Author: News Room

The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently told Reuters that it is “critical” to put in place a strong regulatory framework (and I agree, because good regulation means a great opportunity for new fintech products and services) but evidence suggests that the crypto market is not a financial market as we currently understand it. Perhaps we should cast a wider net for ideas for regulating it. Gamblification The Kenyan mobile payment service M-Pesa (by some measures Africa’s most successful fintech) transformed the national economy in incredible ways. There are now more than 200,000 SMEs using M-Pesa’s API, more than half…

LTX has migrated its electronic trading platform for corporate bonds to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company, a subsidiary of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., said it will use AWS to better optimize its data science processes. “A key component of the LTX value proposition is our data and AI offering,” said Jim Kwiatkowski, CEO of LTX. “AWS’s tools, including cloud-based services and API connectivity, enable us to build, train and deploy state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) models at scale as well as accelerate and streamline ML lifecycles.” “By moving its trading platform and critical business applications to AWS, LTX can bring…

As covered in my last piece, defining Banking-as-a-Service is challenging. It means different things to different people depending on their involvement with the industry and their geographic location. How Banking-As-A-Service Works In Europe In Europe, the term is applied broadly to many different types of business, but within that there are two distinct groups: Companies with full banking licenses and software providers that have varying levels of permissions, but which are generally regulated as Electronic Money Institutions. Between them, they offer a huge range of services covering the entire banking stack from card issuing, lending and payment wallets, to regulatory…

Looking to profit from oil-powered dividends? Look no further than this discounted payer dishing 9.6%. Oil prices had plunged in recent months on recession fears. However, there’s still no recession. Oops. One point for the energy bulls. Meanwhile, OPEC said enough “cheap” oil. On Sunday the cartel announced production cuts. Oil prices popped. Will OPEC’s move prompt the Federal Reserve to raise rates even higher to cool demand for oil? I don’t think so because the Fed has a problem. It broke the banks! Higher rates could do more damage. High oil is painful, but a banking crisis is worse.…

As America watched two large banks fail over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a mad dash of businesses and individuals to ensure their money is actually safe in the bank. Perhaps what’s scariest to us all is having to confront a tough uncertainty: what does safe actually mean? Banking somewhere too big to fail? Keeping deposits under the FDIC insurance limit? Banking where a small percentage of deposits are over the limit? Learning about exotic products outside the banking system? It’s enough to make your head spin, and your wallet ache. These unfortunate events have left community banks caught…

Summary According to a GuruFocus backtesting study, stocks with higher GF Scores tend to outperform those with lower GF Scores. These defensive stocks have high dividend yields, low valuations and GF Scores that indicate outperformance potential. When the Covid-related stock market bubble began to deflate near near the end of 2021, it was tempting to snap up shares of businesses deemed to be “recession-proof,” such as those in the consumer defensive and utility spaces. However, even though many of these businesses have held up well despite the struggling economy, their share prices still had room to adjust just downward due…

Key Takeaways The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released their unemployment report today, showing that 236,000 new jobs were added in March, bringing the unemployment rate down slightly to 3.5% That’s right in line with projections of 238,000 new jobs from economists polled by the Wall Street Journal It’s a relatively flat picture, but overall the job market is looking weaker when this data is looked at in conjunction with the jobless claims and ADP private payrolls figures from this week For investors, it’s evidence that points to a potential change in the Fed’s tightening policy, with all eyes on…

The employment report for March gives plenty of good news for the U.S. macroeconomic situation. The economy added 236,000 nonfarm jobs, matching what had generally been expected. In fact, March’s 0.15% growth rate (1.8% annualized) was exactly identical to the average over the past 77 1/2 years since the end of World War II. That’s perfect. Major softening in the job market would be an important sign that a recession is on the way, while too much strength in the job market would force more aggressive interest rate hikes. The March jobs report, though, suggests that we’re on exactly the…

Many parents are looking for ways to give their kids a bright future. While money can’t necessarily buy happiness for our children, investing early and often for generational wealth can pave a more comfortable path forward. Kids have an advantage over adults when it comes to investing. They have a lot more time to achieve their goals. With decades or even a half-century to invest, compound interest can truly become the eighth wonder of the world for our children. Investing for generational wealth can allow our little ones to eventually: Avoid the burden of student debt. Buy a home with…

Most ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Users Have Credit Card Debt Federal data shows Americans are using “Buy Now, Pay Later” services at ten times the rate they did in 2019. However, that doesn’t mean these consumers are staying out of debt. A new study shows that 69% of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ users have ‘revolving’ credit card debt that carries over from month to month. Buy Now, Pay Later services like Affirm, Shop Pay and Afterpay allow users to break up a large payment into several smaller payments. However, that often comes with high interest rates and/or late fees. [Fox…