#384
Philanthropy In The 21st Century

Amazon is bringing its Amazon One palm scanner to select Whole Foods as a payment option - The retail giant this past fall introduced the Amazon One scanner, which allows shoppers to enter a store by having their palm scanned. The customer’s palm signature can be associated with their payment mechanism in a retail environment — like Amazon’s cashier-less Amazon Go stores, where customers shop, then walk out without having to go through a traditional checkout process. Now at Whole Foods, the Amazon One scanner will be added as a payment option at checkout. Read more

How Robinhood made trading easy—and maybe even too hard to resist - Robinhood made trading easy but critics say it's also too hard to resist, making real money feel like a game. The company says the app wasn't built to be habit-forming, but it has some features that pull users back, such as animations, an initial scratch-off lottery ticket to win a share and intuitive design. The question is whether Robinhood is a little too good at what it does? Read more

Venmo adds support for buying, holding and selling cryptocurrencies - Venmo is adding support for cryptocurrency immediately. The company says it will begin to roll out the ability for Venmo’s more than 70m users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the app, similar to the support Venmo parent company PayPal added late last year. Initially, Venmo will support four types of cryptocurrency: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash — the same that PayPal offers its US users. Read more

VC interest in Latin America swells as fintech takes flight - The rise of fintech innovation and demand for online banking tools amid the pandemic has propelled Latin America to undergo a digital transformation. Read more

China says it has no desire to replace dollar with digital yuan - China sought to allay fears it wants to topple the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency as Beijing makes bigger strides in creating its own digital yuan. People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Li Bo said the goal for internationalizing its currency is not to replace the dollar, and the efforts to create a digital yuan are aimed at domestic use. Read more

Revolut founder plots path to $10b valuation with new fundraising - The UK based digital lender is lining up FT Partners to advise it on a new equity-raise that would take place after the summer.City sources said this weekend that the process had yet to get underway but that Revolut investors anticipated it valuing the company at between $10b and $15b. However, the new private funding round is likely to leave Revolut a long way short of being Europe's most valuable fintech - a title now held by the Swedish payments group Klarna. Read more

PayPal to launch local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments - In January, the US fintech company became the first foreign firm with 100% ownership of a payments platform in China. But until now, PayPal’s been quiet on its plans. Hannah Qiu, the China CEO for PayPal, told CNBC that the company is looking to launch a domestic wallet. But instead of it competing with the dominant players Alipay and WeChat Pay for domestic payments, PayPal will focus on cross-border payments. Read more

Mastercard to acquire Ekata to advance digital identity efforts - Digital identity is a foundational part of Mastercard’s multi-layered approach to security. In 2019, the company introduced a new framework on how digital interactions should evolve, as well as how digital identity will build trust, collaboration and economic growth. That framework is now in use across a number of sectors, from education to travel to healthcare. Read more

Santander launches digital cash management service - Santander has teamed up with Prosegur Cash to launch an in-store digital cash management service in Spain that puts the notes and coins merchants accept straight into their bank accounts. Read more

Deluxe signs $960m acquisition deal for First American Payments - First American is a privately-owned large-scale payment processor that facilitates payments in-store and online. It provides tools and solutions to merchants and partners that help people navigate the various payment channels. With the purchase of First American, Deluxe is anticipating it will double the annual revenue of its payments unit and establish the company as a leader in the payments industry. Read more

SPAC transactions come to a halt amid SEC crackdown, cooling retail investor interest - Just last month, special purpose acquisition companies celebrated a head-turning milestone by breaking their 2020 issuance record in just three-month’s time. After more than 100 new deals in March alone, issuance is nearly at a standstill with just 10 SPACs in April, according to data from SPAC Research. The drastic slowdown came after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued accounting guidance that would classify SPAC warrants as liabilities instead of equity instruments. Read more

Bank of England, HM Treasury establish new taskforce to explore digital currency - The two government authorities said they have not yet decided whether to issue a CBDC in the UK but will explore its use cases and risks. They will also evaluate the design features of a CBDC and monitor international CBDC developments to ensure the UK "remains at the forefront of global innovation." Read more

Affirm to buy Returnly for about $300m in cash, equity - San Francisco based Affirm announced that it has struck a deal to acquire Returnly, which deals with online returns and post-purchase payments. The deal comes as consumers have turned to eCommerce as never before, spurred on by the pandemic. Along with the boom, the number of eCommerce returns has skyrocketed, challenging both vendors and customers. Read more

Binance.US hires former bank regulator Brian Brooks as CEO - Brian Brooks, the former Coinbase executive who helmed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) under US President Donald Trump, will become CEO of Binance.US. After stepping down from the public sector on Jan. 14, 2021, crypto observers have been watching closely for where Brooks would land. In March, he joined the board of data-sharing startup Spring Labs. The Binance.US move is clearly far more significant. Read more

Facebook-backed Diem aims to launch digital currency pilot later this year - The Diem Association, the Switzerland-based nonprofit which oversees diem’s development, is aiming to launch a pilot with a single stablecoin pegged to the US dollar in 2021. The pilot will likely be small in scale, focusing largely on transactions between individual consumers. There may also be an option for users to buy goods and purchases, the person added. However, there is no confirmed date for the launch and timing could therefore change. Read more

Chile heads towards open finance regulation - With incoming open banking rules, Chile’s regulator aims to lay the foundations for collaboration between players in financial services. Read more

Mercado Pago’s digital accounts open new doors to Latam’s connected economy - Mercado Pago’s mission has been to ignite the ecosystem that MercadoLibre has built. The latest example of that ignition is the Mercado Pago Wallet, which according to reports, is favored by millennials and bridge millennials have adopted it en masse, using it at small merchants all over the nation in place of the cash once favored by everyone. Read more

Saudi Payments teams With IBM, Mastercard to launch instant payments - Saudi Arabia's Saudi Payments Network is teaming up with IBM and Mastercard to launch instant payments in the kingdom. The country’s new instant payments system — called "sarie" — aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and Saudi Arabia's Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP). Read more