Your weekly resource for noteworthy news, fascinating features, and fintech titbits that caught our eye. Whether you live by your Twitter lists, save your Google Alerts or simply scroll through LinkedIn for insights and commentary – there is a wealth of content that weaves a global story around fintech.
Our job at Fintech Talents is to work within that global story – finding the news items, conventional wisdoms and hard data that aids us in bringing the industry the best content, community and experiences in the business. This week’s FTT Bookmark of timely resources and real time conversations that are shaping fintech is brought to you by VC Innovations, Product and Content Manager, Laura Camplisson.
This week featured gamification, glitches, green finance and the future of work in the financial sector.
Chase Bank glitch makes ‘lucky’ customers billionaires overnight
A couple in Louisiana briefly became the 25th richest people on earth, after a technical glitch at Chase Bank left them with $50 billion in their account. Darren James and his wife found themselves momentarily living the dream when they became the world’s fastest billionaires. Of course it was not long until Chase Bank corrected the error, which a spokesperson put down to “a technical glitch.”
I think Mr. James just about summed it up when speaking to CNN. He said, “That’s not like a one zero error or a two zero error, that’s somebody that fell asleep on the keyboard error.”
He’s right, you do have to wonder how on earth this happened and Chase weren’t exactly forthcoming with an answer. What’s really concerning is the James’ weren’t the only customers to see mystery amounts appear in their accounts due to the apparent system bug.
At least they had less of a scare than those who found their money appeared to have disappeared – most notably the customer who documented her shock on TikTok when she found her account was $50 billion overdrawn.
Chase will open digital services in the UK shortly and after this story I can’t decide if I’ll be right at the front of the queue or staying well clear. Mr. James did say being a Billionaire was a “cool feeling” – even if it was short lived!
A win for gamification?
Revolut banking customers could also be in with the chance of coming into some unexpected funds. Not through a technical glitch this time, but by winning cash prizes in the Neobank’s new weekly lottery!
In a gamification initiative, Revolut announced its customers can now earn points for making transactions, sending money, referring friends, buying crypto and setting up vaults. The points count as entries into weekly cash prize draws, with a chance to win up to £10k.
In an increasingly crowded fintech landscape, companies have to fight hard for consumer’s attention and gamification has been seen as one way to tackle this. It’s no secret though that its a strategy which has caused some controversy – the recent announcement that trading app Robinhood will remove its digital confetti for example. The celebratory confetti filled Robinhood user’s screens when they reached investment milestones, but critics felt this was an attempt at gamification used to attract inexperienced investors.
The Revolut points system seems quite a lot more attractive than digital confetti, so it will be interesting to see how it is received. Particularly given one of the ways to earn points is through buying crypto:
Revolut just introduced a points system, rewarding its users for buying crypto. pic.twitter.com/Tm9f5Gmq3H
— Tim Copeland (@Timccopeland) July 1, 2021
Will Britain be a world leader for low carbon finance?
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined a roadmap for the future of financial services, with big plans for green finance. He announced a £15 billion programme of government funding for projects like zero-emissions buses, offshore wind farms and schemes to decarbonise homes and buildings.
A green savings bond for UK consumers will also be launched, to help fund infrastructure schemes and create more ‘green jobs’ across the UK. While the Government will also work with the Financial Conduct Authority to create a sustainable investment label, so consumers can compare the environmental impacts of their investments.
Good news on #ESG from UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak. His road map to reform cap mkts includes the creation of a new sustainable investment label – a quality stamp so that consumers can compare the impacts / sustainability of their investments https://t.co/37mNybfD2e @Finextra
— Claire Calmejane (@ccalmeja) July 3, 2021
Not everyone was so impressed however, with critic’s objections ranging from $15 billion being no where near enough investment, to wanting a lot more detail about where the funds were going – was it to be spent on cycling infrastructure or flying taxis?
I have to say, while I agree the UK should and could become a leader in Green Finance, I’m not so sure these reforms are drastic enough. What do you think? A positive step or all talk and no action?
and finally this week’s wildcard… did someone just buy the internet?
Non fungible tokens appear to be a craze that isn’t going away any time soon. Effective founder of the internet Tim Berners Lee was the latest to jump onboard with the trend this week, when he sold an NFT of his original source code for a shocking £5.4 million.
Sold at Sotherby’s auction house to an unidentified bidder, the NFT includes the source code and a letter from Sir Tim. He likened the bundle to the sale of an autographed book and shut down any criticism that this went against his values of an open and free web stating, “the core codes and protocols on the web are royalty free, just as they always have been.”
“I’m not selling the web – you won’t have to start paying money to follow links.”
Stay tuned for next week when our VC Innovations news hounds takes the reins of the news cart and to fill the basket with insights, interviews and interesting stuff!
