BlackRock said Tuesday it will acquire HPS Investment Partners for $12 billion in stock, as the world’s largest asset manager looks to grow its presence in the highly popular private credit space. “We have always sought to position ourselves ahead of our clients’ needs. Together with the scale, capabilities, and expertise of the HPS team, BlackRock […]
Visa, a global leader in digital payments, hosted its first Open Payments Session in the Kingdom, bringing together regulators, subject matter experts, merchants, and financial services representatives to explore best practices and thought leadership shaping the future of payments. The forum focused on the evolving landscape of digital payments, driven by increased smartphone penetration and […]
JP Morgan analyst Reginald L. Smith noted that 2024 was a tale of two halves for fintech stocks. After a lagging start to the year, the aggregate market cap of the analyst’s fintech coverage universe has increased more than $65 billion since mid-September, fueled by cheerful calendar third-quarter 2024 results and management commentary, two rate […]
FinTech and crypto investor Marc Andreessen kicked off a firestorm over the weekend by alleging, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, that those two sectors — and dozens of companies backed by his namesake firm, Andreessen Horowitz — were being fundamentally “debanked” by U.S. financial institutions (FIs). “Did you know that 30 tech founders were secretly debanked?” tweeted Elon Musk […]
The Chinese government has slammed America’s introduction of fresh export controls on US-made semiconductors that Washington fears Beijing could use to make the next generation of weapons and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The new measures, unveiled by the outgoing Biden administration, have raised the political temperature between the world’s top two economies ahead of the […]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday lost his bid to get his 2018 CEO pay package reinstated when a Delaware judge upheld her prior ruling that the compensation plan was improperly granted. The package, worth about $56 billion, was the largest compensation plan in U.S. history for a public company executive. Tesla said in a post on social […]
The inclusion of the Norwegian krone in Tips is planned for the first half of 2028, following the Swedish krona and Danish krone, which will arrive next year. The move will enable market participants in Norway to settle payments instantly, around the clock and in central bank money. Norges Bank governor Ida Wolden Bache says: […]
e& Enterprise, the digital services provider in the Middle East, is joining forces with Cloudera, the hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI, in a move to accelerate digital transformation using advanced AI and data management capabilities to foster innovation and drive business growth across the region.Through the new agreement, Cloudera and e& Enterprise plan […]
Book bargain hunters will be disappointed to learn Costco plans to stop selling books at most of its U.S. stores at the beginning of the year. In January, Costco will remove the store’s popular book section from the majority of its 600-plus stores in the United States. And it will only return during the holiday […]
Holiday shoppers got an early jump on Black Friday shopping this year, spending a record $6.1 billion on Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics. Sales on the holiday increased year-over-year by 8.8%, a jump from 2023, which saw Thanksgiving sales climb by 5.5% as consumers looked to keep stretching their dollar. Toys were popular with parents […]
Africa’s digital payment landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation, driven by the increasing demand for efficient, secure, and accessible transaction methods. Consumers and businesses alike are embracing these solutions, leading to significant growth in the sector and unlocking vast opportunities across the continent. “Policies such as the CBN’s cashless initiative are propelling the adoption of […]
These days, the luxury consumer looks for more than just high-quality products, placing as much importance on a smooth and convenient shopping experience as they do the goods they are spending on themselves. Increasingly, this has extended to transactions, with affluent customers eager to be able to make safe and seamless payments for high-value items […]
