Samsung Electronics America, unveiled Samsung Money by SoFi, a new mobile-first money management experience that brings a cash management account and accompanying Mastercard debit card along with exclusive benefits to Samsung Pay, in partnership with innovative fintech company SoFi. The service will be available to U.S. consumers later this summer, but users can register for the waiting list already. The account is secure, with no account fees and rewards users for saving—earning higher interest relative to the national average of transactional accounts.1 At a time when people are turning to their technology to take care of essential tasks without leaving…

The Libra Association, an independent membership organization, announced the appointment of Stuart Levey as its first CEO. Mr. Levey brings to the Association a wealth of leadership experience in the public and private sectors cutting across banking, regulatory policy and national security issues. He is currently serving as Chief Legal Officer of HSBC, one of the world’s leading financial institutions with a presence in 64 countries and territories. Prior to joining HSBC, Mr. Levey served as the first Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence during the Bush and Obama Administrations. During his tenure, Mr. Levey was…

Fintech applications have given people more control over their personal finances in a myriad of ways, whether it’s paying bills, sending money abroad, or growing their savings. One of the earliest forms of “fintech” is a budgeting spreadsheet. For years, people have relied on Microsoft Excel to budget and track expenses for their personal finances or businesses, typically copying data over from multiple sources. Money in Excel features a Plaid integration and the new capabilities essentially turn the spreadsheet software into a fintech app. It allows users to securely connect their financial accounts, import the data within them, sync balances…

Moven has announced a strategic shift to focus solely on promoting their patented wellness technology to enterprise level partners. Plans to spin-off Moven’s consumer-facing business hit a significant snag with major multi-year funding withdrawn as a result of market conditions, whilst the Enterprise business remains funded and growing. As a result of both the recent successes within Enterprise and increasing uncertainty around coronavirus, Moven has decided to wind down the direct to consumer offering and will close all accounts in Q2 of 2020. The founder and chairman of Moven, Brett King announced, “While our Enterprise business continues to see strong…

Revolut launched its Financial App and debit card in the United States. Since hinting at a launch last year, Revolut claims it already attracted tens of thousands of U.S. customers. Revolut launched in 2015 with a vision to build a Financial Super App – a single app where consumers can manage all aspects of their financial life. In just four years, the company has attracted more than 10 million customers, raised over $800 million in funding – and now employs more than 2,000 people globally, including in New York and San Francisco. Starting today, U.S. consumers can set up a…

WisdomTree Investments, an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) and exchange-traded product (“ETP”) sponsor and asset manager announced its strategic investment in Securrency, a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology. Through this investment and its collaboration with Securrency, WisdomTree plans to pursue the integration of blockchain technology into the ETF ecosystem to bring the benefits of ETFs to a broader range of investors and improve the investor experience. Securrency raised $17.65 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by WisdomTree as a strategic investor. Other participants in the round include the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Japanese financial…

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), have created a group to share experience as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home jurisdictions. The group will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies. It will closely coordinate with the relevant institutions and forums – in particular, the Financial Stability Board and the Committee on…

Credit Suisse announces the internal launch of AccessFintech’s trading exception management solution. Following a successful pilot, Credit Suisse has gone live with AccessFintech’s Global Exception Network, taking an important step towards streamlining exception management resolution across the Prime Brokerage industry. The new technology will reduce the time needed to resolve exceptions and help clear bottlenecks that could prevent trade settlements. It will promote better client servicing, minimize sanctions and reduce costs for all parties. This exception management solution is now broadly accessible to financial market industry participants. It leverages a next generation technology platform that standardizes and simplifies trading workflows…

Uber introducing Uber Money, a team within Uber working on financial products and technologies that deliver additional value for the Uber community, all at Uber speed. Several new features and improvements coming this year: Real-Time Earnings: Instead of waiting for weekly payments or cashing out through Instant Pay, drivers and couriers will have real-time access to their earnings after every trip through the Uber Debit account. Uber Debit Account & Uber Debit Card: For drivers in the US, and expanding to more countries soon after, we are updating the no-monthly-fee Uber Debit Account, powered by Green Dot, to integrate seamlessly into the…

The use of blockchain distributive ledger technology (blockchain, or DLT) is unlikely to challenge the franchise values of the U.S. trust and processing banks or their integral roles in trade settlement or asset custody, Fitch Ratings says. Evidence for the purported efficiencies of DLT in trade settlement appears slim, without addressing the attendant network security, regulatory and implementation challenges the technology has introduced. However, aspects of the blockchain technology may have uses in smaller scale applications, most likely involving trusted counterparties as part of a centralized ledger. The multi-agent processing required under DLT is unlikely to prove revolutionary for trade…

F10 Incubator and Accelerator goes into its second round with the P3 «Product to Market Program». The one-day matchmaking event taking place on Thursday, 7th of March, complements the existing F10 portfolio of international hackathons and the Accelerator program. Its aim is to open doors for mature Startups to find their way into the Swiss F10 ecosystem with the goal of driving innovation towards the FinTech of tomorrow. With the P3 program, F10 provides a mechanism for fostering meaningful collaboration between Startups and the prestigious F10 corporate members – namely, SIX (the Swiss Stock Exchange), the Baloise Group, Julius Bär,…