Citizens, planning a play for the mass-affluent, hangs a ‘wanted to buy’ sign: In the latest move by an incumbent bank to target the demographic, the bank’s chairman and CEO expressed interest in doing deals to grow the company’s business line.
Fintechs can boost platform trading activity with tokenization: Republic raised $150M to add digital securities to its investing platform. These divide expensive assets into more liquid blockchain tokens.
Lloyds may replace 48 closed UK branches with traveling bankers: Sending financial services professionals to visit communities is yet another idea UK banks have raised to provide services to customers who still want in-person banking.
OCC pick favors sweeping changes like Fed takeover of accounts: Saule Omarova’s radical proposal has splintered Senate Democratic backing for Biden’s nominee—just as the very nature of banking is also being questioned by market forces.
More than a third of US investors believe people will stop using cash sometime in the next five years, with 12% of those investors expecting this change to come within a year.
The SEC’s green light means investors can gain exposure to crypto with a Bitcoin futures-linked ETF, though many will likely wait for one backed by actual cryptos.
New unicorn Zopa gives itself 10 weeks to become profitable: The UK neobank’s CEO set this ambitious target after it bagged new funding and crossed the $1B valuation mark. Its decision to differentiate its product focus from other neobanks seems to be working.
Pismo emerges as a strong potential tech provider for Brazilian banks: Its customer base and the $108M that it raised from Amazon and Softbank, among others, warrant consideration from banking players seeking to keep up with challenger juggernaut Nubank.
The carmarker, which has a history of rushing solutions to market, launched coverage that uses software still in beta to evaluate real-time driving behavior.
TD Bank funds robo-advisor and financial advisor hiring push: The bank’s fully automated and hybrid robo-advisors and its plans to triple its headcount of human advisors help it tap into the retail investing boom and build customer loyalty.
The German neobank will pursue growth in established markets and make a push into Eastern Europe. This prioritization clarifies its strategy and is in line with other big challengers.