Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending August 6, 2022

Another busy news week saw good news from Coinbase, bad news from Robinhood, JPMorgan is getting intro travel, the CFTC would regulate crypto in proposed new legislation, Equifax had another screwup and more. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.

BlackRock Teams Up With Coinbase in Crypto Market Expansion from Bloomberg – The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has been showing interest in crypto for some time and this week we learned that they are partnering with Coinbase, initially to help institutional investors manage and trade bitcoin.

Robinhood cutting about 23% of jobs, releases second-quarter earnings from CNBC – Robinhood reported second-quarter earnings this week and not surprisingly they were mediocre, with revenue down considerably from the same period last year. But what caught everyone’s attention was the announcement that the company is laying off 23% of its workforce, the second round of layoffs this year.

JPMorgan Is Building a Giant Travel Agency from The Wall Street Journal – JPMorgan has spent the last 18 months building the pieces necessary to become a full-service travel agency. They have premium credit cards focused on rewards, they are building airport lounges and a new website is in the works.

Push to Give Derivatives Regulator More Sway Over Crypto Trading Gains Steam from Bloomberg – There is another bipartisan bill for crypto regulation moving its way through Congress and this one will give the CFTC sweeping new powers to oversee this new asset class.

Equifax Sent Lenders Inaccurate Credit Scores on Millions of Consumers from The Wall Street Journal – Earlier this year, for three weeks Equifax provided inaccurate credit scores on millions of consumers applying for loans resulting in potentially higher interest rates on these loans. The company fixed the error that it said resulted from a “technology coding issue”. Not a good look.

Rising household debt has more Americans struggling: NY Fed from Fintech Nexus – The NY Fed released its quarterly report on consumer credit this week and it showed the biggest increase in credit card balances in two decades. Total household debt, including mortgages, rose to $16.15 trillion.

A pair of hacks rattle an already jittery crypto industry from The Washington Post – Another week, another crypto hack, actually two this time. Solana reported that 7,700 wallets were drained of $5.2 million in crypto and Nomad, a blockchain bridge, acknowledged that $190 million was stolen by hackers.

Super Apps Aren’t Going To Make It In America from Forbes – Ron Shevlin tackles super apps this week and argues that they are not going to work in America. While in China super apps rule the American consumer is just not that interested. However, he points out that a super app from the likes of Walmart or Apple could become a reality at some point.

Block Beats Q2 Estimates but Bitcoin Revenues Fall from CoinDesk – Block reported earnings this week and while they beat estimates the drop in bitcoin revenue resulted in lower year-over-year numbers.

Robinhood Veterans’ Fintech Raises $60 Million in Funding Round from Bloomberg – Yes, some companies are still raising money as we saw Parafin, the SMB lending as a service play, raise $60 million at a $520 million valuation.

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