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  1. CardsFTW #169: Only Banks Are Banks

    Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:15:51 -0000

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font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, Black is the New &#x1F937;, a new GM Business card, and more &#x2026;</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; 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mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; color: #000000;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6cf424ec?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #169: Only Banks Are Banks</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-excerpt-wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%; max-width: 600px;" width="100%" valign="top"> <p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-no-feature-image post-excerpt-serif-sans" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, Black is the New &#x1F937;, a new GM Business card, and more &#x2026;</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By Matthew Goldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">20 Aug 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/619d002c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/74e753d4?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <!-- MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="body" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="banks-are-banks-airlines-are-airlines-can-we-move-on" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">Banks Are Banks. Airlines Are Airlines. Can We Move On?</strong></h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Every few months, a think piece resurfaces claiming that airlines are &#x201C;really just loyalty programs with airplanes attached.&#x201D; It pairs nicely with the evergreen take that &#x201C;Starbucks is basically a bank.&#x201D; Cute line. Still wrong. (The latest culprit is <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/528b0ad1?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>The Economist</u></em></a><em>.)</em></p><h2 id="what-a-bank-actually-is-and-why-starbucks-isn%E2%80%99t-one" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">What a bank actually is (and why Starbucks isn&#x2019;t one)</strong></h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Banks are banks because they do bank things under bank rules. That means:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">They&#x2019;re heavily regulated and must know who their customers are.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">They accept deposits and hold them as <strong style="font-weight: 700;">insured</strong> liabilities (hi, FDIC).</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">They move money that is fungible: a dollar in is a dollar out, anywhere, to anyone.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">They manage liquidity, capital, and risk so the whole system doesn&#x2019;t tip over.</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Starbucks? It&#x2019;s a great coffee chain with a very large <strong style="font-weight: 700;">stored-value</strong> and loyalty program. Your Starbucks balance is a prepaid claim on lattes, not a checking account:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">You can&#x2019;t pay your rent with Starbucks balance.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">You generally can&#x2019;t send it to other people.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">It doesn&#x2019;t earn yield.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">If Starbucks went bankrupt, your gift card would likely be treated like other unsecured claims. It&#x2019;s not FDIC insurance; it&#x2019;s coffee IOUs.</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Loyalty points live in the same neighborhood. They&#x2019;re useful, sometimes valuable, and almost always non-transferable to cash without friction or haircut. They are not money; they are coupons with better PR.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/Starbucks-Gold.jpeg" class="kg-image" alt="A gold credit card with a Starbucks cup and a two stars on a wood background." loading="lazy" width="600" height="462" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a;color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">My well-loved Starbucks Gold card. Still not a bank.</span></div></div><h2 id="airlines-without-points-would%E2%80%A6-still-be-airlines" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">Airlines without points would&#x2026; still be airlines</strong></h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Run a thought experiment: say today&#x2019;s politicians decide frequent-flyer programs are illegal. Do airlines evaporate tomorrow? Of course not. They&#x2019;d reprice.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Loyalty economics currently subsidize ticket prices and customer acquisition&#x2014;banks and card issuers pre-buy a massive volume of miles and points, effectively fronting airlines&#39; marketing revenue. Remove that, and fares would shift accordingly. That&#x2019;s not an existential crisis; it&#x2019;s a revenue mix change.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">So, no, airlines are not secretly loyalty companies cosplaying as carriers. They&#x2019;re carriers with a highly profitable marketing arm. Core business stays core.</p><h2 id="rewards-%E2%80%9Cgotchas%E2%80%9D-people-love%E2%80%A6-and-why-they%E2%80%99re-mostly-wrong" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">Rewards &#x201C;gotchas&#x201D; people love&#x2026; and why they&#x2019;re mostly wrong</strong></h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Two greatest hits:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">&#xA0;&#x201C;Credit card rewards make everything more expensive for everyone.&#x201D; </strong><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3625bcd5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Reality is more nuanced</u></a>. Merchants price to their own margin targets, not to spite points people. Interchange is one input among many (rent, labor, shrink, logistics). And yes, card programs are designed so banks make money across a portfolio&#x2014;interest from revolvers, interchange from spend, fees, breakage from unredeemed points. It&#x2019;s not a charity, it&#x2019;s math.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">&#xA0;&#x201C;Banks are losing to optimization ninjas.&#x201D;</strong>A tiny fraction of consumers squeeze every last basis point out of points. Most don&#x2019;t. Reading The Points Guy once and setting up one bonus category is not the same as relentlessly arbitraging every offer, every month. Banks are very familiar with adverse selection; they price and manage for it. The portfolio economics still work or programs would be sunsetted, not expanded.</li></ol><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/Points-ninja.png" class="kg-image" alt="A cartoon image of a ninja in all black with their face covered throwing three credit cards." loading="lazy" width="600" height="400" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">This person read The Points Guy once and look them now!</span></div></div><h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-actually-interesting-in-loyalty-right-now" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">What&#x2019;s actually interesting in loyalty right now</strong></h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Instead of reheating bad metaphors, let&#x2019;s talk about where programs are getting smarter:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Rewards on non-travel life spend.</strong> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/43d918a9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Bilt</a> proved that rent can be a primary rewards category without blowing up underwriting or landlords. Others are pushing into mortgage, auto, and insurance payments with creative mechanics and risk controls.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Category relevance over generic points.</strong> Retail-anchored ecosystems (<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/5c48fd2e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Rakuten</a> is the obvious example) make points feel like currency <strong style="font-weight: 700;">within</strong> a defined universe. That&#x2019;s not money&#x2014;it&#x2019;s utility&#x2014;but it&#x2019;s sticky utility.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Better engagement loops.</strong> Modern programs are dialing in frequency, small wins, and cross-partner earn/burn. When done well, points feel like progress, not a spreadsheet hobby.</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Some of these come from new issuers and platforms you haven&#x2019;t heard of yet; some come from big brands that finally figured out their data plumbing. Either way, this is where the action is&#x2014;not in tortured claims that Starbucks is a shadow bank or that a 737 is a flying punch card.</p><h2 id="the-bottom-line" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;"><strong style="font-weight: 800;">The bottom line</strong></h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Money is money. Points are points. Gift card balances are coffee futures. Airlines fly planes; their loyalty programs help fill seats and fatten margins. Banks finance the ecosystem and, unsurprisingly, design it to be profitable at a portfolio level.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">We can keep pretending these are edgy contrarian takes, or we can focus on the genuinely interesting problems: building rewards that map to real-world behavior, balancing utility with economics, and making the earn-burn journey feel like progress instead of homework.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Now, if you&#x2019;ll excuse me, I&#x2019;m going to use my very not-a-bank Starbucks balance to buy a cold brew. (Not with my Gold card &#x2013; I use the app now.)</p><div></div><h1 id="americans-pull-back" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Americans Pull Back</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4ad17a28?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>reported that consumers</u></a> are pulling back from spending. (They even found someone with as many cards as me. Unfortunately, she has a huge balance; I pay in full each month). Data from Visa and Mastercard charted by the paper shows a decline in year-over-year spending growth :</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXegBXvMdoymLZr7K2eVuFxX1BTzpRAlScOvPKG51P4i_Pg1YXTrdOPgM68-iQ07FZsiULfpFO4AV0rW30pXqPFwpisPjPxcfGIdvL3tHoheJAWHts6EgGixb2ukIZ3BrVfAyoQUVg?key=AwYcDEbI0k_eIddKjLFM2Q" class="kg-image" alt="A chart showing the decline in growth in credit and debit spending, which dropped dramatically between quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2023. " loading="lazy" width="600" height="480" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">From </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wall Street Journal</em></i></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Between inflation concerns and the overhang in spending, I&#x2019;m not surprised we&#x2019;re down from those highs. Of particular note is the moderation in credit card growth alongside growth in debit cards. All-in, however, card spending is still growing faster than inflation as more payments shift to electronic methods. This note stood out to me:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">When credit-card spending growth began trailing debit late last year, it ended a streak of 14 consecutive quarters in which the opposite was true. It is a reversion to the prepandemic norm.&#xA0;</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Either way, cards are winning.&#xA0;</p><h1 id="credit-card-satisfaction" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Credit Card Satisfaction</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">J.D. Power runs an annual credit card satisfaction survey and <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/7c529105?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>released</u></a> their 2025 findings. A lot of the findings are unsurprising: people with more income like their cards more. People with less income are less satisfied. Two items stood out to me:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Higher annual fees linked to higher overall satisfaction! (People paying &gt;$500 on their annual fee have better experiences.)</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Sixty-five percent of cardholders have been charged higher prices to use a credit card. For those consumers, 81% say the surcharge caused them to pay another way.</li></ol><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">American Express ranked highest for satisfaction (sixth year in a row). The Platinum Card from American Express ranked highest in annual fee cards, following by the under-the-radar BofA Premium Rewards Elite and the Amex Gold Card. The Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard Card ranked longest card name. No wait, ranked highest for airline co-brands. That one surprised me, too.</p><div class="align-center" style="text-align: center;"><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you for subscribing to&#xA0;CardsFTW. Please consider supporting this newsletter&#xA0;by upgrading to a paid subscription today.</span></p><div class="btn btn-accent"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/2d0a52da?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Upgrade to Paid</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"></p><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"></div><h1 id="centurion-is-so-%E2%80%A6-meh" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em;font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Centurion is so &#x2026; meh</h1><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/AMEX-Cent.gif" class="kg-image" alt="Black credit card with a drawing of a Roman guard in the center, the American Express logo across the top, and line drawings by Rem Koolhaas." loading="lazy" width="600" height="380" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rem Koolhaas version is only for those who can spell Koolhaas without the internet.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Speaking of customer satisfaction and Amex, paragon of journalism the <em>NY Post</em>&#xA0; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3300f755?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the Amex Centurion Black card is loosing its status appeal. Fintech startup Atlas Card was noted as an up-and-coming super-premium product. What&#x2019;s a key problem: airport lounge overcrowding.&#xA0;</p><h1 id="gm-launches-a-business-card" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">GM Launches a Business Card</h1><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/GM-SMB-MC.jpeg" class="kg-image" alt="A black credit card with radiating lines. The GM logo is in the top right, the Mastercard logo is in the bottom right, and the word &quot;business&quot; is on the bottom left. The card is on a gray background that looks like the fabric of a car seat." loading="lazy" width="600" height="386" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shown here on the seat of an electric delivery van, I assume.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Barclays recently took over the GM consumer card from Goldman Sachs (See <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9e27df02?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #105</a>). Now they have launched a <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f68960f0?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>small business card with GM</u></a>. The card has potentially high earning rates for GM-loyalty business owners, although I&#x2019;m unclear how useful these points are with fleet purchasing. Cardholders earn:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">100,000 points as a signup bonus (spend $5K in first 5 months)</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">7x points on GM products</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">3x points on everything else</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There is no annual fee, an intro 0% APR offer, and complimentary employee cards (although the purchase APR can range up to 32.99%!)</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Past reviews of the GM cards have led me to believe that these points aren&#x2019;t what they seem to be, but if they are and you want a new super-cute electric delivery van, this could be for you.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfZV7ShR2Okdj_mbJQElY9zj9llSPS11-4zOXKddro3wy5WZXLZlRPc9Y07EmFZgXY1ULlNAwVeWI1LJKxoO5C_0JXs4eSVK42aY1DQhnFWzAHoJLg1VOOYjhCfVLufD7WDxXa2gA?key=AwYcDEbI0k_eIddKjLFM2Q" class="kg-image" alt="A white electric Chevrolet delivery van parked on a paved hill with downtown Los Angeles in the background. Taken during sunset." loading="lazy" width="600" height="338" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a;color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/67294f6b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">electric car, you drive so far</span></a></div></div><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/822552b4?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4bcb72b4?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Totavi</u></a>, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management &amp; marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3304d10b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>www.totavi.com</u></a> to learn more.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>Interested in reaching our audience? </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ea49f0a5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>You can sponsor CardsFTW.</u></em></a></p> <!-- POST CONTENT END --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!-- END MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <tr> <td class="feedback-buttons-container" dir="ltr" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 32px 0 24px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; text-align: center; background-color: #ffffff;" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="feedback-buttons" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; 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font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-top: 40px; padding-bottom: 30px;"> <tr><td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span>Totavi, LLC,&#xA0;2108&#xA0;N St., Ste. N,&#xA0;Sacramento, CA 95816</span></p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center">CardsFTW &#xA9; 2025 &#x2013; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/unsubscribe/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac&newsletter=4537ad55-eebc-4678-b2bf-fd6731d3805e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Unsubscribe</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="footer-powered" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; text-align: center; padding-top: 70px; padding-bottom: 40px;" valign="top" align="center"><a href="https://ghost.org/?via=pbg-newsletter&amp;ref=cardsftw.com" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.ghost.org/v4.0.0/images/powered.png" border="0" width="142" height="30" class="gh-powered" alt="Powered by Ghost" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; width: 142px; height: 30px;"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END CENTERED WHITE CONTAINER --> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <img width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://email.mg.cardsftw.com/o/eJwszkFuhSAQANDTfHYaBhzAxRxmYAa11ZIgrentmzR_-XZPyCfwiEYJImK0AdEavfg4p0MoJMa6cFSpRQU4Yy7BV2d2qt4LwlqrFEmrsmQXAwuUaDGwFHOQsw5tchYC4AJzzsrrmkqO7CWm9Frstc2Fu9x1PHNpl-k0HoTfj7HJft7dNXkt9kuf-9QxtM-9iTYzaNvbPab_phmUv8_PN37I_QUAAP__mg9CDg"></body> </html>
  2. Canadian Fintech: Moneris up for sale 🛍️

    Mon, 18 Aug 2025 12:31:15 -0000

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line-height: 38px; padding-right: 10px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .share-button-container .separator { display: block; margin: 0; height: 8px; border-left: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .share-button-container a.share.first img { padding-left: 0; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { .share-button-container a.mobile { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .settings-add-pub-modal-wrapper .container .add-recommending-pub-modal-container { padding: 36px; height: 680px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .settings-add-pub-modal-wrapper .container .add-recommending-pub-modal-container .footer { position: absolute; bottom: 36px; margin: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .header-anchor-parent { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .post { padding: 16px 0 0 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-header .post-label { margin-top: 8px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-header .meta-author-wrap.alternative-meta .meta-right-column .post-meta { margin-top: 6px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .footer-facepile-container { height: 64px; padding: 0 16px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: flex-start; width: 100%; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-footer.use-separators { justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-footer.next-prev { height: 64px; justify-content: space-between; box-sizing: border-box; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-table { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-table-row { display: flex; flex-direction: row; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-userhead-cell, .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-cell { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-cell { flex-grow: 1; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-table { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-table-row { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell, .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell { margin: 0 0 16px 0; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { width: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls { margin: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls .button.primary { width: 100%; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-text { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) { .post-silhouette { padding: 32px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-title { margin-top: 10.44225025px; height: 120px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta { width: 75%; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta.with-byline-image { margin: 20px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { padding-right: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button { height: 36px !important; /* important to override in-line height style on emails */ } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button .meta-button-label { display: none; } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button > svg { margin-right: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .floating-subscribe-button { bottom: 20px; right: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 1024px) { body .pullquote-align-left, body .pullquote-align-right, body .pullquote-align-wide, body .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { body .markup table.image-wrapper img, body .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (min-width: 1300px) { body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (max-width: 1024px) { body { /* Disable offset on mobile/tablet */ } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) { float: none; margin: 1em auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto; padding: 0; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left.thefp), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right.thefp) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left) .image2-inset, body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) .image2-inset { display: block; justify-content: initial; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed { margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; } body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed:first-child { margin-top: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.youtube-overlay, body .markup div.vimeo-overlay { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { body .markup div.tiktok-wrap { width: calc(95vw - 32px); height: calc((95vw - 32px - 2px) / 0.485714); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.embedded-publication-wrap .embedded-publication.show-subscribe { padding: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe { padding: 0px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button { padding: 10px 12px; min-width: 110px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet { padding: 12px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-text { font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.two, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.three, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.four { height: 200px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-img { max-height: 180px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-description { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .apple-podcast-container { width: unset; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed img.install-substack-app-embed-img { margin: 0 auto 16px auto; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-text { margin: 0 0 12px 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; text-align: center; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-link { display: flex; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { body .header a.logo { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 420px) { body .subscription-receipt table:first-of-type .subscription-amount .subscription-discount { width: 72px !important; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { body .share-button-container { height: auto; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { body .share-button-container .separator { display: block !important; margin: 0 !important; height: 8px !important; border-left: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .digest .item .post-meta-item.audience { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { .digest-publication .logo img { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 8px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comments-page .container .comment-list .collapsed-reply { margin-left: calc(10 + 32px - 24px); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comment > .comment-list { padding-left: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .finish-magic-login-modal .modal-content .container { padding: 24px 0; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-b3 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-h4 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .user-profile-modal { padding-left: 12px; padding-right: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .subscribe-widget form.form .sideBySideWrap button.rightButton { padding: 10px 12px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .pub-icon:hover .logo-hover, .feed-item-icon:hover .logo-hover { display: block; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper { width: 100%; padding: 16px; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper:empty { display: none; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button { width: 100%; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor:active { padding: 0; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 650px) { .file-embed-button.wide, .file-embed-error-button.wide { display: none; } } @media only screen and (min-width: 630px) { .file-embed-button.narrow, .file-embed-error-button.narrow { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player { min-width: 500px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media (min-width: 250px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player { padding: 32px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:last-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 300px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-title { margin-top: 16px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 15%; width: 15%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 25%; width: 25%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 40%; width: 40%; } } @media (max-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { margin-top: 12px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button { font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 12px; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; } } @media (min-width: 600px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 55%; width: 55%; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .poll-editor-modal { min-width: calc(100% - 20px); } } @media (max-width: 750px) { .poll-embed .poll-anchor-target .poll-anchor-copy-button { left: 8px; top: 45px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { width: 552px; padding: 26px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { padding: 40px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-row .modal-cell .modal-exit-btn { margin-right: -20px; } }</style></head><body class="email-body" style="font-kerning: auto;--image-offset-margin: -120px;"><img src="https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUwODE4MTIzMDU3LjMuYWU0NWE3NjQwMWJmMmM4ZEBtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tPiIsInUiOjE5MjU2OTUxMiwiciI6IjA3NGRsNWt1ZmZ2MzA0b3VAbmV3c2xldHRlci5yb2RlbyIsImQiOiJtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tIiwicCI6MTcxMDI1MDI5LCJ0IjoibmV3c2xldHRlciIsImEiOiJldmVyeW9uZSIsInMiOjY2MzM1MywiYyI6InBvc3QiLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTc1NTUyMDI2NywiZXhwIjoxNzU4MTEyMjY3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImVvIn0.n1HwdpT01v5u_2GqtHtiSNXtXoiqm7Md8hADe4QviFU" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;"/><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">ATB bought an investment bank. Wealthsimple nearly doubled this year.</div><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; 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Wealthsimple nearly doubled this year.</h3><table class="post-meta" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin: 1em 0;height: 20px;align-items: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA custom-css-email-post-author" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;text-decoration: none" href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz">Tal Schwartz</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(119,119,119);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><time datetime="2025-08-18T12:31:01.285Z">Aug 18</time></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td align="right"><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><a href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz"><img class="custom-css-email-avatar avatar-QIQ5yR" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!U74y!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc852364-628e-41e0-b9bb-8ebb278dc171_1902x1695.png" style="box-sizing: 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src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8tQB!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8aec0ade-a586-40b6-85da-800353c95c95_1200x600.png" style="border: none !important;vertical-align: middle;display: block;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;height: auto;margin-bottom: 0;width: auto !important;max-width: 100% !important;margin: 0 auto;"></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Good morning! Welcome back to the Canadian Fintech Newsletter, an industry roundup for founders, operators and investors that takes 3 minutes to read.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><span>If you&#8217;re a </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/5f079490-05a0-4c73-8c9b-4f7e800c4d66?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">paid subscriber</a><span>, you also get access to the </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d528545e-8322-4243-952c-82fcb9b0b188?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech Database</a><span> - a detailed list of every fintech acquisition in Canada.</span></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Was this forwarded to you? Become one of our 13,053 subscribers by clicking below.</p><div class="subscribe-widget is-signed-up" data-component-name="SubscribeWidget" style="margin: 0 0 1em;direction: ltr;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset button-wrapper" style="text-decoration: unset;list-style: none;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;border-radius: 4px;"><a class="button subscribe-btn primary" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9jYW5hZGlhbmZpbnRlY2guc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL3N1YnNjcmliZT91dG1fc291cmNlPXBvc3QmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWVtYWlsLWNoZWNrb3V0Jm5leHQ9aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZjYW5hZGlhbmZpbnRlY2guc3Vic3RhY2suY29tJTJGcCUyRmNhbmFkaWFuLWZpbnRlY2gtbW9uZXJpcy11cC1mb3Itc2FsZSZyPTM2bmZsNCZ0b2tlbj1leUoxYzJWeVgybGtJam94T1RJMU5qazFNVElzSW1saGRDSTZNVGMxTlRVeU1ESTJOeXdpWlhod0lqb3hOelU0TVRFeU1qWTNMQ0pwYzNNaU9pSndkV0l0TmpZek16VXpJaXdpYzNWaUlqb2lZMmhsWTJ0dmRYUWlmUS5aMXNhQkhyVXU3clNfdzF4TU4ybzFVbGk2dktma3h5SHdrM0ZxUWJGcHF3IiwicCI6MTcxMDI1MDI5LCJzIjo2NjMzNTMsImYiOnRydWUsInUiOjE5MjU2OTUxMiwiaWF0IjoxNzU1NTIwMjY3LCJleHAiOjIwNzEwOTYyNjcsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0wIiwic3ViIjoibGluay1yZWRpcmVjdCJ9.VPyWYm4-NgzfH7GRhgFgj52TpGrulhT3JOblnOMdr9U?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=subscribe-widget&utm_content=171025029" style="font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';display: inline-block;box-sizing: border-box;cursor: pointer;border: none;border-radius: 8px;font-size: 14px;line-height: 20px;font-weight: 600;text-align: center;opacity: 1;outline: none;white-space: nowrap;text-decoration: none !important;margin: 0 auto;background-color: #e85c57;color: #ffffff !important;padding: 12px 20px;height: auto;"><span style="color: #ffffff;text-decoration: none;">Upgrade to paid</span></a></div></div><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128176; Funding</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Uno Platform</strong><span>, a Montreal based developer tool for building web, mobile and desktop apps </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ddc16e56-1313-45fd-bcf1-c1b51aa787a7?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $2.5m led by </span><strong>AQC</strong><span> </span><strong>Capital</strong><span>. The company powers several Canadian fintech apps.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Cohere</strong><span>, a Toronto based AI LLM startup </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/49f8ac6e-9a5e-4c74-aa14-7479a3858e9d?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> US $500m at a $6.8b valuation led by </span><strong>Radical</strong><span> </span><strong>Ventures</strong><span> and </span><strong>Inovia</strong><span> </span><strong>Capital</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post"style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#129309; M&amp;A</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;">Dealers dealing dealers&#8230;</p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>ATB</strong><span> </span><strong>Capital</strong><span> </span><strong>Markets</strong><span> is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c2f7de1f-ddcc-4db4-bb3b-a30fd654087c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquiring</a><span> </span><strong>Cormark</strong><span>, a major Canadian mid-market independent investment bank.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Fort Capital Partners</strong><span>, another independent investment bank is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/5af4135a-945b-41e5-af24-290865f31a17?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquiring</a><span> </span><strong>Acquatio</strong><span>, an investment bank that focuses on selling wealth advisors.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>BMO</strong><span> &amp; </span><strong>RBC</strong><span> are looking to </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/652e668b-b253-4551-a9e1-d6124c23d899?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">sell</a><span> </span><strong>Moneris</strong><span> for USD $2b.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">The banks co-founded the payment processor 25 years ago. It does roughly 1/3 of all Canadian business transactions. </p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Last month </span><strong>TD</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/57de5ee8-9eaa-4c57-abcf-99d7292266ec?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">sold</a><span> off its merchant payments business to </span><strong>Fiserv</strong><span>. </span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Circle</strong><span>, the issuer of the world&#8217;s 2nd most popular stablecoin USDC </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/7f5cf6ea-81de-4b4e-91fc-f502079bf7cd?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> IP and staff from </span><strong>Informal Systems</strong><span>, a Toronto based infrastructure company built for the Cosmos protocol.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Last week </span><strong>Ripple</strong><span>, another major crypto issuer also </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/20023b59-38a0-4a0f-8214-14fb746a0abd?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> a Toronto based blockchain infrastructure startup.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Adauris</strong><span>, a Vancouver based tool that uses AI to detect buying signals, was </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/81a4e2c9-56d1-4ca2-ba31-17794e25ec54?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> by </span><strong>Landbase</strong><span>, a platform that provides prospect research for sales teams.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>This is their </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/28a6b4d1-44b9-454c-a977-dd76e1b9cb7c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">2nd</a><span> Canadian acquisition this year.</span></p></li></ul></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128640; Product</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Wealthsimple</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/908b3894-ecd2-4d84-b4bc-8df6c71ff966?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">crossed</a><span> $84b in AUA. Up 94% from last year.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Scotiabank</strong><span> is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/fd68a12d-5b90-4ebf-9ca3-e189cc793061?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">axing</a><span> investment banking roles in Hong Kong, Australia and parts of the US.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Chexy</strong><span>, a tool to pay for things with your credit card, now </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/91427c0b-c072-4fea-8b44-d522488f848a?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">allows</a><span> businesses to pay their corporate taxes.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>WonderFi</strong><span> reimbursed their CEO USD $500k for the crypto stolen from him during his </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/cf645cfa-1c9a-4189-bfb0-3a3c9ca3a291?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">kidnapping</a><span> last year.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Scotiabank</strong><span> now allows new Canadians to use their foreign credit bureau data in online credit card applications via </span><strong>Nova</strong><span> </span><strong>Credit</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#9878;&#65039; Policy</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Payments Canada</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/9436fb95-48ee-4fcf-8a3b-3fdd581b8248?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">announced</a><span> that it will finally remove paper remittance exchanges at the end of 2026.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Paper remittance exchanges are when physical docs (like bill stubs or payment slips) are sent between banks to match a payment with the biller&#8217;s account, instead of sending the info electronically.</p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Wealthsimple</strong><span> is pushing the federal government to limit &#8220;transfer out&#8221; fees levied on consumers who move their registered accounts to a different financial institution.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Earlier this year</span><strong> TD</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/cca8838f-bd55-45bb-bd5b-a93ade792558?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">doubled</a><span> their &#8220;transfer out&#8221; fees from $75 to $150, putting them in line with most other Canadian banks.</span></p></li></ul></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Raising money for your fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/6c235472-11c4-434b-9cd4-21119b110f0c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Want to invest in Canadian fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/97b03ccc-5064-4b98-9c34-78d0b7d84ea0?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Want to get in front of 13,053 fintech decision makers? 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See ya &#128075;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-bottom: 0;"><span>-</span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/90743278-e361-44e6-871d-6b5d5a3f0f4e?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Tal Schwartz</a></p></div></div><div class="container-border" style="margin: 32px 0 0;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box;border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"></div><div class="post-cta typography markup" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;font-family: 'SF Pro Display', -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Inter', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 400;text-align: initial;word-break: break-word;margin-bottom: 32px;margin: 32px 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0 auto 20px;text-align: center;width: 90%;line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-top: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">You're currently a free subscriber to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d343cfca-d731-4e14-b2b0-7a7a1f140bb2?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech</a>. 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  3. Money Stuff: The Podcast: Dinosaur Bone Treasury Company

    Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:02:09 -0000

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="width: 100%;"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1"/> <title>Money Stuff</title> <!--[if (mso)|(mso 16)]><style type="text/css">a{text-decoration:none}</style><![endif]--> <style>body{width:100%;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;margin:0;padding:0}img{max-width:550px}.body-component a:visited{color:#000;text-decoration:none!important;border-bottom:1px solid #000;background-color:#ccc}.body-component h1 a:visited{text-decoration:none;color:#000}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.lihide{display:none!important}.lishow{display:block!important;width:auto!important;overflow:visible!important;float:none!important;max-height:inherit!important;line-height:inherit!important}.email-ssl-image{width:100%!important;height:auto!important}.body-image img{width:100%!important}.logo-image{width:100%!important}}</style></head> <body style="width: 100%; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 150%; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> <div style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;opacity:0;font-size:0px;border:0;max-height:1px;width:1px;margin:0px;padding:0px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0px!important;"><img border="0" width="1" height="1" src="https://post.spmailtechnolo.com/q/tPMy1-Cnf08AZud88X2Bmg~~/AARGbBA~/kBNiN_j3hXTq05JjtfRDdFqE8-XZKoVO9ko0D2U_R5RdHMm4aMPkjLhrS0GIJ92Jq3XfgAV9q8iV2DnrMGYiWpRKdx_646xmIVGzOF70gRI~" alt=""/></div> <span style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;display:none;opacity:0;height:0;width:0;font-size:0;"></span><img src="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/eo/PZDxLE5WB2cv4SX8rge_-WxjgMb_FaCRBIBpCo0MH1CaGIcDAccaoXeoEAuTghesXeIo_PTzdjrVhmz9in0b-Fv4nsYw89LTdT7PuchyHmFCAGl09t5tl3A6ChRB3IFsUdYSk5aCvmkbJVQOIrA2nm807tTomT9-Z4zm9JjgHPsMJImbJZ3AuC-lfAOMnYBLz6ElmwqyIpMOL8aR2w5nlRGqnYSwIv-GswNH/d_b3kDw7z6cu8pFdwSUI7P1R_tTvGbe6/11" style="border:0;width:1px;height:1px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0!important;" width="1" height="1"/> <table id="wrapper" width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 550px; width: 100% !important;"> <!--[if mso]><center> <tr><td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="550"><![endif]--> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <div style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now. It’s a mailbag episode in which Katie and I discuss spot vs. futures contracts, S </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 15px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 0px 10px;"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 5px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/aQjLe6sz7UrTTR9MP8Y37Ma6mMVUitF7CVGbjOROsnI2bvb9-wma4b3CtAlyQ-kgHBZ6G72AnmaMiTTxrgBTvFYSnZu4z7zMQg8gqpCyuO5wfC6iPriNvgl8toFGPQFquTScjjfcdqrEmXcJcBDUD-EK3oRI8HNjG1tMrtkZa5qWlXwarDr0A6tgEK29TDU-HJ7mE1tBNRzda_6S3gav6P2NmF_4nGnutiB1TfSZCtj4c9ZWsJU7O8PGfDY47aJ2cmLbkthD4A3zsxKzlALK83OWVrGWghfHutYAy4r6iAsSfp1AZ-Y85XnkerxR8QFgB35rtxjgnURuiMnW-m_-snztwIPRTsSopohsUBbaPxorDTXTuOVnXp_Kyw/WuorBa9PMpxVhI10M81-z5j--O307WJt/11"><!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Bloomberg" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img class="logo-image" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" border="0" alt="Bloomberg" style="max-width: 550px; width: 530px; display: block;"/><!--[if mso]></div><![endif]--></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Podcast</h2> </td> </tr> </table><p style="margin: 16px 0;">This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now. It’s a mailbag episode in which Katie and I discuss spot vs. futures contracts, Subscribe &amp; Save for onions, IPO pops, leaving money on the table, ECM bankers lurking on Reddit, biotech companies pivoting to being dinosaur bone treasury companies, sports bar hedging, no-penalty CDs, monetizing depositor inattention, spirit securities, FELINE PRIDES, “internet personality” as a career and news anchor vocal training. You can listen to this week’s episode <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/-G9YycMUMXI_mEEvgH7h71gFMuJeNVoQhmslY52yjXWU2ASsvecVoJ6PMf_E5PlI4mdnPbZGr6AOn_T9fPf1G9W36v43ky5ZUNTOOx5KemuzsKCzSBi27pIFuxDODnSQkpLU_nQ6cA55OK_Kc6XuiB2whaftwraVo2tF-SzRxu3O7WKHoV1B3KvgWo_3rjAC9IC0MFqywj-bEi4wJbyJQ59U8J4TfCuQ_uApoq7nnVo-VNqIzWo2NuWUG1wi6XMwoRLWRmCxVGQuD1lAVIJqjUYYNcNIcialqEDmUAHBGyXtf93x0pqsjoZXo8zgnpEkVFRbz5MmKJHlDcSMcahXzo0LJZarvdkgdkcQLFigSYSpNzm1AjkhPHarOg/G2npdf_u7rFq5AxfF2IKJyHbCaIfCMbK/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>:</p><div class="body-image" style="margin: 20px 0px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/BrIfFuk0wc-egDYTH0q0Pk4bqAtQsmHDvjU0nqoc-GByHxPZ9st-2bDIFIdLVkzV171C-IS-7QtQJwSHFzupLg96sNjpizAWd5dbp5vxVi62hoqfFVgRMJSqEQYXoZVVQezKZOkOUMeX-KGdm7y5DmDabyIOU_z8yybaB8794h753PG91ivk3l6x-ylnPh9bZllBGy6DarYlHz94in_oFmRBa9Db1xbTBN0xxtFmXGOHVx4P1Z5rOd6LP_d578wr8fNj8K4w04VG9k2c-0gbCnEIToLynErPc06BoqeWjaOnG9cbOuJvHAIsRujRADdP1OtruKpztzEeFt_JrW5XyTURqs-BJHyMbJClecS2QuEdXKNCSEE6_G5keQ/w2VXdwEth5gVCFUKVz-__DZDXnZIJxSH/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"><!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/imE2TZh.RPQU/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/imE2TZh.RPQU/v0/-1x-1.png" style="max-width: 550px; display: block; width: 530px; margin-top: 20px;"/><!--[if mso]></div><![endif]--></a> </div><p style="margin: 16px 0;">A reminder: Money Stuff is off next week (both newsletter and podcast). The newsletter returns Monday, Aug. 25; the podcast will be back that Friday, Aug. 29.</p><p style="margin: 16px 0;">You can get <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/0DrnB76MoHROc2wVgK9wregmVawyMUTRgaZh4wmMYYVj-RE9yPUXMWw5exCTnV3KgHtpMrtmXwkgheoZcij1s61TEKpZ6j-45_jwaK6mgtlBTs5SPrGN2G3hjNM-XV4kgta13xFs374oVFeEkNOTtIkDI1_uFpsdpFKdM9IJkXYPF1qvAtK2yvRnOXp05naXmCJgBHeFcSPR8Qpwm3BpmGfsNMJ2oAmQRlF3XGkUjoCTG-dqIMce5DTFIeCYvwRWjTCQLQKPOPLZH-rnrrcDHfJ8CeZ0uxubsFDV33riXXXb60Ru5VEsfQwvEpiUZCRYT3rUR_vZ-Vp3EN_nPxA-u3W3ZZteOeRwKYHA9ZdgQZSzlI6UwfxWOLpoiQ/XzeWVLw2RPD39EAxkhLSJ19OhGMij9Xo/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Money Stuff: The Podcast</a> at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love your feedback. You can email us at <a href="mailto:moneypod@bloomberg.net" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">moneypod@bloomberg.net</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 10px;"> <table width="100%" style="width: 100%;"> <tr> <td style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; text-transform: uppercase; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.17; letter-spacing: normal; padding: 9px 0;"> <span style="margin-right: 4px; vertical-align: middle;">Follow Us</span> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/18Oy1mPRZ59Nu4SApoRHg-tI7JSqG9Fud3exX2bYFzopgtIdNub5ZEJ-FpQXKkrsYiK_ShYfQixo_dVU6LghlzDChpiv2vbHn98BRgGsmhaub9vAMreYOmu8zU7m2Xk9RiPrhWM_hiZooW8nR4GnjSQUpE4vEATi1Zx5DlMx-L21XLJSCHwf8oe7oJyQSiy6qUW3FBpUt4KVT17MURS3tVoxxew5PabIQ88KmJydHwQWc1vWD1T5iXlbzuLd65b_Bq2TjUeks6cGD_E7Y1BZ3TQXuYv9_qxdSWISkTif0bsDb_rrfJwPVMcbM5e_zULoUxpiLkobxpJ5eNAeQzZEStUX35JuK1yhncFA34KfVH0nZTmkPDbwxeTuTw/5xdqj2ZFzklq2z7Sa6If4VHnIwp-EVoL/11" style="text-decoration: none; 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  4. CardsFTW #168: We Have to Talk About Durbin - Again

    Wed, 13 Aug 2025 15:41:12 -0000

    <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <!--[if mso]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch><o:AllowPNG/></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <title>CardsFTW #168: We Have to Talk About Durbin - Again</title> <style> .post-title-link { display: block; margin-top: 32px; color: #15212A; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; } .post-title-link-left { text-align: left; } .view-online-link { word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline !important; } .kg-nft-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 4px; } .kg-twitter-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; 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} table.body .kg-cta-minimal .kg-cta-content-inner { display: inline-block !important; width: 100% !important; padding: 0 !important; } table.body .kg-cta-minimal img.kg-cta-image { width: 52px !important; height: 52px !important; } } @media all { .subscription-details p.hidden { display: none !important; } .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } .apple-link a { color: inherit !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; font-weight: inherit !important; line-height: inherit !important; text-decoration: none !important; } #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; } } </style> </head> <body style="background-color: #fff; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, new cards from Wix, Fetch, Tilt, BMO, and more!</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extracentered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <!-- Header content constrained to 600px --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header-main" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: transparent;" width="100%" bgcolor="transparent"> <tr> <td class="header-content" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 0; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="header-image-row"> <td class="header-image" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-top: 24px; padding-bottom: 16px;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3f77d25d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/size/w1200/2024/01/cftw-logo-3.png" width="600" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%;"> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-title post-title-with-excerpt post-title-serif post-title-color" style="font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; text-align: center; color: #000000; padding-bottom: 8px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em;" valign="top" align="center"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; color: #000000;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/41c973cf?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #168: We Have to Talk About Durbin - Again</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-excerpt-wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%; max-width: 600px;" width="100%" valign="top"> <p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-no-feature-image post-excerpt-serif-sans" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, new cards from Wix, Fetch, Tilt, BMO, and more!</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By Matthew Goldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">13 Aug 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0a5ba6e9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1c3216a3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <!-- MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="body" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="the-endless-battle-over-interchange" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">The Endless Battle Over Interchange</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I do not believe that the U.S. government should be in the business of regulating interchange.&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbWVxYWZpeTQybWppM2ZxcG00amYzbHlua29iOHg3bjk0eHUxeTZybSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/15BuyagtKucHm/giphy.gif" class="kg-image" alt="Gif with a mic dropping" loading="lazy" width="100" height="100" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">More proof of this comes this past week, with the Federal Reserve Bank losing a court case brought by retailers over the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank bill over how to regulate interchange from covered debit card issuers (those with greater than $10B in assets).</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As covered by Evan Weinberger in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/c2ab3f6c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>Bloomberg Law</u></em></a>, the court found that the Fed exceeded its statutory authority by including fraud-prevention and other costs in the interchange calculation. While District Judge Daniel Traynor found the rule to be invalid, he stayed his decision, because it would create a huge mess.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I really enjoyed reading the <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/24bc913e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>court order</u></a>, in large part because the judge seems annoyed at how complex payments are and what the industry (we) call things. There are a lot of things in quotation marks. My favorite line is this one:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">Approximately seven months after the Proposed Rule was published, on July 20, 2011, the Board issued its final rule, titled &#x201C;Regulation II&#x201D; (pronounced &#x201C;eye-eye&#x201D;).</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">It&#x2019;s true; we say &#x201C;reg eye-eye&#x201D; but why is this in the order? Seems snarky. I appreciate it.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">This case is all about commas and grammar, as many legal cases are. The core point is &#xA7;1693o-2(a)(2)(A) that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors shall:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">(B) Distinguish between - -</p></blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;"> (i) the incremental cost incurred by an issuer for the role of the issuer in the authorization, clearance, or settlement of a particular electronic debit transaction, which&#xA0; cost shall be considered under paragraph (2); and</p></blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;"> (ii) other costs incurred by an issuer which are not specific to a particular electronic debit transaction, which costs shall not be considered under paragraph (2)</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Is &#x201C;other costs&#x201D; not specific costs that are general (e.g., not on a transactional basis) or other costs that are not listed (e.g., in this case the cost of fraud management, which isn&#x2019;t listed in (i)?</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Lest your eyes glaze over, I will stop here, as the court goes on at some length on which vs. that.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The end result is: the Durbin interchange fee is set too high; the Fed set it incorrectly; merchants will get to pay even less.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I maintain:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">There should be no regulation here</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">The government shouldn&#x2019;t decide that some banks get to charge more and others less</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Merchants who don&#x2019;t want to pay for card processing can simply <strong style="font-weight: 700;">not accept cards</strong></li></ol><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There is another interesting question here for merchants, which is value vs. cost. Durbin sets fees at the banks&#x2019; costs. However, you get to price goods and services based on their value. Is it worth paying 1.15% to accept a debit card vs. bad checks or cash? That is a value question and different merchants will feel differently. I&#x2019;ve written about this time and time again, and, as publisher of &#x201C;Cards FOR THE WIN,&#x201D; it&#x2019;s quite obvious which side I am on.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Can someone just roll back Durbin? Maybe we can make debit cards great again.</p><div class="align-center" style="text-align: center;"><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you for subscribing to&#xA0;CardsFTW. Please consider supporting this newsletter&#xA0;by upgrading to a paid subscription today.</span></p><div class="btn btn-accent"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/898b563d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Upgrade to Paid</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"></p><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"></div><h1 id="new-card-round-up" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">New Card Round-up</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There were a lot of new cards announced in the last week.&#xA0;</p><h2 id="wix" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Wix</h2><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/wix-debit-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Dark blue horizontal credit card with Visa logo in the bottom right and Wix logo in the top right." loading="lazy" width="505" height="315" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is it with card images showing the Visa logo wrong?</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Website platform <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/41016996?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Wix</a> launched a new checking product, that includes cash management and an attached Visa business debit card. powered by Unit&#x2019;s embedded finance platform. The Wix Debit card is issued by Lincoln Savings Bank.</p><h2 id="fetch" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Fetch</h2><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/The_Fetch_American_Express_Card-2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Two credit cards at an angle on a black and purple background: One iridescent purple to silver with the American Express logo in the bottom right corner and one black with specks of glitter with the American Express logo in the bottom right corner. Both credit cards have the Fetch logo in the top right corner." loading="lazy" width="512" height="600" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two fetching card designs</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/8d25a556?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Fetch</a>, a rewards app and shopping cashback program, officially launched its <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1846ed3c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">new American Express card</a>, powered by Imprint and issued by First Electronic Bank. (I mentioned the cards&#x2019; presence on the web at large last week.) Amex is on a tear, with this launch following Coinbase and Rakuten earlier this year.</p><h2 id="tilt" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Tilt</h2><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/Tilt-Cards-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Three horizontal credit card designs stacked so you can see the Visa logo in the bottom right. The top card is yellow and reads Tilt Motion in the upper left. The middle card is black and the bottom card is white." loading="lazy" width="600" height="449" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have qualms about these Visa logos. Also, the EMV chip. Also, Tilt Motion sounds like a carnival ride.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Empower Finance rebranded to <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/7a85596b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Tilt</a> and launched a new credit card line-up. This follows Empower&#x2019;s purchase of the <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/79f40dcd?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Petal card</a> last year. Tilt announced three cards, which are issued by Web Bank:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Tilt Essentials - no annual fee and 3% cashback on gas and grocery, APR of 29.99%</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Tilt Motion - no annual fee, variable APR of 28.99%&#x2013;33.99%</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Tilt Engage - $59 annual fee, variable APR of 28.99%&#x2013;33.99%</li></ol><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Confused? I am. </p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">According to Tilt:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">Tilt Cards are for every type of credit-builder. The Tilt Engage and Motion Cards are great for people who are new to credit or rebuilding their scores. The Tilt Essentials Card is great for everyday expenses and earning bonus cash back.</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">So, I think that what you actually want is Essentials if you can get offered the card, even though it sounds like Engage is the best card.</p><h2 id="bmo-escape" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">BMO Escape</h2><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/BMO-Escape-MC-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Vertical dark gray credit card with the World Mastercard logo in the bottom left, the BMO logo in the middle, and the word Escape in the top left." loading="lazy" width="378" height="600" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">This follows brand standards, but still not a vertical card fan</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">BMO, the Canadian bank with a big U.S. expansion underway, announced a new high-end card: The <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9157b3fd?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">BMO Escape Credit Card</a>. This metal card earns 4 points on airfare and dining; 3 points on hotels, tours, travel agencies, and cruises; 2 points on rideshare, taxi, and car rentals; and 1 point everywhere else, with a $3,000 limit per category per quarter. Like other travel cards, you get a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit, lounge access, and a hotel credit (although it&#x2019;s $20 per month on $200 in spend, instead of annual). Unlike other travel cards, the earning structure is more complex (vs. a straight 3x on travel).</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The card carries a $150 annual fee and has a 45,000 point bonus on $5,000 of spend within the first 3 months.&#xA0;</p><h2 id="credit-sesame" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Credit Sesame</h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Credit Sesame is migrating its <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/07124a34?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Sesame Cash</a> card account to Green Dot. The card is currently issued by CFSB and is not cheap ($9.99 per month, unless you deposit $500 or spend $1,000 each month). Details on the new card are scarce (which is why there&#39;s no photo).</p><div></div><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0c91419f?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9cddc4f3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Totavi</u></a>, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management &amp; marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit<u> </u><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/988ca28a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>www.totavi.com</u></a> to learn more.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>Interested in reaching our audience? </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/74f38bdd?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>You can sponsor CardsFTW.</u></em></a></p> <!-- POST CONTENT END --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!-- END MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <tr> <td class="feedback-buttons-container" dir="ltr" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 32px 0 24px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; text-align: center; background-color: #ffffff;" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="feedback-buttons" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; 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color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">Comment</p> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="latest-posts-container" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 24px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb;" valign="top"> <h3 class="latest-posts-header" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 8px 0 8px; color: #15212A; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase;">Keep reading</h3> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 16px 0; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" class="latest-post-title" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e184ad86?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #165: Everyone Wants a Super-Premium Card</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/72b07e41?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, Gaming Cards and the End of Chase Dining (Did You Know That Existed?)</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="subscription-box" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; padding: 32px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <h3 style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-top: 40px; padding-bottom: 30px;"> <tr><td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span>Totavi, LLC,&#xA0;2108&#xA0;N St., Ste. N,&#xA0;Sacramento, CA 95816</span></p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center">CardsFTW &#xA9; 2025 &#x2013; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/unsubscribe/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac&newsletter=4537ad55-eebc-4678-b2bf-fd6731d3805e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Unsubscribe</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="footer-powered" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; text-align: center; padding-top: 70px; padding-bottom: 40px;" valign="top" align="center"><a href="https://ghost.org/?via=pbg-newsletter&amp;ref=cardsftw.com" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.ghost.org/v4.0.0/images/powered.png" border="0" width="142" height="30" class="gh-powered" alt="Powered by Ghost" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; width: 142px; height: 30px;"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END CENTERED WHITE CONTAINER --> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <img width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://email.mg.cardsftw.com/o/eJwszkFuhSAQANDTfHaaGWAUFnMYYAa11ZIgrentmzR_-XZP2AV0REYZVyKIcVnR6JWOczqElxBLtlBValHBlCkX8tWbnVOwS1HA4GoVSRh8dBpXFFAPRaw52IIlCOiQPEKcUUAoo1tSKA5SfHm4trmkLncdz1zaZTqPh_D3Y2yyn3e3TV4evvS5Tx1D-9ybaDOD8_f5Of0vzeBtb_d464ftXwAAAP__BlpA2Q"></body> </html>
  5. Canadian Fintech: Wealthsimple Revalued ⚖️

    Mon, 11 Aug 2025 12:54:51 -0000

    <html style="scrollbar-width: thin;scrollbar-color: rgb(219,219,219)rgb(255,255,255);"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Canadian Fintech: Wealthsimple Revalued &#9878;&#65039;</title><style> @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .typography:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); 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width: 25%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 40%; width: 40%; } } @media (max-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { margin-top: 12px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button { font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 12px; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; } } @media (min-width: 600px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 55%; width: 55%; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .poll-editor-modal { min-width: calc(100% - 20px); } } @media (max-width: 750px) { .poll-embed .poll-anchor-target .poll-anchor-copy-button { left: 8px; top: 45px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { width: 552px; padding: 26px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { padding: 40px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-row .modal-cell .modal-exit-btn { margin-right: -20px; } }</style></head><body class="email-body" style="font-kerning: auto;--image-offset-margin: -120px;"><img src="https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUwODExMTI1NDM1LjMuMjEwZThkZjQ4YjQ2NDcwMEBtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tPiIsInUiOjE5MjU2OTUxMiwiciI6IjA3NGRsNWt1ZmZ2MzA0b3VAbmV3c2xldHRlci5yb2RlbyIsImQiOiJtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tIiwicCI6MTcwNjgxODE1LCJ0IjoibmV3c2xldHRlciIsImEiOiJldmVyeW9uZSIsInMiOjY2MzM1MywiYyI6InBvc3QiLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTc1NDkxNjg4NiwiZXhwIjoxNzU3NTA4ODg2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImVvIn0.3Nj3k4PnA21dQsmuJ0CjOf_cmjmtQR1LDeHI-UwRabY" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;"/><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">Manulife's US acquisition. Saskatoon based software raises.</div><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; 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&nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;</div><table class="email-body-container" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td class="content" width="550"></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td class="content" width="550" align="left"><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;max-width: 550px;width: 100%;margin: 0 auto;overflow-wrap: break-word;"><table role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td align="right" style="height:20px;"><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ tw-font-body tw-text-ssm tw-text-substack-secondary" style="font-family: SF Pro Text, -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, Inter, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol;font-size: 13px;color: unset;list-style: none;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset align-right-VJbKw5 size-12-mmZ61m reset-IxiVJZ" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-align: right;font-size: 12px;line-height: 16px;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">Forwarded this email? <a class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-underline-ClTkYc reset-IxiVJZ" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9jYW5hZGlhbmZpbnRlY2guc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL3N1YnNjcmliZT91dG1fc291cmNlPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1lbWFpbC1zdWJzY3JpYmUmcj0zNm5mbDQmbmV4dD1odHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRmNhbmFkaWFuZmludGVjaC5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20lMkZwJTJGY2FuYWRpYW4tZmludGVjaC13ZWFsdGhzaW1wbGUtcmV2YWx1ZWQiLCJwIjoxNzA2ODE4MTUsInMiOjY2MzM1MywiZiI6dHJ1ZSwidSI6MTkyNTY5NTEyLCJpYXQiOjE3NTQ5MTY4ODUsImV4cCI6MjA3MDQ5Mjg4NSwiaXNzIjoicHViLTAiLCJzdWIiOiJsaW5rLXJlZGlyZWN0In0.td5JtVMHj3S7ZvAkLdbLqAOl1datBtQ8NEUUmpWy_4k?" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;-webkit-text-decoration-line: underline;text-decoration-line: underline;">Subscribe here</a> for more</span></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="post typography" dir="auto" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;padding: 32px 0 0 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><div class="post-header" role="region" aria-label="Post header" style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><h1 class="post-title published" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 0;line-height: 36px;font-size: 32px;"><a href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=663353&post_id=170681815&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=36nfl4&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxOTI1Njk1MTIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE3MDY4MTgxNSwiaWF0IjoxNzU0OTE2ODg1LCJleHAiOjE3NTc1MDg4ODUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi02NjMzNTMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.TfkKn7NUNdFxRQmkfRVQs5oMYg6f2VUUk6BICcQgHoQ" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: none;">Canadian Fintech: Wealthsimple Revalued &#9878;&#65039;</a></h1><h3 class="subtitle" style="font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: normal;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 4px 0 0;color: #777777;line-height: 24px;font-size: 18px;margin-top: 12px;">Manulife's US acquisition. Saskatoon based software raises.</h3><table class="post-meta" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin: 1em 0;height: 20px;align-items: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0Elfont-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA custom-css-email-post-author" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;text-decoration: none" href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz">Tal Schwartz</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;font-size: 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optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128176; Funding</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Stack Capital</strong><span>, a Toronto based publicly traded fund that buys late stage, pre-IPO tech company stock, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c32fbbd0-ee72-4255-916d-397e7070ebb9?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $35m.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>First Nations Bank of Canada</strong><span>, is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1f5a48c9-f1da-4855-a8ff-98d1af4d9787?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raising</a><span> $50m in equity from prominent indigenous groups.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">FNBC is the only federally chartered bank independently controlled by indigenous shareholders.</p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">The bank is aiming to boost its loan capacity to $400m to fund indigenous business lending.</p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Power Corp</strong><span>, the Montreal based financial services investor has marked up their 54% stake in </span><strong>Wealthsimple</strong><span> by 21%.</span></p></li></ul><div class="captioned-image-container-static" style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;margin: 32px auto;"><figure style="width: 100%;margin: 0 auto;"><table class="image-wrapper" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" data-component-name="Image2ToDOMStatic" style="mso-padding-alt: 1em 0 1.6em;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="content" align="left" width="1456" style="text-align: center;"><a class="image-link" target="_blank" href="https://canadianfintech.substack.com/i/170681815?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7aa4550c-ce62-423f-ae4a-930e68873b5f_1580x980.png" rel="" style="position: 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height="341.1057692307692" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lxy0!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7aa4550c-ce62-423f-ae4a-930e68873b5f_1580x980.png" style="border: none !important;vertical-align: middle;display: block;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;height: auto;margin-bottom: 0;width: auto !important;max-width: 100% !important;margin: 0 auto;"></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#129309; M&amp;A</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Rail</strong><span>, a Toronto based b2b stablecoin payments platform is being </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ad1fc78d-2ff8-4410-a759-ad2f44b6e5c4?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> by </span><strong>Ripple</strong><span>, a US based blockchain company best known for the cryptocurrency XRP for USD $200m.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Rail claims that it processes 10% of all stablecoin transactions.</p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Manulife</strong><span> is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/413f060f-3a5d-4aee-8e97-ec5a97e67f4e?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquiring</a><span> </span><strong>Comvest Credit Partners</strong><span>, a US based private credit fund for just under $1b.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Combined this brings Manulife&#8217;s credit business up to $18.4b.</p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Kuvi.ai</strong><span>, a Toronto based platform for investors to design their own AI agents </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/375532ff-fb62-4563-a18d-a4b6966ff591?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> </span><strong>Altura</strong><span>, a platform for video game developers to integrate digital assets (currency, NFTs, etc.)</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Kuvi recently </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1267662f-b77f-40bd-b119-319b9e3c5039?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $700k at a $30m valuation led by </span><strong>Moon Pursuit Capital</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Mogo</strong><span>, a Vancouver based trading platform, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/3cc332c6-4eec-445e-afd4-3ae30b22a052?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">sold</a><span> half of its stake in </span><strong>WonderFi</strong><span> ahead of WonderFi&#8217;s sale to </span><strong>Robinhood</strong><span>. The profits were in part </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e97163a5-f462-43ec-b994-a2a853d5c5fa?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">used</a><span> to purchase bitcoin.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Descartes</strong><span>, a Waterloo based logistics tech company (customs compliance, fulfillment, etc.) </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1a90b227-27e2-4c0e-9ab4-ee6ce2e3ac01?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> </span><strong>Finale</strong><span> </span><strong>Inventory</strong><span>, a US based inventory management system for USD $55m.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128640; Product</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Fiscal.ai</strong><span>, a Toronto based investment research platform partnered with </span><strong>Alpaca</strong><span>, a brokerage API.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Both fintechs </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b1e2c962-3583-43f7-889b-74b1a1ed497c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">share</a><span> </span><strong>Portage</strong><span> as an investor.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Propel</strong><span> </span><strong>Holdings</strong><span>, a Toronto based consumer lender, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/0001ea4b-95e8-4a08-bb45-ef43cbb94839?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">crossed</a><span> $50m in monthly revenue.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Air Canada</strong><span> will </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/846e6333-60b6-4443-b583-2e3aa046d5fb?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">start</a><span> awarding Aeroplan loyal points based on money spent, not miles travelled. This aligns with other airlines like </span><strong>Delta</strong><span> and </span><strong>American</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>TeamLinkt</strong><span>, a Saskatoon based vertical software to run amateur sports leagues (scheduling, payments, etc.) </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1939c99d-22ca-404c-b019-f43ee31935d1?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $8.3 million from US based </span><strong>Growth Street Partners</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Raising money for your fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/cc5d85f2-fcea-45b3-8a11-95eb3bfb7dad?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Want to invest in Canadian fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/def56557-baa0-478c-9293-b7db4f0b963e?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Want to get in front of 13,041 fintech decision makers? Reply to this email to become a sponsor.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Have a great week! See ya &#128075;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-bottom: 0;"><span>-</span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/027830b2-d7d7-4185-87ea-3db84662d5ba?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Tal Schwartz</a></p></div></div><div class="container-border" style="margin: 32px 0 0;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box;border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"></div><div class="post-cta typography markup" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;font-family: 'SF Pro Display', -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Inter', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 400;text-align: initial;word-break: break-word;margin-bottom: 32px;margin: 32px 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0 auto 20px;text-align: center;width: 90%;line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-top: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">You're currently a free subscriber to <a href="https://canadianfintech.substack.com/" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech</a>. 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style="font-size:0px;line-height:0;">&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="footer footer-ZM59BM" style="color: rgb(119,119,119);text-align: center;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;padding: 24px0;"><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;padding-bottom: 24px"><p class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s size-12-mmZ61m reset-IxiVJZ small meta-B2bqa5" style="list-style: none;font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';padding-bottom: 0;font-size: 12px;line-height: 16px;margin: 0;color: rgb(119,119,119);text-decoration: unset;">&#169; 2025 <span>Tal Schwartz</span><br>221 Clinton St. Toronto, Canada, M6G 2Y4 <br><a 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  6. Money Stuff: The Podcast: Tellers in Dallas

