Mahi Sall, Advisor, Fintech-Bank Partnerships, Payments and Financial Inclusivity
January 25th, 2023
Mahi Sall is the CEO & Founder of FinXpair, a Berlin-based strategic advisory boutique firm focu[...]
A Regulation Revolution In Financial Services
Forbes | | Dec 2, 2018
If your professional interests take you to the crossroads of financial services, regulation, compliance, and digital - especially data analytics and machine learning - which altogether is known as regtech, you are in the right place. You are part of statistically small and very geek-oriented professional community, but you know this, and though you might choose not to admit this to strangers at this year's festive parties for fear of causing great pain by boredom, you are in good company with this Contributor and my interviewee.
I first met Jo Ann Barefoot when I was chairing the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Industry Sandbox Consultation, where she provided excellent guidance and insights. Jo Ann is one of the most dedicated and busiest advocates of the regtech space on the planet and is truly outstanding in both her knowledge and passion in this area.
She dedicates her time to a number of global bodies and initiatives related to regtech: she is a Senior Fellow Emerita at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government, a Senior Advisor to the Omidyar network, sits on the fintech advisory committee for FINRA, is an Executive Board Member of the International RegTech Association (IRTA), is a member of the Milken Institute U.S. FinTech Advisory Committee, and chairs the boards of the Center for Financial Services Innovation and FinRegLab.
See: Exploring cryptoasset regulation
A former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency and staff member at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, she is the CEO of Barefoot Innovation Group, the Co-Founder of Hummingbird Regtech, an angel investor, advises financial companies and governments worldwide, delivers a regular podcast with global industry specialists on RegTech, and if all of that is not enough, she is writing a book on financial innovation and regulation.
If you want to understand how technology and the digital revolution will impact regulation and compliance in financial services, Jo Ann Barefoot should be one of your global gotos.
Jo Ann is in London speaking at the RegTech Rising Summit this week so I took the opportunity to get her views on this often technical subject and get us excited about where retech is going.
Lawrence Wintermeyer: Jo Ann, you do a lot of work in the new field of “regtech.” Can you give us a simple definition of regtech, and tell us who is excited about it?
Jo Ann Barefoot: You’re right about the excitement, which is notable since most people don’t find financial regulation exciting. Something truly new is happening.
“Regtech” is new-generation technology that’s transforming financial regulation and compliance. The same technologies that are remaking everything else, like big data, artificial intelligence, blockchains, cloud computing and voice interface, are revolutionizing the regulatory realm too. They offer the tantalizing prospect of improving regulatory results and cutting costs, at the same time.
Both regulators and regtech firms are attacking pain points in the regulatory chain. Examples include creating “machine-readable” regulations; automating reporting interfaces to enable continuous monitoring of risk; using AI to scan securities market information for signs of misconduct; and equipping mobile phones with chatbots so consumers can report financial scams.
Wintermeyer: I know you’re a former bank regulator. How did you find yourself involved in the regtech space?
See: Crypto Bear Market Gives UK Regulators Breathing Space to Finalize Crypto Regulation
Barefoot: I’ve been a regulator, Senate staffer, and consultant. About five years ago, I started immersing in new technology, partly through a senior fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business and Government. I realized that current regulation is failing in areas like consumer protection and anti-money laundering and that new technology could do better. I now focus on helping convert financial regulation to “digitally-native” design, and I’ve co-founded a regtech firm, Hummingbird, which combats money laundering.
Wintermeyer: Anti-money laundering, or AML, is one of the most advanced regtech use cases, and the statistics are frankly shocking. The UN says we currently catch less than 1 percent of global financial crime because of technology which is out of date and unscalable. What are the most promising changes emerging?
Barefoot: AML is probably the most expensive and risky regulatory area for banks -- the industry spends at least $30 billion a year to catch that minuscule fraction of cases. And remember, the crimes funded with laundered money are violent -- terrorism and global trade in drugs, weapons, endangered animals, and human beings. A million children are trafficked every year. This is easy money, highly profitable, with low chance of being caught.
Technology can change that. Financial crimes have data typologies, distinctive patterns that become easy to spot if we can consolidate and analyze enough information. Today’s machine learning tools can find the patterns, while new encryption techniques can make it safe to share data much more widely while safeguarding privacy. Technology can also fix the AML “Know-Your-Customer” rules, which currently block millions of innocent people from financial access because they lack traditional identity documents. New digital identity techniques can screen nearly everyone, cheaply and accurately.
