#389
Calling About Your Expiring Warranty
Published:
May 29, 2021
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“Attention Shoppers: Internet Is Open” read the NYT headline in 1994 after the internet’s first recorded retail transaction, a CD by Sting - great choice!
Fast forward 27 years and online shopping is ubiquitous - peaking at 35% of retail sales during the pandemic (it’s prior peak was 10%). In Latin America, e-commerce is at a tipping point, growing over 60% YoY. But, alongside this global breakneck growth, a myriad of sophisticated cyber threats and data privacy concerns has surfaced.
Just this week, Klarna battled a data breach, albeit an internal human error and not a hack. Around 10k accounts were affected, although the CEO did mention that “... the access to data has been entirely random and not showing any data containing card or bank details (obfuscated data). Even though GDPR would classify the information visible as ‘non-sensitive’, for Klarna all data is important.”
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) plays an important role in Europe - which gives individuals the right to control their data (to some degree). The US and most other markets have yet to formalize data regulation.
With e-commerce likely to remain a cornerstone in our lives, this past week interestingly saw several fraud prevention software providers announce fundraises, totaling ~$400m across four startups. Ecommerce and payment companies will surely continue to beef up their security capabilities, as Stripe did by acquiring Bouncer earlier this month.
While some of us may still get a spam call asking if your car warranty has expired, these ladies don't care! For the first time EVER a majority female Indy 500 team, sponsored by MoneyLion, will rip past the competition on Sunday May 30th at 11am EST (on NBC) - Join us in supporting Simona, a team for all the girls who want to go faster!
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Calling About Your Expiring Warranty
Klarna battles serious data breach, with reports of leaked user info - The company, which recently closed a deal valuing it at $40b, came under fire after users complained they were being accidentally logged in as other people, given them access to strangers’ personal information. The company, which is headquartered in Sweden, now boasts over 90m users worldwide. Read more
The e-commerce landscape: what has changed - The pandemic has caused online retail to step into the spotlight and become a necessity for many brands. Online retail sales as a percentage of total retail sales were sitting at around 19% in February 2020. A year later, it had skyrocketed to close to 35%. Read more
Industry News
Behind every racy fintech, a sensible German saver - Germans who give their hard-earned euros to banks attached to fintechs are being perfectly prudent. They are often doing so in return for higher interest rates. And should the bank go bust, up to €100,000 of their deposits are protected by deposit insurance. Read more
The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of Bitcoin - Criminals are locked in battle with forensics firms tracking how "Treasure Men", privacy wallets, and gift cards are used to turn virtual hauls into hard cash. Read more
Buy now, pay later players tackle credit conundrum in Mideast’s Gulf - In the Gulf, BNPL companies present themselves as an alternative to cash on delivery, the most common payment method for online purchases in many Middle East countries. However a cultural challenge for BNPL in the Gulf is to make sure it "doesn't look or smell like credit." as Islamic customs prohibit charging interests on loans, which has deterred some Middle East consumers from using credit cards. Read more
Square takes aim at JPMorgan with checking, savings accounts - Square is quietly preparing to offer checking and savings accounts to those customers, taking direct aim at behemoths such as JPM. Square’s shares jumped on the news. Read more
ACI Worldwide and JPMorgan form European payments partnership - ACI Worldwide announced a collaboration with J.P. Morgan that will enable merchants in certain European countries to deliver in-store payment acceptance capabilities to their customers. Read more
Goldman Sachs joins Green Software Foundation - Goldman Sachs is the first financial service player to sign up to a new Green Software Foundation founded by Microsoft, Accenture, GitHub, and ThoughtWorks. Read more
Regulation and new market players pave the way for financial digitization in Colombia and Mexico - From newly financially included users to new fintechs and services seeking financial institution licenses, the pandemic led to unprecedented digitization in countries such as Colombia and Mexico. Read more
Upstart peer-to-peer crypto exchanges take aim at Coinbase - Coinbase Global Inc is facing competition from a new breed of upstarts that look less like the New York Stock Exchange and more like Napster, the defunct music-sharing service. Read more
U.S. Treasury deputy chief sees G7 backing for 15%-plus global minimum tax - U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Adeyemo said he expects strong backing from G7 peers for Washington's proposed 15%-plus global minimum corporate tax, which should help solidify support in the U.S. Congress for domestic corporate tax legislation. Read more
LatAm’s fintech lenders seek new models amid growing competition - Latin America’s lending fintechs are looking to add new services and functions for clients, as competition in the vertical increases. Read more
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