FinTech

Facial recognition for payments to reach 1.4 billion users by 2025

Contactless payments have been one of FinTech’s most prized innovation, silently growing in popularity within all types of commerce and shopping, with the pandemic skyrocketing its adoption across the board. As such, facial recognition for payments is on track to become the new norm of payment methods as the number of users of software-based facial […]

Stock trading app company Robinhood files plan to go public

Stock trading app company Robinhood said Tuesday that it has submitted a confidential plan to go public later this year. The company based in Menlo Park, California, filed the paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission while at the center of a battle between online activist retail investors and institutional investors over companies such as […]

GameStop lost $215 million in fiscal year; online sales gain

GameStop, the video game retailer at the center of a social-media driven investment frenzy, said it lost $215 million in the 12 months ended Jan. 30 as it dealt with pandemic-related shutdowns and moved to transform itself into a more online-focused company. The company’s latest results, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, offered few […]

Fed's Powell: Public should understand risks of Bitcoin

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the U.S. public needs to understand the risks behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, even as the central bank itself is studying the potential costs and benefits of a digital dollar. Powell said the Fed prefers to call crypto coins “crypto assets,” because their volatility undermines their ability […]

Are CBDCs the future of monetary systems?

The world is becoming more and more digital as time passes, with finance services championing this transformation, especially with the increasing demand of contactless digital payments swooping in, as the global Covid-19 pandemic magnifies our need for them. Many central banks around the world are looking to create their own digital currencies (CBDC) to spearhead […]

Is Blockchain-powered FinTech the future of finance?

Imagine yourself as a bank executive, competing against a global, multi-service, low-cost, digital bank; customers checking their accounts via smartphones, paying bills or transferring money with a swipe of finger. An AI-powered engine allows them to play around with their ETF portfolios with absolutely no fees, or cross-border payments. Take a moment to consider facing […]

KSA among top 20 FinTech ecosystems worldwide

Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, has been named one of the top 20 cities to watch for its high achievement and development within the FinTech space worldwide, according to a report by research organization Startup Genome. Bahrain and Riyadh were the only GCC-based countries that were mentioned in the report, with Silicone Valley, New York, […]

Myth busting: Are contactless payments safe?

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us more inclined toward digital payments, shying away from the exchange of hard currency due to our newfound hygiene awareness; it is here that contactless payments have quickly become the new norm. In Europe, Germans are increasingly ditching cash for hygiene reasons, according to Initiative Deutsche Zahlungssysteme e.V, a payment […]