Russia sanctions foreground US banks’ compliance hurdles: Targets of the new restrictions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine include banks and elite individuals.
Private-banking aggregation tech holds wider potential: France-based fintech Finary lets customers monitor all of their sources of wealth, from bank accounts to crypto, in one place.
It’s axed overdraft fees and charges for overdraft-protection services—as the number of big US players maintaining the old normal keeps dwindling.
Neobanks make personalized financial services plays: US-based indi is joining gig-worker app Steady’s cash-incentives product, while UK-based Zopa is offering a savings account tied to personal goals.
Afterpay’s deal with EyeBuyDirect and Sezzle’s tie-up with WellNow Urgent Care reflect BNPL’s push to diversify beyond retail.
The vast majority of US banks have no plans to offer some basic cryptocurrency-related services. For even the most widely adopted service—crypto investing or trading—only 1% currently offer it, and 78% have no plans to support it.
BofA sees success with digital mortgages: Its Digital Mortgage Experience product handled the vast majority of initiations in 2021—up from 45% the year before—and garnered several mortgage UX accolades.
The provider brought its rewards program to nine markets to help entice spending and expanded Pay Now’s availability, which gives customers more flexibility.
Banks are standoffish to corner store ATMs: Incumbents have been ending business with standalone ATM operators or raising their fees. These tactics open the door for challengers to grow.
SoFi aims to become the AWS of banking services: The US neobank plans to acquire cloud-based core-banking provider Technisys and pair it up with banking-as-a-service (BaaS) subsidiary Galileo.
Open-banking user growth accelerates in the UK: The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) said the number of active users crossed 5M last month, just four months after reaching 4M.