Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Fintech Can Come Out of the Shadows from The Wall Street Journal – Op-ed by Brian Brooks, acting head of the OCC, on why fintech charters make sense and why the arguments of the states such as New York are not valid.
Citigroup’s Fraser to Be First Woman to Lead a Big Wall Street Bank from The New York Times – Finance has been very slow to embrace diversity but we finally have the first woman who will be leading a big bank. Jane Fraser will take over as CEO at Citi when Michael Corbat retires in February.
Startup bets people will save money for a chance to win $10 million from American Banker – Yotta Savings is still nascent with just 6,500 customers but they have a unique approach, offering a sweepstakes ticket for every $25 their customers save with a chance to win up to $10 million.
SoFi Launches 20-Year Partnership With Los Angeles Rams to Kick Off Inaugural Season At SoFi Stadium from Crowdfund Insider – The football season kicks off this weekend and with it the new SoFi Stadium will be hosting its first event, albeit without fans.
Fiserv Adds Buy Now, Pay Later Option from PYMNTS – It seems that every week someone else is jumping in on the buy-now-pay-later craze. This week it was Fiserv’s turn.
Online loans are holding up better than expected from American Banker – While the crisis is still far from over the performance of the online lending platforms has exceeded expectations given the economic challenges of the past six months.
Exclusive: Klarna talks to investors on raising funds at over $10 billion valuation: sources from Reuters – The European buy-now-pay-later king, Klarna, raised money at a $5.5 billion valuation last year but they are now looking to add more funds to their coffers at a valuation close to double that.
Stash sees sign-ups, deposits swell as customers shift into ‘save’ mode from Banking Dive – Stash, the banking and investing fintech, now has more than 5 million accounts and has grown assets under management 60% so far this year as consumers save more.
Nat Hoopes Leaving the Marketplace Lending Association from Lend Academy – The first executive director of the Marketplace Lending Association is leaving after four years and is joining Upstart as VP and Head of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs.
Mastercard launches CBDC testing platform for central banks from Finextra – Central Bank Digital Currencies are going to be a hot trend this decade and Mastercard has built a virtual testing platform to help central banks explore digital currencies.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.