Yahoo Finance UK: Bank of England eyes power of Amazon, Microsoft and Google in finance. “The Bank of England is worried about the growing power of cloud computing in finance, calling for new regulations to govern the use of services like Amazon (AMZN) Web Services and Microsoft (MSFT) Azure in fields like banking and insurance.”
ProPublica: A Banking App Has Been Suddenly Closing Accounts, Sometimes Not Returning Customers’ Money. “Chime, a ‘neobank’ serving millions, is racking up complaints from users who can’t access their cash. The company says it’s cracking down on an “extraordinary surge” in fraudulent deposits. That’s little consolation to customers caught in the fray.”
Finextra: Elucidate launches open database on financial crime risk scores. “During a time when financial crime scandals are increasingly common, the [Elucidate FinCrime Risk Monitor] looks to increase transparency in the finance industry. The EFRM evaluates more than 17000 financial institutions, with data sourced from the Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI), the company’s regulated financial crime risk benchmark.”
The Financial Brand: Introducing the World’s First Interactive Directory of Digital-Only Neobanks. “Tired of scouring the web as you try to keep up with all the neobanks, challenger banks and digital-only banks out there? Check out The Financial Brand’s new Neobank Tracker — powered by Nymbus. This is the world’s largest interactive, searchable index listing hundreds of digital-only banks and innovative fintechs providing financial services directly to consumers and businesses.”
Mostly Economics: A global database on central banks’ monetary responses to Covid-19. “There is a dashboard and an excel file of the various measures by central banks. Really useful for research.”
CNN: This startup is giving customers early access to billions in stimulus checks. “Big-bank customers complained over the weekend about how their $1,400 stimulus payments were still pending in their bank accounts. Those payments may not arrive until Wednesday, nearly a week after President Joe Biden signed the historic $1.9 trillion economic relief package into law. Newbies in the banking space are moving much faster.”
University of Georgia: New data traces rise, fall of the Freedman’s Bank. “In 1865, the U.S. government established the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Co. in to help newly emancipated communities gain a financial footing. With 37 branches across the South and in New York, the bank initially flourished and grew to include more than 100,000 customers. But it collapsed in June 1874 after the Financial Panic of 1873. Some of the Freedman’s Bank records have been lost to time, but many still exist. [Professor Malcom] Wardlaw and his Ph.D. student, Virginia Traweek, found the archived records and decided to analyze the data to see what they could discover about African American communities after the Civil War.”
News 4 San Antonio: New bank scams are using information from your social media to hook you. “Local experts say scammers are using information from your social media to hook you and make you think an email is really from your bank. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, scammers know you’re plugged into your bank account like never before. You might be waiting for a stimulus check, unemployment or a PPP loan – making you primed and ready for any emails that look like they’re from your bank.”
CNBC: Google moves into Venmo and bank territory with checking accounts and updated payment app. “The Mountain View, California-based company partnered with Citi and Stanford Federal Credit Union to launch the mobile bank accounts and said it plans to add 11 new partner institutions next year. Google Pay will also let users send peer-to-peer payments — a feature that made PayPal’s Venmo and Square’s Cash App household names as people shift to digital payments during the pandemic.”
CNN: Wells Fargo fires 100 employees for misrepresenting themselves to access Covid-19 relief funds. “Wells Fargo has fired more than 100 employees for misrepresenting themselves to obtain money from a relief fund for small businesses, and whose actions may have amounted to defrauding the US Small Business Administration.”
Reuters: Exclusive: Deutsche Bank to close 20% of German branches in coronavirus shift. “Deutsche Bank plans to shutter one in five branches in Germany as it seeks to save costs and capitalise on the changing habits of customers during the coronavirus pandemic, an executive said.”
Computer Business Review: Coronavirus is challenger banks’ biggest challenge yet. “Some digital-only banks were struggling even before the lockdown started. Nicu Calcea’s data report asks that as customers of the traditional high street banks turn to online and mobile banking, is Covid-19 killing off the pureplay challenger banks?”
New York Times: Black Business Owners Had a Harder Time Getting Federal Aid, a Study Finds. “A nonprofit sent Black and white ‘mystery shoppers’ to branches of 17 banks, where they asked for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. White customers got better treatment.”
Reuters: Exclusive: ECB prepares ‘bad bank’ plan for wave of coronavirus toxic debt. “European Central Bank officials are drawing up a scheme to cope with potentially hundreds of billions of euros of unpaid loans in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”
