europe, with so-called “unicorn” companies worth more than £1b such as Revolut, Monzo and TransferWise setting up in the UK capital. Read more

Trump issues new ban on Alipay and other Chinese apps - Mr. Trump said the apps can access private information from their users. It could be used by the Chinese government to “track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information,” he added. The order takes effect in 45 days—after Mr. Trump leaves office. Read more

Lender Affirm seeks to raise almost $935m in IPO - The San Francisco based company said in a filing Tuesday that it planned to sell 24.6m shares for $33 to $38 each. At the top of that price range, Affirm would have a market value of $9.22b based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing. Including employee stock options and restricted share units, Affirm would have a valuation of more than $11b. Read more

Venmo adds a check-cashing feature, waives fees for stimulus checks - The company’s move into check cashing doesn’t make the peer-to-peer payment app an alternative to online banking, however. Instead, it serves largely as a way for Venmo to benefit from the influx of stimulus payments that are rolling out now to its U.S. users. Read more

Brexit forces bankers to shift trading of European stocks out of London - Britain’s membership of the EU had meant the region’s banks and investors could bypass the home exchanges of stocks and trade them in London over alternative venues. Those venues included Turquoise, a trading facility majority-owned by the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, and rival platforms Aquis Exchange PLC and Cboe Global Markets Inc.’s Europe-based marketplace. But with the Brexit trade agreement taking effect Jan. 1, that option ended. Read more

China plots ‘rectification’ drive to bring Jack Ma’s Ant Group to heel - The plan under consideration for Ant involves shifting its financially-licensed businesses — which include its payments, lending, insurance and wealth management ventures — into a new holding company. Ant may also need to raise capital to satisfy PBoC guidelines, which along with requirements on capital adequacy, risk control and governance, make financial holding companies more akin to banks than tech companies. Read more

Their finances ravaged, customers fear banks will withhold stimulus checks - In the past week, the largest United States banks have pledged to temporarily zero out their customers’ negative balances so they can get access to their stimulus money and put it toward whatever expense seems the most pressing. However, some regional and community banks — which often serve areas where there is little competition, including poor neighborhoods and rural communities — are pursuing different approaches. Read more

Limit on contactless payments could be raised from £45 to £100 in one of Britain's first steps away from EU rules - The idea was raised to the Treasury by UK Finance, a City lobby group, who joined with card service providers to highlight the need for the limit increase. Although the Treasury's response to the idea was positive, it will need to gain the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority before plans go ahead. Read more

BBVA says that it is shutting down banking app Simple, will transfer users to BBVA USA - BBVA told users of Simple — the pioneering mobile and online banking app that it acquired for $117m in 2014 — that it is planning to shut down the service, moving accounts to BBVA’s USA business in the process. Read more

Ana Botín: Banking regulation needs a reset - The Executive Chairman of the Spanish lender Santander says in the FT that rules should be amended to remove Big Tech’s advantages and promote green finance. Read more

Mexicans in U.S. sent record remittances despite Covid-19 pandemic - Mexicans working in the U.S. sent record amounts of money to relatives back home last year, illustrating the resilience of the U.S. economy despite the shutdowns imposed to fight the pandemic. Remittances rose 11% to $36.9b in the first 11 months of the year, more than the record $36.4b sent in all of 2019. Read more

What China’s new digital currency tells us about a cashless future - The WSJ gives us a glimpse, in a short video, of what Beijing’s new system looks like and how it would work. Read more