We have the technology to do all this well. We need to update the regulations.
Wintermeyer: Regulators currently seem preoccupied with decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges as platforms for money laundering and terrorist financing, which appear marginal next to what is going on in the real global banking system. Does regtech have a role to play here?
Barefoot: Crypto bedevils policymakers because it breaks the molds and because it’s mutating too fast for traditional regulation to keep up. Blockchains arguably have higher promise, and higher risk, than any other innovation except maybe AI. They can accelerate financial processes and reduce costs, whether by moving payments on the internet or enabling new ways to raise capital. Most regulators aim for a balance between over- and under-regulating, but the learning curve is daunting. The road will be bumpy.
Wintermeyer: There is a movement globally toward financial regulators adopting “regulatory sandboxes” to assess fintech innovation in products and processes. Will we soon see regtech sandboxes where regulators could experiment with new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchains? Will we see more regulatory sandboxes being launched by US regulators?
See: UK banks publish fintech collaboration toolkit
Barefoot: I hope so! Traditional regulatory change is slow. Technology change is fast, and accelerating. The widening gap between the two is loaded with risk for consumers, the financial system, and regulators themselves. One official has said that if regulators hold still today, they’re actually “accelerating backward.”
We can’t speed up regulatory change, soundly, unless regulators can learn faster, and that requires letting them do small-scale experimentation. Regulators throughout the world are creating sandboxes, greenhouses and reglabs: safe, risk-controlled spaces where they can try things out, study how new products and practices really work, and learn hands-on. In the US, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has launched a sandbox-type program, as has the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). All the federal US regulators and several states have innovation initiatives launched or planned. Most focus more on testing fintech than trying regtech, but both are coming.
Wintermeyer: You often highlight a remarkable initiative of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to test “machine-executable regulation” -- issuing some regulations in the form of computer code rather than words. Is this possible? If so, what changes will it bring?
Barefoot: The FCA is the world’s most innovative regulator and they’ve taken a breathtakingly creative step, running a test of whether some regulations could be issued in the form of code and become, in effect, self-implementing. That could drastically reduce compliance costs, mistakes, and time lags.
The experiment was held under an FCA-invented process called a “tech sprint,” which is essentially a hackathon. Experts in financial regulation and technology teamed up to translate a regulatory reporting requirement from words into code and run it against a set of test data. When the computer produced a correct report -- in ten seconds -- the participants jumped up and cheered. Think about that. When was the last time we saw banks and regulators cheering together?
Wintermeyer: US regulators participated in one of these FCA tech sprints this year, and I know some have regtech initiatives on the drawing board. What path do you see the US taking along with regtech?
See: 5 ways regulation can be a competitive advantage to British business
Barefoot: America has a uniquely fragmented regulatory structure which, for all its strengths, impedes innovation. We can’t readily change it, so we need to make it work better through more innovation and more interagency collaboration.
That’s happening. The Treasury Department issued a fintech report this year that calls on the federal financial agencies both to innovate and to coordinate. There’s a lot of momentum developing.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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CoinDesk | Nikhilesh De, Oliver Knight | March 22, 2023 Sushi DAO and Head Chef Jared Grey were served with a subpoena by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the decentralized autonomous organization revealed Tuesday. Grey proposed creating a "Sushi DAO Legal Defense Fund" in a forum post, saying it would "cover legal costs for core contributors." The proposal recommends making $3 million in tether (USDT) available for core contributors, with another $1 million worth of USDT available in case the initial $3 million are used up. The sushi token dropped 5.5% on the news. One of the initial comments on the forum post asked how the DAO known as Sushi was subpoenaed, with the user saying they did not receive it despite being a member of the DAO. "We’re cooperating with the SEC. We do not intend to comment publicly on ongoing investigations or other legal matters," the forum post said. Continue to the full article --> here The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to ...
