FTC bans noncompete agreements that restrict job switching - The move achieves a policy goal that is popular with labor but faces an imminent court challenge from business groups. The measure, approved by the agency’s Democratic majority on a 3-to-2 vote, marks the first time in more than 50 years that FTC officials have issued a regulation to mandate an economywide change in how companies compete. Read more
Fund offering 'venture capital' exposure sends investors on meme-like ride - The fund owns stakes in about 25 private technology and growth companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Instacart and online payments processor Stripe. It plans to update its holdings on a quarterly basis, and creator Sohail Prasad said last month that he would like it to eventually hold 100 companies. Read more
Goldman ditches robo-investing for masses in sale to Betterment - The bank has struck an agreement to transfer clients and their assets from the unit known as Marcus Invest to Betterment, a $45b digital investment-advisory firm. While the deal price is expected to be immaterial, it’s another piece of the consumer empire Goldman once dreamed of that the bank is now scaling back. Read more
New York Stock Exchange tests views on round-the-clock trading - The NYSE is polling market participants on the merits of trading stocks around the clock as regulators scrutinize an application for the first 24/7 bourse. The issue has become a hot topic in recent years, prompted in part by the 24/7 operation of cryptocurrency trading and the rise in retail investor activity first spurred by coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. Read more
Why engineers should study philosophy - Marco Argenti, Chief Information Officer at Goldman Sachs, writes about how coding is one of the things AI does best and its capabilities are quickly improving. However, there’s a catch: Code created by an AI can be syntactically and semantically correct but not functionally correct. Therefore, having a crisp mental model around a problem is particularly important. Read more
Move aside, big banks: giant funds now rule Wall Street - Top firms now control sums rivaling the economies of many large countries. They are pushing into new business areas, blurring the lines that define who does what on Wall Street and nudging once-dominant banks toward the sidelines. Read more
Stripe, doubling down on embedded finance, de-couples payments from the rest of its stack - This is a big change, considering that in the past, even as Stripe grew its list of services, it required businesses to be payments customers in order to use any of the rest. Alongside this, the company is adding in a number of new embedded finance features and a new wave of AI tools. Read more
Revolut plans advertising sales push as it waits for banking license - Revolut is exploring plans to monetize customer data through sharing it with advertising partners, as the fintech seeks new sources of revenue while its application for a UK banking license remains in limbo. The firm has hired a TikTok executive to lead a ‘media strategy’ as it seeks to diversify revenues. Read more
Walmart pushes BNPL loans with One - For One, who is majority owned by Walmart, the move sets the stage for competition with Affirm as a BNPL option entrenched with Walmart. Read more
Stripe is bringing back crypto payments with stablecoins - Stripe announced that it would let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with just one currency in particular, USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon. Read more
TabaPay to acquire assets of bankrupt BaaS platform Synapse - The deal will allow TabaPay to offer new financial services for fintech companies and financial institutions. TabaPay noted that the two firms had offered complementary financial technology services, with both companies appearing on Deloitte’s 2023 Fast 500. Read more
‘Buy Bitcoin’ sign shown behind Yellen sells for $1m at auction - A yellow legal pad with “Buy Bitcoin” scribbled on it sold this week for $1.027m during an auction. The hastily produced sign was flashed by an intern back in 2017 during a televised Congressional testimony. Read more |
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