What’d I miss? News and Insights that got noticed - Week 39

Key themes this week (September 22 - 28)

• Atom bank to measure climate impact on mortgage book
• Chase digital bank to ban crypto payments for UK customers
• 80% of Americans See Savings Decline Since Pandemic Peak
• Apple Wallet app can now show current account balances from UK banks

Atom bank to measure climate impact on mortgage book

"...Atom has pledged to become a carbon positive bank by 2035. The partnership with Kamma involves a deep review of the mortgage portfolio and the development of new propositions and products to benchmark and reduce emissions.”

Key takeaways:

• Kamma's product suite uses modelling, address matching and analytics to offer a view on the climate profile of UK property
• Edward Twiddy says: “Too much lending has been done by banks that has not taken account of the impact we are having on the climate, and it is important that this is changing. As a digital bank, we will use the best technology available to ensure we accurately measure emissions, understand risk and then help our customers to reduce their bills, increase the value of their property and be ready for a zero carbon future."

LinkedIn Post

Chase digital bank to ban crypto payments for UK customers

"...In an email reported by CoinDesk, Chase U.K. told customers, “If we think you’re making a payment related to crypto assets, we’ll decline it.” Customers can use a different bank for their crypto transactions, the email said.”

Key takeaways:

• Other U.K. banks imposed bans on crypto transactions earlier this year, citing fraud and volatility?
• As part of its reasoning, Chase warned U.K. customers Tuesday that “fraudsters are increasingly using crypto assets to steal large sums of money from people.”

LinkedIn Post

80% of Americans See Savings Decline Since Pandemic Peak

"...Most Americans are reportedly facing financial challenges as their pandemic savings have dwindled. Beyond the wealthiest 20% of the U.S., Americans have depleted their extra savings and now have less cash on hand than they did when the pandemic began, Bloomberg reported Monday (Sept. 25), citing figures from the Federal Reserve."

Key takeaways:

• 80% of households by income have seen a decline in their bank deposits and liquid assets since the peak of the pandemic in 2021, after adjusting for inflation?
• The increase in household net worth by approximately $5.5 trillion in the April-June period, reaching a record high, was largely driven by gains in housing and stocks
• The savings American consumers accumulated during the pandemic — which at one point topped $2 trillion — are expected to run out this quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said in a study released in August

LinkedIn Post

Apple Wallet app can now show current account balances from UK banks

"...Apple is soft launching a new iPhone Wallet app integration today that is powered by the United Kingdom’s Open Banking API. The Wallet app will now be able to show the user’s current account balance from their bank, as well as a history of deposits and payments."

Key takeaways:

• The balances will also be shown inline when buying something with Apple Pay, helping users be more financially aware about whether they can responsibly afford the purchase
• This integration is rolling out first as part of the upcoming iOS 17.1 developer beta. It will be available to a subset of Wallet app users in the UK, who have an Apple Pay card associated with a supporting bank
• Supporting banks in this initial rollout include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Monzo, and Starling

LinkedIn Post

Keeping track of multiple BNPL loans? There’s an app for that

“…Cushion CEO Paul Kesserwani felt overwhelmed when he tried to keep track of several BNPL loans at once, so he shifted his fintech’s focus to help others in the same boat."

Key takeaways:

• Following his first foray into BNPL customership, Kesserwani and his team dove into Cushion’s customer data and found out that customers were leaning heavily on BNPL, not just for large one-time purchases but to finance DoorDash meals, Uber rides and grocery lists
• The average BNPL customer has four concurrent BNPL loans, according to Bankrate. And, according to data released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank this week, many BNPL customers are “financially fragile” – meaning if they had to come up with $2,000 in the next month, they couldn’t do it
• “As [bill pay] is getting more complicated, consumers are making more mistakes,” he said. “[We decided to] focus on consumer bill pay — and in that, let’s really focus on a solution for this BNPL era.”

LinkedIn Post

New guidance encourages banks to define a fintech’s maturity level

"...Banks entering into a third-party partnership with a fintech need to define the maturity level of the potential partner and craft a flexible governance and control framework that adapts to the various growth stages of the firm. That’s according to new guidance released by the Alloy Labs Alliance, a bank technology consortium comprised of community and mid-size institutions."

Key takeaways:

• The guidance, which was created by sourcing feedback from a dozen of the consortium’s member banks in addition to input from consulting firm Crowe LLP, promotes the use of a risk management framework called the minimal acceptable maturity model
• The model aims to give firms an idea of how risk-management oversight from the partnering bank may change or evolve as the fintech’s maturity develops
• The guidance comes as regulators have stepped up their scrutiny of bank-fintech partnerships

LinkedIn Post

Check this out:

Preparing for compliance with Dodd-Frank Section 1071 can have an immediate payoff for financial institutions — early recognition of potential issues that can be mitigated and measured before the CFPB's rule goes into effect. https://hubs.li/Q023sP2h0

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