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Exploding Topics | Josh Howarth | Jan 20, 2023 The fintech space is making fast strides across many financial sectors, including consumer and B2B. Fintech investment and consumer adoption are clearly on the rise. But to what extent? And where is this industry headed? This list has you covered with a wide range of key, up-to-date financial technology (fintech) statistics. Fintech Industry Size: The fintech industry is worth approximately $180 billion (Deloitte) Global fintech industry revenue has nearly doubled since 2017 (Deloitte) There are currently over 26,000 fintech startups worldwide. This figure has grown dramatically over the past few years (up from only around 12,000 fintech startups in 2019). See: KPMG: Canadian Fintech Investment Drops in 2022, Mentality Shift to ‘Sensible’ Growth Investment: Fintech industry investment has increased 3.5x since 2015 (KPMG) In 2012, investment in fintech totaled $4 billion. By the end of 2021, fintech investment reached $210 billion. Venture capital distributions by sector funding: #1 Capital markets $8.07 billion #2 Payments $6.03 billion #3 Wealth management $5.43 billion #4 Digital lending $3.97 billion #5 SMB $3.36 billion #6 Banking $3.27 billion #7 Real estate $2.42 billion #8 Insurance $2.30 billion Adoption: 90% of Chinese citizens use fintech banking, ...
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CFPB | Mar 15, 2023 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a request for information on “data brokers,” “an umbrella term to describe firms that collect, aggregate, sell, resell, license, or otherwise share consumers’ personal information with other parties. See: Davos: Cooperation in a Fragmented World: In Data We Trust The CFPB is looking to better understand the “scope and breadth of data brokers’ business practices and the impact of those practices on the marketplace and peoples’ daily lives,” especially in relation to credit reporting and the requirements and intentions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Continue to view the announcement --> here Download the 13 page PDF RIF --> here The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech ...
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Reuters | Stefania Spezzati, Oliver Hirt and John O'Donnell | Mar 19, 2023 Move follows Swiss rescue of Credit Suisse and signals depth of concern over the global financial system Some of the world’s largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal. UBS will pay 3 billion Swiss francs (US$3.23 billion) for 167-year-old Credit Suisse and assume up to US$5.4 billion in losses in a deal backed by a massive Swiss guarantee and expected to close by the end of 2023. Soon after the announcement late on March 19, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, European Central Bank and other major central banks came out with statements to reassure markets that have been walloped by a banking crisis that started with the collapse of two regional U.S. banks earlier this month. The Fed said it had joined with central banks in Canada, England, Japan, the EU and Switzerland in a coordinated action to enhance market liquidity. The banks said they would start offering daily loans in dollars to their banks to avert stress in ...
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Stripe | March 15, 2023 Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, today announced OpenAI has chosen Stripe to power payments as it moves to commercialize its groundbreaking ChatGPT and DALL·E generative AI technologies. Powering OpenAI with Stripe: OpenAI is working with Stripe to commercialize its generative AI technology. Using Stripe’s suite of products, OpenAI was able to launch a global payments system for multiple product lines in a matter of weeks. See: Human vs Machine’s Tug-of-War: Stockmarket Automation Lessons GPT-3: Stripe has long used artificial intelligence to enhance its products and experiences for users, including to help users manage fraud and increase conversion rates. Last year, Stripe worked with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI team to implement GPT-3 for Stripe Support, which is helping agents identify quicker resolution paths for the many users they interact with each week. Seventy-five percent of the leading generative AI companies have signed up with Stripe to go to market quickly, scale with compliance in mind, and bring their products to many more users worldwide. They include OpenAI, Runway, Diagram, and Moonbeam. GPT-4: After joining the GPT-4 beta in January, Stripe identified a range of ways to use the technology to streamline operations and help users ...
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March 18, 2023 Starting a business from scratch can be an extremely daunting and burdensome process, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs. Fortunately, there is another option – franchising. Franchising provides many advantages such as buying into an established system with proven success metrics and reduced risk of failure due to training, support systems, and brand recognition. Before taking the leap into becoming part of a franchise, however, it’s important to thoroughly research the market to ensure you get the best value out of your chosen opportunity. Here we will explore some key steps in researching the market for a franchise opportunity so that you can make informed decisions about what kind of venture you want to undertake. Identify the Local Market for Your Potential Franchise Identification of the local market for a potential franchise is an essential step in the research process. Aspiring entrepreneurs should take time to consider the characteristics of their area, including economic and demographic trends, the competitiveness of the industry they are considering entering, and consumer behavior. Knowledgeable entrepreneurs should come to fully understand the needs of their prospective customers and how those needs compare to existing offerings within the market. It is important to become comfortable ...