    Fri, 08 Aug 2025 16:02:17 -0000

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="width: 100%;"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1"/> <title>Money Stuff</title> <!--[if (mso)|(mso 16)]><style type="text/css">a{text-decoration:none}</style><![endif]--> <style>body{width:100%;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;margin:0;padding:0}img{max-width:550px}.body-component a:visited{color:#000;text-decoration:none!important;border-bottom:1px solid #000;background-color:#ccc}.body-component h1 a:visited{text-decoration:none;color:#000}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.lihide{display:none!important}.lishow{display:block!important;width:auto!important;overflow:visible!important;float:none!important;max-height:inherit!important;line-height:inherit!important}.email-ssl-image{width:100%!important;height:auto!important}.body-image img{width:100%!important}.logo-image{width:100%!important}}</style></head> <body style="width: 100%; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 150%; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> <div style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;opacity:0;font-size:0px;border:0;max-height:1px;width:1px;margin:0px;padding:0px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0px!important;"><img border="0" width="1" height="1" src="https://post.spmailtechnolo.com/q/gRyuu2gNMwJM17avJvzH6w~~/AARGbBA~/K4HaADBAkcIWDdC8BQejyLRHpPwoYYLPp3RcIfcaShJRUZM2Sxmp6vQfmkSWltV6M_dd3LN9Txj3W2n2bFQYNdlGE6nouAz5QPwdPQ-5378~" alt=""/></div> <span style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;display:none;opacity:0;height:0;width:0;font-size:0;"></span><img src="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/eo/souwY5ciusKsOtSWqfq5H0spM620KkaoHoIggYApwMVvrpPYOngjA_gKhuFcn9bXbF7TAYO2kRjCth5zK8xLCN2vYBGMDxsvgBpUBqZnfQYPTijB-G4KecQtZTO4vVY4DO1UaQXZHRKEOFO-Xz1AAa7PEAgkZX8nm7_8_TKdT8Gm_YIxjjIw3A3gScvO1_B3Ri696-HUBsPQjUVz4P67aLN-2E0Nn30snC89/6sXgk0wzwl4RPt1xORt7dbGJKIhIOIP8/11" style="border:0;width:1px;height:1px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0!important;" width="1" height="1"/> <table id="wrapper" width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 550px; width: 100% !important;"> <!--[if mso]><center> <tr><td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="550"><![endif]--> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <div style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> Two things today: I dad-blogged about poker for Bloomberg Weekend. This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now, in which Katie </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 15px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 0px 10px;"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 5px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/fWTXSy5zBzpcRfKtTeFHQmBF1A6QShtt8bANQg8Gy5d4YIr4UaJG8h7EK5ARB_jvYLvM09LmyT7-HGlPFjks1MYugslMokgi1gy-uicZeKUkma5kUqtcd4jSE_co5gPvgW6Qi3Ay38gbCFxi1VTTNrQLLZ7mAu3GDbkvEk9vnO5kWDt2CD68Bk4kqTcZl97PKoEXapMUldM6_2kSWGZpVFarR0GkaP5WKBkVZ_oCfT7oYHDq7frN_mZ6MRema5_yL7s0F6HXFqoDG1PdZIHKaRwcY_RVYVDr_dGvf__B5DohWSO2dTHo8VDHFFe-1FP1rVC0ryYgI0AnS0VKVaoFYXtwzPdgyyeX6FwUAqDLCBnrI-dmuNrv3pihUQ/r0p_YLzA3aG_n5nAW5pQa34Y6Ougq7pS/11"><!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Bloomberg" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img class="logo-image" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" border="0" alt="Bloomberg" style="max-width: 550px; width: 530px; display: block;"/><!--[if mso]></div><![endif]--></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Podcast, etc.</h2> </td> </tr> </table><p style="margin: 16px 0;">Two things today:</p><ul style="list-style-type: disc; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">I <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/6EqVrZpxbuVu40euY-AX-9vYJ95HadJtiSo5bENjF69Kyfz5-quss36m1OlgSkec0SNcecwIuNqhEc_RX56VKi9oZXR_Cq0ncvGYSydMcCmQ2B5p30RMwfUybe6N8RJyJWiLiRJBG0L-YHpIWHFieFaH0ExncDDeEUFBGcq87oa6cwxc5zZTzY0ybWGrgZ07bQAmh2fXBDX9RsrTbVZpr5c8FvvKSS2qzzOeeChfPMjiGXYXqfMRXRk-HySD1QDpXgSJ2K_w6TjAC1Jm4NrkCMOcUW-ZK-2fMVZ0cpE8GARu2Gkft7zku2gt9xZAPbkSP3dEYtGufG9VR0AIcl2tYw7kcXu7FlffRt0sI40eaio9TL_2BiLtEFSmCw/XFN2PQsOvTmszU_-dVwOIUaYz5hmJwQP/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> dad-blogged about poker</a> for Bloomberg Weekend.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now, in which Katie and I discuss the likelihood that Elon Musk will ruin my vacation, Musk's new good-faith payment from Tesla, his work schedule, Tesla as a car company vs. Tesla as the future of life, Regulation FD, tone and body language, hedge funds vs. long-only investors, retail corporate access, on-cycle recruiting and the heat death of the universe.</li></ul><p style="margin: 16px 0;">You can listen to this week’s episode <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kaxw-R5H1KkQTNlC-Gfv6wYpM4lzS30CYgtUwusydDSrvcbHgvSzeQZkhByq860eJrgn-eT6QAjdzVJ94HkzTK_VCVZ9GWmG345D5zXXWrw74SuLvFOCKGOkFPfF6_tUNWayzc00tB9vyOAgUnIDD7RP7gzoE5cz2FQ8WVpvFhmTRDFLmuVXhce4MyuhLK6n8sRjTPOxR6PxJmTZ8XCN6VuGO8xhBNfELWEAaCo0bon81DSsR4eJy5dzIbCdAWqHaRuO-RuIPh6nImSkYGhiBCP8WHc7ahco5ZyuSro6OJpMuFn9WysIMDGgnPXlH_6cxoiil9R0737rnuoVEROQxyS8EHw7DHnRnURHSYhRIVjRO0HzIVF15PcMlQ/BbkofWnjNeXl1gMis00mcdtmOkjamU4q/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>:</p><div class="body-image" style="margin: 20px 0px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/86MRvyQBy6uqDtyX90Oe6VNZ2EGWBWnMTMZyNF1oJyUcXFqFlzd_xd5eMGKqgS7Xgnoi2JaCtu7wXyqnxQcwRUVnTrlglWGxpNeBd60Xtw_p9r5tvRa0lRj3lobDELkGgNTOkjCCLkjFRvx41XwGfeFqaKTo_K3ohbtTjKIrJaFGj-Iz6GRqlQBVusa1p8pViSJ3OdjTo9-Rrwwjq7u-WjZk5wcR9_dmsP3A0TgF9o8iScCHNZxd-CVg4mhj2hT8leH6kvVHIqHD-viGBioNPsd8A0Mwb1gL5ZiSzd1KwFfmVYHMCxnvfXnRTyN7SsruCHWGUz0MBD20ytUoJvh2P9lqBYCnWsFFWrjien3r3v0IHsW6HvC32sA_UA/IobPKjFtApzLS6MvrDDDfRQE6nMc7r7-/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"><!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/is.uRqYRIBz4/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/is.uRqYRIBz4/v0/-1x-1.png" style="max-width: 550px; 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You can email us at <a href="mailto:moneypod@bloomberg.net" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">moneypod@bloomberg.net</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 10px;"> <table width="100%" style="width: 100%;"> <tr> <td style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; text-transform: uppercase; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.17; letter-spacing: normal; padding: 9px 0;"> <span style="margin-right: 4px; vertical-align: middle;">Follow Us</span> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/LFOIefNY-d3Vv8lNsNUaMwnZgN6ykRP0Y1sObrFmuIEMf7_tW-wjsHBsvdKAGlK4T7Uke7zfQrc-sp1_xONUdwz9vum7bV0a4VW1tJUJPMdonjWXWsQDCSVVbK5_6gSVsxfCTCJO1G0RFk-pjXTJCpZgJBR_rrSnaJxV9Yp0LDZa5kpyC3EWL4Vfhv9Ev1uFKB_mNPNs5zvcH35Pn5xBUp3L6UjnkO1gU8ORnOx-nbMxiPdscqse_7LvUYOjw-DWKvFy_zFLnWuws_ftIF8oBXRnictBpKmkU7kK0T8mGw-sHyyXIL5O7R0Thr6i0yCVmTD30d30xRkLVHyrVBKibJlTicFVfgKlsBGOZsWROyg_Hv09cc93raU4fg/qk0tV3raWxTwgTyL2O9PVq06eNQtsRLY/11" style="text-decoration: none; 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  7. Money Stuff: 401(k) Plans Will Get More Fun

    Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:35:57 -0000

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width: 100% !important; max-width: 550px !important;"/> </a> </td> </tr> <!--<![endif]--> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>Programming note:</strong><em> Money Stuff is off for the next two weeks, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/09UnSppDQkNnxhuSL_S1QYJGQTAggmC411O3Hx9edBYr8BjmVJya2_dQ2Aeh8Em7eS98DMFuyDzcp5mINO4PyTM6hPzxnaAVexRzlHGzLltcIklI5-eAAo7tV74ng0_XW8bF7RoiXLXKgfR2yk3Uej4LxpEVcJBME2izwczb6394u2n7TdBCkbb50JcpzuIHmqqOYYEX9wstHGN0z11TO1iLEK1I7T9_v5cm_olyhDD1zlGx7vKvnE9w6B33mW_nR-6wZ0gRQrUvYiOISG_vfUQ1NpF48tpDK8cU2AVfVlyVyZV3yOGv_vg0LaCkbbqf7ePMcCUsFdSf4CyjzL-U3_4nXVh58HVB8fOnvxiKBrMN8TKHNMSzkxxN_w/z2LDCDORv9uuECN2CQgMzNXVwoQAhrS4/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Elon permitting</a>. We’ll be back August 25.</em></p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">401(k)</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Historically one way to save for retirement is that you work at a company for a few decades, and the company pays you a salary, and then you retire, and the company keeps paying you a pension. The company has an obligation to pay you a certain amount every month, and it funds that obligation by putting money aside and investing it to make sure it has enough money to pay you. If it invests the money really well, it will have more than it needs to pay you, and it can keep the extra. If it invests the money badly, it will have less than it needs, and will need to kick in more money to pay you what it owes you. That outcome is bad, not only for the company (which has to kick in more money), but also for you, because it exposes you to credit risk. There is a law in the US, called <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/53J-PNGjteo2CdxI0-bea92GpEGUmRVqiqmokCEZTQoob9oItwG81scNRqxSaAtETtQ4bhv4A4wN8oEFGP_w6aUxLO9b5L9Xc3inVqdFNfHnluaHBh0avxxUzmjSiL5KjpzM02VBUChfa6o3Zm8LGFbES6z0cgNDcZ0tZMDIiQZF46Qr4fMGNr_6rYgVapjIHRZynw0VgdzJJ54igeLIMHp5N8BOSx2EGgiQaw90CbiAvrIt3T04Rti2ZiAPl8fQ_j6XgdQXcdz6HIQ-_YwKUOrCmZ0Z-4CTID7L45UUVkRCBcbVHqFPuRVl7m4jk8_6cYl31JGtGvuop_i3kAodRs7nIn8c-j3muPS61fE-pmJc2rAFxTKhfYxqtg/er2ur3SWtUInnvjtwjja7IwfBYdaCnz3/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">ERISA</a> (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act), which requires companies to manage their pension funds prudently, as fiduciaries for their retirees, so they don’t lose all the money.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Another way to save for retirement is that you work at a company for a few decades, and the company pays you a salary, and you save a portion of that salary yourself and invest it, and then you retire, and the company pays you nothing — you don’t get a pension — but you spend down the money that you have invested. If you invested really well, you will have more than you need to live on. If you invested badly, you will have less than you need. But this is your problem, not your employer’s. If you want, you can invest all of your money in meme stocks or sports gambling to get a wide dispersion of possible outcomes, some of them quite bad.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But the paradigmatic way to save for retirement, in America in 2025, is a third, in-between option, the 401(k) plan. In this method, you don’t get a pension; your company doesn’t keep paying you a fixed amount after you retire. Instead, as in the second option, you put aside some money every year to invest. (And the company might put some extra money into your investments.) But, unlike in the second option, you can’t generally invest the money however you like; you can’t put it into sports gambling or your brother-in-law’s vending-machine business. Instead, your company gives you some menu of investing options, and you choose among them.<a href="#footnote-1" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[1]</span> </a> And the company is a fiduciary and has a duty to give you a prudent menu of investment options. And if one of those options is “if you want we will take your 401(k) assets to Vegas and put them all on red,” and you choose that one and the ball lands on black and you lose all of your retirement savings, you will definitely sue your employer and you’ll definitely win. (Not legal advice.)</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is: Individuals are responsible for their own retirement savings, but not entirely. Their employer has some fiduciary duties to guide their investing and not let them go too crazy. This, too, is part of ERISA,<a href="#footnote-2" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[2]</span> </a> and it seems sort of historically contingent. In the olden days, companies offered pensions and had to manage them prudently, so they developed expertise in prudent retirement investing. Modern retirement saving involves individual workers making investment decisions, but the companies still have some expertise at prudent retirement investing, while the individual workers sometimes, you know, enjoy a little sports betting. So the companies have some paternalistic role in guiding the workers’ investment decisions and trying to keep them from losing all their money. And if the companies don’t take that role seriously, they’ll get sued.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The main point of all of this is of course “they’ll get sued.” There are shifting norms about what sorts of investments are prudent and thus can be offered in 401(k)s. In the 19th century — long before 401(k) plans or ERISA — <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/nk5yZBcjUGCprMXcviwYqQ1VXHl0x85ZsptYH1JNnQdh-pBkJ9enDGed6gXU-_EC1Xb3US9SoY0IcblQ0oCLMvBIdr2QaU7svF2H_OL_r3gHmnim-I2fWBU3BIXTnZWBOSLdbMyC7V2y-tqdbJw1iml0pPvxEXFryoP7G9y90qZJXuvn0a47J-u7pxV5tVAQbFccv8hqLEagb5co7jRixyvRFVlohmIexvBrQelWjuVvZQ_qPijuvC5ReDTxWBMM3xYtOi_uLZKuHFKraLiTQ3_Sq9uz1OYUcpPjjTx0ecalJkc9WwWa1Y5xMZiqx5BjEMkeeaJEu1uXeaXba9c_uPAco58wFZErW5Ms0w-2ShWe4xpTRKEuLVJAaQ/jQj7sLpCspuZYFyerKr6Lki7y98TYgI2/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">courts sometimes found</a> that investing in any <em>common stocks </em>(as opposed to, say, government bonds or debt secured by mortgages) was imprudent, so a fiduciary could be sued for doing it. In the 1970s, when index funds were first being marketed, some employers stayed away, worrying that they would violate their fiduciary duties by investing in all of the stocks without doing prudent due diligence on each of them.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">By 2015, though, I was <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/lswO31DBAdnxtgqPnj_axIVSk3KACPkLuXd5n90baz2H6jWOQuoZooQLdXxnJV9Vb7G2lQ3cu5QcTE0uQ1JNqruw1jCBMepPn6S4q-xwQdCRzqS92OzegZoJUwRY7A_KNepsXFzHxuenU1S2oEgd8zjpq-VwZhBV_kjd0o2pnN9Pakas43Zdc0j2Sp_oFed7_3SeYu-nT190CejSoKUbudJt8knszHsLTsY4YuNm8lJtcG3S-e0G7iumNtsyzLtQkrnQXSooF9aT4G5i7KOfBHp5x1HWuT7t9eM-aL-DtLH2JNB8iGDx0yMH5ak-p8HNgXiyf-B8d-p1wLa0WtvJVpS3XZI4rfw3_F4rz-WlryFMAFh3W8zJz4s5drg/EZzvect9_Fild0YEzpvKM81S4ykt5WCF/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">writing about</a> “a congealing regulatory view” — specifically at the US Department of Labor, which is in charge of ERISA — “that index funds are Good and should be encouraged, and that active management is Bad and should be discouraged.” The logic was:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Actively managed long-only stock funds tend not to beat the index consistently, and</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">They charge much higher fees than index funds, so</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">It’s probably more prudent to index than to hire active managers.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This is not a universal view, and companies still regularly offer actively managed mutual funds in their 401(k)s, but there is some pressure to offer index funds and a <em>lot </em>of pressure to keep fees down. Everyone understands that investments have risks, and if a fund on the 401(k) menu loses money that is not necessarily the employer’s fault. But if a fund on the 401(k) menu charges twice as much in fees as some other nearly identical fund, that <em>does </em>seem imprudent, and you can get sued for that.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">More recently, environmental, social and governance investing (ESG) became a 401(k) battleground. We <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FbN8GfinsN-UhzghpAm2N_ouDtiVTo2U-ZBu7bP6l3z-c3JTMrGXNqrfk_T3wjQqWxewbTjqSC9YDhomtpr1owrcj0UgBF2rcrQx_ktelxRtER9sYYpI2SqyKYFBGw4YFoOw329CK6bUIh-nwxQqWO1_feFqWwtRIkXVoOqKRmKzFO_gUShepfgtjIrQqxW3YX75B0nIbWMikxf-bOKWkTup5q8OJ2nJaHUdh6BRBzdl9D_XNxwzxrSw-gwQf5hK1jCySqPLDxn5GgLAPgm-WbY5UB6p2JPGmhXMN0t0NDfWjOMlcU-geramWivhA9mYW3ExKtd4qEnNG12g52AMlOCZkiDg81neDlO8ptDvLa-khR117SDYQTJc8Yo/Dh7PvzSpsIJ-vPQDRdTQMvSQPVwc5Xiv/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">talked in January</a> about how American Airlines Group Inc. got in trouble for doing ESG with its 401(k). American didn’t even offer ESG funds in its 401(k) plan — just straightforward low-cost index funds — but those funds were managed by BlackRock Inc., which used to talk a lot about ESG, and a judge in Texas found that ESG was not a prudent thing to do with employees’ money.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But these days the main things that people talk about, when they talk about what should or shouldn’t be in your 401(k), are:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Private equity,</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Private credit and</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Crypto.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And the essential question is not whether you should be <em>allowed </em>to invest in those things, but rather whether you should be able to <em>sue your company for letting you invest in those things</em>, if they lose money. Because the 401(k) system involves both individual investment choices and employer paternalism, and because you can sue your employer if it imprudently lets you invest in something that loses money, employers tend to offer only investment options that are clearly “prudent” under current norms. Index funds, in 2025, are clearly prudent. ESG funds, in 2025, are a little dicey. But what about privates and crypto? Are those prudent options for your employer to put on the 401(k) menu?</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I mean the obvious answer is “last year they were not prudent, but the norms changed and now they are.”<a href="#footnote-3" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[3]</span> </a> That’s not, like, a financial answer. It’s not that private equity and crypto were volatile and charged high fees in 2024, but now there have been structural changes such that they are safe and cheap. It’s that in 2024 the US federal government was pretty skeptical of crypto and of high-fee opaque investments in 401(k)s, and in 2025 a different federal government loves that stuff. Now that shift <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rJbDnYsQeZPlv0QdE-dJjdez9V-z0g4Ht6IDetJRlVnM-y8HM76Ao105xtFJrWHy4p1OCjVTiSSEXGyVMNTO6hkt-SUucyenj623nbWTtGLTPjcGWc_q4UlCGUWbVjhe_klGDpG4OLYMV36b7IXWvvw9m6ktZvSYM9nbs4zOpN7Fql_pacd_cbwaKipl848Eal7K9xngFc1gZVnlEStH-k-hcZOvss2YkuiWvdZKCTGdlZG5EBkUqbdH63vA8ViGEADu_u1d9G5-J7HWbWQkumLZAgfNUc4-kwwGf0J48KYQ40uGStK9nfShLYUQf5Zz1kqjPGMJ9BWCfCueWVLmo3SbbzdokFERUh2JV3cYl2Jwzkv8C_MaB6hMxb4/a4bIG31dBkTvDfchLFCuYtSdfNTEQ3Ed/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">is getting formalized</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Thursday that aims to allow private equity, real estate, cryptocurrency and other alternative assets in 401(k)s, a major victory for industries looking to tap some of the roughly $12.5 trillion held in those retirement accounts.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The order will direct the Labor Department to reevaluate guidance around alternative asset investments in retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, according to a person familiar with the plans who requested anonymity before the order was formalized. The department will also be tasked with clarifying the government’s position on the fiduciary responsibilities associated with offering asset allocation funds that include alternative holdings. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Top officials in Washington have been weighing a directive for months that would ease the legal concerns that have long kept alternative assets out of most worker defined-contribution plans. Retirement portfolios are mostly concentrated in stocks and bonds in part because corporate plan administrators are reluctant to venture into illiquid and complex products. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Alternative and traditional asset managers are eager to grab a slice of the defined-contribution market, which they see as the next frontier of growth. Many institutional investors like US pension funds and endowments have reached internal limits of what they can put into private equity amid a broader slowdown in dealmaking and a lack of distributions to clients.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">From first principles, it <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/_RFBq6vX8_vMGCX4KeNhGX8OSoLGpTaP7Mb9eQmzYsWDoFCHvjeXS8vk4ZG661is4auq9-9qiaoWcsKhyL2L4VFJfsyKWSSyK53SgKk4lDTDHRgjINSxrj3UtDZRnnQbVzAzzUXmEW0eqPJ5YyIwuiD0VraNmDMQC0sqgcnOQQ8iRa3plhTi6-OwoN3GBQRvoyRh7nBni9PzFtrvIYOceRVZLnws-oP1QCOFGSvWLG13tknz6d6k_jm0155VhV7L8EkQ6kpziPr8kUpmM1xHezsXeUz1csZOAYM5RGjd6thZDR7WKTU7HGKo3cjZkYun3dRkRDjjp-Ii4O5ZrMHQnQL3eYoy1Xi4UFyMLCVWYHEGln-vpTN3xw_lokE/ZnTsvaTXqPm2WRekOMzF9WD3nJaXhXFT/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">makes sense</a> to put illiquid private assets in 401(k)s: The whole point of a 401(k) really should be that you put the money in and don’t take it out until you retire, so <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/1znWGhINmRrQoTDwRL5mj3JOPTYR8zdyMxSa4O5JLQ9UPNEd6cGdqPzROklwA8vTkKpRbDP0eB44v-yAil_lMGnkwkumJOUm5HPwX9rqRhKErS-Owa36DAAnh_2GAAFI7y5bC7FCKUb_dLYpqQp9MNOYNNDkLWmkAmqsoEu3VNufJageOKDrDH2WLsJbZM1po1_EM7AVa7RmiGzFM32S6SkrQoqF8bdpD1S2hEU-0dRYfDuDnnJ_FgHo8mJ1ROXozz5IphYJTqliRyi93oUuYB640R9hpuebeZRxnMHv3d9guoLU-Xyj8B9-RmEeSZPs4RpA9NAULVwXC3B_WUZ2-1oNTEZG3VtH9AEZXawhnrW3GUPGvHRI6Jrk5c4/Rp0rIIMPvbCReHL0lGMg2n_HsvWNXDt8/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">you shouldn’t need liquidity</a>, and if illiquid assets pay a premium you should be the one to earn it. Also, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/vSRkuUzPja_1ggBBN7P1Y9bcfE83o7czbpL_oeUDz4nhBm0ArIBUWsTQFyvBvhr_hNnu6re1Yl3fQzLsUWTY4jkVHaPr3pqvep-Kw7G83SFv7VBGRqOWIsaO3OpIJ9aBCHwA5qATUwax7fSQxQXpAlhlD-i-rTyLnA8tZQZ0Ww8e66J2WP50Vi8VRVgfyPk1EicJP5uY1Y_xOAe4lkil9fsCtWPPxZaPm4taAFtWAfsEmKjrOxSPhE7cojhWmfLAj9rJI8UOPWk5ZssFuQphNJF5H5ErFllfcpbBNAab_EzW3r82PX3CJawR89QDU5gge1_VbyrMMrSPwZM0zWvpnxgrOvl0rlm4J9pd0jLhE-UOaya8oV6jF4ti_HI/OiJfbafpy6PA5npF1ht39oAnFZ6VOVRo/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">private markets are the new public markets</a>: As Byrne Hobart <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/gbtETB9FIwmi30WegnHLVjwJTfopj5tqZtTy43yaCl1rrMEYkxSz2vZ9CQu2zp_eKU8kAukgspNkmFPjlpGKrzR9lqo8BdBLustLihPmu-9KPkdlCyHcJaC5Ov6H_fAiTEqCqkwORLZ4D31Kd3HPokaTKVJUbvtPrGTNq5PwM2jKrX5BMcZhafV9F7SGn1BqgzjjG5WRjwUy6r4sWl7qMZS9L-cMLrFtr8QgEeP58khwlFb6Kn3Sgv4B6e8q5YLpUmWa6778xa0bA-tPmBKl-brD6fTVkSWmmrC6oeux2zqZ4IG_BjEIOsigsvfg3AXbWWsuADk4EJTagLloid2hwHjHkhH30kx5AxWBKNUgqVi-dMgVuHdfqhOeme0/Y7yf5rSwm0AltDE3tGaGIXTSFMP2YhRZ/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">points out</a>, “the set of companies owned by PE plus public markets looks a lot like the set of companies that would all have been public thirty years ago,” so if it is prudent for 401(k)s to own stocks then it’s arguably prudent for them to own private equity too. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">From second principles, “the financial industry wants to sell stuff to individual investors because it can’t sell any more of that stuff to institutional investors, and <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/8CyjqlHt04pINDX7hnqS2qpc4FWa6G4vVdP6IKpMl1crCqzAcmSiFFvipyYR4h60I-RreNfWPFF8AHWSXSyqiRrCkG01TamCwIjZRMya4-kD_fHSZRTeHdxWpCSO3krS620Dv_wRHf7jwRYpq2KKY9bQOR8joNK2UeH-sdim9fkvBw2RbHYiy_b4qJ0BiRRktgnQHtxtkKdMtK3Iox_EQHwnedFrbVXCt4rh55ItSs5R8CAChTrXSVSLk5K57DmUd95pz5PBQXdIDtEaA4xO48dj3yd2L9wS_BuYoV7LmLik-0-3BtzJ6J6QIkJZfBNS-dFsJc3iDZTrw8ARjGFNhJv1gn_D_MqAxh1sX6qmub-H-U7cRVeQPMxHTW4/zbHggQcJ-vHkmtiEPIme8jo1cTuOYRg4/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">because the fees are high</a>,” is really the worst imaginable advertisement for an investment. When the most sophisticated asset managers are desperate to sell you stuff, you should consider that perhaps you should not be buying the stuff, though of course this is not investment advice.<a href="#footnote-4" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[4]</span> </a> When crypto managers are desperate to sell you stuff, that also might be some sort of signal.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That said, I am not sure how much this is a story about the rise of private assets (and crypto), and how much it is a story about the decline of 401(k) paternalism. In general, <em>outside </em>of 401(k)s, Americans have far more, and far spicier, investment options than they did a few years ago. You could always buy stocks, but now you can buy meme stocks, which are sillier. You can buy <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/HsEKP0RB0P6EzAgqH2JVjRCY6FpIDPwmO0ahUBMtgpmwZsL4QaU2ufp6h5MW3XadCfjvEUlFrq3MJ0xpWtK3irBPuU_g_tYvidJk7tKu70TRDbtcDV29Ksohls8fXW1Jqi_C8PkPg4uXR2Ub4at2CtoI2Ud5mXhBBv_DXjDnlg9YpoR3sdvhdXxnG3YSBMNMx264zGSMtFlzz-y4nWHw7vhrPOpcEMi1bqaG5L8BJHYDhVvEiooMSxml98EFOLTzZLYM8mHJWzg9cn_pgpmj_o4KPcqWZ23vdGFMUREsNL3rqOWiia89opvVcpPzexVVPEGhanqIyXSn7HAr6rp-oZMav6PDV4h_aTAAx0nR8XDgwIjlvK8ajoglWcA/sX6ZCe3W0wOZlO6wemFGhhwfMRmAQJPW/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">zero-day options</a>. You can get all sorts of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FNu2-mhVpOe_pRxMpcPe3xEGw_9bSJlLPPCWmZ6AncC8mKODYHy6QZ26XwLPzdfW-TmVwMwhMBm6kNRGaEgcBTWrQe8eYLHH-y3bZPZRwveU84Iko5Vv-c5SuABCHnussm9WpK7Qr2tc-4orZeDr-w5wZ14hyRLeJDequyyujHQ1vyUInTKscRbf9Txs_3p1oRUWWKZHhu6Fx70SUZTwxHKZjUFleXJwvw4YhlwxwhFMvA-EIQskXoQZ1Jzd0wKhqapiZJoq1Lz7edt_oY53yxx2lw8IzUnXEY1thglZPp8UPtZYFJL1WxBD92m0vTGVSQpKurLEHsmEQcW7PTU9AVX4j28-Mqhw817QIzmwFAykC2SS_Ab6dGrutKc/4oWM08eEvsL6KFQpM1idWDMg1ylKHq61/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> private credit</a>. You can buy <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/cJHU3Wki1OKJAiDIfTQfGIPuBLoAg0R1aBxjxIMLaGG9CT0qy2cCC1lLH9NzOpx3-NrcK0mdoY6e5-DDN27idkfFb9kWswg-tuqo2RFyAnZC_BYCVMS3vDq4f98ediMSIUS_w4hYrU0ANBs85hOa0SNPeAz0fuaBbq1GVIK-lpnmktVrxr7AL-k1_JdI1xbgFmBGkBHypM7VxP_SHWbOql8dMEw9a8poj0yBJQNQIb9QE_4KhUONsJyE81TcugWt8y9Vsa-coeqB-xWCr36zPCOy9s9DJN_v3p3nYAd0WBd1Fw92yqbzsgtFG8ILN29jVdprH5Cb_J4ev211jVHAZtUDx6_sybxMujjPVE6Q_AEoTuN4VOFF77IIcYM/M-RM_RA2YXZ3BTajrlLkyJyyGxP2REaT/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">10x levered perpetual crypto futures</a> on Coinbase. You can, and I really cannot stress this enough, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/_x8Z4Umz-vVEqwDZ_Y49L2hn454GZ1TLBbjIW7iQjQLmaRWhKoTd-z-xtok9hGsTxy1fqL2fJbj6NxrUY1FeOu8KKeeSaEFIO63Y_9RAZJGEbwsHZnWnoobeSG-U6ad1m8tzDMXA1gUYmdHI9yxOmRHGiB38aDP5VBx4k6DlZ3IwVgvzmxvkfTG4bQUw08klHLxGP5e-VMiFX19jKF3uqJ1Dh2sSy6sWupbXYA1NDn6S2aDxwXbRMk6OWSdsmFIK1hTZkr3Xz8KEtrMlWSGhDJNvx-rctiaKYQPIDy-CCnkb36Bmy60oNj6pdbdPAybW6PQ_CGdmTwyAnJJ8Ec4jN95NUfoY8NjJ8H54T3pQY-tFL9nJl4WY6m9En40/l0iBRIvGlLeBDIMftFFSRiGYhT08kWIb/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">bet on sports</a> in your brokerage account. You can’t yet <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/qL_H7yR13_FIqaU_K1lJfQDre_ZwyrhWzsHhLmyFAV_FzcwHrqHyW-D7DHfTw0Sw9Dimb79P94-Hbo2gqijH4Vsh5g72ZzdZxl8HqAjOV1OiBrckiXz5qIJfmak30HCOckwJ6GAySnPDTKGwAFk14GulGsC_Nd4jj-nnUTPeLE0BxjPHXbsRXlQUVPu5WEUkaXhIpL38-1Ij0BxJkxTEUJ78KxOhd9FrnXasbJahUSYLRO1wiIeACuMahHNCnESPLdM1Yujx0fyPHctDH2JezF810wMd3zynhJ2-h-u7HAe0Bn_Pn9r-2G5322s8MquXd1w_1dLelOUJcaM9Yyq7LxfBtwdSdvR1O44Mck3KUji4aXz0YG-r41H-6o8/Z5CEMHOh8B8SKiIptfRFpYkRHV_y2eHr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">buy tokenized shares of OpenAI</a>, but give that like a month.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Led by crypto and meme stocks and legalized sports gambling, the general norms about what sorts of investments regular people make, and should be allowed to make, and might enjoy making, have shifted. There is broader acceptance that <em>of course </em>you should be able to make all sorts of wild bets in your investment accounts, that <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/el0odA3BmuKmIYTCdUlRBedVBfI5orrRay7hXnLyV5LmZrHa249cR0gt5R3IMw2ZTQO7OLUhDKThZx0nwBIOYzcngH9s23r5MYnyhkK9NHAHb2W4dYzHqlcsVXd0JsXonvi8DXfv8VwsMk4M9eqUWP4dlIagJcaSyyn9g7FpgsARoW0K-R_UJ-Ix96Bqv-YOHZw7423_6dJ4HPfMaK4OQmq6oxobNyCZtRCta8-i8_ahcM39BP9VUcmE81g2RkY4xBSRq2kXKQD9mUw6zjfHeQyr6s32tP78yeHdRlm1NGSWI9BudQXOvBKn6HN6tYIuu4Rb-nPIWYPV0vp1Je-OAX55UnOTn08YZOdk04g9SerfIJOOy1eAOnBX7Dg/39BgaM2_s3WNukE_sspi1kVrS2Y6jrNN/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> a little excitement</a> is a good feature of financial markets, that it is a good function of the financial system to offer you some entertaining bets. And if that’s true, then the 401(k) system is going to offer you some of those bets too.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">By the way: You can still buy low-cost broad public stock index funds!<a href="#footnote-5" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[5]</span> </a> You can do that in your individual brokerage account — it’s the button next to “Bet On Sports” — and you will probably be able to do it in your 401(k) for the foreseeable future. But your 401(k) plan might offer you a few <em>additional</em>, zanier options. And if you choose those and they don’t work out, that’s your problem.</p> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/GjFw5r2hF73Ds7H01aPc7_G9pMUL_2k_VqJIpjCaI2c2dBpukYZHf9Bj4amkr6fMOWh8TIC33W1ktXftpg0DVoqDgwfpjvuYQwSCripyHu3zKnSK1xEaAXxDeNDpNmDutsipNjY-6puBvkfFtS5qbe0OyIS6BeqLZrQ-sUJJdfLOqozR5hwED7gAFt787kWM7zH6Q7qp357_JJXRpzvtg8EInc2fr7RVV3ucKV4iaqFQCj10GRLEDRe6HC9rJgpNd_56Q46wu7886yD6QUSwRwmYvmPiX1QcPsxW2b019iSak7I55DrK8FrVEH8E8l9rclE3Xw9MBf4CgPG7EzBDUfWm_tT3A1Nn2f_YHwcSWRx1dHd8SJjZqmGy2hQB9RUI72mhXeN6E249P8QzPW0VPfvkS1rULWhQNXinV06sBdsM9VBX5yJwtFT27h1RshuWwmDyK4LUHJGiGZjpFduWf0SMr1I7mwS01v7d22jMMeTDfDs9mb7ZOhW6qaNsLJnl-j8JEGcvOuB4gSA4gpb8IEXmg2xD5aeGtO3CTRDzKvltmiXy_F2Il7qGqxyRjqvZLXGQAfNkN0QoqFtNwCOn_6SY2QMDlKMLlx2xS6nW2YykSutW9gVzoky0ohaCs5GmIbO0dygEHE_RkQoRW5NujYZL-_hpD3FoIcVrvfUtECNrSXG_oa1zIVRiSwstqQ/jSZSQCjXrNL0tQOP0GCP7eBgzx55FJHu/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=desktop&collapse_width=550&li=14512567&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08072025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="550" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;width:100%;max-width:550px;" alt="" class="lihide"/> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"> <!--[if !mso]><!--> <div style="display:none; overflow:hidden; width:0; max-height:0; line-height:0;" class="lishow"> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ZJ9haMIoT8lkIpkmceoWljUCCxCOBdlvAVRhRbJ94Jmb17nw2eJHO6OlG_Sow8OM63JUzgWZOR2jtFpIVO8AJOGw8io9rYBO5xtcBbn3KcfAG2yAlHt1clcZ2q2yCF8A7BHZhGJ6gz-LUCJgT9vYEAlcx9XUmRv0dCNQ47yNBILoLLwVF1ek5czWZiraP42FZs7vMiPaXM_JBdh7tKLsOtscAf73cDCU0HZ8x1R-YcPpSEhoqapDoVFLU2fNgXqcUx4uj5lMd8sR07Fq4_HrakAa3EoAPtuOlzk6oQ5a-ayl2j7akTVlXSx2ejk5_uwIP508wXhK5NYZnmrgOkSxj076UYcpvF7ldPPSA8DaQsXCPVLxJsGT02yRN8HBCiM6JjX6YiElnJn1y6fmUu3odn_stMODUjgLVQOCrB586fZKUACA24UYB9T5dengcP-PiULcAEbbkW-zQxblwNc-uardNd-LDsfBoPI7JRZ0K2Y4NkNhZXz-NpkV9bjfO7L3nkfY9MZCq6T5h2Mdglh9jCSKX5iaF41WZPV89iD_FKWDidYaxNeaR2kTpQlCi4_6p6p2oWvT3ThZWwkXS_1MQlEHbJCYw1qLE-SESCVDA-xmXP6Zj0aIjjocCFMjazcGeXplZDyG89CYC9-LuaQJV_SJR2APx0bSYtk_-xi8h8b4CWkXTjHJnxxne7aYxg/N8eDuw-loovwA9Ui6-0tQeYQzdeT0R1X/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=mobile&collapse_width=550&li=14512567&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08072025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="100%" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;" alt=""/> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!--<![endif]--> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Agentic Equities</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">An important stylized fact is that sell-side research analysts can move stocks. When a well-known analyst at a big firm upgrades a stock from Hold to Buy, the stock will probably go up. It is possible that there is a fundamental explanation for this — the analyst is very good at identifying which stocks will go up, so her upgrades correctly predict future cash flows — but there is also, obviously, a social-influence explanation. People follow her recommendations, so when she says that a stock is a Buy, people buy it, so it goes up. Her recommendations are, over some time horizon, self-fulfilling. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And therefore sophisticated investors who do their own analysis <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/6lACyiIn5IK6t0_GzZbN42apwvQ7AxQZuKSB8hp_BEORvQ7Tsy1a3fWe6lGSD5WQb25L7kXGsnlvZD89V1Fqnpdhij9dqM4b-kHrilZBxvl4lGmwf0yuGl2DUOJU36TlNG5Kc3kk3MaLTKVafVZ9RQjDGEOJ0Zd5ARMFotAhuVxIZNVfdwbb5tkAwbLT4fXFYjAox244VT0DYT36y1GOxrq7oVMi7QtJ2MO7dstaHuIh0Fe9_JGNPY8wJCivyfM_ugOhdv5O4X_WBYXXw1yGX_97DcxvQXKKGRek__yzFv_XSlrTIad0g1h3Wa1mS7Th2CyfRh6tK8LZrqSc2z58HBByXjbutTGlCrXPIbhZtdju-1Xn4KLOwPckDv8/JwjwT1qQaw2ts-Dlz0XeYyxyGqPwFx5w/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> also pay attention</a> to sell-side research analysts. And getting early access to research notes <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/cj-uZ7nRO4p_fyWOZYgJiSb6XPl-e1abVNZA-qMVueebrXMlUa97MN7FFaoIZ4p6RCHRZaXRNzd9Xparb6VG3R8uZTO9RgIc9yc4ZciDvGzp_NNWNEl4--rYn01A_q80V2H25yMTeaZkdL4Hpw3OQ1bdvRZj0jRB30z2otHZVR26nOj6C3E66XtYZAZJpi4HbkGMpwrQILpk-U7FfJZlaoGL3qZSIVoLbttrhF4YMKSUcZf4NT6c2nZ71yAgtV-GRaUFiVSjBu50-pOoE5MqdvqdEbbk2p42bkY33wnRtHmx1ZlydFhsURTaylBN4WUM4-qE7u7M_FP191lmvZ6CPitvzMHDUyLYbonoFifdtndhlkX5ugKZmkE5m7k/AZ9WlpkKaO_csnna2dRey7byRHuioPHf/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">is insider trading</a>, even though the analyst is not actually an “insider.” Her recommendations are market-moving in their own right.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Two things that I have <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kbJvYVBBciyqyib8ZhsyVDC66fOY3g7t_LWunmqSpkjPywefAsElOSlFtc4ItKZ1ACC7FHZoysoQctKVtMAMA2JGEgK_2sn_w71ZL6UEHbjbAJpKfWbiB0F9p18DMEeKSBS_xuiKLl8tGMRymkg_wfYgGsR3JJlxZOZk76UiXVLrCqo7rUbuvNZuFqi6hYZHPHhZagLClrLR3scixHqSEpW1FvAt00bz-2DTRtSzpEjCNiFZUo2-_1LDgT9AifrVKV5Nu_rczfHSiwHoY35jbBN2eXOpUDLsC6O0IX1ip1Fu_ZF6Jk29jqUj2FCwYK9AjBa5kDUoCsK8FajkHO62OJBPYcDZbzwE6Q43P4pUi0ezVuqsJbP-jImK02k/eMfRvrA2xK4-u0QfMlgmd2KHXSDRiSeH/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> mused</a> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/YW7wr6vD4SSINWTLfQk3mGuDMBaGeMIW2j_VHjLVxJBApHn28NxD7kYz7wXzWoAOYX4y8Lvbuwo2wXAdNDMaxSZT62-Xl_yOpIW8z74Ie_pHRRFWbC_DY4sAhlKEmJxyi8tmVzca3FfzttiE1af9iEQq-j_VK2ceiPqzwmMesgtfa2igHhPcV6ucbJtQRWw1oHiF9bdPykkniHFpaqo3140ZMxqKGbVRzQtFBnh1e-ffGqUzDT08eL9ty7J_lCYwkoug9blz7OH_SzyC-KoLiHypXv32tmeHS6Agkrmu9as0Huz9svmwbXDQJNzrzZ1GAt3aKFzAkB88P2cJnRvRVESvPzHimrEneJ5HYGL08mgJxVXIWe5b8RcKVVU/7vq941ay0zD-5zla4QD-CkLikzT--eAK/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> about</a> in recent <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/_7GDyc_eQTrbsKgVGtxRk1QIhnbHdc2kS1-z13gfEieKNnwCiNq6h_LDnYhTFsaA6KbpwnQqsJThzaUDBrMmC2I_-ADZJn3B3G9ydBu9N4rnWbJcGWNTskSeS5frHFkZZmmzyeNzZInGQ0a68nhf1KVtjvUSRioJpxP7JfyWU2FAdQMJFXm3cWPiHiKHzliUTUsi2hJLOeu3W__fircVDot0kLZS-Wd7QeGrIbjbkAH6ZGzltTpwMDxMO5uP7GHgA2G0YZdD6kb6PG0i_FvLeDOEjfd8TIyb90ELHdTKfcwn-z0KIT0j2DMLqygZHL9FGj5DS9-8O6-LwmYErNkTe6mU1QIAZVoaITeIaDYa0IGehmJbGDGjsjws0zc/iBdqzioGMagp6wCM5EXqHVK1j0Ky-maC/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> weeks</a> are (1) whether people are asking ChatGPT for stock recommendations and (2) whether it’s giving them all similar recommendations. If the answers are yes and yes — if people increasingly are getting their financial advice from a handful of generative artificial intelligence models, and if the models give people the same advice — then the models’ recommendations should be, over some time horizon, self-fulfilling. If everyone asks ChatGPT what stocks to buy, and ChatGPT tells them all “OpenDoor,” then OpenDoor will go up.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This can’t be <em>literally </em>true, in part because people don’t all ask ChatGPT the same questions, and it doesn’t give them all the same answers. But here’s a fun little website called <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/D4l76KOAvCdB6y4hknOr0JdlBjlKoOx4H2QTzLaG5uqlw8tvWh1Y6RxzHDwb5ceurwxvYFboYLs57TmhYrtpK7TZUZkeC7ZejI--WLym0Chg5pPRwacP1BYHYfTeCOrL_BZIXJIMCKVc1NTyL5EO9iMMaGt5BtQfAD-yMzchkUVMJOxgQoeSkaTEPyJFB7z__KY8NjVFHiuDi6VuuXaEb_Pp6kBQP4g3L7Sls0oyNrus9dT-KIkNRM7kXU62zxR1_dSAOYAG-DQRlK30g2yhg3lO7xjGz9XyR8VUDUXnBQV5YeHSk9E-ipa7_hgk3JDVuxTX9SbG1_Rwx7PiyDmS5UggHlQy-zlaiH4gJwBEa4wWYd23BjaLFR5HrU0/V_dED8zkC8XW4Unoj3zh7xEhqYVRQVWF/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Agentic Equities</a> that tries to track ChatGPT recommendations:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">Here are the stocks ChatGPT is telling people to buy. We query GPT-4o-search using multiple analyst personas for the S&amp;P 500 and select stocks. </p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The analyst personas include “value investor,” “risk averse,” “quant/technical,” “meme investor,” “macro strategist,” “growth focused” and “balanced analyst,” and you can read the little memos ChatGPT writes for each of them. If ChatGPT is telling all of those personas to buy a stock, does that mean the stock will go up? Man, I have no idea, and this is not investment advice. But it does feel a little bit like the future.