Fintech Focus For May 11, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

Source: Albert Einstein

One Big Thing In Fintech: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the largest banks in the world by total assets, appears to have quietly allowed public users to activate China's central bank digital currency wallet inside its mobile app.

Source: The Block

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Compliance Systems adds to offer.
• Brex adds to team Barclays talent.
• DTCC wins data reporting approval.
• Deutsche goes live with Proxymity.
• Bank giant UBS looks into cryptos.
• Bill.com has bought Divvy for $2.5B.
• Babel Finance secures $40M round.
• Fintech Capchase to add new funds.
• Voyager, Market Rebellion team up.
• Lawmaker targeting crypto mining.
• Crypto fuels ransomware payments.
• Ally Financial sees results from AR.
• Inland selects AIX for tech platform.

Watch Out For This: Rather than ushering in doom, Detroit’s bankruptcy catapulted the city into reimagination, recalibration and renewal.

Source: CityLab

Interesting Reads:

• Cruise line threatens to skip Florida.
• Snack, where Tinder meets TikTok.
• Ford reveals details on electric truck.
• The impact of no stimulus on stocks.

Market Moving Headline: The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled 2.6% amid the growing anxiety over inflation, which can threaten longer-horizon revenues typical of the sector. Tesla and Apple were among the biggest decliners. The ARK Innovation ETF resumed its slide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly topped 35,000 for the first time. The benchmark S&P 500 fell from an all-time high. Treasury yields edged higher as traders brace for a busy week of auctions.

“Amid these new highs remember that the market doesn’t move only in one direction,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing product at E*Trade Financial. “While a full economic recovery may already be priced into the market, the weak employment data could have temporarily eased worries about too-hot inflation and the necessity of interest rate hikes to combat it.”

Source: Bloomberg