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The Globe and Mail | Tim Kiladze and Stefanie Marotta | March 17, 2023 The United States’ largest financial institutions have agreed to deposit US$30-billion in First Republic Bank, an unconventional private-sector rescue designed to shore up confidence in the financial system and contain an emerging crisis. The agreement was brokered by the U.S. government, but is funded by 11 of the country’s largest lenders and investment banks. Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, known as the Big Four U.S. banks, are leading the effort with US$5-billion each. It is an unusual approach. The banks appear keen on testing mechanisms that aren’t as extreme as full-blown takeovers. San Francisco-based First Republic is caught in the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last Friday. Its shares have plummeted as much as 70 per cent over the past week. Much like SVB, First Republic has not reported any sudden loan losses or writedowns. But clients nervous about its stability have been pulling deposits and transferring them to larger institutions, something known as a flight to quality. See: European Regulators Condemn US ‘incompetence’ in SVB Collapse The U.S. government has already insured all deposits at SVB and Silvergate Bank, ...
Read More
Fintech.ca | Knowlton Thomas | Mar 15, 2023 Several startups are at the forefront of “rent reporting” in Canada. Many also offer other features that aim to help renting Canadians gain a financial edge toward homeownership. Zenbase: Zenbase was founded with the vision of “becoming a trusted partner in managing household finances while eliminating late fees and predatory financing.” One of the primary features of Zenbase’s flexible platform is allowing users to split their rent into two payments, saving on stress and avoiding overdraft or late fees. Last year, Zenbase secured $4 million in seed funding in a round led by Global Founders Capital. Chexy: Launched in 2021, Chexy was the first Canadian payments experience that afforded tenants the possibility of paying home rent via plastic card. Users get cash-back and other rewards from spending on a card—both on rent and at Chexy partner brands—while also building credit. Chexy believes building credit through rent is an important step toward home ownership. See: Halal Mortgages Emerging in Canada’s Housing Market Requity Homes: Founded in 2020, Toronto-based real estate platform Requity Homes operates a rent-to-own program that empowers Canadians to get one step closer to home ownership by allowing them to rent and save for their dream home ...
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FT | March 16 Europe’s financial regulators are furious at the handling of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, privately accusing US authorities of tearing up a rule book for failed banks that they had helped to write. While the disapproval has yet to be conveyed in a formal setting, some of the region’s top policymakers are seething over the decision to cover all depositors at SVB, fearing it will undermine a globally agreed regime. One senior eurozone official described their shock at the “total and utter incompetence” of US authorities, particularly after a decade and a half of “long and boring meetings” with Americans advocating an end to bailouts. Europe’s supervisors are particularly irate at the US decision to break with its own standard of guaranteeing only the first $250,000 of deposits by invoking a “systemic risk exception” — despite claiming the California-based lender was too small to face rules aimed at preventing a rerun of the 2008 global financial crisis. A former senior UK policymaker who helped negotiate global standards for bank resolution described the SVB handling as a “disaster”. See: Superintendent of Financial Institutions took further action on the Silicon Valley Bank Canadian Branch While the Federal Reserve ...
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CoinDesk | Nikhilesh De, Oliver Knight | March 22, 2023 Sushi DAO and Head Chef Jared Grey were served with a subpoena by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the decentralized autonomous organization revealed Tuesday. Grey proposed creating a "Sushi DAO Legal Defense Fund" in a forum post, saying it would "cover legal costs for core contributors." The proposal recommends making $3 million in tether (USDT) available for core contributors, with another $1 million worth of USDT available in case the initial $3 million are used up. The sushi token dropped 5.5% on the news. One of the initial comments on the forum post asked how the DAO known as Sushi was subpoenaed, with the user saying they did not receive it despite being a member of the DAO. "We’re cooperating with the SEC. We do not intend to comment publicly on ongoing investigations or other legal matters," the forum post said. Continue to the full article --> here The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to ...
