The fintech soap opera that is the Synapse saga took another turn yesterday. We learned less than three weeks ago that TabaPay was acquiring Synapse out of bankruptcy. Now, that deal appears to have fallen apart as disagreements between Synapse, Evolve Bank and Trust and Mercury remain unresolved. Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly continues to break the news on this almost two-year-long saga, as he did again yesterday.  It is difficult to summarize in a sentence or two, given the complex machinations, but suffice it to say there is a dispute over the funding ..read more

Jifiti is quietly shaping the future of embedded finance by working strategically with banks to deliver personalized solutions. This will help them get their share of a pie expected to grow by 148% by 2028. Co-founder and CEO Jaacov Martin said Jifiti was founded more than a decade ago, initially to provide technology for retailers. Back then, clients paused when integration was discussed. That drove Martin and the team to provide the same functionality with minimal integration. They achieved it by building solutions on top of existing guardrails. The company saw success by working with large ..read more

As cybersecurity attacks against financial institutions continue to escalate, banks and other financial organizations must take proactive measures to protect themselves and their data. Here are three strategies they can use to guard against potential intrusions. A 2020 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) modeling the potential impact of a cyber attack on a single U.S. bank predicted troubling outcomes that still loom large in today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape. The model estimated that a one-day attack on a top 5 US bank would impact 38% of U.S. financial institutions ..read more

Enjoying our podcasts? Don’t miss out on future episodes! Please hit that subscribe button on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast platform to stay updated with our latest content. Thank you for your support! Caleb Avery, Founder & CEO of Tilled The payments processing space has seen a huge amount of innovation in the past decade, maybe more than any other area of fintech. This innovation has presented opportunities for non-fintech companies to earn a new revenue stream via payments processing, which in turn has created a new sub-niche for fintech companies ..read more

Upstart has been a trailblazer when it comes to using AI in lending. They were the first fintech lender to make it a core part of their offering. The company reported earnings this week and, as part of that process, disclosed that it had received a subpoena from the SEC back in November. We don’t have much more detail other than that it concerns disclosures, including its AI models and loans. Upstart has a history of engaging proactively with regulators around its AI models. It received a No Action Letter from the CFPB back in 2017 around its underwriting models. But there ..read more

Consumers love buy now pay later but sometimes they have challenges with the pay later part ..read more

Brazilian neobank Nubank made waves yesterday as it announced it reached 100 million customers across Latin America. This milestone made it the first digital bank outside of Asia, according to a securities filing, and cemented its reputation as a serious competitor to traditional banks in the region. The fintech phenomenon is spreading its influence throughout the continent, particularly in Brazil, where it has established its main business. In recent years, the company has been working to replicate this success in Colombia and Mexico, accelerating its operations in these markets. Recently, Nu ..read more

Affirm reported earnings before the bell this morning and, in the words of CEO Max Levchin on X, “In the parlance of our times, we slayed.” Yes, it was a terrific quarter, continuing the excellent run of earnings from the fintech sector so far this earnings season. Keep in mind that this was Affirm’s Q3 2024 earnings. as their fiscal year goes from July 1 to June 30. Solid Growth and Strategic Innovations Fuel Progress Affirm’s third fiscal quarter of 2024 marked another period of strong performance, setting a new benchmark for the company’s operational and financial metrics. As fintech contin ..read more

Nubank is a fintech phenomenon. The numbers speak for themselves. Today, the Brazilian digital bank announced that it has surpassed 100 million customers in the three countries it operates in: Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. It is the first digital bank outside of Asia to hit that milestone. The vast majority (92 million) are in Brazil, with 7 million in Mexico and 1 million in Colombia. What an amazing achievement.  But what is more remarkable is that even with this dramatic customer growth, the company is making money. And they are not just squeaking out a profit like many U.S ..read more

If a fintech firm with text data at their disposal is not using it to employ natural language processing models – a branch of artificial intelligence that teaches machines to understand, analyze, and generate human language – they are missing out. Natural language processing models or NLP can and should be employed regularly to assess a firm’s internal and external text material to understand the sentiments of the customers as well as those of employees.  It can also be used to identify important themes or business trends for the company to assess and integrate into their business strateg ..read more