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">In the place of payment</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">For a while it looked like President Donald Trump’s tax bill <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/uPYO5G3ItyXZNMgvypVMNNxA10pcWtRzxFhyq7Hh-iS4qBQxLzhRwnWbwj55R9QJS520se0bxL1DIL0sFcAvql5_-Qir6XWzGOqmAPOlUjCX2MDsf7avHgRT1DXaR0vlIAgpVUv5u6oGvEmihnJ42BEOq41PF9ujly-58FHX3-48_HnpBpe45c0-Qxg_by-HhD_dVe9tkfrW8tHtxMWqNJGZL7ihD2lXgP3q2Du26hG9SM7Xh-ahUWFPztNvCsIg2UvPxuGSyk0uPoBg9IhVCabJiGveSBc0eaHXyKHW_6QlcDPR7qFGT-kRiFIKPbKiOJNrUKk7yoNGokwAAm02HXyQk78zHHnmFlrtCf2yn6tHILPhESdIXmu_AJc/WeA1aguEoAcyZqrfzJa-sA6KclCF_liy/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">might include</a> a “revenge tax.” This tax, in Section 899 of the draft bill, would <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/wO4SyPZP0AatoZJNU1mZQRHMvzJlVtN4uhrjH8TZ7TVcZ4t_WnJAirNpMBCtLNbOidGnvq9wCMB1PlJdosKkMwR0iquLdNKeL9QoJ_wFdHZCk0gnnCGS6NZBm__DJXWB8g7YJVwhTGkdlyUOc6oNeHUfk7Q37extx9LGRKRKiHFxZGSIAws3heO53XDb-eewpwXVG09iNN_ojcEDCdZ1EX2nPS5DAxSpWLNT0A0dG9DTXczrSMaWlDA-FqD-KO8WsJdwfwaBYK7Av0tWLZKVnh1JWV-EQ5Obe4paXDg8ot-YC3ysgUh-gIXkOAXpQh6rZBWBQBlMlZjPunxror3FvYGKeIH91qRYLZBPfyZlXePCBy_eSb_wnB0Udfc/ILR03d14UQ6v8A02rybnRWH5QU6pbcbz/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">have imposed withholding tax</a> on certain US income earned by foreigners from countries that have “unfair foreign tax” rules. So if a citizen of those countries — which apparently included Canada, the UK, most of the European Union and many other countries — owned US stocks or bonds, the US government would take as much as 20% of their dividend or interest income. This ended up not happening, but it was a worrying possibility for a while.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">During that time, one reader emailed me to ask: Would this be a <em>default on US debt? </em>The logic is:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">The US issues Treasury bonds, which pay interest.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Many of those bonds are owned by foreigners.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">If the US seized the interest on those bonds for itself, rather than sending it to the (foreign) bondholders, that does seem like not quite the deal the bondholders signed up for.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Isn’t that a default?</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I think the rough answer is “no,” in part because the Section 899 tax <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/AZsmjJ6ZJxnHIc0ebmWkWh65jLGZ1_52GLQ3drn1tIGYbolSM-orSmb5sbiDFsWns2YyRBxQGVDQmGU1ePQJkceQ6mGMSHK13NG6PIaS6utSPhJPyv3_vwVAbMXufKaUG__nk6cpGVG2VaqKUcVMvJvqiR-fRnIdYIgFibSDYREgnmAQhOo3ASkPcAUo3lNU79-oX1_4OTucQek_xMir3pzrh56tcsXZYw8oz3pfchpiNWdkDMB9h-Qcw1EXDvKibKzavjqJEW5WZfpsrt_Ybgd3nYEYf7aq8_5ob7VRktnWoYzFxLUXZAWyCQ7i82p7dOkG_5p7HfM0mUFR4hGTxa2f82zSyL6haw3G0WQh1HUiW1ZcIi86pDwnq1c/ReOCVmtYZKcB4ywFFGAQSZlsByT8zUh_/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">probably wouldn’t have applied to Treasuries</a> and in part because the US, as a bond issuer, can kind of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/SqwzgnoL4VtRNC4uDmPh3aT2s7KbcSCQr0I5NJlNTBBDdQWBl5VT3uXoNVq7IX7zRI-zX7PNC2y7K-m23LjVX7_9fytZqpRZ7uP0Jr3bJiyw2GeqhP9xx5FpN_dTvXEhguopE-DLCBy3Spf9XiFbjShLg-5qZbDjQg0vYOP1P7ok9ZsoBldwQYSOIwc_mQG88QSv0xEBNeKcAAkM3P0YrOsIr5bS4iDFVXJxX0C6wp_aA7Svua6i1NVAulMlQ6tY0oN0B8e2-0vSWW03Malv5zAutrqB2X1eN6ziVx3Qr1WVQYTfr6GvqJoEw9_h2I3VEZ44-EFfT8UIrIBZ4eoxC8pH-1qdUeMKX0olu9MxQMwURZPmhNOHmXimQIQ/CZkNk0Xex0sKL5JErnTP1Nobo7nRVgJu/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">do whatever it wants</a>; if it’s a “default,” it is not a default in any actionable way. (There is no bond contract setting out events of default, and the bondholders are not going to accelerate their bonds, sue to get them paid, seize US assets abroad, etc.)</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But it is a more generally applicable question in sovereign debt. A country issues bonds. The bonds pay interest.<a href="#footnote-6" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[6]</span> </a> The country decides it no longer wants to pay the interest. If it simply says “we are no longer paying interest,” that’s a default. The bondholders might have some legal remedies. Emerging-market bonds, in particular, are often issued under New York or English law and waive sovereign immunity, so the bondholders really can go to court in New York or London and demand payment and get some sort of legal order that makes life unpleasant for the issuer. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But what if the country does something else with a similar effect? What if it passes a new tax, saying “the tax rate on interest paid on our bonds to foreign holders is now 100%”? Then it could “pay” the interest to the bondholders (not a default), but take all of it back in tax. But people have thought of that; most sovereign bond contracts have a tax gross-up clause saying that, if the issuing country taxes any payments on the bond, it has to pay those taxes rather than imposing them on the bondholders.<a href="#footnote-7" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[7]</span> </a> So that doesn’t work, for most countries, though it might work for the US.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But you could be more creative. What about a law like “any payments on our bonds will be deemed made if we deliver them to our central bank in an account with the holder’s name on it”? That way, the company has “made” the payment, but no cash has gone out the door to investors. Or “any payments on our bonds can be made in this new cryptocurrency we just made up”? There are ways to change your laws to change how the payments are made.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Does this work? Well, it shouldn’t. The whole point of issuing sovereign bonds under New York or English law is to prevent this sort of thing: The issuer’s obligations are governed by some outside law, so it can’t just change its own laws to avoid paying.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But here is a <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/hLs9vzDh289bWJ7pPW71R3uBmsJXJZIRwmmQr9UWqkwNuERota_M9SWeQfjmccIPQKk7kra3c3cSYq7uNGChXAxvdo_22PhPV3XSB9HFJ3GtyEpasJmZ1_2CdBnmxR-S7520NHgkhkVhdwH1lo6dq6t3ahWrnVKonHHMUWX7vPb02kze8Zvc-t0pp9NyYH6glwDhKKAEQ8uAUMdkuNEoU6ECzVoJfr9X8jyoTjXyD9xMsPVv3eMxWXQp1qszzDuuxX-cin26UKSLX0RXc4H2bdW4CT8rkuh7UZDP_vswO0TfSHOHL47fjNP3bZSBrzHtfLNe0cwzsAgQoXgHVdIPXigX7hq3I6D5dJkCwZx959kJ0K2GbczPzXoMdcI/G_dByStXSjSG2LG5yv7fH2eKUNXzT8NJ/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">fun paper</a> by sovereign-debt legal experts Lee Buccheit and Mitu Gulati about a glitch. Most English-law sovereign bond contracts say something like this:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">All payments are subject in all cases to any applicable fiscal or other laws, regulations and directives in the place of payment, but without prejudice to the provisions of [the tax gross-up clause].</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Buchheit and Gulati explain:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">The clause is a simple acknowledgment that a jurisdiction other than the jurisdictions in which the issuer and the investors are located may enact laws or regulations affecting payments under the instrument. The most likely measure of this kind would be some form of transaction tax on payments flowing through that jurisdiction or perhaps a politically motivated sanction on the issuing country. The Russian Federation, for example, was effectively prevented by EU sanctions from making payments on its Eurobonds following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Under this clause, it is not a default on the bond if the issuing country makes a payment to investors, but the country where the payment is received does something to prevent or tax the payment. The investors take the risk of a change in law in <em>other </em>countries, though not the risk of a change in law in the issuer country.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The glitch is that some bond contracts (roughly a quarter of English-law bonds) don’t have the normal wording:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In our perusal of Cypriot bonds in 2013, however, we stumbled on the fact that the Fiscal Laws clause appearing in Cypriot bonds omitted the codicil “in the place of payment.” The formulation of the clause used by Cyprus said that all payments are subject in all cases to any applicable fiscal or other laws, regulations and directives. The important geographical qualification “in the place of payment” was absent. Does this mean, we asked, that Cyprus itself could enact laws, regulations and directives affecting is own payments under the bonds? …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Read literally, a Fiscal Laws clause that omits the “in the place of payment” codicil evidences the consent of the investors to the sovereign borrower enacting laws or regulations that will affect how the issuer can discharge its payment obligations under the instrument. This could arguably include the timing of payments, the place of payments, even perhaps the currency of payments. The one measure that would not be authorized under this provision is any form of withholding tax or similar levy imposed by the sovereign issuer’s own jurisdiction. The Fiscal Laws clauses we have examined (all of them) could not be used to override the obligation of the issuer to “gross up” (that is, to make the investors whole) for any tax of that kind. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">What might such a measure look like? Consider, for example, the situation of a country facing a severe — perhaps existential — need to conserve its foreign exchange. A situation brought on, perhaps, by the need to repel a brutal invasion by its neighbor.<a href="#footnote-8" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[8]</span> </a> Confronted by that necessity, a plausible fiscal measure might require payments under external debt obligations to be discharged by crediting the amount due to an account in the name of the foreign creditor at the local central bank.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">A number of countries that restructured their external debt in the 1980s employed programs of this kind covering foreign currency debts of both public and private sector obligors. The Philippines and Mexico, for example, each instituted a program that allowed private sector borrowers in those countries to discharge their foreign currency denominated debt obligations by paying the local currency equivalent to the country’s central bank (which then assumed the obligation vis-à-vis the foreign creditor on restructured terms). In other countries, public sector borrowers settled their debts to foreign creditors by paying the amount due to the local central bank which then restructured the debt on agreed terms. </p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is, if your sovereign bond contains a clause saying “all payments are subject in all cases to any applicable fiscal or other laws,” you can just make some new applicable laws to change the payments.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Everything is seating charts</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/MAQf-82EV8xowlarJaoLhWnx6XPzosrwMJbkWWE0La5vMSDEBoDjEJGFoZqvsJamzNe0CLuPvlciYY_3b3E6Ch4jKLkKRT9AGF204maD7L0CMKeR0BZNnED9m0iwBcoDWy6kkCS2u_FmC5lxR2ktQ_MhjNsxrKOxd6ADqC6b6XC-PX5_bmSvgptss20p6PGG3GL5Hy_C6gkgL3qjkg8RdkIG-_HGcHcJ0jDiB8uWir13e4FtZhMlWSweZ-IdGtueVk1xgXqh5GtFZYI6fTY8DJPDYr9sD93gKHu7iTLdamzOd8JDFafJfA-bVbs1NP8ZGSMmg9ybF7zWOHoHeiyymf8qxeWX95c2bRdgHNn80sfLKXa4HlPbuOi-kaY/4ZVFh8kC8relWylL8oUHMS3jZYIvI3rz/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Okay</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">A former Point72 intern says he asked the firm for a quieter desk — and got fired instead. Now he's suing Steve Cohen's $39.9 billion hedge fund.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Andrew Pardo, who was in the firm's 2023 summer intern class after completing his junior year at the University of Michigan, claims in his suit that he was fired after he asked to move to a desk in a less-trafficked area because he suffers from PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental health condition he said he was diagnosed with after suffering physical abuse. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">"This complaint, for which the plaintiff is demanding $20 million in damages in connection with his summer internship, is ridiculous and without merit. We intend to address these matters in the appropriate forum," the hedge fund wrote in a statement.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">There almost certainly is some hedge-fund employee somewhere for whom the correct desk location <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/hW9vh-pxQR9S9SUKwx4A28kLoo9RGUfo_DO-phZr9RtgidoB8kRes9w1YOUKh76c_GIV0_uIenZy2YG8VmujusNc1c4jmLbj-qUf1nwQ4EF22zGMRfWtzVSmoQwVY63OTB0oDJHgumfwBAd8afOr6YM0T2rSm4w3Gv8BekNzoj-f939TZCnXHdj0ufGzmjos5Yqaxaauj5RopwZG1o_LDefz76NsMt0iOUH0vDrWAfjofMahzw-9cDKxACSii5Vo4AVRpGyPwt9tX4MbxQFuSDvvENPmfiDbWGiDxOQDnQ3p04Fvy4TeMxjb7YCptZIDKj2uDBC09WflyK80S1oidgtKTgSPADyEs03ZhXd3rZJHRxQi1NAv39PsaHQ/CQo-9noxkyOoXw4F2iQ_stalV-jOXEnx/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">really is worth $20 million</a>, but probably not an intern.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Things happen</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/mH0BaDvbu-i_mz-mKQ0kTcktvgUtOzBk0HvP55eLId7D8JpFLho-7b5JuZ7ZOuXYwbzF8PGqJ72PBwRUSVxzdv735-yvwM-Iv4eYhXgd2Py2xD3-eze3hcrl8JHlWUqbDaEgvwCiPA8QHTZ-xo-4WkHiCv9z-7BoqtRsLrjTztvVSUjhd-1pAG7v1o8qndXzEbCHmEuRea8zjjbZ4HI3mctWAanlz_2kOBOiFkD_yGNl5TXiH7qRni25oCUE8g1aKnFjH9lwar9GM8b__1u-Z2ad-h5hI2MrVRnhlQeH_usTbkd9sWvG90owt1L15FuP9Ez1FbJNVFu3z0n3uLuhFuvKNScuNa9jpZIRQC4U4i6f4aQWYkB7LDYku5k/v1gHAHdlCsuxVyadSYHVdEIQblO62kUT/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Stagflation</a> Concerns Ripple Through Wall Street as Tariffs Hit. In Land of 25% Inflation, Crypto Is Starting to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/QWwIazdvLxiAk0esDWf0kfKEDySGbZ8mtW1YhzMruuH3lhVRjXOE0PN29bQqyvk9DWLfqAIvUCSiqXETsDRZYKyEii77dOpyO92e17sYN0T7XZfsuVve21XwhJ7EZ48n7CB1qKnXlae0REGTNeZSXNYZ8xhnq_G3O9YqQ-Q5sQhXIASnEjjx_m0UCrZjUDotsNSlcZR4LN1a5In3fQdgdFKuas27w1xuusIb__vN1XIiUbxcziVhos59bZFOma7R1650hdHx7LGMZTbJb7WNjrrMX0HPZ0i_wKqqNriP5WDcd_lWVV8FTx38sz2Zo_dttBwLYcosa3uMzjjrrsRLDwFUbXIPLEl-T0ftL3BHl6BFS53RKqDu1eBcePM/iIGG1uqiLFOWDsHQvLzFE6ooTnlMdr0x/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Replace Money</a>. Waller Emerges as <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/PxxQyHOR3pI9hD7y20CPMXJGs5OHG2uRxtP00QcMeWhUI3Go0IEzCfP5Z1RJAb6Bj6qsXwNtP-up4Bp87bmW-PewGkx7wzKo2brRQ0V9Xe3D41HGEnF0VhuLifhckik2dLDUV4JpIlg2GxEYM1gEGscySUJSfBrmpYZ_AGuJCug0SAvU-R36e3kqI4dRYtnIIm0EpUxvYLX87KpyNrzir_yyt_VFcfhm6h2YjNYllrDKgcrr1wIDasbciATLZctofDxMZSVJkxKlEUuIFwL9bawpAOKAVrVjeyYDhMjJHqc28FU5VacXjOUyGjrB9AKhvqvAkK4u3t4djN03YZgoO75lbf5fPA57HrNbRR9FWbCguICfs0126fbv5TM/CTzsIMuOOoHqVU2DteHtAlSRMIyazy0c/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Favorite for Fed Chair</a> Among Trump Team. Microsoft Raids Google’s DeepMind AI Unit With Promise of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/D2dLweKEzy9EJ-_5m4cZLu3xxOwNLeK_y8JuwPNtMM4UpG1thzE_iNkLoSYX6_t7Ao4Pu280bCp3aYPWq-ejKEJFT0rnWZjer-6pH8_13iy5BOhCJmOkq3coPCVfB0aKGJzdmcfSH68zlYOMDnkdGM0rDSglQ0wK9KP17GWDgAfvM6Nf4YFcmSTDBORnuS5w-VAcuikcnADTOC1uDR1Y6NSxb9y4Wumpl2AEr8gH3YKmMo-bmHgtT6cLaymJ7sRHhvU5qTnxO2TE1-vtNf29ZAmrzsuSTgp_YK3kh4iYgxA7CAT4CW71UwS1G1JE4udrR6gDdDFtAnZnGmApU-PyCYTlNJpwS5TSVWjeIdM3_9TmegabHrW_w66yEuI/RCNhaqLV4pTRLWJan519IGqujvJWusuc/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Less Bureaucracy</a>. Developer of Crypto Mixer <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/u6a1d9UW8-B4fbJdK-XKRi1T1WlOFIjJkg1178XYeoaLKEpy9MOoYwpgFhm8T4YJRCGMeCh5mUmhS6FL48yLQfLn0vM7RRUob3LldBq68O0-A68_w4jGtnTAhAh3LcProyokvjtyZyPswQzw-8YQedgNJjK-AC5JSKLt-1hk7ffzVayhmgGAiNamasu5OVNpuHs6Hzlj0_iiW8z3lcm5Q3Xkvc2l9zKxqae0EJqrSQSurfo5iBc-Hb0-sSY9OitZ-zlfCIRqV5UzUSUuvu7QvcwT6EpXT3SWULh1x4tUahyOSoZfQ9fzLhY0HKP_TnC9RHCCGTh6wHsBDnbGFeF1nfEURa88YJV_e6UE0OoiKwvsj6P9P7yWL_hj7is/H4lc9KH_KN6OnPATVzCNNwpZ9P8JpfcB/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Tornado Cash</a> Found Guilty on One Criminal Charge. Cryptocurrency group Ripple buys <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/oEyrKtdAZtWS8pK7GMPfFwIDleG52_Qa6YgT0oVjBDpIoIb2zZMw-Kfgi2_eD_3UiZUucwOHMdzoOnQ_xTnoeCiPZ-YELrM5sl4CYyf9sW-UoyK2jqSOFw_tG7pJ-qYb8bm54W1zqRCSyi74GpW969OCknv9PJuoxkXH2Y5DH3UXWqtZs4OBWmaVzTb0CCkSEWFzwyCeg5OKfHZycnqkFCTqBU-VibiOtVK3K__frBBDT-VWQePwWvuetHbiTcxkEQlFYPhBn-z5ijpJFAHj7wnOkZPFb3kb3Cy7HMbES2g2ul1dPaJo1PK9yXkuj63gPLvF8X36VasQZysIiwy_Yo0mNZH2aAxy4Yj_IKkvMJHJQz6_3hpVHBbWOdQ/p_GfsqNFT_avx3ZOPvBTa9c9Cr8blWhg/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">stablecoin platform</a> in $200mn deal. UK crypto investors hail <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/IIJ8hxGXE87qL9RcowiTaSsB0aWQRMfpkhsvLlEAQ1NjO2qi_Li930myYDSjivMOlnMXu3aO05yz9cd7f7SzShawxeQwT1LLTKHucBPio6-0Ac1aFMe7ZCcSgynBwKmHchSK9Jswoi_NDcxShwh5djlWAvsmsWW3MLecw6bzn-Lngp6YuWXEEfvlSf2Y9mMGDHxAZIgF38hWjAf-IdPzQwF0ZqcEhtQrUJY7RZh5Dzu-_NkdJRLrOBgpYzeiIEzGuPjFjyy9ucEeqlBoXVPYN2gv-koNlIBkVPRzi0MnHCVyFT-WS8KeWAvxZOvTlsvcE-XWuCjZ_hmCFyUcN_jqtF2EHE00WsYoaVfQ2FQ7GQW3e4EBx5i8xX0ish0/mkYa07R5KXg7rtSfMQZhgciL9MoKySMc/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">regulatory changes</a> as ‘pivotal moment.’ Private Credit Goes Big on Open-Ended Funds to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FppQHi9APTFJuBXpEuPf6_TWQIwPejzTXg2qrfpy_0zkKUhXNhs4UUFGX4PRo1qH8gcguVatPZIGAMKbRBWggwi2oH_gPUi5M5Scmi8Xb2xg4CTBfJBN8Nf4iZfxy1yPT3xChl0VJhpKbEF6sK8YlX6N2-ZunQAjKy9QtKWQFLr0VjSaqycb0ClI7aCiJmNt1dfsLxdjecKtnq-b6RXhdGJX1s3DQ1kXwmb0-RszmM41qKzJkMuQl2DCbckFg1HAAJbH5Y9YRKYg1_cT0EeCC39NO-QfJFVjd4mQyxwUiVJ1FsJfN93vZBFLd2oeR-WTDzP5F-t_-DA_TNS9A9LnpGxrE6ir-LNtX3FUEmtVvLsDiFMMVEv9n2LHsz8/_0Ht33XRo3bhS2ZUmQmJNFZxyCzjsnAa/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Lure Retail Cash</a>. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/HJurmKiBL7n_7Eu4KqZUUD0lDI6sBMFlvwo86oP0NtjTbaRHZ8iDlwBhOdcQBg-K6YvngAfRi2rl0z2_OKF8c9rQrxvWqyFqUs-zGMrh-1OaFUOYiXXQG4RELzWPMUjPPiRYquYfR8JuezSicvSiJMO3GAtxP-Ouxoh9rcT0NUEJSlmzBl20hH9cMW0C3zNn93zJ4gYFAVuzfG31WQ8UK2GPeo-jR0-Q16wTm2dkwcpvrnzcKM22CjiaCwEZGjICzA_-tbc1Jt0tnF1QDWqyOITkJCjfO1kgJnvRbm_WMllAknzRvJYBugalJ0J9Mesm_Ktwjf0rzswgQNX3GFSqN1skP2c9bjgi2Dunvc4FPZ04K-oLl997RX1t4pc/9XOAKMj3ITYtk_VbYXg7-dPlIrWB9Y2E/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">BCG consultants</a> modelled relocating Gazans to Somalia. Elon Musk Takes on Sam Altman, This Time Over the <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/UAfULfMiEV85hAAszsa1Q7k-bTf-aQbqx39aXGQ-zzfC6ECTPxVyXpF2pMVUwZztp6BQpXnnv8vJd2mbdh7cqRmjRoKtA5DUdJ70T3BZQKmSfu03AvFy-HE8Xhim38ZL6tW8DfhMxQcncKVpo7zxBeuG7W82rMFCK8JHQ5j_1dm9HVfU1iEtoOkmFAJZvEDE3YZErrW8KmKy835eWKZxdIeNAU6Iq8QCJZjiNiZwalxOSlK4dFFY8lMSJ7S_sF5Wswa49MY8xQWCr2baAcjn6cY9W-UavLOpxGZmCNM3_MUVpJ6HEU0GY-u4l-ATR8HpRJW91EJumpYz78JAcUo42mhmCbVyZqNUxph5jgYHciwR9Y-eZN8yhaKq5ag/ZDhRsk-rpnl42XxdNZGdKvNCPUamyvLL/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Chessboard</a>. Trump Ally Loomer Drags <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/KLhSJqkUucC5m8Z78tWaJEhqg4_ZNWg-SbRvqgFD0SHW4Rph-8bduQLwZw12NqaM-X8AXxzu4zoakqW636BjCQjNk2WYOPg9lnhzFkvj6f3q1ivXbiEYxtN8dHpF01jTSju1KkDmvDKz0zaUKWYEBRJIKs-3Cnon12kmT1wCegVUfFQPbqzDKJ8FnnZZY_osbP7LI5lMW95P4YSS3Nd9dvKqRGUTZOGvYR-DpErxtGKx0f5a_aVvkELktBB23TaCSIWnjHy6bZLlFoMj9symfOcXVUlIXdwYAAkva4Z27i0ODdYnIg371PFKHCy-zROY9qEqp9WedUqg-o_kw5XWCtLYo6Bb-aXSgKRgbgl1OpGMexng44aD7ogGjoE/ZMeFCpVnoquuDHT0u0PLauiokAjzLMyD/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy Battle</a> Into Far-Right Spotlight. Billion-dollar <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/U20s1yJY0y_FKiS_qFiPtHcZBR_jnOIDDz2aZTRonknr_NLcfKwf4MY8-1iUm3YP3SbdM7mhaSvBgXtUFWdYyd3CdWo202hebQeCqitSmNRkDOrgw8cYpeaDJrpdM9ut2fuzqp9oQ0uETSzeo69eH0gO60aOWEsfoZ8s_d5lhOW2ri22IcQif3U8z27AEq2JGBKv7E7F-uR6r3Di2T5SYrriH3h6sLYgCa2Lq-Eya-FxvnJsuohlVedgpQdLAl6klGZk8znSk1BClNW0LsDYE3af6HJx-2WpduXs_RKbu69bIiE27_rLrm59rjUkG959Ss8v13pdiAhpv75g5TsABFcL4n0yrl6DhVSlQSf-MMXunHIMMpjp97MoetI/QnsT9Gtn8zM_P7ptRhdR9ICT1qwtsNWF/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">doodles</a>.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><span><em>If you'd like to get Money Stuff in handy email form, right in your inbox, please <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/MQA_PkGvVGb7AEkof1Wy-Bd1z73NFHYsjZw0cBbvfDrZpOOBVPnDLLT_WzVOae5JBrqPHDgRURbZjkUuUOPkVi2VTAMPLc4CcxPokr4DQyrO_YUJAUrsxO_k0CyOMcIj_wsBggEptjUeUJ6NG0-IHpTu-_z2X6qn6fG9IEDQBqbJcNFWcKMXl6B9ayaGmwjeNV3ulIpKWdpZiYOsERJKVtzyRJ4v65Qx7DY50vsZ0q0xOV8LT-1kKX1VPUxwrPQTKQC9mgCY6nP-17V7ihFQ_pIJydvAvAUUCqaoOsH6GwOraHQg_ng2EIWqhxR_u2qrRXkieinQ2AFS0GttIhVLO2jbiOg8H3eiojKCEgszFFryBkiOI8aRFMyqEN8/V7K1MvwEbOod_wJlY348e0Xn-NydxIaD/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">subscribe at this link</a>. Or you can subscribe to Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/uYScOF8M17rcRtIALkNznbfAC8VDr4eIYH8KcjS3Ty7xD_1FI8NnEnpUpmrk7efLcNUFb2Oc8yDv1TtpCS4NNDzdxdFA9_lFuy3Tgo5B0QQcwP9fFB_HN0zVs6X5wyFk1g8828hPqNaOth3lKWrHjHyjyWQ8FM4L3Ukdrzqta2ZOJPs7xQcLhSiA9lSLNY1s3P6QxyLJntqQE-JAXxHsTbPa4OMiVnfKjYsJ9m1Wq2juODRWHnCEbbZkr0QK0uHSZ9FezYXSUJRPP_HDVUOZx27P8NSN6gg53ioDdw_fotENy4fTpWxcjfcBmTKJt8QotK0cH5L87u-ZpfJbqfy2wa-38VxZH7INbyBhh3wXC_03CNZUUG925KqGJn8/Ha6Y9GRV63A0ircpv1Ra8lDi4FwnVW7C/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>. Thanks!</em></span></p> <div id="footnote-1" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[1] Some 401(k) plans offer "<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/KuaaYQjBtnaFbJjQQNlEs_kyyN5q4--ZfJT620k-oVyRi-8FFMZhBsmwo4_Z0S9P67I-0TZs5Xg9Tsd6PDoIad8aQxeUbRT_8CtP3IqTc2NbFlwDuWGsqeABA4rApAMkMWTZkp399pRv-I4dHJyEoWuJY3zLe5G7bb2voP-W74rKWrp3QCRzAb-e-Ow73OOylFPCd1_AnGEhQ14VwuD24dfYqZcJ-wETFtjZyKwX1oHOX7LsNPh2atB1ygdmbTRbhBRpSvRrTLyh413aVxFPQIJpKTkyyP-iqSzkXuCN1m0pZMGc7Ghlci8xK0CiCICZ7K6aPcvuM99bIDH3Wkm7GNhV8Sn6hQP9eky70ajojG-gAIe439xxSo11seo/e77jhbvbqg-skMwtjlUjR50_XFTjMVuU/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">brokerage windows</a>" with a considerably broader range of options (single stocks, day-trading, etc.), but many do not.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-2" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[2] There are overviews of the legal standards in the <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/SFfH0NbmLO8Z7t1P0F_QjDY7Io9EVf1lW_jMBCqoeqZklA1N1m7Q2Bjy1EqyGEVEns_iH6RkRW7oKyv5og8I8nCeF6WSuZrUEuTsINstX-rbhzYb_sDKO39XVNGPepUWFFttEuaURpNuO3Z0eIAcyGAKjkwh1t8wpu9CYfakBiuRjDZLzhYqG7GFPkQpgCQTlFhM8C-uT3tmgmYep9-F4r273msUAcVsgjrjLysunvOHPyj_BaQj5tE3cQRHjffteXXqCh_OUGbl2UumybNfAvVd0k41OLLO2LwfFCkj-hLMUX8TQjs5y-IFyJJz2PTdVDphNtGgaD3AZrijaBvBLOzdbJI5dgAzF7tUHbN4noSYqm4eujsBUtMvQ3o/se5gWFHaJ1mjJqu9UW7CR20tnkK0v2am/11"itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">American Airlines</a> and <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/YWuIo1NlQh_eUDhRjDqV_kr5yTDSLsMhOLV_8KrCpGxTy4LbxZ5SKfv-6_m7tb1MOJE-HxjXueQMtgjV_Jr3nisRpNvAjwJlDMat-_eZCfMMtpFIP4KfccUWU4t3a_yg9Bi8KRGJF843AnvwK6H1vJcRuTKs9ffHELuuI1y3pUJAs-QBH9NOoa_haXbGd8l3TVF0aML3-BxiVR7eW1Q1-D-yrpMySELrN1oOx3mYbl8YKF3yTnCYsUXD_W-if0V4Fc4xsBAprR4Volgt9gz1zNDlW5V2ouin3R4x6EjjgL_4Gh4n5dE6vW99PdK-mpFwCnGHJSQ9Dzl3pEXVTINwO52t7eaw9uXZGXwqO4_cxzGZr2XwXGeHZqR0j2g/kuTOlyIv9u9Y-eBgybQOWxKjQwov60Md/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Intel</a> decisions.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-3" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[3] This is not *strictly* true: There is a long-running case against Intel Corp. for including high-fee hedge funds in some of its custom investment options in its 401(k) plan; plaintiffs made the obvious argument (that this was imprudent because the fees were too high), but <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/p-wPSPxc0MRk_qC_m7LExgIfK317wSFqgpYhRmbKeE5PAAlsRKCNLX8QwFBNs7R5_heEMyPI8cPpUJCnhBBYvATKv8pJvKw5ubaK2fQWaFs4WBLEqxWEWfZOi0joKiwgPNXG249djJTWKgIGW64Xr4jtWDGAy44YtukOEpOycK4okXdurt-WdHYJ8Haf9Z6okSUFbbYMM5tsobj8itAUdk7XO5_sqVh0S5uG4r3kLeLp7gKmIUv7XvLwLRARw04Nj06f-wR0qLkF1xn8BT9eCATdmNcXzWfJH4WUKZhq86jKduUYHvoOuFCSTP4FvKyP9OgNg0to8DRk_HGYmbeQ2itlEBsT9TfvcwE-7rt4mlxXgT2pBxjYhxy_5jo/4u1yfjhJ7RQdBwx5EaxDq_dYYhwdd5_9/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">they lost</a> in a district court in 2022 (and then again <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/bLMlPEc9tcjNqydQE7pzcmySTC6Op2GSWFPvy9TERaDlYuITQAkWweStNsdmWW0vWMO942xYQRnGTxDCLNHewwqZh0GT0FW4TBvGTQWqcAchlmISEIGEQtSTt5jKRlmldVcQfL_eRM5gd2wzfBlMwYGykbPw-yidhDYncmvpsUd9KQFNTNST5R_NzyEApEoIrkeaX8v8a0-zIO8QyIkEW0M3GnjC5VUHNyjtxbKM06NMIknmg8FHopIO1VW2jSNJnHNH4vV0KkCiHNLTCnD0cPBCxqMbshgHqRci_SJlFVczw_M25LZed9g2WXZVm7U7rj0leK9gPRTzaPE5jc8w_EGXTf2dTBVbVg-oIiwpZ9vr4_V4rbpqglGHXlI/Pjoi6eFfucVWV37vORfhR_YbOR-C8F3R/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">on appeal in May 2025</a>). It’s not that it was plainly illegal to offer high-fee private options in a 401(k) before this year; it’s that it was somewhat <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Sp3gBc83spa7G80Zkihojz5fwWVRdzk3yoaPHFZo-si3Rx3cXWGLXs2S3kqg_oseLxMfbUBhyMRCF7VaS1MlE9s5W8PAyA_QXb0UEyDsPFtSqGunVQZsPjTjLmNnO-hc0D1CS5lG-q9PAYVYBiBML9LpWPt3jUAE6K5rCSJAXiD_JVxB3ELZGLvk3M4evsZxOVM14NGe2JbuJD7pjPDKEAcK51UDmEKKFEaeFpJe9XE-rZZzCpLwZTBe2H1b_-4HXhzr13ncN7Vw795qvE8mpcqbExMDihzDaTBaGwcYaifc-CvLeHXNQ2VLsNoVaMxmhpSyw182fdq-WXvS6WFcWd7GfutLAdk-NK60dZIe-ANGddPwl3tqVmdBvNU/spVnKFsFyefSVuAbMfFTGLcNT2Myl92R/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">risky and uncertain</a>.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-4" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[4] Also, more subtly, I said in the previous paragraph that “if illiquid assets pay a premium you should be the one to earn it,” but it’s not at all obvious that they do. Conventionally one expects illiquid assets to earn a premium, because liquidity is desirable, but <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/trlxxjgnMu8MnSMBkSJpI_MBNpkuTP_6OjSXwkZfEwtVoxI8YBEbTXLsWyTJH2beNNCXpkhJrponms_oY2wzQS47xpDCfWfuKotNuX8IsCAj0cehiD13vEjk-xtInecAalwPlUkm33Vyj6zaPmKpSTVkuPc7FUCLDUzlvwiMNyXZSQHigVuHI5S2DLWdSC45Rp1W6ejW74GXG_Kxj79lH1ZpC6Lo2npF0Hl7P3zmRGtpsRQO_t1XwZe3UKGH68qIFEiHwjdncppZFbyXNifkv08MW2aRYUXSVbKPGZyL3FpnmMXIC4edSBgybTg0Dk5BWfHPMKIXktyEEK2k4BiDAzu_1aOkTq35lnJh1uGJ7tDKlR9Srwd5vAQ8J2M/FTRcD4tCf5o-1-T9TOcpIOVmkj1_Pg4y/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Cliff Asness likes to argue</a> that these days investors prefer illiquidity, which means that illiquid assets should have *lower* expected returns than liquid ones. This is perhaps exacerbated if everyone is top-ticking private assets by dumping them on retail investors.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-5" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[5] Though those now include <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ffN7F5GocwcadsxNF4xii0aG_xzCiOFLMnuX9yoft_D8-_zJOtJefMB7alRAnKZVuiwD9CJrW0PItYdJByFrrolxPTIfKWkQmbdcHXUtTFVtaCJveNgrOT1MsU65QeIzjHE2sHvpWL9zRLyW7aSWauWUwBufbfPpBRjWPj1_wZs41Lv5GLWp8DLJWWEs9owRw1IO19cwkHDeueysz11_TzMGuD-QI4ACh8C7fidKytdW7bei-qWu7OEsjBuvW_EiREeu_ydQqpy6cUDX6-7bkqdIf_0XRbpLPkRwXX7vDdM0m_8qfq1jOIfJeUPsNWwURQ3edICLELIbAYBpU_HfaQTFz8x0G7WGr20AuwQUZY18PUPPqSnXbUUyziM/KSUqWg1lV2RKK-x9GwAG2NBXkIn5Mwdv/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">a certain amount of crypto</a>.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-6" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[6] And, for that matter, principal.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-7" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[7] Buchheit and Gulati: “Conventional tax gross-up clauses in sovereign bonds will be clear that any form of withholding tax imposed by the issuer’s jurisdiction will be the responsibility of the issuer and any income tax imposed by the investor’s jurisdiction will be responsibility of the investor.”</p> </div> <div id="footnote-8" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[8] Yes, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/2iy150eys7AU_aWZTk88QJ6sZ9UOQvgeJK-wQVcRvWhTAD4PZ_KoQDTesLj9ZHr05WTl1w0yjGbaOfvuqUJc0LgDSf9MRsYhBQPJisN0Trynrq_85CYg7v5ph9fKWCxJd5EcGe-Ml4QE-Tqzya6o6vfOhmrFRACUKR_Xee183bYEF2bGMtNQhIEDPwf8TreCkmIkh3rXfa6yZS9IKpS6sDrBQpWNof3_nnZb0P-vQYpTxrLusmXVK5yeqp3DpxSfNOfYjQyGIzAgnb423i3-uxgPnUpJ0KgeLvBbpMDIp0pM97H76Kh3IKOEXp51rzTbC7KCAwfE3KRQUwbkw0aiiGXk4rqvbB8uTl_Dqg07P7CH1SeIr4kBtgFlyKI/l4aHkQ1ANPzWIjwGEx1iXkWBQE8a1TN0/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Ukraine’s bonds also lack</a> the “in the place of payment” language.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;" width="100%"> <center> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rv58ZZeEwWIBsRCkxoHt5y3Mk2Doero4wXnWSIUVrJwM9oxWRJyNm4JGhgLaNsUjqAgRKRaiqA3e_AVsO8DEK37PPjN8O0AV_Wnzea2UTddOeLd1VR80bRWh-WPl_kDWBnWdshfVDQfshpJl5GgX2kkr8VlmqtimadJanNQqXSNmRpcR5iCMdPw0k3fy_TDbkXfq9jyT1wflGS9MSj--bbDhXgxnt-jZ8_qXMnxXiEf2p3upr_m3sQdP8J-6AqjidvYBnfQqquFIVYNLYPwRt0EQjLVoM3eqf3Zg-bd7fkmkwVIvucQxkm2jCHozfYXWoryx5BsuwG40bwCCMFSLtfOLERuk1cCifSiY3Dfy8mUw7tnNQPQMIjEeXB0/LDztJSqlyIFJ15uauAd-63AqFXRptI_m/11" target="_blank"> <!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" style="max-width: 550px; 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  8. Money Stuff: OpenAI Employees Have Stock to Sell

    Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:04:31 -0000

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width: 100% !important; max-width: 550px !important;"> </a> </td> </tr> <!--<![endif]--> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">OpenAI</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Just a real “private markets are the new public markets” <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/pCBVqWLYbGoiyq_HNlOECAl6C1BnJdJGVOmkutxSr_Nif2TyPKKUaNn2ONL_JWw5B3o9fjv0Cfxxv3OqMjzEFfHi4bZsltpphYCV2k2APHVYBLTeudV72d4WjJdZiQ9cO8Y_OYyCZ49S22NqAeF2DcurwSeeBGJ9Sa1xEKTm39-pH3P7kaYy4rfFIcoDfeImBZoc9VCMejEs_a1RXgMnewAue8SyxM_h8fn7q6_S_v3tLRwsxKNATYKipH3pjISyHMeiIsg80RQ0iagyqsTcRjKAHg/xVQHAXI3yW0D8ynK0xvJ1ul5cKkH6iRZ/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> moment</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">OpenAI is in early talks about a potential sale of stock for current and former employees at a valuation of about $500 billion, people briefed on the investment discussions said, marking an enormous gain in value for the artificial intelligence leader.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The company is targeting a secondary stock sale in the billions of dollars, the people said, asking to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Existing investors including Thrive Capital have approached OpenAI about buying some of the employee shares, the people said. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The latest move follows news last week the startup had secured $8.3 billion from a syndicate of investors for a second tranche of [an earlier] $40 billion financing, which was oversubscribed by about five times, according to one of the people briefed on the discussions. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Major US startups often negotiate share sales for their employees as a way to reward and retain staff, and also attract external investors. The company run by Sam Altman is looking to leverage investor demand to provide employees with liquidity that reflects the company’s growth, according to one of the people familiar with the investment negotiations.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Of course the traditional way “to leverage investor demand to provide employees with liquidity that reflects the company’s growth” is to do an initial public offering: When a startup has grown sufficiently big, it is ready to go public, and it can go public to leverage investor demand (by letting employees sell stock to investors). But modern private markets are so big, liquid and enthusiastic that you don’t need to do that: OpenAI can do multibillion-dollar stock offerings that are multiple times oversubscribed whenever it feels like it, and it can arrange multibillion-dollar employee secondary sales<em> </em>to make sure that the employees can cash out.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Traditionally, employees of private startups weren’t <em>supposed </em>to cash out: They were supposed to work toward an IPO, and to keep skin in the game until they succeeded. Now, though, companies are in no rush to go public, so investors are perfectly happy to let early employees cash out millions of dollars of stock while staying private. In the olden days, startup employees were supposed to subsist on ramen and be totally devoted to the mission, but in 2025 top AI researchers are supposed to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/LdTPkdAKEimkJKRx545nJ7PhixAFxhmMngVUlPamuck05VehqjGw6aX106-LWCZiTexggigKObAfWNKxrY1mIKEJAXw13Et3ioBv39p7ZiDwDwASL3SWvTtqdj0LpdYyxQZ9EkH3k2qE555OTcca5mZ_dwY-AzhxVos-wR5LPdH6oYa0RglH5k8pmHSgSqiA9Vq6tIa8hZXPJ47VgTNHIWrd-o-cQWNoYhJGtroRSBzfvZumPtLrspqCLI6YT4i6SnH9DPGMTiz2MyarN4XQSFxGSg/MFNrDx3inQlCT_dOZaoCtRbpQlaAvJoG/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> own</a> multiple <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/YXFutauYBnjpu6eKZwEH2cwGSOrsQ0fAGbYYGD6Z0Bn3sUuI-cHpB9aM-wJYlGdOjAd4yZrerBd0T9TBaDbNvKcnQ5DaJ-u0EQ1js1-S_uqyTNtCx8UZbPuUsxcVNU3sKM28C8I-znwT5Mns21V4QWIsgVvCnApJuNeBPgvkW1mypXD_xRSQfs9w7dCwP-xmE1AYmYexZMoM9hWJuPV5bz7XFY3KiukIN0N9akgfXldV7v-yCtXQMIDAaoAq9tjLrPinVc9ocR365EFJ8K867MKa-A/bbAVx1NB-AUHpOJFxumMP0EWAymQpo1G/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> yachts</a>, and the market has to keep up.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One other question. These days I think <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/J6vzafDgSimF5pY-8YT2h7Nvfjzgphk6kWoVW0X-hGWvpqLle43qfKCtPnaruFMfoEgIHRzlt3W1GmiocAnoeN9TeZDMhidk9eJwSKmoxsDFCVhgIHP7t8BUoiSRvzb6JaLfCZXh8vCc07Zancpq1D7x9JfY1Ujh30PwAW4EBc6xFrEHFUyjX7U1ipYRrynNmB3Xcg9ayo_VqQCM8bjKnmRkcwPONXkXYGmMoJo9p_hF0S6COprGYuqkIFUe5aGz0cGnvp6Fg2Yh3Rvi_WKX3OldpA/cs6YbunK69Ce-clgExwjCv_guSd027rs/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the famous line</a> has to be updated: “You know what’s cool? A trillion-dollar valuation.” Is OpenAI a trillion-dollar company? I mean, no, not yet, not if it’s in talks to do a trade at $500 billion. But one thing that we <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/TTc3l2SmjXwrGoGyTm9ipE-o_ND5a7j9Z9jwOrhcTUGCknlTC_ZvntbmDVbVRdjjQhqRv3IxfHsBUjotDbwMLC03kRSdo3OSVfNud9mypXjxP3otFY35XzK1m7oALMhnB5nnoIrH3hioVCNqwE2MJMhF-ArLEo4ZAaMdUgrGy1ovXTyA4r0KCoOrD7wQnHvv5WKD5Dr0A4bK0RB1e-jGXEeeKX2_6R-A0k5K5beUEVLplTqkjj_DxcB2p4kpN9T0JWtyjS5Zqm1Yf_wgRSGTYUUbBA/3bbYD9vh5iHm2h-YzYrvyPGxRmBRn9ef/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">talk</a> about a <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/fG6kKh1Yf_3ymhsPDvHVJrbB3E-XgUjH_gBekxIvWjtPXqPoFK3e8lpjkgnpF50h6-T1hhOQpngy4rr4mS7mdOhI96gP4xrRiHvDo6pBwVXU4gi_1HRmLRDM9jvFOMfTfoXeytweBg1Y1CNLY37IYmrKkOMqjHG-9i80eRj6gRPen4aiiWrSUmJrMt4CLJLNqy0zsLeCyupqtR4UvB2usQ312Wtu2ted4h-WX9BGP0ghjFbndj5G6vIkPCGf_nl8EIzSc0YjFteLfvtZCD1EmDq74Q/ZOgyACQTs5SLk3VPX1nuN45Oo-V2MNS_/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> lot</a> around here is that there is a lot of <em>retail </em>demand for hot private startups — and few are hotter than OpenAI — at large premiums to their private-market prices. If you got your hands on $50 million of that OpenAI stock in the secondary offering (0.01% of the company at a $500 billion valuation), and you put it in a special-purpose vehicle and sold shares in the vehicle to private-wealth clients, could you get $100 million for it? Could you find some dentists willing to pay a 100% premium given the scarcity of publicly available OpenAI shares? It seems plausible to me. (Not investing advice!)</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Figma Inc. did its initial public offering last week. Figma was valued at $20 billion when it agreed to sell itself to Adobe a few years ago, but that deal fell through and Figma ended up going public at a slight discount to that $20 billion valuation. But then the stock shot up, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/jLNWGdyFV7Pe5h7lGb9Oo6RQlOot2aP5s0qcK-HJy7KjsV2vDevGRD0lwNOueJUWI68jUqrpRs_27YdLw9eXfl9cM3SuvCVKqS7i9JxcRlhTHah807ExG6B22GMBlTtD7gUIcQNa9FylJRUJDMoV25ARhwcmUgTJ_uMu62BVa_sQvEqf8nZf49Rwz7Vmnsd0i_0Fu_dAJn0hQSAArPHnHs4XBCzVyQFHPXG8yw2_KE4-estlmKgOfGWxsBFs_ziMTsoA8BSBkq8-QbouGEcpCauYJw/oWPXiF-gt_W-CH9A4I_6JpNevQ2kRSKX/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">peaking on Friday</a> at a valuation of around $68 billion. One way to analyze that is something like “Figma was worth about $20 billion in the private market and about $68 billion in the public market,” but that is a little oversimplified. Bloomberg’s Anthony Hughes <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/0JSKeiXQHMDLZZvqnCZds6pj-QXBN8a1-4pD4Q6WNFqPga38tTyVA8c4a1YdHHxHcNqtPPF3nSp1JFD59aligx07lUZlrn--7Pljld3Ovg8Rj61cSvSs_5CYmHQot1mcRCKjmLY_LUk3h2AmfEODJggjQtGaZ7JYhWrCoc9NT0xRctWlcsm3FMSV28HfTqeNRjXkRLjXpKgMHAZ2tyDNXL35nVLEqCAwU_4bwXr031TN9HIcF5JfvDtm9GMza5xVsfi2lHfDOQP4PpMu6TBTpsaYnQ/_dJCJSLU8OMt6W0qhg4rpbYIcoWMVI_q/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> has a more nuanced explanation</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Figma and the banks considered pricing the shares above the ultimate $33 per share set in the IPO, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the end, Dylan Field, Figma’s co-founder and chief executive officer, wanted to bringon board certain long-term institutional shareholders, and Field signed off on the final $33 price, the person said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">With shares oversubscribed by more than 40 times, a blockbuster debut was by no means unpredictable. Had Figma and Field opted for a higher price, however, some institutional investors may not have been willing to buy the shares. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Another clear contributor to Figma’s outsized pop was the size of the offering. The number of shares sold, including the over-allotment shares, represented just 7% of the outstanding stock, a relatively small amount though not unheard of among hot tech IPOs.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That may have left retail investors largely empty-handed. In social media posts, several users complained that after putting in orders with Robinhood Markets Inc., they received only one Figma share each.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is:</p> <ul style="list-style-type: disc; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Only 7% of 93% of Figma’s stock was offered in the IPO; the other 97% doesn’t trade yet.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Of that 7%, most was sold to “certain long-term institutional shareholders,” whose distinguishing feature is that they were <em>not </em>planning to flip the stock for a quick profit.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">So only, like, what, 2% of the stock is freely available to trade?</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Everyone on Robinhood wants some, but they have to pay.</li> </ul> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And so one analysis could be something like “the 98% of Figma that is locked in the hands of long-term institutional investors and still-restricted employees<a href="#footnote-1" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[1]</span> </a> is worth $20 billion or so, but the 2% of Figma that is freely available to everyone trades at like a 200% premium.”<a href="#footnote-2" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[2]</span> </a> That is not particularly correct or rigorous — there’s only one actual market for Figma’s stock, you can’t really separate it like that, and probably the free float is considerably above 2% — but it’s a useful way to think about it. The price of Figma’s <em>traded shares </em>is relatively high, because they are relatively scarce. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">OpenAI’s are much scarcer. If you had a few — not $500 billion worth, but $50 million worth — could you sell them to dentists at a 100% markup? If Thrive is buying billions of dollars of OpenAI at a $500 billion valuation, and dentists are buying millions of dollars of OpenAI at a $1 trillion valuation, would that make OpenAI a trillion-dollar company?</p> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/DK0xc1o5nWXKluq4s6lEFUPYL75hIQmeI3kdLYwbF1b6F-7qihztFXhtox1lBa9JrGB7sijOLoGzatmQ_nCjBxRowpADxJJ2nraOeZRFnWFPetn6XI8GbjqTV1MP7IpTDMpgqcg3pb_iKiQ_x9LtqJABigcqbuAAx6R_3mGncbwxofaXUMheLaXJKPE1jcB6xDdOvoH6wLzyESaDABfz6me1VwU3scXpRYoLltHahJvecYBG7KKs00jnElVatcma95DC-NVZwAN4YXcZjvBiqzaEBUUWlBRHSXH-GCLm9O3Git9G8sBRvE0E5eAxsrp-JrqPWTsPofauxKxvtrSG9anjR4PnuFdsxN6f-AP4ihq00OyjpOFKpEAtMto4rG1w-MrOO57YzQY_Qse4R_IhVp1KRpw60Uqcta3SENnLV1BB-iGXdhiERaygpXJSO-Z5enJtXELS/vJpMRrCyJvWdES1d7J11L5FLujEAvOTE/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&amp;stpe=default&amp;li_coord=desktop&amp;collapse_width=550&amp;li=14496395&amp;m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&amp;p=08062025&amp;lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="550" border="0" style="display: block; height: auto; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" alt class="lihide"> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"> <!--[if !mso]><!--> <div style="display:none; overflow:hidden; width:0; max-height:0; line-height:0;" class="lishow"> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/3Y3lW1HnfOlP4UcmMc4pgpA5UWUiXJWWWtaSjpQI_d8I3kuv8V7C0K2TuP09ZHBUtNTMraERp-OtPPxsy7pKPr0cCLb77C_gd_69uJtFGkx5Uma0qLL7nHC7yWBApJwmgJIiilijXwXKLBRRoYtVNAQNG707AUGqp8vhxclEJh-5KZgidQ59pw36cNuYPc9B4ndS_xdpjPNCxx_PJouaiOdAOA2cke2l9d8IRqv8j54yi1Kc4NbkKvE5qIrSROvHakSpHHWM6ujoK-boK4NIiiaWBeBdjqgH2OxbOMu6VsZO_XlgcwpbdeaGCK4GQteXdhURo7ueBoKmiaBJBQqmdYdkG978E5rBF9konbZKXnwZPGxLmcGtbbKXzcFACcpFS14636XpygZV_ccSK_u3XpPQwNnrhitmMY3dLypOMmN0HrWpXYS9cRyaklQ-C7jWqKDESRaD/NreIVa-EzZb7KEjHqMkhoPZp_u6KHiyJ/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&amp;stpe=default&amp;li_coord=mobile&amp;collapse_width=550&amp;li=14496395&amp;m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&amp;p=08062025&amp;lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="100%" border="0" style="max-width: 550px; display: block; height: auto;" alt> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!--<![endif]--> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Corporate access</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/u6Mw8a09oheuOU7jgQHg9KrQ803O1j0vYo7BG582wClMLG5gKeTlO5Z_iArA5fBGBwedmyFVeZ1auMaB3xzOo_HdltDZVgOM-qL4VnYP23YXhJPlOGBWVw2TBVmkgAgyg8r7eRMKRfHcwHgSfAsbiKsMug-r6PnbDGc_UjQ0fpHIbYNQVtN5BTK7rxBuJRxAyIxwvx4LUs2AT7C9p_ntqmzvtmqrfNXFn6tou_l-1gtWXdaNsSbhiJSbSDtcGJjCAK3b_9FMOUl1M1IZV4zaN4KnrQ/V-mbP2gH9ZEAWC8wH3i5dNmbQcTEku2d/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> wrote yesterday</a> that one way to find out about a company’s stock is to sit down with its chief executive officer and ask her “should I buy your stock?” Then I discussed various problems with that approach. One big one is that, if you are just some random person, what are the chances the CEO will want to meet with you? If you are a big portfolio manager at Fidelity or Wellington and you have owned 5% of her stock for a decade, sure, yeah, she’ll be there. If you are a big portfolio manager at Point72 and you own 2% of her stock this week, maybe; most of our discussion yesterday was about the big multistrategy hedge funds graduating from the “kids’ table” in corporate access. But if you’re a retail investor who owns 100 shares, the CEO just has better things to do with her time.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Or so I thought. There is a literature? Here is a new paper on“<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ymu0NElqYQHfTduHroByRY-w4SrOvJwGtECiPAn_9fYcr_er9pf-Ev2UuQqF_JxdlJWfz2a2rNIJa0oOHVuPSsRb0mF42crIj89uC1mPTGK3pNjpQYVGnVHGzfqXESuuW-ve_QaEVM9pk9tYABiqRmDqS9fRrQl6YLiHikInaskUI1TT_pFwnGzSN5GfME2ZLVFZXN-an6yChQhdpV-Bq9sd4R2IFN8HRjOrCmKoLhcqSr-OYHgTpQttzhcYLXgS6f5zhm31u_ktQLgikekKEVLz2Q/Qblm6sd4_Copy5JIiIGtMc7PpSE75m48/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Discrimination in Access to Corporate Insiders</a>,” by Austin Moss, Roshan Sinha, David Volant and Donald Young, which finds that if you cold email a public company’s investor relations department you have about a 16% chance of getting a meeting:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We implement a 2×2×2 between-subjects design, systematically manipulating three investor characteristics in meeting requests sent to IR departments: race (Black or White), gender (female or male), and investor type (retail or professional). …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In our experiment, we send meeting requests to 2,731 firms and receive 433 meeting approvals, for an overall 15.8% approval rate. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Investor type does not independently affect the likelihood of being granted a meeting as retail investors secure meetings at rates similar to professional investors. We caution against overgeneralizing this particular result to widely known investment firms (e.g., Vanguard, BlackRock, Citadel) as our experimental implementation most closely matches smaller or lesser known investment firms. Nonetheless, at a minimum, this finding challenges the conventional wisdom that retail investors cannot readily obtain meetings with corporate insiders. </p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The “retail investors,” in the experiment, are identified by an email address with one of “three popular, free email providers: @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, and @outlook.com,” while the “professional investors” work at customized fake asset managers:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">For the professional investor condition, we create email addresses with fictious investment firm domains: @bluewillowcapital.com, @fusionpointequities.com, and @globalviewsinvestments.com. Each professional investor email includes a corporate signature. To enhance the credibility of these fictitious firms, we had a professional website designer develop a corporate website mirroring those of typical small investment firms. To mitigate domain-specific biases, we randomize the use of specific domains within each condition. </p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">When I get around to selling Money Stuff merch, there will have to be a Blue Willow Capital vest. The emails to IR do not specifically ask for a meeting with the CEO,<a href="#footnote-3" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[3]</span> </a> and they never actually did the meetings,<a href="#footnote-4" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[4]</span> </a> so it’s not quite “you have a one in six shot of getting a CEO meeting with a cold email,” but still, better than I would have expected. There is, however, racial discrimination:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We manipulate investor race and gender perceptions through the use of racially- and gender-distinctive names in email addresses. This approach builds on a well-established methodology in discrimination research. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We find that White investors are 34% more likely to be granted meetings than Black investors. This racial disparity is robust and does not vary based on the investor’s gender or type. Thus, our results suggest taste-based discrimination plays a role in creating the racial disparities we observe, as signals of the investor’s sophistication or resources do not moderate the racial gap by reducing it for professional investors.</p> </blockquote> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">T+1</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Every stock and bond trade is <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/5Ak7AMsEKJtMmSo0H1aA94k9fxH4wg27MWoRC6U7-SBX3LoyMHaXnmMxn5HUFcS-veEJry8cxTGi96ert5kwoOz_FYxonClfOGhXaIgz3Mfp0MslPkVh0FvFNnSVFBTL_Bmdvlafa_lXh14J2QyEMBlN4UBu9i6b2chFRsTYEgBE5rwd-OBNiJh_mFmv_BSWESsPQvMAiM9H1CgItMrDAWZdX_y4gH5ZcXSpU7J2f5Ep6FPFWRM4F22ifdAcZpvwPHOkZbU3xWYqLJKncj9CaUNkSw/LPivfO9LXCmQNIqaf130i37B7v09r3hn/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> an extension of credit</a>. You and I meet on the exchange, and we agree that I will sell you some shares of stock. Then we go home, and <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/CZzELEVMcg2p5nXIWAn2UIStEEPPMnI--x45YdzLpxHwdDlvMQgpjjdCZlChHChkThnzXcEmNf8aZiRuDy4Tg2xloHWVOa8vP2WNhlRVoRGWA7f2f99ZPFjvu0UhQ995J8wKfsTJ9WLGxQNuaeIMqCu3nSfQ7k_sDXVmBD5i5LO4PwfDScDTScNBF7ol4DdceXWCBVechyWQ35x5ZlXPL7EOipaLsj9cjCOICkmN0mXspNww1IFGi2cyA0tFsoVLE1lv5wkHiFy34_T8hDXAdoCFRg/pHh3CfwUfRNP5gYTulLcQyGQN3KH4kN7/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> we meet back up the next day</a> so that I can give you the stock and you can give me the money. If something bad happens to one of us in the interim — if you go bankrupt, or I decide I’d rather sell the stock to someone else — then the trade might fall through. If I was really counting on getting the money, and you don’t show up, I will be pretty sad. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">People don’t think about this too much, because the market has developed <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/v_CGfDi8BBsIWc07dsVymcYiej2nkJeNHh2sK0vBNcRNs_Z5nQpP6o5_3RWHBH7L_ubXARSRPTiNkQ55X_EiTjAH6MZiQTeDff3ZCjj1_fnW_7-v9lpJprySAlBPlp8S_s34CFhLEebNBZ8IXZs78Hq7HcH2V1CYeGLnYKlE67StcQe8_cqLRQRDBBzF-pe10or0MdNwUl4AsRPtDo3qcpELw7wCYqKZz6fB5F_ADHxPYyNkPfg3jcLb6CUBM2oiMO12FveHx7AvsZrCzlzARSmiFg/iCoLo3aJYd0YlR_T0F5XYc10RCmiAfd7/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> pretty good mechanisms</a> for dealing with it. There are clearinghouses that guarantee trades, and a system of capital requirements to make sure that brokers will be able to settle them; the number of trades that “fail” is pretty small, and most fails are temporary (I need an extra day to find the stock) rather than permanent (I have run off with the stock).</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But the simplest mechanism for dealing with this extension of credit is to make it <em>short</em>. When I started my career, US stock trades settled “T+3”: We’d agree to a trade on Monday, and then meet back up on Thursday to settle it. That left three days during which stuff could go wrong. But then the market moved to T+2, and <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/xd7-HnoXw2HOB-Ylq9we-mG92oMbDbJkPtrqQ4lrctN8LWu_r2iKrCnS-cZ4WzFqtEs5g9cXqaRwP8ScXggShWCTCi6ePKrx-6gfGk6GICqBjN-cHgaGWH_LhiaWOLd-6d43fkt3HcY021_-YRzY5GZdFZrIYJ9sUqLzlHpvMLy6CDp_cBRlEBPmRfA_CJgdsBlU00BaAtXzqvwMZoRcH2kkWJHpOrSAlqQ__fOnF8QaVVe1hyQeysFlksjJlu6eMP7khyIpp_aJipPYoPhpbqjwOg/ueSj-AWqy6zQeCwxu9UFU2aPL6MUDlSr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> last year</a> it <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/8FV61OrS-CCiGd7lu0qgRgtxgx8rZHaC9MweDNV5I8ALR1kO1AMm5SP02Memasruwx7chHrvAG1pJf5C6q-PZa72Hm1I5FrjsC-2qy65IvzUURe77BT-qXmcqLPrA2YIw36PgRls4hEFj5os0M6c3qv3HRRbQdTkQAXJEm1-L_M174eiTNCI-EuAM2Bv-X3n0RjTc1R9q6cE_tlZhewDRhW8L61QHIIrVC5y7A3cdeNV2b8_Ct43c2tAClbIeopKLR2omsREAnOdKv5edBfrahEqpg/LWPI0Vov7Yc2f2TaXE4SloWNWcZa-O01/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> moved to T+1</a>: We trade on Monday and settle on Tuesday. Stuff could still go wrong overnight, but roughly spekaing — if my probability of running off with the stock, and your probability of going bankrupt, are uniform — the move from T+2 to T+1 reduced the chances of stuff going wrong by 50%. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In some very theoretical sense, this should make it cheaper to trade. When you buy or sell a stock or bond, you are paying some set of intermediaries — mostly your broker and a market maker — to get the trade done. Those payments conventionally cover <em>mostly</em>:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Market risk: If you sell a stock to a market maker, and then the stock goes down, the market maker will lose money. So it wants to buy from you at a bit less than the fair value of the stock, to reduce its chances of losing money.<a href="#footnote-5" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[5]</span> </a> </li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Salaries, computers, rent, data feeds, etc.: Brokers and market makers are businesses, they provide a service, they have costs, and they have to cover those costs by making a bit of money on each trade.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But also you should be paying a little bit for the credit risk, either directly (your broker worries that it will lose money by selling you stock that you don’t pay for, so it charges you a fee for that credit risk) or indirectly (your broker has to post capital to a clearinghouse to cover your trades, and that capital has a cost that it passes on to you). </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And so when that risk goes down, the cost of trading should go down. Bloomberg’s <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/jw0iTzKCjVMymhtjv7MZMkSM1jryndK8RVT4G7Mzv74-jR9znJa4puiDxf8idHC14MpGH8OnXd9Ie5ZLflH7RfH1DC58i_eyHSy6U5QvaClvTT8kZFh1ESX0QNzuAAHz9oXfZw7f92Xvid4U70S9AdqYCnKFJKMsllyf39RUTnRlSec8FQ_9aMW3c5ZvxmTriAlnV7jWKGple78V3N-nSr94lCoBxxj5_tYfLNkAkgndP13LtHh8B6Lyk0RWIvgybmNjEtOPAWrtPThAtBL0sDeYhg/4Pv3CIGwmITYi8cApmDgd5y7LOAbJbba/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Isabelle Lee and Caleb Mutua report</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">More than a year after the US adopted one-day settlement, a key measure of corporate bond trading costs is down 12%.