Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending March 25, 2023

The good news this week is that we had no more bank failures in this country. While a buyer was found for Signature Bank (most of it anyway) the fate of First Republic still hangs in the balance. The banking crisis was bumped from the top spot this week as Hindenburg Research released a scathing report on Block. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 fintech news stories of the week.

Hindenburg slams Dorsey’s utopian vision of Block from Fintech Nexus – Famed short seller Hindenburg Research has set its sights on Block, publishing a scathing report about the company alleging fraud and manipulation. Block has strenuously denied the charges and is exploring legal action against the short seller for publishing a factually inaccurate and misleading report.

Coinbase Gets SEC Notice Signaling Intent to Sue Over Crypto Offerings from Bloomberg – Coinbase received a Wells notice from the SEC this week which is usually the precursor to an enforcement action. The notice has to do with its staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Wallet, and some of its listed digital assets.

White House Takes Aim at Crypto in Scathing Economic Report from CoinDesk – The White House Council of Economic Advisers published its annual Economic Report of the President this week and it had a lot to say about crypto, none of it positive. It claimed that crypto has fallen short of its goals and has no intrinsic benefit to society.

Is crypto banking dead? from American Banker – With all the bad news around crypto banking this month Penny Crosman wonders whether, in fact, crypto banking is now dead in the U.S. The two biggest crypto banks have been shut down and the government has made its position very clear. The only real question is whether this is permanent or temporary.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Leading Efforts to Craft New First Republic Bank Rescue Plan from The Wall Street Journal – The good news for First Republic Bank is that it survived the week. But its future is far from certain as Jamie Dimon is leading a rescue plan that is yet to be consummated. More news to come on this one.

New York Community Bank to buy failed Signature Bank from The Associated Press – Signature Bank found a willing buyer as New York Community Bank agreed to buy a good chunk of its assets in a $2.7 billion deal. The 40 branches of Signature Bank will become Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank, but the deal does not include any of Signature Bank’s crypto business.

Credit Suisse: the ‘merger’ to end banking fear? from Fintech Nexus – Credit Suisse has been on the ropes for the last couple of years and while this had nothing directly to do with the banking crisis in the U.S., it certainly didn’t help. The acquisition by its Swiss rival UBS marks the end of a 167-year run.

Brex takes a swipe at Concur with an expansion into travel from TechCrunch – Brex, a leading player in the spend management space, is getting into the travel business. Brex Empower users will be able to book travel directly in the mobile app, helping many of its users with a major pain point as post-pandemic business travel picks up.

SoFi Partners With Banks to Offer $2 Million FDIC Insurance from PYMNTS – SoFi has quickly teamed up with a number of banks to increase the FDIC insurance limit on its checking and savings accounts to $2 million. This is another great example of a fintech moving quickly in response to the banking crisis.

Trading Platform eToro Raises $250 Million After Abandoning SPAC from Bloomberg – At one time in the height of the SPAC craze eToro was going to go public via SPAC at a $10.4 billion valuation. The SPAC deal fell apart eight months ago and now we hear that the company has raised $250 million at a $3.5 billion valuation.

Every Thursday at 5pm ET the Fintech Nexus news team and a special guest discuss the news of the week in fintech. Below is the video we posted to YouTube of this week’s show. You can also listen to the show in podcast format.

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