SEC now insinuates that Coinbase's business model is illegal. Then why did it approve Coinbase's IPO for the same business model a few years ago?
26 Apr 2023 11:28 Read comment
FTX before, Voyager now... Binance seems to be getting a big kick out of rushing in as White Knight when the chips are down and bailing out later.
26 Apr 2023 11:23 Read comment
The founding principle of BNPL was supposed to be, go ye forth and democratize credit by lending to all and sundry who don't qualify for credit card, obviously incur losses, use VC to absorb losses, rinse and repeat. It was surely a ZIRP but it worked for 5-7 years until liquidity dried up.
If BNPL providers have to now jump through all these hoops, how will they be any different from banks underwriting credit card?
IMO the best strategy for BNPLs is to hunker down, wait for 12-18 months for the funding winter to pass, and then go back to merry old days enabled by ZIRP. It will be suicidal for them to close the credit spigot by using ML and all those nice things.
25 Apr 2023 11:55 Read comment
MNOs have an unenviable track record in financial services in markets where banks have a high penetration e.g. T-Mobile ISIS mobile wallet in USA, Boku Zong Carrier Billing in USA, Vodafone M-PESA in India, Airtel Payments Bank in India.
Maybe it's different this time but a smart move for MNOs would be to direct their finserv efforts at Africa and other markets that are underserved by banks.
25 Apr 2023 11:39 Read comment
The thing about banking industry is that burying your head in the sand like an ostrich and kicking the can down the road DOES work!
Assuming, for a moment, that Revolut took its auditor's objections at face value and reduced its revenues by the questioned figure of £477M, it's not like its shareholders are going to say, "Kudos, good job done, we're happy with our investment" - they're anyway going to downgrade the value of their investments, probably by even more than half as it has happened now.
After reading an interesting piece by Matt Levine about when SVB recognized MTM loss in its HTM portfolio and what it did about it, I've inclined to believe that banking is one industry where, if you're unlucky / incompetent / fraudulent enough to enter the damnation zone, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
25 Apr 2023 11:03 Read comment
SVB did hedge interest rate risk but terminated its swaps and decided to mitigate asset liability duration mismatch risk by fostering customer loyalty. Unfo, when push came to shove, its customers - startups and VCs alike - proved disloyal. (Source).
The lesson from SVB to other banks is that they should not fall for startup ecosystem puffery or believe finsurgents' threats that they will die if they don't prioritize CX over everything else.
SVB is one bank that fell and paid heed and look what happened to it. Loyalty doesn't exist in banking and CX is not even a Top 3 factor in this industry.
24 Apr 2023 09:48 Read comment
IMO ISO 20022 is at best the biggest Waiting For Godot Moment or at worst the biggest hoax in finance. Not having heard about LEI for a long time, I thought it was dead and gone. Now I wonder whether its association with ISO 20022 will add / subtract the Godot / Hoax factor.
24 Apr 2023 09:35 Read comment
WTF is happening in France?
How on earth did the judge sign the search warrant?? (assuming prosecutors who conducted the bank raids bothered to follow due process.)
Whatever is happening in the epitome of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity???
20 Apr 2023 12:17 Read comment
I wrote in my post ISO 20022: Waiting For Godot Moment In Finance:
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I first heard about the standard when a coworker told me in circa 2004 that ISO20022 was "a year away" and requested for the budget to urgently rewrite our SWIFT gateway product to fit the new standard.
Last I heard a couple of years ago, that product has worked just fine for 20 years without ISO 20022 support.
ISO 20022 is Exhibit 99999 for the old Niels Bohr / Yogi Berra saying "It's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future".
20 Apr 2023 12:12 Read comment
I'll grant that "The EU has been at the forefront of open banking" rulemaking but it's waaaay behind USA, India etc. in terms of adoption of Open Banking-like apps.
Open Banking: EU v. USA
Can't help feeling that EU might be in a far better place vis-a-vis adoption of Open Banking apps if it had recognized the power of free markets and decided NOT to be on the forefront of open banking regulation.
19 Apr 2023 08:47 Read comment
Guillaume PousazFounder and CEO at Checkout.com
Hamza KhanFounder and CEO at Suburbia
Austin TalleyFounder and CEO at Everyware
Olivier NovasqueFounder and CEO at Sidetrade
Chirag ShahFounder and CEO at Pulse
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