The FinTech Futures weekly round-up of the industry’s top stories and developments from across the globe.
This week we cover:
Equity Bank agreed to buy most of the assets, and assume all the deposits, of Almena State Bank.
33,000 extra workers to help handle surge in parcels from online shopping
Royal Mail is to hire a record 33,000 temporary workers for the Christmas period – two-thirds more than usual – to handle the UK festive parcel frenzy triggered by the surge in online shopping.
Christmas is always the busiest time for the postal service, but this year it is seeking record numbers of temporary recruits to help to sort an even higher flow of packages as high-street closures during the pandemic have forced shoppers online.
Time to shake free of historically misguided beliefs.
UK regulators have fined the London-headquartered, Goldman Sachs International (GSI), £96.6 million for risk management failures in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The FCA and PRA fines are part of a globally coordinated resolution reached with Goldman Sachs Group (GSG) and its subsidiaries.
The investigation found that GSI breached a number of FCA and PRA principles and rules.
GSI is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the GSG. GSI acts as a material booking entity for bond transactions underwritten and purchased by Goldman Sachs outside the USA.
1MDB is a Malaysian state-owned development company that has been at the centre of billion-dollar embezzlement allegations.
GSI underwrote, purchased and arranged three bond transactions for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013 that raised a total of £4.9 billion for 1MDB. The 1MDB transactions were approved by global GSG committees that GSI participated in, and were booked to GSI.
The 1MDB transactions involved … Read the rest
This five-part series is a comprehensive effort to explain the racial discrimination Black Americans face in our financial system.
Small firms are borrowing big sums to survive. They must be given the option of a debt-for-equity swap with the Treasury
Britain is sleepwalking into a debt crisis that will undermine its prospects of a sustainable recovery.
It’s not the debts of the government that are at issue; it is the monumental amount of borrowing by the private sector, much of it from the Treasury, that will hang like a dead weight on the shoulders of thousands of businesses, possibly for a decade.
"Your life is the most important company you are going to build. If you do it for other businesses, why not for your life?", Says Sofía Macías, author of 'Little Capitalist Pig'.
Hoddle, a fintech savings app which recently graduated from NatWest’s fintech accelerator programme, has launched a beta version of its app in the UK.
Around 6.5 million adults in the UK have no cash savings at all
The start-up, founded two years ago by mobile app developer, Sami Chaudry, allows users to save with family and friends.
Its app, based on Google Cloud infrastructure, allows users to set-up “group holds”. Users scan the card they want to attach to the hold, and then Hoddle configures the shared savings pot – be that for bills, or a holiday.
Whilst this is the app’s most original feature, offering a twist on the more individual-focused savings app, it isn’t short of other services.
It also allows consumers to automatically save through “smart holds”, and save regular amounts through “fixed holds”.
Hoddle uses open banking to connect with … Read the rest
Lenders have spent months puzzled by the persistently low delinquencies on their credit cards. Now, they’re seizing the moment.
