Fintech

Big Tech eases Ant’s march into public markets

15 September 2020

A long who’s who list, including Thailand’s richest man and China’s national pension fund, stand to clean up from Jack Ma’s fintech titan. Not long ago, a $200 bln IPO might have made public investors look like suckers. This number is less scary thanks to Apple and others.

What is Ant really worth?

9 September 2020

Key to the Chinese fintech giant’s success is its cut from lining up credit, insurance and wealth customers. Rivals could eat into those take rates and regulators loom large. For now, though, a Breakingviews calculator suggests a reasonable starting point would be about $275 bln.

Ant charts a course for Western banks and Big Tech

28 August 2020

The Chinese fintech sources consumer and small business loans, which it then passes on to lenders for a small fee. Amazon, Apple or Alphabet could conceivably do the same elsewhere. Banks would lose the customer relationship, but could also cut costs and piggyback on new data.

Investors launch Rocket IPO into high orbit

7 August 2020

The largest U.S. mortgage lender ended its first day as a public company worth $43 bln. It’s justified if its stellar second-quarter results are sustainable. But chances are the three months were an industry anomaly, meaning gravity will soon pull shareholders back down to earth.

Corona Capital: Pinterest, Tech heaven

31 July 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Pinterest offers a window into advertisers’ souls, while tech giants’ valuations soar.

Ant IPO puts Chinese bourses on collision course

20 July 2020

Jack Ma's $200 bln fintech group wants to list in Hong Kong and on Shanghai's hot STAR market. Ant can find global investors and hard currency in the former, and higher valuations in the latter. Having to share coveted tech listings, however, ups their rivalry several notches.

Wirecard’s red flags offer lessons for investors

20 July 2020

Shareholders couldn’t have known that $2 bln of the payments group’s cash was missing. But its seemingly unnecessary reliance on debt finance raised questions. A weak board and short-term executive pay packages were further warning signs. All three serve as a teachable moment.

Viewsroom: Wirecard, Hong Kong and Tesla

2 July 2020

The German fintech scandal shines a light on its hapless regulator; China’s new security law stinks up the fragrant harbor and Elon Musk hasn’t just surpassed Toyota in market value, he’s becoming as rich as Croesus. Breakingviews columnists around the world weigh in.

Fintech superstars face brutal financial comedown

3 June 2020

Digital banks like Chime and Monzo have millions of customers but are tackling their first big crisis with scant revenue. Online lenders from Kabbage to Klarna face rising defaults, less new business, and funding concerns. Valuations, business models, even survival, look shaky.

Corona Capital: Texas bank merger

26 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Texas Capital and Independent Bank ditched their almost $3 bln deal as Covid-19 played havoc with oil-and-gas loans. It is, at least, a mutual decision.

Alibaba’s health shift prescribes market medicine

6 March 2020

The e-commerce group is injecting assets into a healthcare subsidiary, now worth a punchy $25 bln. It’s a bet that the coronavirus will accelerate reforms, like opening China’s $370 bln drug industry to web retailers. Alibaba’s scale could deliver a potent treatment to investors.

Robinhood’s trading arrows turn into friendly fire

3 March 2020

Rivals like Schwab matched the startup’s chief appeal, and $7.6 bln valuation, by ditching fees. Now outages during frenetic markets are landing more blows. Valuable service can overcome glitches, as Twitter and Slack show. But Robinhood’s 10 mln customers have plenty of options.

Intuit shows how to tame a fintech unicorn

25 February 2020

The $75 bln owner of TurboTax will pay over $7 bln for finance portal Credit Karma. As personal finance gets disrupted, established firms are realizing they can either join in or stand aside. But the large sums at stake mean there’s no free lunch for consumers.

Revolut speeds towards a valuation paradox

25 February 2020

Nik Storonsky’s digi-bank is now worth $5.5 bln. To justify the price tag, he’ll need multiples of the $76 mln revenue it generated in 2018. Subscriptions for services like stock-trading help. But a lending push may eventually prompt investors to judge Revolut like a normal bank.

Fintech M&A shows bank disruption stuck in infancy

21 February 2020

LendingClub set out to upend retail finance by making small loans online. But like Radius, the digital bank it’s now buying, it’s still small fry. Sure, venture-capital funding for such upstarts is robust, but deep-pocketed incumbents like JPMorgan retain the upper hand.

Bank of England’s AI approach will toughen up

21 February 2020

UK finance has yet to face many restrictions on using artificial intelligence. But the technology brings risks as well as opportunities, the BoE’s fintech director told Breakingviews. A light-touch approach will change as machines make increasingly important financial decisions.

Hong Kong’s new banks will move fast, break things

3 February 2020

The city’s first digital-only bank, backed by insurer ZhongAn, is paying around 6% deposit interest. Similar promotions may come from newbies backed by Ant, Xiaomi, and others. The aggressive entrance suggests incumbents may lose revenue share fast to rich upstarts.

Flying cars are a cool solution to a tiny problem

23 January 2020

Toyota has pledged $394 mln to support aviation startup Joby; Geely and Hyundai are also dabbling. Technology advances have put commercialisation within reach, and regulators will slowly come to grips with the idea. The final frontier is finding actual customers.

UK’s $13 bln tech scene may already have peaked

15 January 2020

Startups in Britain raised 44% more money last year than in 2018. Relative to the size of its economy, UK technology investment now matches the U.S. A Brexit-induced talent squeeze, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s strategic pivot away from London, will cap future growth.

Buy now, pay later faces Juul-style backlash

24 December 2019

Companies offering the credit innovation say it can drive online sales and help retailers deal with refunds. One player, Klarna, is valued at $5.5 bln. But making it a lot easier to shop for free could prompt a reaction like that which befell the vaping heavyweight.