Partnerships continued to drive the industry, with utility gaining traction. Government interventions showed up as usual, and upstarts upended the regular flow.
Headlines to take note of:
- S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketAxess boosted the fixed-income markets with a collaboration;
- BNY Mellon was back again with product upgrades;
- Charles Schwab followed in the steps of the NYSE by extending trading hours;
- Franklin Templeton enabled access to its FOBXX on the Base network;
- Plus, Visa launched (yet) another virtual card integration for wallets;
- And much more!
Of course, it’s your week in digital wealth!
Wealthtech, Regtech, Regulatory, and Treasury
S&P Global Market Intelligence/MarketAxess
MarketAxess and S&P Global Market Intelligence revealed their partnership to optimize and improve fixed income clarity. The move integrates S&P Global’s bond reference data with the MarketAxess ecosystem.
Additionally, the MarketAxess pricing offering is now part of S&P Global’s bond pricing portfolio.
BNY Mellon
In related news, BNY introduced upgrades to its iFlow solution. iFlow now has enhanced equity and fixed-income data analytics. The product also has two new indicators.
iFlow Holdings provides insights into investor market behavior, while iFlow Shorts focuses on borrowing and lending activities.
Charles Schwab Corp.
Boutique broker Charles Schwab pushed things further with the revelation of 247 trading plans. According to an October 30 Reuters report, the move will include stocks on major indices.
Schwab plans to add ETFs within two weeks.
Clearwater Analytics/Snowflake
AI-focused Snowflake and Clearwater Analytics announced their partnership. The collaboration optimizes access to investment data within Snowflake’s “AI Data Cloud.”
Moreover, the cooperation integrates Snowflake’s offerings with Clearwater’s ecosystem, including its Prism solution.
Crypto, Blockchain, and Digital Assets
Coinstar/Zero Hash
Crypto self-service firm Coinstar and blockchain infrastructure company Zero Hash joined forces to provide access to cryptocurrency tokens and stablecoins across the United States. The collaboration introduced CINQ (by Coinstar), a fiat-to-crypto onramp.
Additionally, the functionality is available in 9,500 of Coinstar’s 17,000+ kiosk network.
Franklin Templeton/Base Blockchain
Investment giant Franklin Templeton announced the availability of its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on the Base network. The move makes it the first asset manager to deploy on Base.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
According to a recent IRS memo, received digital assets are taxable from the first year of receipt, even if the token holders’ accounts are frozen. The fair value of the required tax is based on the value of the received tokens on the date the assets were sent.
Consequently, uncredited rewards such as locked-in assets are exempt.
Fintech, Personal Finance, and Apps
Moves by Visa (now) enables virtual card deployments across ecosystems. Payments via virtual cards are now seamless within different platforms, including Google Pay and Apple Pay.
In addition, the push-to-wallet functionality has personalized options, including spending controls and improved security.
Extend Enterprises
Similarly, the virtual card ecosystem Extend introduced a new feature to its ecosystem. Bill Pay allows for specific invoice payments via the Extend platform.
Furthermore, multiple vendor payments are now possible with virtual cards.
At the recently concluded Money 2020 event, card-issuing platform Marqeta launched Marqeta Flex, its latest offering that offers several options, including Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) functionality. The new solutions have several features, including personalized solutions, flexible payment integrations, multiple provider access, and more.
Marqeta developed the solution in partnership with Affirm, Branch, and Klarna.
Spend-focused FinQuery revealed the addition of prepaid and accrual functionality to its FinQuery Contract Management (FCM) solution. The inclusion enables businesses to automate contract-focused expenses, including utilities, short-term leases, and services.
Banking, Payments, and Infrastructure
Citi/Google Cloud
Banking behemoth Citi teamed up with Google Cloud for an infrastructure upgrade. The multi-year partnership includes migrations and integration with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI solution.
In related news, Citi introduced “Citi Digital Bill (CDB),” a receivable offering that changes the trade game. CDB digitizes the Bill of Exchange (BoE) process but does not have instrument functionality per contract laws.
J.P. Morgan Payments/ValidiFI, Inc.
Payment-focused ValidiFI collaborated with J.P. Morgan Payments to enable account verifications, providing businesses with secure validation services.
Moreover, SMBs have improved insights via ValidiFI’s vAccount+ offering.
Boutique Fintech Entrust launched its end-to-end banking software solution. The offering provides FIs with secure options.
Additionally, the product comes with AI-powered fraud detection capabilities, including identity verification and deepfake detection.
Businesses now have improved credit options thanks to a partnership between Lumin Digital and niche Fintech upSWOT. The collaboration integrates upSWOT’s credit-focused solutions across Lumin’s ecosystem.
Furthermore, upSWOT revealed upcoming additions to its portfolio, including tax, payments, and accounts reconciliation integrations.
REtech, Insurtech and Investing
Niche Insurtech SimplePin and DocuSign took the industry by storm with an integration that digitizes the entire documentation process. The collaboration deploys DocuSign’s platform alongside SimplePin’s automation capabilities.
The collaboration also streamlines payment processes.
Lender Price
Boutique REtech Lender Price introduced “Artificial Intelligence Loan Assistant (AILA),” an automated pricing offering. The offering is an AI-powered mortgage loan assistant that gives brokers and lenders the required edge to close transactions.
AILA has several features, including one-click selections, personalized loans, questions-based queries, and human takeover capabilities.
Industry star Bolt bolstered its offerings via an integration with Salesforce. The partnership deploys the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud across Bolt’s ecosystem.
Furthermore, Bolt’s Data Marketplace has other integrations with Salesforce, improving quote questionnaire data entries.
Broker Insights
Dundee, United Kingdom-based Broker Insights announced the launch of its Vision offering in the United States. The expansion followed comprehensive R&D activities.
Additionally, Bold analyzed almost $1 billion of gross written premiums (GWP) during the transition process.
