Goldman Sachs has acquired personal finance app Clarity Money as it continues to build out their consumer focused brand. Adam Dell, founder of Clarity Money, will become a partner at Goldman as a result of the deal. Source.
Goldman Sachs has been exploring the creation of a crypto trading desk and now has hired a former crypto trader; the bank hired Justin Schmidt as a vice president and head of digital asset markets; the move is seen as another step by the bank to eventually create a crypto trading desk as they have been rumored to be exploring this for quite some time; no major bank has started a crypto trading desk yet. Source.
After 18 months of secret development with Apple and Goldman Sachs Mastercard plans to bring to digital first features of...
Steve Strongin believes most digital currencies are unlikely to survive in their current form and that investors should be prepared for coins to lose all of their value; Strongin states that they are likely to be replaced by a small set of future competitors; he cites the high correlation of cryptocurrencies, the lack of intrinsic value and speed as reasons for concern; Strongin still is optimistic on blockchain technology. Source
Robocop vs. Terminator in Fintech; Comparing DeFi originations to Digital Lenders in the early years
I've got a gentle, data-backed story this week inspired by a great distinction made in this Techonomy article by the Chief Digital Officer at Schneider Electric. The thesis tracks three key lessons from attempting to bring large companies into the 21st century: (1) transform the core of your business instead of fumbling around at the edges, (2) digitize your processes and separately figure out a distinct digital model, and (3) catalyze a digital ecosystem from the new model. You can think about the distinction as either taking the existing business and slowly swapping out parts from human to machine (e.g., like RoboCop), or building the robot from scratch utilizing the latest platforms, markets, and artificial intelligence (e.g., like Terminator).
In this week’s PeerIQ Industry Update they cover the uncertainty from the recent Fed meeting about whether or not there...
The long time secretive bank is now opening up on future plans in an effort to win over investors. Today,...
Climb Credit is taking a different approach to lending to college students, taking into consideration the ROI on a degree;...
Goldman Sachs appears to be planning for a robo advisory service offering; the firm is advertising a job posting for a GSAM Technology digital experience developer that would build an automated robo advisory platform complementing the firm's asset management business; the bank's private wealth management business focuses on client's with approximately $50 million in investable assets; it has been broadening its client demographic recently by including business and retail products for investors with $1 million or less; a robo advisory service would add to other recent product expansions including the acquisition of GE Capital's online bank, Marcus and Honest Dollar. Source
It seems like SBF is in the news every week lately, as is Goldman Sachs. Also making news this week we have Ramp getting into BNPL and blockchain making inroads on Wall Street. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.