Fintech Focus For April 28, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: "People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Source: Tony Robbins

One Big Thing In Fintech: In light of increased consumer demand for versatile payment options like buy now, pay later (BNPL), Barclays partnered with Amount to become one of the first major U.S. banks to offer point-of-sale (POS) financing installment options. As part of the development, Barclays will also offer merchants the option of POS payments under their own brand.

Source: Benzinga

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Cheese teamed with Dosh on loyalty.
• HSBC counts on AI for added edge.
• Varo Bank is making executive hires.
• Current tripled its valuation to $2.2B.
• ICE to add low-latency data service.
• OpenFin launches fintech ecosystem.
• Sagent added a Fannie Mae veteran.
• Stripe acquires TaxJar, a tax solution.
• Equifax looking to fintech innovation.
• TradeStation supports Eurex Micros.
• Greenlight raises $260M to innovate.
• Binance launches NFT marketplace.
• GoCardless launches open banking.
• EmSwap raises $1.4M in seed round.
• OneMain has acquired fintech Trim.
• US Bank eyes crypto custody launch.
• Bitstamp passes $50M in origination.
• Insurtech Sigo raised $1.5M in seed.
• Vigtec launches investing, trade tech.
• Warriors launching legacy NFT offer.

Watch Out For This: A seafarer training facility in France is getting lots of attention since the Ever Given jammed the Suez Canal. The facility’s own miniature Suez Canal can help mariners learn lessons from the Ever Given fiasco with the help of awesome scale-model ships.

Source: Jalopnik

Interesting Reads:

• Most popular paid subscription sites.
• Biggest obstacle to mortgage growth.
• OPEC+ confirms gentle supply hike.
• Spotify intros podcasts subscription.
• Dimon: Wall Street to return to office.
• Biden will omit estate tax expansion.
• Musk wants homes as power plants.
• Future of mobile phone supply chain.
• Coronavirus transforms kids banking.

Market Moving Headline: This afternoon Alphabet and Microsoft and Pinterest reported their quarterly earnings results for the first three months of 2021. Microsoft and Pinterest have rapidly lost value after reporting their results, while Alphabet appreciated after its own earnings download.

Source: TechCrunch