Issue #399 - Top Banks, Fintechs & Recession January 19th, 2023

Economists surveyed during the World Economic Forum (WEF - Davos) all predict a recession this year. Among the many dramatic events that occurred during the past few years, maybe the most unexpected was the pandemic - as the CEO of Palantir Technologies said. Despite this, Alex Karp said that the company is planning to hire new professionals.

JPMorgan Chase showed strong earnings, but the banking sector is not so strong to prevent the fall of stocks of top banks. In fact, despite JPMorgan Chase being the strongest financial institution in the US, CEO and chairman Jamie Dimon said that the sector should prepare for recession.

The same works for Morgan Stanley. Mike Wilson affirmed that even if many investors know that we are close to a recession, they don’t seem to really care about that. The CIO said the banking sector should be ready to face the recession and earnings need a dramatic adjustment.

Despite the domino effect created by the fall of FTX, Bitcoin wants to leave this dramatic event behind. Consensus around a stable increase in price is still in doubt, but it is important to note that the cryptocurrency has surpassed some key levels.

Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady appeared, less than one year ago, in the Super Bowl ads for FTX. Now we know that the two were actually some of the biggest investors in FTX, and it is extremely likely that they will lose their money – like other holders.

Differently from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs – another top financial institution – posted its worst earning rewards in ten years. According to experts, reports on earnings were even worse than expected.

Tony Yates, former professor of economics and adviser at the Bank of England, shares his opinions on why central banks should stop working on CBDC – Central Bank Digital Currencies. While China and the UK are working on these digital financial assets, the crypto world doesn’t seem currently stable.

N26, the challenger banker, doesn’t seem to be afraid of the crypto turmoil. In the past year, the bank launched its crypto trading service in Austria, and it’s now ready to offer this opportunity also to its customers in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland, and Belgium. Customers can seamlessly invest in almost 200 cryptocurrencies via the N26 app.

CoreDAO, after the successful launch of its mainnet, is not close to releasing more information on its next airdrop. Core DAO is the decentralized autonomous organization behind the Satoshi Plus ecosystem, which offers miners new income opportunities.

The stocks of Wise, one of the most popular fintech companies, are down again, as shown by the reports produced at the end of 2022. Investors are facing one question: is it a normal downtrend or it’s the beginning of the fall?

Revolut, after the criticisms that hit the company, is assembling a new team of professionals to track the behavior of the entire staff. In fact, some of the criticisms were related to an aggressive corporate culture within the company.