Read More
Read More
Exploding Topics | Josh Howarth | Jan 20, 2023 The fintech space is making fast strides across many financial sectors, including consumer and B2B. Fintech investment and consumer adoption are clearly on the rise. But to what extent? And where is this industry headed? This list has you covered with a wide range of key, up-to-date financial technology (fintech) statistics. Fintech Industry Size: The fintech industry is worth approximately $180 billion (Deloitte) Global fintech industry revenue has nearly doubled since 2017 (Deloitte) There are currently over 26,000 fintech startups worldwide. This figure has grown dramatically over the past few years (up from only around 12,000 fintech startups in 2019). See: KPMG: Canadian Fintech Investment Drops in 2022, Mentality Shift to ‘Sensible’ Growth Investment: Fintech industry investment has increased 3.5x since 2015 (KPMG) In 2012, investment in fintech totaled $4 billion. By the end of 2021, fintech investment reached $210 billion. Venture capital distributions by sector funding: #1 Capital markets $8.07 billion #2 Payments $6.03 billion #3 Wealth management $5.43 billion #4 Digital lending $3.97 billion #5 SMB $3.36 billion #6 Banking $3.27 billion #7 Real estate $2.42 billion #8 Insurance $2.30 billion Adoption: 90% of Chinese citizens use fintech banking, ...
Read More
Read More
CFPB | Mar 15, 2023 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a request for information on “data brokers,” “an umbrella term to describe firms that collect, aggregate, sell, resell, license, or otherwise share consumers’ personal information with other parties. See: Davos: Cooperation in a Fragmented World: In Data We Trust The CFPB is looking to better understand the “scope and breadth of data brokers’ business practices and the impact of those practices on the marketplace and peoples’ daily lives,” especially in relation to credit reporting and the requirements and intentions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Continue to view the announcement --> here Download the 13 page PDF RIF --> here The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech ...
Read More
Read More
Reuters | Stefania Spezzati, Oliver Hirt and John O'Donnell | Mar 19, 2023 Move follows Swiss rescue of Credit Suisse and signals depth of concern over the global financial system Some of the world’s largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal. UBS will pay 3 billion Swiss francs (US$3.23 billion) for 167-year-old Credit Suisse and assume up to US$5.4 billion in losses in a deal backed by a massive Swiss guarantee and expected to close by the end of 2023. Soon after the announcement late on March 19, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, European Central Bank and other major central banks came out with statements to reassure markets that have been walloped by a banking crisis that started with the collapse of two regional U.S. banks earlier this month. The Fed said it had joined with central banks in Canada, England, Japan, the EU and Switzerland in a coordinated action to enhance market liquidity. The banks said they would start offering daily loans in dollars to their banks to avert stress in ...
Read More
Read More
Stripe | March 15, 2023 Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, today announced OpenAI has chosen Stripe to power payments as it moves to commercialize its groundbreaking ChatGPT and DALL·E generative AI technologies. Powering OpenAI with Stripe: OpenAI is working with Stripe to commercialize its generative AI technology. Using Stripe’s suite of products, OpenAI was able to launch a global payments system for multiple product lines in a matter of weeks. See: Human vs Machine’s Tug-of-War: Stockmarket Automation Lessons GPT-3: Stripe has long used artificial intelligence to enhance its products and experiences for users, including to help users manage fraud and increase conversion rates. Last year, Stripe worked with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI team to implement GPT-3 for Stripe Support, which is helping agents identify quicker resolution paths for the many users they interact with each week. Seventy-five percent of the leading generative AI companies have signed up with Stripe to go to market quickly, scale with compliance in mind, and bring their products to many more users worldwide. They include OpenAI, Runway, Diagram, and Moonbeam. GPT-4: After joining the GPT-4 beta in January, Stripe identified a range of ways to use the technology to streamline operations and help users ...
Read More
Read More
March 20, 2023 Cloud-based solutions utilize live data analysis to equip your HR managers with vital resources that can enhance staff involvement. These solutions also enable your HR team to create personalized development plans for each employee, empowering them to take ownership of their career paths and achieve their professional goals. Incorporating the following cloud-based solutions in your HR department can significantly improve employee satisfaction and boost company performance. This article will examine 5 cloud-based solutions to help HR leverage employee engagement: 1. Video conferencing tools Video conferencing tools are cloud-based solutions that have become increasingly popular as organizations look for ways to improve and maintain employee engagement and collaboration in remote work environments. These tools effectively allow your HR department to connect with employees regardless of location, enabling better communication, engagement and teamwork. They also allow the HR team to hold meetings, conduct interviews, and even organize virtual events, such as team-building activities, without being in the same physical location. These tools can enable you to easily communicate updates on company policies and procedures, discuss career development opportunities, and offer feedback on employee performance. 2. Digital signage software Cloud-based digital signage involves utilizing a digital signage system hosted on ...
