Today In Payments: China Curtails Bank Loans; Plaid Launches New Income Verification Tool
In today’s top news, Chinese regulators have instructed banks to scale back loan amounts in 2021, and Plaid launched a new income verification tool. Plus, Amazon Alexa can now give users their health data from the fitness tracker Halo.
Bubble Fears Prompt China to Curtail Bank Loans
Chinese regulators are instructing banks to scale back loan amounts in 2021 to guard against risks that are starting to surface from bubbles in domestic financial markets.
Plaid Launches Tool to Streamline Income Verification
FinTech startup Plaid is introducing Plaid Income, a product intended to streamline the income verification process, making it easier for consumers to get loans, rent apartments and more.
Amazon Connects Alexa to Its Halo Fitness Device
Amazon’s fitness tracker Halo can now pair with Alexa smart speakers, giving users the ability to bypass checking the app and instead just ask about their latest body scan results or another health metric.
InsurTech Firms Take SPAC Path to Wall Street
SPACS are popular. InsurTech firms are popular. Increasingly, the combination is meeting on Wall Street, but the ride may not always be smooth in volatile markets.
Western Union CFO on Thinking Outside the Box to Digitize the Enterprise
Digitizing the enterprise isn’t merely about boosting back-office workflow efficiency. When done correctly, modernization efforts can propel the overall vision for enterprise growth. Western Union Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Raj Agrawal spoke with Karen Webster about the importance of communication, collaboration and thinking outside the box for CFOs.
FIS Bets on Digital Wallets To Change The POS Experience
In a Masterclass with Karen Webster, Dan Brames, executive vice president, head of North America merchant, FIS, notes that the point-of-sale experience is changing, moving toward a hybrid of physical store shopping with a full complement of digital offerings. And that’s opening the doors for digital wallets – but for the merchants seeking to give people what they want, strategy is everything.
Square’s Tidal Buy: Making Waves for Super App Sea Change?
Fresh on the heels of debuting its industrial bank, Square is taking an ownership stake in Jay-Z’s music platform Tidal. The acquisition could mean a continuum of services through a broad range of use cases. Might we be seeing the rise of a super app?