Issue #348 - Understanding FinTech: From The Elon Effect To Klarna’s Physical Card Thursday, January 27th 2022 01:25AM

Elad Natanson, contributor at Forbes and expert of mobile and app economy, shares some interesting insights on what will be the mobile trends in 2022 - and fintech and AI will play a big role.

The pandemic also affected people’s financial confidence: according to Finfit, the fintech firm focused on financial wellness, only 19% of Americans feel confident in their financial abilities. But Finfit has 4 useful suggestions to boost your financial confidence.

On January 25th we witnessed again the “Elon Effect”: after the CEO of Tesla tweeted that he would eat a Happy Meal if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin, the meme coin slightly raised soon after, but that’s not all. McDonald’s, via its official Twitter account, responded that they will accept DOGE if Tesla accepts Grimacecoin. The result? A newly created meme coin inspired by the mascot of McDonald’s jumped 285,000% in less than one day.

■■■ Predictions! Predictions! Predictions! ■■■ FinTech & InsurTech Cologne /Bonn online meetup for founders, techies, VCs, consultants, freelancers in financial services.

The panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph took place on January 21st: experts think that DeFi will disrupt traditional CeFi systems, but it needs to be more easy-to-use and a little more regulated.

JPMorgan Chase continues with its strategy to stay competitive in the financial space: the last acquisition of the company is Viva Wallet, a Greek fintech. JPMorgan Chase acquired 49% of the payments firm.

This article considers an interesting point: do you exactly know what fintech-related terms mean? The Financial Brand takes into account 9 popular terms and explain them in more detail: Banking as a Service (BaaS); Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL); cryptocurrency; decentralized finance (DeFi); digital transformation; embedded finance; embedded fintech; financial health and platform banking.

The BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) system, today’s hot topic, can be one of the best moves for fintech. This system actually increases the number of sales for merchants and of purchases for people, but it’s important to avoid huge debts!

Tink, the open banking platform, confirmed that it is introducing the “Income Check” in the United Kingdom. Thanks to this tool, both banks and lending institutions can simplify the verification process by having access to real-time financial data related to users.

Klarna, the BNPL firm, launches a physical card that will allow UK users to delay payments - on both online and in-store purchases. It will be a Visa card, and it will include more payment options in the future, but at the beginning it will allow only the “Pay in 30” feature - that is, users can pay for their purchases within 30 days.

Enigma, the data provider, in cooperation with Customers Bancorp and Capital One Financial, developed a new company, Prime, a lending platform focused on small business. The company will offer software that will help banks to complete the lending process online.