Friday June 21, 2019 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
Discover eliminates bank fees, which can cost consumers almost $100 a year
Discover Bank is eliminating all bank charges including NSF fees, excessive withdrawals fees, minimum balance fees, and stop-payment fees on all of its checking, savings, money market and CD accounts.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/16/discover-eliminates-bank-fees.html
Facebook launches a new cryptocurrency called Libra
Facebook is leading a consortium in the launch of a new digital currency and payments infrastructure to enable and support P2P and merchant payments with special emphasis on the global unbanked population.
Ripple to Invest Up to $50 Million in MoneyGram
Ripple is investing $50 million in MoneyGram and further solidifying its XRP and platform deal with MoneyGram, as well as its position within cross-border money transfers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ripple-to-invest-up-to-50-million-in-moneygram-11560803556
HSBC to hire more than 300 for U.S. retail banking expansion
After a major retrenchment from the US a few years ago, HSBC is planning to bulk up its retail presence by adding 50 new branches and over 300 new employees.
https://www.americanbanker.com/articles/hsbc-to-hire-more-than-300-for-us-retail-banking-expansion
‘Banking for humans’: Dave launches credit-building banking for its 3.5M users
Personal financial management app Dave is launching a bank account along with a credit builder feature whereby rent and utility payments are reported to the credit bureaus.
Sources: J.P. Morgan working on a secretive digital banking project based out of London
According to various sources, Chase is recruiting high level developers with full-stack and cloud-based dev skills for a secretive skunkworks project in London that could be a stand-alone digital bank or a cloud-based digital banking platform.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/jp-skunkworks/
Apple Expands Goldman Credit Card Test to Thousands of Retail Workers
Apple has expanded the test of its new Apple Goldman co-branded credit card by making it available to its retail store employees in the US.
Equifax collaborates with FinTech Sandbox to help startups access data
Equifax announced a collaboration with FinTech Sandbox to help startups leverage consumer and commercial data from Equifax in an effort to help these businesses accelerate their product development initiatives.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-collaborates-fintech-sandbox-help-111500334.html
Google Pay expands its integration with PayPal to online merchants
Google is extending its integration with PayPal to online merchants who accept Google Pay on their website or mobile app, allowing these merchants to enable PayPal as a payment method in their own Google Pay integration.
Banks sail through year’s first round of stress tests
All 18 banks passed the first round of the Fed’s stress test under a particularly bleak scenario that included significant domestic macro economic challenges as well as recessionary pressures in major global markets.
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/banks-sail-through-years-first-round-of-stress-tests
