Tearsheet's top financial services and fintech stories this week
We had a lot of coverage this week, including publishing our Guide to the Best in User Acquisition, Branding, and Marketing in Financial Services. Definitely check it out. Also, with geographic expansion, new product launches, and acquisitions, we likely won't be using the term Buy Now, Pay Later a year from now -- Zack Miller, editorOur top stories this past week
Our top stories this week
‘You have to take a lot of shots on net’: How Wave empowered entrepreneurs to survive and thrive during the crisisFour charts on crypto M&A and funding
More fintech firms are offering crypto rewards on debit and credit cardsWith banks no longer a go-to for consumers, personalized products may be a mustBehind Betterment’s partnership with Zenefits to give SMBs access to retirement planning
‘We were the biggest power user of our own system’: Wave’s Kirk Simpson on building and exiting a fintech startup
Looking to the future: Healthcare is the next frontier for Buy now, Pay later
‘The LuluLemon of credit cards’: Paceline launches a credit card that pays users for exercising
Data Snack: Empathetic banks grew revenue faster than non-empathetic banks (exclusive for Outlier members)
Download Tearsheet's Guide to the Best in User Acquisition, Branding, and Marketing in Financial Services
Tearsheet's Guide brings together what the top banks and challenger banks, payments firms, and fintech companies are doing to succeed in branding, marketing, product, and customer service in today's market.
Learn best practices from executives at firms like Square, PayPal, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Current, Step, Charles Schwab, Zelle, Shopify, MoneyLion, N26, Varo, Stash, Kabbage, and Tally.
Tearsheet's Guide to the Best in User Acquisition, Branding, and Marketing in Financial Services explores:
- How the market for new B2B and B2C financial services customers is changing
- The strategies and techniques top firms are using to bring in new prospects and work them through the funnel/pipeline
- The marketing channels that are working for banks to identify new prospects and onboard them
- The relationship between product and marketing and the feedback loop that powers innovation
- How customer service and success teams are working their ways up the value chain to help top firms grow
Wealthfront delivers on Self-Driving Money
Members of Tearsheet's Outlier Program receive short, impactful stories like this daily as part of their membership
Wealthfront launched the final set of features that make up the first version of Self-Driving Money. The idea is that the investment platform continues to roll out automated money management tools, from bill pay and budgeting to savings and investing.
With this features update, clients don't need to move money between multiple institutions and coordinate across clunky interfaces to grow their savings because Wealthfront can automate everything from end to end.
Clients who direct deposit into a Wealthfront Cash Account can have their cash flows continuously monitored to ensure that bills are paid and savings are instantly routed into the right investment accounts based on pre-set savings goals.
With the new features, clients can have Wealthfront organize their money into different savings buckets like an emergency fund, home down payment, and vacation fund. All money routing happens immediately and simultaneously across different account destinations.
Self Driving Money features are available to Wealthfront Cash Account holders with at least $1.
While some robo-advisors like Personal Capital expand a hybrid human/software model, Wealthfront is doubling down on its automation tools across the entire cashflow cycle. Other firms are also betting on automation to solve financial problems for their customers. Tally, for example, is a robo-advisor for paying off credit card debt. Digit is an automated savings tool that has moved into investing and paying off student loans.
What we're reading
Revolut is laying the groundwork for an expansion into India (CNBC)
BNPL firm Affirm acquires Returnly, an online returns and post-purchase payments specialist (PYMNTS)
JPMorgan's plan to reorganize European soccer spoke to the arrogance of anything-goes globalization (FT)
Tinkoff launches Russia's first BNPL payment service (Finextra)
Wealthfront delivers on Self-Driving Money (PR Newswire)
Challenger bank Starling goes from acquisition target to acquirer (Crowdfund Insider)
Is Green Banking a good strategy? (The Financial Brand)
Clearbanc rebrands its way into a unicorn (TechCrunch)
NYC’s Signature Bank will hold Circle's reserve deposits of USD Coin (PYMNTS)
MVB buys community banking software firm Trabian (Finextra)
How consumers prioritized debt payments during the pandemic (The Financial Brand)
A new twist on financing receivables: An inheritance cash advance (deBanked)
Marcus loses another exec as top management continues to head out the door (Banking Dive)
HSBC top brass forced to hot desk as HQ scraps executive floor (FT)
Affirm reveals that Buy Now, Pay Later accounted for record $24 billion in US consumer spending last year (Crowdfund Insider)
Investor group calls for banks to set tougher climate targets (Reuters)