Read More
Read More
March 18, 2023 Starting a business from scratch can be an extremely daunting and burdensome process, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs. Fortunately, there is another option – franchising. Franchising provides many advantages such as buying into an established system with proven success metrics and reduced risk of failure due to training, support systems, and brand recognition. Before taking the leap into becoming part of a franchise, however, it’s important to thoroughly research the market to ensure you get the best value out of your chosen opportunity. Here we will explore some key steps in researching the market for a franchise opportunity so that you can make informed decisions about what kind of venture you want to undertake. Identify the Local Market for Your Potential Franchise Identification of the local market for a potential franchise is an essential step in the research process. Aspiring entrepreneurs should take time to consider the characteristics of their area, including economic and demographic trends, the competitiveness of the industry they are considering entering, and consumer behavior. Knowledgeable entrepreneurs should come to fully understand the needs of their prospective customers and how those needs compare to existing offerings within the market. It is important to become comfortable ...
Read More
Read More
The Globe and Mail | Tim Kiladze and Stefanie Marotta | March 17, 2023 The United States’ largest financial institutions have agreed to deposit US$30-billion in First Republic Bank, an unconventional private-sector rescue designed to shore up confidence in the financial system and contain an emerging crisis. The agreement was brokered by the U.S. government, but is funded by 11 of the country’s largest lenders and investment banks. Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, known as the Big Four U.S. banks, are leading the effort with US$5-billion each. It is an unusual approach. The banks appear keen on testing mechanisms that aren’t as extreme as full-blown takeovers. San Francisco-based First Republic is caught in the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last Friday. Its shares have plummeted as much as 70 per cent over the past week. Much like SVB, First Republic has not reported any sudden loan losses or writedowns. But clients nervous about its stability have been pulling deposits and transferring them to larger institutions, something known as a flight to quality. See: European Regulators Condemn US ‘incompetence’ in SVB Collapse The U.S. government has already insured all deposits at SVB and Silvergate Bank, ...
Read More
Read More
Fintech.ca | Knowlton Thomas | Mar 15, 2023 Several startups are at the forefront of “rent reporting” in Canada. Many also offer other features that aim to help renting Canadians gain a financial edge toward homeownership. Zenbase: Zenbase was founded with the vision of “becoming a trusted partner in managing household finances while eliminating late fees and predatory financing.” One of the primary features of Zenbase’s flexible platform is allowing users to split their rent into two payments, saving on stress and avoiding overdraft or late fees. Last year, Zenbase secured $4 million in seed funding in a round led by Global Founders Capital. Chexy: Launched in 2021, Chexy was the first Canadian payments experience that afforded tenants the possibility of paying home rent via plastic card. Users get cash-back and other rewards from spending on a card—both on rent and at Chexy partner brands—while also building credit. Chexy believes building credit through rent is an important step toward home ownership. See: Halal Mortgages Emerging in Canada’s Housing Market Requity Homes: Founded in 2020, Toronto-based real estate platform Requity Homes operates a rent-to-own program that empowers Canadians to get one step closer to home ownership by allowing them to rent and save for their dream home ...
Read More
Read More
FT | March 16 Europe’s financial regulators are furious at the handling of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, privately accusing US authorities of tearing up a rule book for failed banks that they had helped to write. While the disapproval has yet to be conveyed in a formal setting, some of the region’s top policymakers are seething over the decision to cover all depositors at SVB, fearing it will undermine a globally agreed regime. One senior eurozone official described their shock at the “total and utter incompetence” of US authorities, particularly after a decade and a half of “long and boring meetings” with Americans advocating an end to bailouts. Europe’s supervisors are particularly irate at the US decision to break with its own standard of guaranteeing only the first $250,000 of deposits by invoking a “systemic risk exception” — despite claiming the California-based lender was too small to face rules aimed at preventing a rerun of the 2008 global financial crisis. A former senior UK policymaker who helped negotiate global standards for bank resolution described the SVB handling as a “disaster”. See: Superintendent of Financial Institutions took further action on the Silicon Valley Bank Canadian Branch While the Federal Reserve ...
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