<a href="#footnote-6" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[6]</span> </a> Margin requirements — the cash or collateral firms must post to cover the risk of failed trades — have dropped 29%, according to Barclays Research. That’s capital that can now be put back to work. Plus, there are signs that those savings have boosted credit market liquidity. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">“Think of it as an efficiency boost to the system — or, put differently, as if your insurance premium just went down,” Zornitsa Todorova, head of thematic fixed income research at Barclays, said in an interview. “That capital can either be used to trade more actively or deployed elsewhere.”</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">By the way, it was not <em>obvious </em>or <em>inevitable </em>that costs would go down. This cost — the credit risk of trades — obviously went down, but you could have imagined that other costs would go up to more than offset that improvement. For instance, if it is much <em>harder </em>to settle trades T+1 — if every bank and broker had to hire more people to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Re7eAX_Ek15Py_ZSRs5STSL8O4wQXXB-S14rMqEGgqZfxWGi4WrOOTvs5Dq9GLnghihV5sIgDeCzw52poOdlUguCf9l0AmoAZK35oR7eDQyJC8ogqWRlr1LPidU2nhDTj8VD40XkEIyDjXYlgZmynbv-81LQsYJaPrfYaapIp4AcjzQAhC2M_A0A1oH8gIQXXnRt1h_TCnuvdWjfZOfAGGgaQ400At_xH9apTLLxbIOUyL3ntcWZvJWbPTEUIdSmPqnWOvfwC22x8Zc6sRKphjAzEQ/OzFP2hd4Oxrz8WTKPhWJPaLFobMAFJKb/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> work the overnight shift</a> to get trades settled in time — then the increasing personnel costs might eat up the credit-risk savings. But in fact, Lee and Mutua note, “banks and other intermediaries have generally seen their expenses decline in the T+1 era.”</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">The Trump sons SPAC</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/iBSQZ1t2H3zj1c1v6CfmGcUarkjpdeeCr1Bip-h_68m2P8zfpKSoHdAr2FqMZ87hkOXvFFU4nVU3qTyYyV5_r19KnVYUFVZer9Vca3QbJ4S9bUUjbIzNZG2tpaOzPeQGk1fhec6VR8jDjW6c3oKNxYkCic6ESprmj34J0-50PPhcW0HwZzfGxxFg4fdwxFJybJRh1t-yJDTWLygBZ5-9qnJ_7QAOSET2_Fif0pInYTEuv3SRJhVVxGR2aFhwKLAhqyEGEDyQTHEminC9iz7a5MdpEA/lu1ByEocA1Fosdi5tppFvEHWWXmQdLP4/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> talked on Monday</a> about a new special purpose acquisition company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., whose <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/OwslouFxDmTCaVtpK7gkkoEISgAgqHuNfPkPP6F_2ujOlEE4m-gphkfK7vE4hwLHSbsV62iPFxE5wclak_I3yS0xADV7_o0qh7gw4imT11ut6QzMaQgyl7AceuiFHhDVDjlLKLCuYH6Sa-wzpKVgBAKljV2Gfpp4c8F_9yQUb21fmaTy2Fforco2yWAeh95-v4gQxXbgK_uu5QidToOBQPWyBGH1_89_4UsrJR02QmBnfLgxhfrsxbDwyJxDjCaXl-nganbdOMy853XvU64TGbK39A/bGlSOmItT_OXPUzW9MAOGZYlKx5q2YmT/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">draft prospectus</a> explicitly disclosed that it will try to acquire a company “well-positioned to benefit from federal or state-level incentives, such as grants, tax credits, government contracts or preferential procurement programs.” Arguably <em>any</em> company run by the Trump sons, in 2025, is well-positioned to benefit from federal incentives? A year ago I would have said “but you are not supposed to say that explicitly in writing.” Now I would no longer say that! Go ahead! “We plan to use our father’s job as president to make ourselves rich,” yes, of course, why not.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Well they revised the prospectus to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/RhHJy4lNlEfHTOerthi3P43U2b9rCXbQyKrmHm2uEfxjY1lS1irs5K_zfEBvm7q7M4gYQAoBbVr16SUc7dQykjOO5zebNXWZvnxfFNhy_9j2WuOovS0aAV_QlwpEpCyJommfadu2B1MX0t8txaCGnMPKJ8i5JMlg3cgLYkNX_spYcmi6OOBArK2gyAgyXKw-a6nEvRrA0m6fzxJiAqwbHY9CKjnUwQKWFN-PTdN3Dc4vNlqW6WbQ38Mk3OuljcjpzeNp-I2fB_IplIcdl4a9xew9Ng/IhQnT__fNKU3uSN2PalWHt1GaIqBnba-/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> tone it down a bit</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In an amended version of the document filed later the same day, that description and others were removed. The reason for the changes weren’t immediately clear, though the Associated Press reported the edit followed questions about potential for conflicts of interest, given the Trumps’ involvement.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump Organization didn’t reply to requests for comment, nor did Kevin McGurn, the chief executive officer of New America Acquisition.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Here’s <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/PJ2l9EYDheBpUSGciDtJWviZ58KGan5w0qvwK7Gy0x-gsQOqgba2_uQomTzXfaft6vt13QiNYctZzqFLSY7HSHcWs2CAynBuDdM5UJNZFk80qbGlEhPGM91HnyMpYTGWIl9ZPQN3P3QTXuGKqRZwtPWoxeYqwgxCCpuVNgxl2BaE7a_S3SxHVQobWV75xIjocM9AsFqr_9yioInQ8K2XzcsdWTy-DY9Rn0YiSiqfHLUeRtAcjgxIHUdMGDc5hXooBOfJ249vV0F4GK4UmnvB2dBrvA/EVpGVS1aavm7y6cQSTQ2_bA4Cx_GuG_m/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the new prospectus</a>; the main deletions are on page 5. It’s not like the strategy has <em>changed</em>. The new prospectus doesn’t say, you know, “we will avoid buying any businesses that might raise the specter of a conflict of interest.” It’s just not so explicit now. I still think they’re going to merge with Fannie Mae.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">The garbage dump guy</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We have <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/n3goyDbvlGmENSZT2QndBleVHg3yvc5mWZKMlT2ksavfQtWL9-R2ChXGLNtOfl_OZkpsAjEJicQBQodxcjhbaJEzRexAroJqi1YwzDsUrlRAqPBnicpvYj1vaZMVlxxsHtWuxDQEvwlO1huZ4GjVxEXj1ljLm2aIi-P7FwSewmbikWTQbsL_1ozdbLA_PDKnItdguYukWvHZlqvCmrcHhuTIUmOMq6n82BBTlDLyyXSbDNlcbfBe3n1UDmo2ZtG5gd6y9cRzuKmWdEfLV6R2NjnuDA/YV6MLo3uc1pSN1hFlKV14BFHlbLE2O5a/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> talked</a> a <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/oUJda7uuLv8H5UIk4gJJqViecm93w4dTGTaXb5ZL2c6ICVdAn5MsbGriWoEPrHSkjIHcA-fMj8e9YQg1L4tz0Q8gsQfuwQ1qxwmKsZF2HJUbQLxfdXbHnQAM4xjrGgax_gKjH5ji4UB1s1TXpol85OovSlawnmb9SPbSS6TYCBFKpg3M220rWjIMcooC0C1xRHZX9wvjsy3E_pbcAGwwAnOwFP7mAv8XWPUgpyMZkpNTlrHtgS2jqP4l2CL-_co9w1HLaEluVCZcIrV39rL2n3ckGg/KXNlpi0ASX-hOSJy3mgVWQ7vZrIYHt1e/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> few</a> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/J91MkO7aIVeUgajzrSLemcFfrt5dj8lReYMlsC28lT1LFANtoeKoAd6a2_E2a_pLpjKLVZMo6DnJn29J6VfP-Y94NnravDBy98BkosSYq12739da_5MtzxiNr2okerufEJ0j7zeMEyN9izoyQs-8Tt4B51k4bJBuF-kq5f6-e3saK7tuW5kMTqTHJ3BvjUqfIOMW9W6air6IuZtRPqWeCwj-7ZPqP0q6dlbp45f4ae5xhWBdz-E84geIS7fQT0AeLgnhTAphJVC0hdxia7762-LE-Q/gKgbpC4C_t2qsfoKb99AajIphE4LnhUt/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> times</a>, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/whs3i542RdYF0Uzu-IXqk4f1kRSvmEVuPSDmydTRSCHBVLN_NObvhuLgGTLQJxXQq9NZ-oeXrmdgrdq-_ameOw51YHnwgGL1DDIBIbUGF7kyUmINfXjz31r6xzLIxitD8Y3pOOST5UYyzdneV4YcshjbVCmrivx30ASp-lLXOuzmkL2qKbInNrTVuo-Wzt9_eHnaho4nMZfbTq5mOcVdmTxfZMVjR80d07_lEmGMBp5DiskOZbvHjHQ8uHHo9dytOKsiswM8c-Iju-Kd_9hbN6P8Hw/_AISXpT0AarFZrO43amEvYqHkVfNyIT1/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> over</a> the <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/10chBlR6vDm5sJF_S4Nne8vKeDyDWQAD5EF3zvML0apWeuDjLMr6ezHQ2-2O83lZmSyIP3isJQkVl0YJEqtxtznSzAM5msr4ADzjrspvu2LNazBMsfr-MAs33hM3HBZOuEiZ9kvL2Dcy9UtxjFrEF8UaHJFQsMojRnOvPVaf5ntsZDmeAz_AeybBISdGeT8CuckdJsnEClLRZK0v3glO8ZVHT2_b3ze55x834OvGPUQy9iCVXZF-1Lwvoxuzet7YR7Y_6DQMT3W1RzAuLtbuC1H4KQ/feleIe9J6CLxn0ByvrEAX84MnCQIxgIP/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> years</a>, about the funniest guy in crypto, James Howells. Howells is the guy whose partner threw away a hard drive containing the private key to 8,000 Bitcoins. In 2013, this was the sort of thing you might absent-mindedly do; in 2025, that hard drive is worth $900 million, oops. But Howells is pretty sure he knows the Welsh garbage dump where the hard drive ended up, and he has spent much of the last 12 years trying to get people to let him dig it up, with no success.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In addition to being very funny, there is something metaphysically pleasing about this. The Bitcoins aren’t “on” the hard drive, in any real sense. In some sense, the Bitcoins aren’t anything. They are just a set of social conventions, and if everyone in the Bitcoin community agreed that Howells still had those Bitcoins, then he would. On the one hand, Bitcoin is resistant to that sort of “off-chain” social agreement — immutable code on the blockchain and all that — but on the other hand, you can always create new tokens. In 2021, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rqA9v7A0Q-_wLXSUlygXY_ydVvq8qFTlGZIvbRT2Qk-nLYopcUIKWADNauXHvijTnvTtTStK82hvygHaf-OBPWtAICU8VZyz-dyj8_TMth7_B86BVrHzshzfE4cH6g6iIK8k-uGFwKPKgLO0CHjJorbpc60SVo3QXXr1rHabRozQbz9du9E-wYT4rlBrSUO6p5WFEH6KuZzCoC0DGAjTJP_aNKPXv_mgxTlugG9bbRO2bptBOP08thy1fgtqWkx59UVAb-SjHYQutzrxF8MPfyNIGw/jsWojhkylOvVjOhUVu16E8-NWIpZBxr2/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">I wrote</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I have joked enough about the “object-fire-token-money” cycle of non-fungible tokens to say that the obvious solution here is that Howells should mint a non-fungible token representing, like, “I threw away 8,000 Bitcoins.” This would have two benefits:</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">1. He’d own a tangible (ish) thing representing his Bitcoins in the dump, which might make him feel better, and<br>2. Maybe he could sell it? Or a share of it? How much would an NFT representing 8,000 vanished Bitcoins be worth? Search me, but maybe something?</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That was in 2021, when NFTs were hot, but really this analysis did not require a <em>nonfungible </em>token. If he issued 8,000 GarbageDumpBitcoins, they would presumably trade at a <em>discount </em>to the price of regular Bitcoins, but it’s not obvious that the discount would be 100%. You could imagine people saying “well, Bitcoins at the bottom of a garbage dump aren’t worth as much as Bitcoins on the blockchain, but they are still Bitcoins, and if I can get them at 30 cents on the dollar that’s a good deal.”</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Yeah, well. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/07bJNIGxURqmkO_81101eOtF43fq2m2U4EIm04K6oSJEbtgpOQovaqlP_dfxR2lq9amWBRH7G2WUjEZtv-7ey3sdTMiYZX1BwikjSa05WHLVYTEjhjcKQ97d06gC6AkFKJIzSbXAKPdBH5Esn2Mi1BF6UdW4SDQJSjY3W30hrTrZDC5A8KH3_MO_XawBuqbxQQF2XHU1yXCEYcLSEzZHl_CSRMBPYFVNCilt7SmFZBt3cQp4PFP8r059uoD3WbioyCh326Co0u8s2w02ZUCQJL_pXA/QzJBIKkCZupsf7g4g_Z4BRYqgCGHeLxr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">The Block reported yesterday</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Howells said he has simply "pivoted" his strategy, but has not given up on his lost bitcoin, as he remains the legal owner of the 8,000 BTC, citing a High Court ruling in January this year.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">"The Council may own the hard drive, but they do not own the digital contents of that hard drive - the 8,000 bitcoin are legally mine in law - the balance of which can be verified by anyone worldwide at any time," Howells told The Block.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is: The normal, crypto-y way to prove that you own a stash of 8,000 Bitcoins is to have the private key for that stash, allowing you to send those Bitcoins over the blockchain. But being constantly in the news for a decade for owning that stash of 8,000 Bitcoins is also a <em>kind </em>of proof of ownership. Like, I could go around saying “actually those 8,000 Bitcoins are mine,” and Howells has no more cryptographic proof of ownership than I do, but you wouldn’t believe me, would you? He’s been telling this story forever and he seems to be quite sincere about it. Anyway:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Howells said now he is planning to tokenize his legal ownership of the lost 8,000 BTC into a new Bitcoin Layer 2 smart token named Ceiniog Coin (INI), utilizing the upcoming network update that removes the 80-byte cap on the OP_RETURN opcode in bitcoin transactions to free up space for more functionality.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The token is slated for launch after October, and an ICO is planned for later in the year, Howells added. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">"The intention is to bootstrap the Ceiniog ecosystem and launch a successful high-speed, high-scale, fast-confirmation, payment-focused web3 environment secured by the Bitcoin blockchain and backed by 8,000 BTC," Howells told The Block.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Man, he’s still got it. Against very tough competition he remains the funniest man in crypto. Not only is he going to “tokenize his legal ownership of the lost 8,000 BTC” — a great idea that I’ve advocated for years — he is also somehow going to turn it into “a successful high-speed, high-scale, fast-confirmation, payment-focused web3 environment.” The future of payments infrastructure will be built on top of a hard drive in a Welsh dump.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Things happen</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Bank of America Junior Bankers <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/lYASwnUPvQBO5ON7B12gpBmyBwnUyAfwDaywKL-CtXS917a80MluUBydskUAXU6iCeyQFE4wtAKDXKqVynJhCU2QMK0Yk-qc_swoCvKsDgn6T8pQDXK4_n16LXeEbs9ZCe5o_KdduUszxLyAocObuOghMnbGwDvyP3sdHC0ud06TYO_J1T2Iry1K5U6bsJE_XNFhswoXf6ZfK8CL9yQhYMh4NSI9SJDCYtYo6HRoCDizFgODOj7Dvk7Mbqs3afdJVUqzrc7XcDenkyF_YdJrsg93wg/46HuLK1ZBJsqUvXAUkNJD6ts9dYiEFPp/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Face Reassignment</a> If They Accept Other Jobs. Tiger Cub Maverick Looks to Raise Money After <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/JmXlF7KKxVfiPFLmhrwotalP74LZcNUKXXU3YY2S1-CAfQPwW3D76GG1WUXUdXNNLcsz2-TNOwucTDA6bPt0NvmJvLoHvu0Qtcl6IIVOc_egJ1uDtt0Pi6S2nRUYwAKQMDwhSPq3GJKIyDXjHi0UEm2uAjd8epksmCVxMCNRlZ0XzZDKCUK-Pe_5AteOYZ2YnUA8l-4ybXtS6V0-bBj_ChncNdIo9AlSNa8UBR14L2Z2WO_71kp9x9-FwyoAOdSwc5jPkbVNrmHWbemBqeRtd_OgcA/ciQcr7CQoaKON15kQ8wYIPUqnNtgK1aL/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Trouncing Rivals</a>. Apollo Global to Buy Builder of Large-Scale US <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Mg1x418pIwbCnGed_FukH0e0WRD7PgE50Of2DG52ThJnw0Wf172C7hjSNBmJl6hCo7wWUohLm4UwO7I7GtnAv59GD4ptcxonqADt4Bsqtd7px5RbjAzb2_OjJxkuojIx6fe3V0Wh6NxfabUc4mtr1y_os5elIVHotvF3XiGE1zVE3tvR5d7um8LenoROm2jyF76ZthksHda7lpbWaDsb0eacTnXBmgTmmaxyuvUIS1P20kLeZFSIQ1-rDVS6SnH1-hkdwL8yzzgITevAyfcbGaZByQ/bV7U7l5TCIZ_x5qUKQbBIL3pEnSVapT-/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Data Centers</a>. DeepSeek-Linked Quant Fund Caught Up in <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/-C9qf4Lzd7A2WAg3wtTDeahxCsMELD8zVvxEsiYRByxXMBZ2JkqIx0qT25TFl6aZkruvQV6mr6sEtD26An_NQC9tqUgwr0DJXpiMFiNwmcBpf7fd9axsX6OBrO0zn9B_qotQA7kzHrOgMleRnWGr20lv7cSgShiOw8fRPJ6Mw86EbgEltFnL6qkxKa3mKLzp3U_ZolRM-5astMBKLVhocjOmJJRRU0_sdJWkms4b3qZ1hwwn4WolVPjRPfls-yLr1uGJQ-QeHWfGjttLoqrazqsm_A/dRqhkG9msg1_d_jWqC-44k_LdvO3d8Vo/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Kickback Scandal</a>. OpenAI Releases <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rknj4rbnQGfVZ2utuDEX8DwljyAiKK1gzn-4Bz6Ix-K2ZBH6X4qJsq9q5nrd8U4N9ChAq4wKROFV_EcoaOeR9Sdskd5Yidu8LjM5-IbW4HeLBwOo_HSUoNP_gwdNfcSqhDFlmwSLjXTKqj7Doa1H6M8rvP5JrOl1sZlFCGu5scjs7-KDHr_pfks4yH0kZq5Xsj_BDf22hUCJT8AOgN-7x_Z_rRrcI-w7ZS5yIHWZNJFhRZmb4clKw3oNG7pe6-oMDyYE-cMCdpzX5CzwkQF7i86vLw/hq0FNCWYx8KnObnKOnZ1eyzzmUNXt1XM/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Open-Weight Models</a> After DeepSeek’s Success. How <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/htAf3xj5oo38ljKPBI7QQKPn93NGRog96H4XZ7U0iazWrUs0wna-57rQ3gww1Xk1SUB582nmleH1SDwM-jHhJaeoveCzGYk8Z7pNNFEY2_85KBTrWtiJSScGaheiSJFGKYA7Iyxe8H3RRs8wuhn0QKAZ3he87c6Hyjjqz_ygmjIgt-AJzk19lo_tsQbH1FbtJY6r6ThrpIfpXv91LCBk4tBqH9ZrUye2eZyq7r3MBgT1QW5MCJCeB9oA2wdrgNIUuM6Z3qBzirx6iGV9JuGUYIDlKw/42Z1nKi9MIUZac6geGRl9FRf2uQhKWz-/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Palantir</a> Won Over Washington—and Pushed Its Stock Up 600%. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/hzw3v2eOHhmorTiFGC7kt1Mm31OwZI5osASKlBgiVvLL1HJjL5dt8ZZj4T1xWWafOiR7vnfH4fuKk3c-ix4cX8j41ApApE8hzwgin7MjorVHDXITv2UraZQv858r9vQSQ22KZgk4Q-JOd9RZqbHzdhMbqKe_NmOVDDhzL2dQxDtxja5bihHluBwtf6OQjRWsEgSJVc11gLtDgCC2Jdk_XSSdyNZ7kA5r411aqYOmPOhC_IEssVvY9SH7eBu0NwjIiu7sIDZhQSeYcFW0q98fADLJxA/zDTbJU0W7GGGkZ4ZYVEy8lhnEdBfe4Zc/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Uber</a> Boosts Buybacks by $20 Billion After Upbeat Forecast. Government Steps Up Campaign Against <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/BwOGWtt4HKz6Wlt8iUcdLR-zZ7G2sxtjtLo2vcYgegZWq1TnuZuUdNIaBEhbK5agtdkvevzwROEB0bqspineRVsOOzAZVNTSG-daDFRaq8I3JEpcUkh9aid0gKY1Fs59-E2mX65I3WgBXGKgQz0lo6d8OgcdsbhshaYv4V9DTZO3Z2X2ekjBtvjfEtDSvkVWyrfNToL7C1iaAA3LwVGf1sGiLg75HrEGvCS2lDpNlqwHEOdBYrDg9bjTlKytVAjljs1tmXbDUrrYZtfshchLsyzheA/wWTgb1YMYfcdm0Zw4wZAPJGaQ3LpHf4W/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Business School Diversity</a>. Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz Says <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/2C53kUSAf3ecazy3GISJE_3YFJd7hmk2YFmWzr0QbZLdtRvSl9lECh4kLNehHy0ruESGpdxXmFfTgFsGfQMEbwkoQTQOhgiKaKdoZY3YBOgym89TNpnvR8B859itquWxx0ioubG1qQsePn-alcE5SM85ySDf4y2kqQoKdkCE-MfIagGqpjVIWzAf6WlCL2TUkDG_R8W--esonplG5fa2FKCnQ7BGj1v1FECQC7RCcKSny2k-InxmeMxaB0ICr5GpYBWrzbJbxe8KM1yXLovzd57SSA/_K7bG7Iaq-_NV2Vo36342wQJeMW0VoTu/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Crypto Treasury Rush</a> Has Peaked. “Suniel Kumar Sharma … has repeatedly surfaced in far-flung countries, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FJiLLybvYIR0V9IeEB-hbgy83275Z0OoAn4yLeGzs8riSd2WxapIRXPdlyM9m0rV69npNyk9gvdWQrGCcAiuenfAbx8lowbMGu_nzzgie93caT4_kpWwEenaCt94Fi8imgaI2gY16KhANUEhYwjIk-FCKa-8zRHEzp26EVJEvd7S8tjEtOldgkKuZMXif6QC220Jzv3_GQHziTrcNkFTzf0qQgeiO1SrJv1_h_Bxzd3EzJU3TtyNADdQ925lNGXoPQoFRrNGPede1kYC9oacDFzwdg/B4_tDblqX8qZfvIh7dsH_juWBoMXOiVb/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">established ship registries</a>, and then moved on when local authorities raised concerns about his operations.” “We’ve got <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/87S-Vwbga_GtanRF7br7tkMaUdJ9ScF1romTRNIuacYT9MVsQzabaurFoZtB_BfQVUE9A_F0uML4sTJtxYI4FJ3p9HPe11dfuQWTpg6tjhok0kN0XXcVjGCRpSUFrcgx74ihM03qJQi4V4ab1KEYZ2X3iyNyNFNlCsukLJkHbwwQKpXZpT2HIN_Qi8Onh-oQk5KEVvOuxGHBtNtLgkYPYi9ZhRWvVfY5m1h-0uwqVJFflBgBD8WEIYU6mCP5b3_C2Gz7YnRhQ7g8JypBwAZKVB4bxw/UI7dIGAWaI_cbpiE1eIuE7rsLhkxFcWD/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> quite a nice yacht in Croatia</a>, and my kids are 22, 19 and 14, and they prefer to boat around the Med on the yacht rather than go to Wales.” <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/XEvplA_56ZcEDjnMkSXa2zLP4V_exSgDqbvx4M4B5tYYQpKSkSuFWU60FZOQ9flgCF1cphgMwAuiO4osvog8O9JhQEdt7ujB3NxjMMNXACUWXCF4QHoFXM56qqzHKTVlBm1E0yhaw2eDTtmoYE8TlcHDTRyV6JrpwnCej98qA6Iw-8cDxmyFRUlv1_PEYUBQ-W5OMW0tI2vtu9PmabUMNdbUOm8uptumlZsCwyMPKvnImnZZNZjujyviyRNQBX3izUmcusQbPJ5I66AWeJ4wf0oKaQ/ZyCZHr77UKg5xG8C8AvIisuzzVhy25_c/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Sand shortage</a>. USDA Is Blasting Audio of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver's Fight in <em>Marriage Story</em> to Help Farmers <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/CXhBf4b1DiK9q414oTqjdQhogqKlFij5UqPUnd3_hQ03rQ-H3pllqsH5vajbGwMxtc6OEKkwo-etrKzAixDkxxS-mlgOI-4X7p3w3mTVXCdBIyYWwYnmQnfbALq72sQQl4pCpdPE-_i2tpmLlbhKvEJHeZ-0OemTbe95UKLXMmTcpQ-1k3Qc3sg25dUw9geNhiJvM9uuREO6CRWuQriLPrB5y8jc8MFMIwBVcdHtJgvMJXlvdYUnOv8_m2PxGvufsyY4vDTIXrcJrEqLdlj3BlXDHg/-yw0nuD0gFaApPpezRPGgm5llfMfUPHC/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Scare Off Wolves</a>.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><em>If you'd like to get Money Stuff in handy email form, right in your inbox, please <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/7526pjN57C4CEYUk7w2wf4LJ7ctWxAhounUhzqO5mmxuWbVGVcgj7La6F2bBK-QcUmicqdxW91Mmw6-T2CdjB-7k76piCNPRiV0gSPG-4NQzo1rLLZmBn-bNnB9VXv5HtfSX5c4wx0l87XzPBrwMuC91Pfp8GdWzjtTSh3qSwptwp_xgjqKtvMqSnujmeVV5tGlBjwmxzBck_xyC4GT4AV6s92VaqZsXt0kt64gi5nPxUI762Ja4QeLujdft0nuWnm8u_JeDiC8Ovz_lyAzJ2nJDgA/6GeFqAVrm7MBI7bWs2CPsnBYpcM42v06/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">subscribe at this link</a>. Or you can subscribe to Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ngqWHxNpxXwNQMnz5Sq5WvtXb822lx4ygs3dUvm6C5qD9rqPIKDGEYkUAFOgwWLFDMHvco1zMMFfJS5tWRSJUgAhWLuuyHRv5tlTtlCFq2Lv297pxEee3Jr-RreVtsBVkieI8s5NEQvSD3UNX4fxWCM409c73BtU0PkJ9jEf4YHszUMc9wTnMsjbkedHPM_ZRessBJHBGEgAqrao6nPO0PWQXBW3moixzhzN2a8kPw_wIL1-wItcDQAziTtpdX1TtRuQ8P34_Dc2S5oG-iSRHBrBDw/lF40Nc8Q7LTbsV-ebHKmPf99KvLo_0Wj/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>. Thanks!</em></p> <div id="footnote-1" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[1] I’m not sure how restricted they are; <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/KU9YkHyM-4oRl5b3oe2TwSUU3OkU4lNyWIoOoHupqr5vYuoE46n6O6dmlqiugJQn2SNFmLEla_QKyEH79lGhhZLQLEPx3cylGSbxAhCc4LROilhF55yh7adJpmoOCAecb9aKKP666P0cTCbsQ0gU_6RdFyplz-oj7JlrC7iBR7FSKct0Ei9q2UyrwBBaLROhY8DvBdtOFtHwDz_ju5BsiL9N7S8kYP3dHoXBthut7efFr5OmVDNaBkqEp2jfD9HNtuiop6cz-12R8520ft-swyKq-Q/6hmtKMB7zMaSEwxKQIlRZHLqGKlqz2BM/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the prospectus</a> notes that 74% of the stock is subject to lockup agreements.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-2" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[2] The premium is down significantly this week — it closed yesterday at $79.08 — but still in the ballpark of 100%. </p> </div> <div id="footnote-3" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[3] The email: “I hope this message finds you well. My name is [Investor Name], and I work at [Investment Firm Name]. We are considering investing in your company, and I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss some aspects of your recent earnings release. If possible, I’d like to schedule a brief call at your convenience to address a few questions regarding your financials. When would you be available for a call in the next two weeks? Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.” </p> </div> <div id="footnote-4" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[4] “For favorable responses or requests for more information ..., we sent a follow-up email expressing gratitude for their response and indicating that a call was no longer necessary.”</p> </div> <div id="footnote-5" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[5] This risk is primarily adverse selection risk: What the market maker really doesn’t want is to buy stock from people who systematically sell stock before it goes down. And so market makers charge wider spreads in the public markets (where they might trade with big institutions and “toxic” high-frequency traders) than they do <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/elmQOwGG16GDDHAcl8oy9LJUvPQO4SR-9Hd1xKvcbpgpF-3cmy_vUe_hNTH9n6xuCXoKuw9pQjY27WzrizcVxH1zyYI08qioOtmFxTXVre1wZhzHk9DhBm_5aNaUETVscfbOlRdcQIS3CaXCOxYwhgVt7zN6u0a3ERojT4SI0uPQcJr-pOgpWUprP2uBwXFB3Gf37KFo8p1pbQfGF1Vc8M_eYP32N7Qfo5i_Q-v65UVdSWCO8CQCqDZxZnWmR3BdouQO2Mb8mRCPh-gfKeuVKy6G4Q/AH1G80RR_pGL2_cdmZ9IlHQkhuPhoDBv/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> to retail orders</a> (which are more random).</p> </div> <div id="footnote-6" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[6] The measure appears to be round-trip trading costs, that is, customer buy prices minus customer sell prices, which fell from 29.3 to 24.2 basis points among some sampled bonds.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; 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  9. CardsFTW #164: Consumers Are Strained

    Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:15:24 -0000

    <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <!--[if mso]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch><o:AllowPNG/></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <title>CardsFTW #164: Consumers Are Strained</title> <style> .post-title-link { display: block; margin-top: 32px; color: #15212A; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; } .post-title-link-left { text-align: left; } .view-online-link { word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline !important; } .kg-nft-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 4px; } .kg-twitter-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; 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font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, A Light-Up Stablecoin Card, Booking.com Credit Card, and More</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; 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mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; color: #000000;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/b6ad7e4e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #164: Consumers Are Strained</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-excerpt-wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%; max-width: 600px;" width="100%" valign="top"> <p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-no-feature-image post-excerpt-serif-sans" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, A Light-Up Stablecoin Card, Booking.com Credit Card, and More</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By Matthew Goldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">6 Aug 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6e1eb273?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/efb0b65d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; 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font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="payy-launches-a-light-up-stablecoin-card" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Payy Launches a Light-Up Stablecoin Card</h1><div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdlJsMjNQD3xnzXWp-6BG5Mp45GTIECl-7RrGV83m77SVcGiQguJlTnh626kAm4EAg5F3dQFLt4VaTXeZ2AcLkTR_MOdn3cWdVjdxtd_aK2L0Y982lA5YdvIMbynUyzGdbZUuNGpg?key=raTdyYZg-1y0A6hnMnXjSA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="539" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Stablecoins and stablecoin cards are a hot topic (see, Me, Elsewhere, below). Payy is a self-custodial wallet app that today launched a Visa card to support using these self-custodied cards in the real world. PLUS, it lights up when you tap it. Cool. I love cool card stuff.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As Payy says, &#x201C;Spending crypto in the real world is a mess. Traditional flows involve bridging, swapping, and off-ramping with exchanges. Other crypto cards only add risk, leaving behind public trails that expose your on-chain funds. That&#x2019;s a problem if you want to use stablecoins to buy a coffee, take a cab, or book a hotel.&#x201D;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">To solve this, Payy built a custom blockchain (the Payy Network) to create private stablecoin spending. You can check it out at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9a14592b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">payy.link</a>.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The folks at Payy sent me a test card and it is a unique process. You use your phone to encode the plastic card itself with the Visa card number provided in the Payy app. From there, it works like any other card. </p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">How cool is a light up card? So cool that my 16-year-old was impressed.</p><h1 id="consumers-are-strained" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Consumers Are Strained</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">A couple of recent news articles started me thinking about broader changes in the economy and their impact on cardholders.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Credit cards represent a unique type of loan: they are open-ended and revolving, meaning that consumers borrow what they need, when they need it. Few credit cards are secured (although some are, including by homes or cars). Your access to credit, your interest rate, and your credit limit are set based on what your finances look like at the moment of underwriting. While poor payment behavior can affect your access, if your credit score is slowly degrading due to other loans, your credit card issuer can&#x2019;t proactively do much about it.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The <em>Wall Street Journal</em> published a report on July 25 (and then printed it on August 5), entitled &#x201C;<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f4aac0c1?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Banks Are Getting Pickier About Whom They Want as Credit-Card Customers</u></a>&#x201D; noting that the number of cards being opened at top credit card issuers (Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, and American Express) declined 5% year-over-year in Q2.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdfwuyQDWfa2CKqgaYfSJwHJRlKUV29-4vT5Tgkej9QiyWBFixufreqoggLRu6ZGoS7h94IqWq2AOw6EpKbVK2BVV5hpqOv1DZMwvOZJCv4_Xj2L6NmN1Z3yACTuaLfsB2zwPtlVw?key=raTdyYZg-1y0A6hnMnXjSA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="474" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/b85ed8f3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: Wall Street Journal</span></a></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">National credit card issuers frequently update their underwriting standards and goals. To a bank, a loan is an asset, but asset growth must be properly managed (read, constrained at times) to balance risk. When I was Chief Product Officer at Bankrate (<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/fcd6ebb3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>creditcards.com</u></a>), our results were often impacted by this type of behavior. If Capital One or American Express decided their loan book was a bit large one month, they might pull back on advertising and approvals (scuttling our revenue growth). However, they might return to the market in a big way the next month.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">At the same time, the article notes, credit card spending continues to grow at a rate&#xA0;higher than inflation or economic growth (GDP):</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdgXyLSHbPT-U7bwFxcL03sexztV0rvNu07-4w9fPZfbjzuvfI6U-t_sdz8vmufdPxk9gozFmXo7n_bhwkqWuRwinmIB8RdtD4vkKekTA1N4vFuk1OZCMCNumDuoSzCa4wvVjZwBg?key=raTdyYZg-1y0A6hnMnXjSA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="468" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/108bd3e0?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: Wall Street Journal</span></a></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The U.S. continues to see a bifurcation between top earners and lower-income earners, leading economists to note the emergence of a K-shaped economy. Credit cards reflect this: while top spenders may have plenty of cash and a desire to keep spending (and using credit cards transactionally for rewards), lower income segments are using cards as a way to stretch their budget.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The <em>Journal</em> followed up on July 28 with an article about upcoming rate changes: &#x201C;<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d82b4d09?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Credit-Card Users Are Cautious Now. Rate Cuts Could Open the Floodgates.</u></a>&#x201D; Credit cards are very expensive lending tools, in part because of their flexibility. If you are of good credit and know you need some money for the next few years, you would be better served acquiring a fixed-rate personal loan.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As shown in this chart, the increase in rates over the past couple of years due to inflation far outpaced previous credit card rates, leading to multi-decade highs:</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfLs3WU61NdTsiECkv27YdkjawjQqm8c6sTK6_WaCcjKoZ-b8zsCMa2u5sOHhffdOvOxgdGjw-xWpR_4-1I4oq7Mf1iLbm8LWZIJqzjxtTKh6A5XGIV8fmZxG0QM0mBgCZnC75x?key=raTdyYZg-1y0A6hnMnXjSA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="469" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/49e87927?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: Wall Street Journal</span></a></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As I wrote in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/00db07f2?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>CardsFTW #154</em></a>, branding enables banks to charge very high rates on cards - rates that are higher than justified by pure lending risk.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Banks need to balance increasing risk as consumers are stressed by rising prices and a weakening economy (see, tariff nonsense and last week&#x2019;s jobs report) and credit lines that are already available to them are a good place to go, even if the money is expensive.</p><div></div><h1 id="corecard-sells" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CoreCard Sells</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e192e03b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">CoreCard</a>, which powers the Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs (for now) agreed to sell itself to <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d5421ee9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Euronet Worldwide</a>, a payment processor, for $248 million dollars. <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> has a <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/a8cbe86a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>good profile</u></a> of CoreCard CEO Leland Strange.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I first heard of CoreCard when my friend Aaron Frank built Final Card on the platform. Goldman Sachs bought assets off Final (and hired Aaron and his team) to build what became the Apple Card. (That story is an interesting one about how startups can innovate features and create life-changing programs through odd journeys.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">When I started working on Vertical Finance in 2019 with the goal of building credit cards, I hoped to partner with CoreCard, but was told that they were very busy with something (I now know was the Apple Card) and not to even try. I found a partner in Deserve, which also processed on CoreCard and provided key program management features. I was glad to be in CoreCard&#x2019;s ecosystem and excited to be receiving webhooks from their platform as we built the Grand Reserve Mastercard in 2020. (Not that <em>that</em> card worked out very well, but that&#x2019;s also another story.)</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I&#x2019;ll be watching to see what EuroNet and CoreCard are able to do as a combined company. As highlighted in our recent <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ad6dd1a8?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>core processor report</u></a>, CoreCard is a fully featured platform. I think folks have been concerned about CoreCard&#39;s future given Goldman Sach&#x2019;s very public moves to sell the Apple Card portfolio. That concern should be reduced as CoreCard pairs with a larger company and continues to earn interesting new business, powering customers globally, including challenger cards like <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ea386bfa?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Nibbles</u></a> and <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/af79ddd3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Coign</u></a>. Who knows? Maybe the unique features Apple requires will enable CoreCard to become a supplier to JP Morgan!</p><h1 id="credit-cardyeah" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Credit Card.Yeah</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/5ac951aa?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com</u></a>, part of the enormous Booking, Priceline, Kayak, OpenTable group quietly launched a new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/43e21b81?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com Genius Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card</u></a>, issued by First Electronic Bank and managed by fintech program manager Imprint. Booking&#x2019;s sister company, Priceline, has long offered a Priceline Visa card (currently issued by traditional provider Barclays), but to my knowledge this new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/bd2d1fdb?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com</u></a> card is a first for the company.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ede2b240?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com</u></a> card earns $150 in travel credits for use at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/cfc28ca5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com</u></a> after spending $1,500 in the first 90 days, 6% travel credits on stays and 5% on other travel on <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1ddf1795?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>booking.com</u></a>, and an upgrade to Genius Level 3. I don&#x2019;t know anything about Genius Rewards, but a Level 3 gets you discounts on stays and rental cars, plus priority support.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">While there are so many travel cards, the online booking platforms don&#x2019;t all offer them. Many of these travel platforms operate numerous brands. Competitor Expedia Group offers the One Key card for use across Expedia, VRBO, and other sites. It looks like <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/c797333e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Booking.com</u></a> group will keep its brands separate (at least for now). Over to you, Airbnb - where&#39;s your card?</p><div class="align-center" style="text-align: center;"><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you for subscribing to&#xA0;CardsFTW. Please consider supporting this newsletter&#xA0;by upgrading to a paid subscription today.</span></p><div class="btn btn-accent"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1f32a1e9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Upgrade to Paid</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"></p><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"></div><h1 id="flex-launches-a-visa-infinite-business-card" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Flex Launches a Visa Infinite Business Card</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/b3ef76c1?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Flex</u></a> (no, not that <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/705bc175?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Flex</u></a>; again with the naming, fintech people), which offers accounts and cards for business owners, launched a new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/775e950c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Visa Infinite business card</a>.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/08/Flex-card.webp" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="315" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Flex is a 60-day business charge card, providing business owners with a long grace period to repay loans at no interest. In contrast, many popular fintech business cards like Ramp and Brex offer no grace period following a statement close (you pay as soon as the statement closes). Much like the legacy American Express Plum Card, Flex provides different benefits based on the cardholders choice of repayment behavior:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Maximize cash flow with extended float</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Earn up to 1.75% unlimited cashback for early payment</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Or, earn 1.75x points redeemable for travel, gift cards, or statement credits&#xA0;</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Visa Infinite is the top-level product from Visa with more built-in benefits than your typical card (which is often a Visa Signature product). These include benefits like:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Priority restaurant access via OpenTable</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Unlimited global airport lounge access with Priority Pass</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Luxury hotel perks, including upgrades and on-property credits</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">24/7 Visa Infinite Concierge support from anywhere in the world</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Premium travel protections, including trip cancellation, lost luggage, and primary rental car coverage</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Robust purchase protections, extended warranties, and return coverage</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The Flex Visa Infinite Business Card is issued by Lead Bank.</p><h1 id="fintechdevcon" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">FintechDevCon</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I&#x2019;m in Denver, CO, heading into day two of <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6d0f2185?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Fintech DevCon</a>. I had the privilege of giving the conference opening keynote yesterday, &#x201C;Simple to users, brutal to build: What rewards ledgers teach us about fintech architecture&#x201D;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">A video of the presentation will be posted by the excellent team at FintechDevCon and <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/684546d9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Moov</a> soon, and I will be sure to share it in the newsletter.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Thank you to Wade, Janell, Lauren, and the entire conference team for having me!</p><h1 id="me-elsewhere" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Me, Elsewhere</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I published a deep dive into stablecoin cards for This Week in Fintech&#x2019;s Signals, <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/49f9e5c9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>Stablecoins on Plastic: The New Wave of Crypto-Powered Cards</u></em></a>. Head on over and check it out!</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I was quoted in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9a6a2579?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>badcredit.org</u></a> about <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/02c6d7d0?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>rumors of the Apple Card</u></a> moving from Goldman Sachs to JP Morgan Chase, and its implications for subprime issuing at Chase.</p><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/2ea77f98?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/de798b96?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Totavi</u></a>, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management &amp; marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/7d4065a2?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u> www.totavi.com</u></a> to learn more.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>Interested in reaching our audience? </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/bbb55671?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>You can sponsor CardsFTW.</u></em></a></p> <!-- POST CONTENT END --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!-- END MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <tr> <td class="feedback-buttons-container" dir="ltr" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 32px 0 24px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; text-align: center; background-color: #ffffff;" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="feedback-buttons" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; 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font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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N,&#xA0;Sacramento, CA 95816</span></p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center">CardsFTW &#xA9; 2025 &#x2013; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/unsubscribe/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac&newsletter=4537ad55-eebc-4678-b2bf-fd6731d3805e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Unsubscribe</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="footer-powered" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; text-align: center; padding-top: 70px; padding-bottom: 40px;" valign="top" align="center"><a href="https://ghost.org/?via=pbg-newsletter&amp;ref=cardsftw.com" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.ghost.org/v4.0.0/images/powered.png" border="0" width="142" height="30" class="gh-powered" alt="Powered by Ghost" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; width: 142px; height: 30px;"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END CENTERED WHITE CONTAINER --> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <img width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://email.mg.cardsftw.com/o/eJwszktu7SAMANDVXGY3wvwMAy_GxCbJe0mRCG3U3VeqOjyzI-Qz-BiNEmAMoaTivNGLj_N9CKVcPLasKm1VAa6xrsG1aHYSzpkrCoeAlrlAQbG5tQAZAS2bg5x10WabIEGEvHhJvhZOKIgVub2CvbZl5SF3m8-y9ssMmk-E739zk_28h-vyCvZDn_vUOXUso4t2M6l-nv_fv0szadv7Pf_0Re4nAAD___imQNg"></body> </html>
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width: 100% !important; max-width: 550px !important;"/> </a> </td> </tr> <!--<![endif]--> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Corporate access</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">If you are trying to decide whether to buy the stock of some company, one thing you could do is sit down with its chief executive officer and ask her: “Should I buy your stock?” This probably won’t be too informative: For reasons of incentives (her wealth is tied to the stock price) and general CEO optimism/confidence, she will almost certainly say yes.<a href="#footnote-1" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[1]</span> </a> But you can ask follow-up questions. If you say “okay, you think I should buy your stock, does that mean that you will have a good profit next quarter,” and she says “no,” or “define good,” or “oh look at the time I gotta go,” or if she says “yes absolutely” but starts sweating and looking around nervously, then perhaps those are useful indications that you should <em>not </em>buy the stock. And if she looks you in the eye and says firmly “it’s gonna be <em>amazing,</em>” go ahead and buy it.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This is a little bit fanciful, but not that fanciful. CEOs do regularly meet with investors, and the investors ask questions and the CEOs answer them. In the US, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/PU_NS1wSqE313fIoEajSdj1Ztspny4k_HYkSm8hLWK24TNwHrWrTXEyPjmflWrnqGVSrzYVnJzUOOUIIZvNkAebMton1I1XQdPon6ZH2st0sqRM8wOxe8g0ki02i23qUxp_KZjabwiKIHCJbEbwNUaMvsDi7LmXtp2SL2Y82zS-ntyQxiCMdXBvzgChUoyCX6Wtq1RWrve_xTQ7V-HL7qKuU8gnle0CQWRvgSXcLIXNyXeH_g0Iluu-vlbdKGVs-GP5vLsMTxf954ZIdslDuEATPhBEr8MKomvJc9M4-zXQbEaceRYKfIrmqloE8Pd_8Kk3d6jTyOvsUMJQQv57HyBfsLBp7gNVlCVIKn9-C8dVHRMPG6EaKNOc0AQ/B_Imls_kvSXy87kLIzW0ojzD-eEOuK2s/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">securities regulations</a> prohibit the CEOs from disclosing material nonpublic information in these meetings, so in theory, if you ask the CEO about next quarter’s earnings, she shouldn’t tell you anything the company hasn’t already said publicly. In practice, though, these meetings do happen, which suggests that investors get some value out of them. And <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/SvMbFCkdXNHomH2hC7afFUgLGHMHtVzUoVhxFasdRCQHn9-Jz6GLXhkCiXB4UoYupfDojnBpiOJ4E9HHA4EQgb9UBx8-kGdmAb2N8SvivU2qlLQOcETjdU2houeR5jlhv4lGs7I3UlUDw1v8zqw7E3JUESw82PH3H_DYvsKZhmCgpX9jGA3WOtXevlrggTTX71v6a8Aam36-_Hmh3KimbrBp4gHKfN312VgWDpO2FUiSsUScIbFaLj8CfDrM2wCw0Zg6SMOWz3dxNiv3_y0E6KqplEQKWMBb-EaJqdPvY8IDTb_ibdjedoEqqYrKcAjdgvM10rsRUakebz5fRMwH7tHrUNQOlmgRjY8F4hl-3n6ecZHY9NS5HSrCyA/wipYMKhpALG2BnFbOXBBmCk9ftPrvEip/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">empirical studies</a> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/SpqrPXRQ5xO5p1-eBPtR1d8bC5XK74DsAHkpl6IwpHUJYnR05o2SdVL6YZMTfIV41dddix54gubKHMCMNaPQtR2WdXMCgavZe3TJ44wceJaX27iUGRlzZttJJWkt61go9zG9o20fah3qiwqgAmw6bB7MQP2qVwmhiIGpGpXYeWObKroNhlocsFGe6EGNyFLoLUrRQeI1QCk8Fy_3c28Dn6XAsIE_H83-M5QGMyJDEs6fzTn_iiBV6tiFU9p4gZFee_W-fHfE1TH10iayG4gFmPAkfxXSCxFco4honynl1EulsyLDEXqQ4E49zA8SVROge0T4Nfln5qXqVPjuskqu5aLJoAS1whZ6GwfyLYnzoC_p6H2BddSeZnax2Q/YFQqqLc1KF7UiEL4HmMgVCL4vTx_DpDC/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">find that</a>, as you’d expect, investors who have meetings with CEOs make more informed investing decisions. They’re definitely learning <em>something </em>in the meetings.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The polite way to reconcile these facts — the CEO isn’t allowed to give investors material nonpublic information, but the investors do get useful information out of these meetings — is to talk about “<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/nOyutKDmWwiim5lGBS4p2ftIG8isvR1Tn7aBkBBVlzHEar67A9KJ87kzBnxGRPZ1qdh10MCQz_ztciD7bp25mKWrBSw9enPHVA2bvK91UdhxDZwvwLuaT2Y8UywU2Blxk5cQ0m-by63hLDNG0YOtaIpRQFlI_q3m2U64XeHhurxbU3ywMpg_lcuWw590WyE9B9wZP8bVy8EQVZnC95aKsZjxOoBV5ffx-gOmLgewxvEznWIDqJinEhz7paklzn9P_Gx-ssyoqH1kJEDCZYnojn449ty3-fUgZwjeatN92wIuO0NIa5pAEUHjvIaDAFxRcTXTDFMytXA3-hgzo4OLFj8As6BoC9xclrRJ3S89U9sDFRS1Vr4XKkfzIQ/c1GgrASKRRhvFs1i3ARYedCi1FKVgE2p/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">tone and body language</a>.”<a href="#footnote-2" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[2]</span> </a> Like, I guess, you ask “will earnings be good next quarter,” and the CEO says “of course I can’t tell you anything beyond what we have publicly disclosed,” and she winks, so you buy the stock. Or she says it in a gloomy voice so you sell the stock. I assume that this is almost entirely euphemistic,<a href="#footnote-3" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[3]</span> </a> and what actually happens is that you ask good granular questions about the company’s operations and finances, and the CEO thinks “well this is not the sort of material nonpublic information that I am not allowed to disclose” and answers your questions, and you come away with a better understanding of the company’s prospects and a more informed investment thesis. The CEO gives you information that is useful and new, but somehow not material and nonpublic.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">So it’s entirely understandable that you would want to meet with the CEO: She can tell you things that are useful in making your investment decision. But why would she want to meet with you? I think there’s a cluster of related answers:</p> <ul style="list-style-type: disc; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">For incentive reasons (her wealth is tied to the stock price), she wants you to buy the stock, and for general CEO optimism/confidence reasons, she thinks she will be a good salesperson for the stock. </li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">For corporate finance reasons, she wants you to want to buy the stock, in case the company needs to raise money by selling stock.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">For fiduciary reasons, she wants to meet with the owners of her company’s stock, because they are the owners of the company and she works for them. So if you are currently a stockholder, you’re her boss and she’ll make time for you, and she’ll extend the same courtesy to people who are considering buying stock.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">For governance reasons, she knows that it is useful to her to have the support of her shareholders. So she will want to be helpful to you, so you will do things like vote to approve her compensation package or support her in a proxy fight.</li> </ul> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But she’s pretty busy, and there are a lot of shareholders, and she probably can’t meet with everyone. She will need to prioritize, and those answers give you a sense of whom she should prioritize:</p> <ul style="list-style-type: disc; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">She should meet with investors who are likely to buy a lot of stock, and not with investors who aren’t, or who might <em>short </em>the stock.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">She should meet with big owners of the stock, not investors who only own a little, or none, or are short.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">She should meet with big <em>stable </em>owners of the stock, who will still own it in a year when she needs a favor, and who are management-friendly and not likely to do a proxy fight themselves.</li> </ul> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Also, like anyone else, she will want these meetings to be pleasant. If you ask friendly questions and are polite, you’re more likely to get a second meeting. If you are rude and slovenly and ask difficult questions and push back on her answers and try too hard to get her to reveal material nonpublic information, she won’t have a good time, and you won’t be invited back.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This all suggests that the CEO will want to meet with analysts and portfolio managers at Fidelity and Capital and Wellington, big long-only asset managers who own large chunks of stock for long periods. She will not want to meet with most retail investors, because they are too small, unless she has a very conscious meme-stock strategy.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But she also may not want to meet with the long/short equity teams at big multimanager hedge funds. Those funds are big and important, but they often have short holding periods, so if she gets them to buy stock today they might sell it in a week. They tend to be market-neutral, and short stocks as well as buying them, so if she meets with them today they might go out and short her stock. And they are in the business of finding edge that no one else has, so they are more likely to ask tough questions and push for detailed information that she is uncomfortable disclosing. They are not good reliable long-term partners for a CEO; they are informed investors looking to do a smart trade.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Also: possibly slovenly? At Business Insider, Bradley Saacks has a fun story about <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/XMUZEROptQrZCNhfcNynLBsdSJC5O4fZqAyWgXNlNynYGnvRNqoW6jxuTh7G6n_PQ8Yx9MR9fGktTejJ1LTAcXoVtX3TfeejXD-0vZXdughRjBSnBe_bELjvDWWzbEho9ApHWW5eWPWX_txX9YXsbLxnsal2YRZTJTwbODZVFBIQfY_vy74SbJ_FyYOfges_zJeeMY3j3XabhQ_DCJStZ_3uNboySSfSLawOi4A8hutFfIJs7nEhnQiRBX9vn8Hzt3OxycauU24RIjkwaAteSHrRkUSzxS4YiTYWRZsdfig3meurB9Yicb5_NJDxx4l8urbRyycBXsFEcAq4mTHx1JP3GtWvHF_GNgK7UEWGpOfWUbJIhmm_qyBE-C0/xOGRHnKdHgCF9nNUQoa4pgUqczKE4Qaf/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">corporate access at big multistrategy hedge funds</a>. For understandable reasons, CEOs used to prefer not to meet with them:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Twenty-seven-year-olds in T-shirts. Cameras off during pandemic-era Zooms. Typing on laptops or phones while CEOs spoke. Twenty people on a call, all vying to ask a hyperspecific question, often related to next quarter's earnings. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">At bank-held conferences, alongside tenured portfolio managers from long-only funds and asset management giants like Fidelity and Wellington, "we were always the kids' table," one multistrategy executive admitted.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">It was "pretty common" between 2018 and 2021 for executives to say no to meeting with some of these firms, or sharply curtailing the number of seats allotted to these funds, said Christopher Melito, a former corporate access pro at Cowen, Citi, and Credit Suisse. Even with how much these firms paid the sell-side, "at the end of the day, a C-suite could say 'don't confirm that request, we aren't meeting with them,'" said Melito, who is now the head of investor access at consulting firm ICR.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But things have improved, at least sartorially:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">For example, "a lot of top four funds stopped putting junior members in these meetings," Melito said, and started training younger investment team members on protocol.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One former PM said that at Point72, blazers are required when meeting with an executive. At other large firms, Melito said, young analysts start by meeting with smaller-cap companies before shadowing more senior investors in meetings with large-cap corporations.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Still there are problems. One problem is that, at the big hedge funds, there are a lot of portfolio managers covering similar sectors, so it’s possible for a company to get five different calls asking to schedule meetings with “Citadel,” which is pretty annoying:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One portfolio manager at a large firm said the biggest fights he ever saw were between two teams wanting access to the same executive — and there would only be room for one. Firms often give more tenured teams the right of first refusal for a meeting, but sometimes big-name new hires will jump the line, causing a rift, another PM said. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In the ongoing war for talent that has top moneymakers getting offers of tens of millions of dollars in total potential compensation, an important question for candidates is how many other teams trade their specialty or sector, one recruiter said.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">"It's a make-or-break kind of question," he said. No one wants to be one of 20 investing in technology companies "unless the money's just stupid," he added.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Another problem is: Are these meetings actually useful? Again, as a regulatory matter, <em>they’re not supposed to be</em>, and it’s at least possible that companies have gotten better about not disclosing nonpublic information in meetings with investors:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">One European equity investor said CEOs have become more scripted than ever, so meetings are basically a rerun of what they've previously said on earnings calls or at conferences. Another, based in the US, said the biggest value from these meetings used to be a sentiment check on how other teams were thinking about the stock — but now questions are often too specific and narrow to give any kind of indication into their thinking.<a href="#footnote-4" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[4]</span> </a></p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But there is always body language:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">Tiger Global's billionaire founder, Chase Coleman, sees merit in these meetings and still attends them, a person close to the firm said, and funds have brought in former CIA interrogators to help investors dissect body language and read between the lines of a prepared statement.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Yeah, see, this is why the CEOs prefer meeting with Fidelity? </p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>Hedge fund:</strong> Hi, we are considering buying your stock, would you be willing to meet with us?</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>CEO:</strong> Sure I love meeting my investors.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>Hedge fund: </strong>Great, we’ll set up a meeting. On our side it will be our tech portfolio manager and two analysts.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>CEO:</strong> Cool, make sure they wear blazers.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>Hedge fund:</strong> And our CIA interrogator of course.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><strong>CEO:</strong> Actually I just realized I’m busy that day.</p> </blockquote> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/bINfsD73ASRV-FWiLpHRzWNQ07UZ06fOgAiReg87SetwcG9jkRdSKlDbejSzXjf8tDDLQ-CUsDaTUdAmHI6xiS_St0wnw-0UTtfKSe5I2JGbRFKcAGZ9aEfDxdu8tMgnZopEh1ZuLEc_nan--XU-LKrsn6GoX270MsyUo1B1PMqRZOaBTYYXsGBKamXvMYOKTp_SKjaXsbdEYG9pzJcR63p2edMzAZoLgC-ZFQnmZ1Njw2RDLj5UAv4ucsIhDrnmdIfhlt_s0wsMvckcvpG5J-OauNUtnLDPF8AUSPb3hkq6tmv_9HJRcaSUBqmElY5PRSvAhy2ixf50cxef0y2OH6cqjJ_ps6UsId1TBJRupbBb6sKyBJ7ufBTLF5zZLqqBaTW3_G4azSs3gPBHgCOHm7TgXhKJxerSTuxDq0kbIiB16AuA3HEsghwmr72v9lUwHsqomgNHqpcRIBBSHsVGn2oUhr1kw5klpcwThv9-ODFY-f1f1u4X-nOxemEZYHZeCzzb9FeKyQw1dF9qkOMg8MAvWkq4NI22RNs5sEY75hW34UPAiFDYSAetJVaX0XCkK8oS6v7_Y_TrgalGKrWWxNoO_m5VkmzXMfL8AUKeiEDriSvZzXTvXDqzR65CNMerVGBNr9aepiUyaQGGOXVraGv69JjaNKFjT22pMvfZmv14fk8UhMOAO3-shw9T9A/A4XEmNiLLpLe5T2hYGKC4jNAatq-bT9Y/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=desktop&collapse_width=550&li=14481683&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08052025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="550" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;width:100%;max-width:550px;" alt="" class="lihide"/> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"> <!--[if !mso]><!--> <div style="display:none; overflow:hidden; width:0; max-height:0; line-height:0;" class="lishow"> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/8odJfIfZ8Sm-RqmMgveisaDt-uMi6Tcgj5BtcGkabJMjmvqEKNNmOK-L7H0qByEW5S0yYowxUz_Zi5Q8xttJKsn0CDa7Cw87rGnVLGQhBQzd7K3g_C7E6KP-W18btDMSAYK0P9S5n8YQYuP4WUSLqeFbL0LQumiMImwvuz0RDnfsXGVIlLLQPd2OlOaswiw9ooPFqb3bPq0p_XiDZS9FRiymEQ-Cn8nriKBZcICosI_RBDF8xF_vtvVfYZnUPzrFmejBK9kklnCJvzE49VJYf-cB2VjtaFPQH0aUqt11Kd1rRlGk0GpCX-fveMKGXuwluEPYPU9MN-3inJSG-K_6LLPJRRYBz3SKsGOKlHF37LnKxbqbvl3dmozlduTLIlgy8o0RUcsdVYoAptB4cbPEH1CeCQo7PpZh1FMPDgFhRRFH6K-WWvb081Vq4luYjrvKIAFDTKo6uR5WLTH_qVbQ4RW_-aX0WUXFvZgXEKWnNUOtqpYtZW8GA-Hk1bpO_tx4TcCH7QDHEUnXtet6iZLNHL9tXNpGoxGnZhYdFVQwhfNhO6XcvmQQMVObbTlN8GWWz1ShK4IuCfWgRk2UCRula8MmrJ_VPt_W_iqhrd_3YmlOCC9cPNJi5zzEMtVXNWs3KKpnNg1Jwi82jFNKF2MgONz5tuklem1tHlAt_eJhYnq0mGP_9OzMEn2AcCWN7g/T4omK07MdPRcJDlXNfeqBEZ_Grb1d1sT/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=mobile&collapse_width=550&li=14481683&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08052025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="100%" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;" alt=""/> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!--<![endif]--> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Private credit is the new banking</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Citigroup Inc. is pushing into an innovative new line of business, which is lending money to its corporate clients. Bloomberg’s <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/grcbcOBEgjkghpH8GdJdwUQSKYztMdU1zeirK6NFOqtOpU8kIWNsZEiWbvgwP83M740Zq6ml-cWxgpH6C7b57BH2ppB5lJJHurf86syzgWFnIqWLb-tDwuSKrv2emwGClH12AzxNq7zId_8VqEvDtUx_8ccd6tiECceeu8MTIaJB46NaKOgs9qv0KUJOY4R5fbAjp1CSbds0O7GgN_GOOmnuN0eRpXrVSRghtowFuz74Nah4NkPZvUxTg35CxSc5n9wDnA6wjgXnIKGyyU0XxQOSL5IWMuzb-sOn9aCR_xmTt64BJEWWUqnQKAr3zM8xYZtrxFb5D4LX3JQsRRLiST-_twbf46EnZQt0qxzfEvoibYHyOZyoMklMh3k/NWMYxpujM4x8FiRaZMS6d50UlCqn-nd5/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Todd Gillespie reports</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Deals in the expanded scope could include lending to small or mid-sized corporate clients of Citigroup, including companies that can’t easily access syndicated markets or bank loans, according to Achintya Mangla, Citigroup’s head of financing. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">“We already have the corporate client relationships with the commercial and corporate bank — not all of them ready necessarily for a syndicated market, not all of them may be rated, not all of them are ready for the bank market,” Mangla said in an interview. “Banks have limitations.”</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One of the most <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/CXyoW58auTtGhUajF0gNd4i7Jz7EH3v-YhKLHjBTZTTAJXpl4ILjPlBT3ssvR4Rx8gjoVya8g8U3TnmF4EzlynZHgPv9t4RIp2jHqDCBO9eNvYY0wwWwl5srfzCBZI2VPxDVcPTiQXfgGeO3gX5uSLbArgHHGyfMxGd0xXKlzs5JVCI7XbrR76S5Uexej8hMmV8rA42E45ppFuNyASvHbpgWr_ySd0X8o377Sux4B_Ti84wwRjtKx8XudYRd6Lbdw-uFASgbhJsWwqd09ww3nTSsHlnPgL02TGKogbQKGNd1p0QJmX8wVzBWtk5P4m2XeTN2Syt2YwIziPnXUQZqey4yJh_F-ADbx2btRmza_1N9jukP0N_zge-f6BM/gFPtJNN4nVIJnc9CVmx9K-R0mAZ2Vens/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">interesting developments</a> in modern finance is the <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/tcxDlgv3D3qwQyXXShui1In_eKvUD8zNEtE6vLcNhx3_Wus9Sz0coELzmYzKr3f4m-ccnRwG9Rq-jR5uODguDC1EZUVBudtqguK2LEBhGw8NN5ta20LFcwlT6iw-1h17r08E2YgkNIReoPXIPPLJl_f9-eqFxFb7a2e8qu3MLFA_egbtu26MWIdvJxUzrjxhMwHDk9PJLFrhEHyvI5owmUV1LIhoIDPegP4SNrUdFtie7aKPOcMEM-5LRhckXgYZgDg_ENzx5z0ngoZ5WId_tYiHYSEZBpbvyaj7WrI86VupC2gXas1mgfp4GVSLQ4adbd5iekHTwmKNTJfvzMXcN1JBFgXH1O9cQmEqU3_SuAkfqePL_PI6R_hfTDA/eq3A1hMIzPnGwtHCO3wygmfk_CXFCdI6/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">gradual retreat</a> of banks from their traditional core <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Qa9uih0QiLp7JV7x0OmMYJHyLcNsajr37hVvBtXZe3OLdm8kg-d5-gfVDmGmBeV-IFmPDPbPlkN1wU1qEENd3-itVgPNItui3OKXpepZvbnKQ1lU89SYo6PVsVhW13kO4VX_oycYc3ceeuP0jg7DgXIVlp65YWgxdTs4pw_ojPCpOxxxFIPsuw1KEUa4vAmUvVA4ihJzDpuB64xh0eB2KJzA3FMnJIJURLnaxI2Exq-W-qg0nlBnBIA5f9vAIquOKqZQROQosm3bFcCWRkJ7zQklG2QATo0JQ0jGIeQOdAJ5LtikiV2uRkicfikzBpz28zlJYEd6Icym9UWgvtRXCvtRYQ5q9QQ28SpuRlne7fJwYWceMpMFDp-tD2E/m3c90plEBbK4r_rFRPa2eqFvcmpRZTli/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">lending businesses</a>, and their replacement by <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/sUt3FttcureOkhaki8leLQkM1VropNc0VLUWh0-0H2F1e_tAV-a6t4-Vw1yd1I85q4TXkk6eJ4FZfnFp32rog2jNHNCmE9LtMEmGvwR7qefK_NY24RqRNT5-olmHCQgybgoPI04G748xkQofdILc6UGG9gZeWMpfqhySCgf2ob_SRGTAvH5I0jijOfeVU0hMezAlngihR2pdy8ReJ4jK7RayGsWuvqhoyPsNkpteMhCslU8-92aRzGAyz-UMTyiHM1U29eN3e5_z4-nkij2IfjecCfKRLnK7GIFDhyJFGVKciMiZRY6BA43wnIhtvkpql4ADqUPwcsmZsTO9IaSreNJa6_HcrVye_lfDhj9BZ-YKRAtqNtkRtZU9gjc/V1GYu6jo6oStahL5uPSRCYZi1z4SQ0VP/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">private credit firms</a>. This is in some ways a very natural development, a move in the direction of “<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/vNHkkLbQk18bPBomr-k-oe5nCZfVVTJJrsXUifBDMNNiiB3TILh0TvmBsdSgKhvJyue9RL_U0NzanU-gcO8fCOY5fJMuqvnGB9rVPPZxWuuSOV0t4MLc64fvUvJxkKUPLBMc1TCQyMBFB5HEDT8YlSMC-yTPFmxIukxDazrhA6xP9m7PaPTwLziEz6zlo7d_KSm304gPVHaGOapwQB65y42ruWiYAhEt5cmhJTftIaBhsBJWuJpyrX-Fk3_nF_x2D1wJfVyOKfpIQZRqIMLAMA-7AbLCY7Ek8jklPF48Llxu4rb0u7Ew5SEhg0K_Ydvu_S0n-k2-Ch5ToHI-zcc1bYzEruhXFf6ufhXfiBbPm8LP4iiMr5_4G3IQgAY/E6RRedyBE3HC9xrHhJTTTSFdq2YJoxbI/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">narrow banking</a>.” From first principles, banks <em>are </em>badly set up to lend companies money. Banks are funded by deposits, the deposits could be withdrawn at any time, and if a bank uses the deposits to make long-term loans there is a dangerous mismatch between its assets and liabilities. Private credit funds, which raise long-term funding to make long-term loans, do kind of make more senseas corporate lenders than banks.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But, youknow, banks were making loans funded by deposits for hundreds of years, and the other interesting modern development is that … everyone forgot that? “Banks have limitations”? “We already have the corporate client relationships”? What was the relationship? The banker would call on a mid-sized company and say “hi we’d love it if you’d use us for your checking accounts” and the borrower would say “great and can we talk about loans,” and the banker would say … “no”? “Oh we don’t lend companies money, sorry, we’re a bank.”</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Anyway now Citi will lend companies money, but in 2025, when a bank lends companies money, that is called “<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FkPYgSBGxWitLXSSKrAiKir0CLysdon6_eXJJjTS7JEdTxJCplSGVlm-bcdJLNNX9H1HmiX4WslZ9dWEmMgWpQ4cMPw0EEQx5W8j__WNHw9vAprwd-jjEapmRcy8qlmFxkGVtInlhS-4XqE8tBMsw-IW-HZ5ziq0vqlC0K132y4KmqZ5kVuQcfl5DykxkXW3bVbjNF6T0pnbFIYVTYzt_DeiVvmJwEd0q6Ix0TfGfqQQ0-Pk1lc9O5HLvZQVT5MCSXH5i2XOGkd665tVA8BMMCu5rEN5ptW3Diw3vrR6rAgSL9wfkySVi50-ur3bf5NDmmT2C6I64nfugRHGIF2AY1k6AzAGiZPRrMVSEqjGGK2YxqnI8BvcOqB9WPk/Pej7rDm-tNFTAXo0FAqLvqMO5wcoBwfn/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">getting into private credit</a>.” Gillespie:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The bank is hiring Aashish Dhakad from Ares Management Corp. to become head of private credit origination for North America, a new role focused on sourcing deals from corporate and commercial banking clients for private credit investors, it said Monday in a memo seen by Bloomberg News. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The expanded focus indicates the bank’s aim to deliver a larger suite of private-credit options for its clients — in addition to its traditional underwriting business in public debt markets — andto chase fee revenue across a larger variety of lending models. Such deal referrals already happen, but it’s unusual for a bank to have a banker dedicated to them. </p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The traditional business of a bank, in 2025, is underwriting deals in the public debt markets, and it’s unusual for a bank to have a banker dedicated to lending companies money. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Elsewhere in private credit, Bloomberg’s <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/yURScJobMrad9sqObwL-49dwiPd5OsArgPdEpJYZG_D1-WbyCyhKQqWgnZmqdctIam4aUzWka_FtWZqRjHlr8mayUnyvnRlEPfTKq4YeihxO0KQgtJ-yEe1ttisUlU_hc6SjOAhoZBS6dP2pZmWbr38rgHh_v4pVa7MqydRpCIBcQgSnHMpDEIW_0LN4gomztwVWq_K4sQ1RVqgzYbuvYEFsW69KzrhxnnI1PzmrlgWd-uYUrn48tsqS1rK301L6IcI-yL6vH3GX3xkOW-v_BAWTxIDO0h-pGGJwsgXB25J9Mb2ortq64NqcS5g7O25SM7nunJWQ0d-jTYKsUgBoYuCRchM8oCdcJWSXZoeQ6V6saYykKD1CZC311Q8/JZzFlJYQ83u9fbnqbZUv25HbaPgXuUct/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Kat Hidalgo reports</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">After pouring billions into asset-backed finance, private credit managers and investors are starting to scrutinize what exactly they get back if their bets sour.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">With types of collateral ranging from mortgages, to music royalties, to physical assets like aircraft, the answer to that question can mean the difference between an easy recovery and being stuck with something hard to sell. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">These days, [Kartesia Asset Finance] only lends against mobile assets — like helicopters — and it keeps a bank of video monitors trained on every piece of collateral backing up its investments to make sure they don’t get lost or stolen.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">“I can see where any asset I finance is in the world at any time,” managing partner Fabrice Fraikin said in an interview. “The few situations where we’ve been faced with having to recover assets, we have learned from those experiences.”</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Over the centuries when banks loaned companies money, they figured out how to deal with collateral. Now that private credit has taken over that role, it is learning.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Project Crypto</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One of the core ideas of crypto is that a token can be both:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">The useful currency of some crypto project, and</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">An investment in that project.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">So you might buy Bitcoin because you find it to be a useful form of “digital cash,” a more convenient way to pay for things than dollars. Or you might buy Bitcoin because you think <em>other </em>people will find it to be useful, so its value will go up. You could buy Bitcoin to use it, or just to bet on its future adoption.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Crypto projects that came after Bitcoin took this idea one step further. The people who built Ethereum, for instance, realized that its ETH tokens would not be particularly useful until they actually built out the network. But it would cost money to build out the network. Where would they get that money? Well, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/GkskT5YB_tuP4I6MqWN025FeVulJ6ZQ6EDoobq5d0i5sIBIA2balcNOLtVkDXtuwR1azxrxCO-kbmCWoni_3EbpMrBSrp9MEHwqJgRHsla09tCYkeOk45HF0VVsy0iJO7-WhODSSpRe5Li-IHNFD_bZrTdk0lsm0nYGY4gYivwOfhnJfXK1gVfHW2pJKe6khOey-H8tEdO9_lcp2laTZ7zTU5zcH806uUvakLtwl38rvSzyoFtsgNLaPRIzx-Pm8oqJ5KApBJ1K-yCSv5B-SO6TWCVrELzzcM8GHGyRMGUxb7z3Ch1n9b8kryYGxs5UvmakvBVgSZM89uq3ZqE9uAu9RU9_BvnPrs1edogQ6xz5pHp46q-1sCmmOfO8/6QvnjGaovzjCXVqoUOI__ApsTqnxrA1U/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">by selling ETH tokens</a>. People could pay for ETH, and then the Ethereum developers would have money, and then they would develop Ethereum, and then the ETH tokens would be useful. Why would anyone buy the ETH tokens, which were not useful? Well, perhaps because they were hoping to use them one day, when the network was developed. (It’s like a Kickstarter, where you pay in advance for the product, so that the team has the money to make the product.) Or perhaps because they were betting that the network would be popular and ETH would be worth a lot of money. (It’s like a startup, where you pay to buy <em>stock </em>so that the team has money to make the product, and then if they succeed your stock is worth more.) </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/E_uxSeuLE2vDW6v03T979uceDTJvTEL0g0rWQY4pjc4W8lpia1l9L_w-goglNqDeqoaqwe5yT24joEDqkOGFT_3Hhv-MMoYfuESktCX8SajEf7kcrwNT5xejvH-QVcNGglD-asJRoRz7Sz6QB9OvvjfOuJFC1H7sRgQizmUQzqp3fUqUZFpfpROxMZXyyNgOtvG4YoQoctWMXw1kV9vgCNeARsuDE8Z1pykhdMdBEauq9yGm8cAdtvIulO543U--mG3qBZc1Q-Mc3T_3-phKVOgftoYKsk2fMb0S0Fb7FIZrZszK6cqZkY1dQtpUrVvszzntH81EPuqATEZf6buNDkEwgSzqG4j0uPzV51PqSkREKUuQG1Y_WJA11J0/GSRw2FVwKiB95UmGN33A_LsfSBA90KRK/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">once wrote</a> that Ethereum’s “initial coin offering” (selling ETH before building the network, to fund building the network) “was the original sin of crypto as a financing tool.” Because: Is that a securities offering? Kickstarter is <em>not </em>a securities offering, probably; putting down money to buy a product makes you a customer, not an investor. A stock offering <em>is </em>a securities offering; putting down money to buy stock makes you an investor. Buying tokens is somewhere in between; tokens are kind of like a product and kind of like stock. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">There is all sorts of analysis on this question — “utility tokens,” <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/fmYef1aoiey8-JzjXgyEjOegp8njvfrhoinuXtr_VaHS6I3gGChtYB3gyM2xRhNmYkCmx3ft0_MSKlpFCdVUMa61p_rZVoYEf41_GnYXtaAnfZMkJrxySORoAqG0CInCcOERTKLvo8F28ytawt9jLIQJnyhJJVwdJZyOotzHeoxLshu1dUow_CdVNWNM9dmPnNB__SEmYvDqt4KaeRwyRsEj4p-S6ou2xRSSDA7b1ThrT70kHk_AeDkVrKIi6NRR2HPfzjYBbb549gT0weF6eaGY6oxcHZJSwElFuCQglQb3Cc64fifzw4s83dqztTso5FsOOxBT-DyRgCDtZgxlMjLnA9olX61ZOtjYIDyvaTqYTk-04a-eKtZJ6Vw/8K-Vc1rtBhTKkAABKGz36SiH9CNA-cQY/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">simple agreements for future tokens</a>, etc. — that I will not worry about here. Here my point is that, for most of the last decade, there have been two <em>main </em>positions in US securities law:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Tokens are not securities, so people who sell tokens to build crypto projects do not have to register them with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, so they can do whatever they want.</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Tokens <em>are </em>securities, so people who want to sell tokens to build crypto projects have to comply with SEC regulations, filing all the financial statements and other disclosures that a public company would have to do.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The first theory is straightforward enough although also, I think, kind of crazy: It would <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/cx9s6kwRAUqq3MZNbwBMUeSq__4OEOICvUFhV_N_DSj9Tkps9RhwvgqmnTZKfAHvutejhb17TODKtU-FM5Id8K71hnimTPokimo2bo59ZsVs03aLQq9gvO-J_r2UnouEdPGN4ZV3XKUZW8gTdvRjpHBlAMKZYhQUn0HUsqIFCnl1F4OdmpA5NJ0y6UllgDy9ASwnP_k_PRrhzYse_G_LF2XYHt6Gu5DdjVCvHG9ss98og_qrImg-4kjcRERmmn8xOPEf-7uU--0mCVdW4ldjVCZC4iR_eTvkYAvOPSHaOF7jm_WPkkXtDOQp-CImnPIAqvi9Nv-B4mWabzjph9XZX8-r08wVu7xKZKFVSC5UuonFRK9tYOfxMbCfU9c/ZhdQ7Fcc9KLxCz-Q_QCIs3Mc9gN4vLwW/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">effectively</a> mean that <em>any </em>company could raise money by selling stock to the public, without any disclosure, as long as it called the stock a “token.”</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The second theory strikes me as more legally defensible but annoying. An important point of crypto is to enable decentralization, to build projects whose governance and economic rights are held not by corporations but by their users. It’s just very hard to do that and comply with SEC regulations. How do you file financial statements if there is no corporation in charge? Maybe there is an answer, but it requires a certain amount of accommodation from the SEC. The registration and disclosure process for, like, Ethereum will be different from the process for a tech company. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Also, if tokens are securities, they might have to trade only on securities exchanges, which makes them <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Jv2BMAz4ClHjiOhB6cqs1D7XraVkDWSxggZul9SssJiTPhV61jcMgAf6GCNCWNafcR1WmMYXFX9R_D7nKhyNxdYiWJ4gHgCgDCmtPfm4VVxe4vInV59nE7DyaCby9fZMPuM2sCOe4d-sTxBD44HyK_WYWtqm93sBxGjyCD1Db6U9oqDwEPaIZz_bQv_bvLvwnYeX3BDikDBcr_O5Z7RenHUSepczbyg3KvaCsC6z5Y_wN27AKjH7OQa6-VAkkqqq3TJX2a0PxC1OBNW3SAv7nvcMSwlM7DWwkDMyP6T0RI1Ac4cWnCLthxS1SyZsM0E5K4xaAi94AxgH3SjHRVFd2156_CWi9ldJ6yblyDrPGOw-XvHNG7RKazO29oQ/NCVAZImU7ye-TrwdkApmyJtxccPCLlvf/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">not particularly useful</a> as <em>tokens</em>. It’s hard to pay for a sandwich with ETH if you can only buy or sell ETH on the stock exchange. The second theory makes tokens <em>only </em>securities, and not at all products, which is not quite right.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">You could imagine a third position: “Tokens are securities, but they are different from stocks. You have to register them, so that investors know what they are getting into and have disclosure and fraud protection, but there are special registration and trading rules to accommodate the realities of crypto.” This strikes me as more or less the correct position, and there have been glimmers of it from time to time, but most people seem to be on one extreme or the other. Either tokens are securities and mostly illegal, or they are not securities and a free-for-all.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">When Gary Gensler ran the SEC, he was a strong proponent of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/IUgnq1lVEhMIr_aG1l1r6-hYeP8t7YxlZq09R4JF3C8H4EgK00auTZh_dGT6_Q7f6-Lz1pW9UXvVLYrGz16VCMSHQodLBLdnrjdXdu3q-jp4qwcWaV_7wwoPuv0iYgKEtTm9PcOTWLlY8L_73Bk3CTFJSO7YHaUuV1y2kNsBKKBaGIoBtqyA3fZFlrFNyj5g-jvKKlEupadC9gVllP5cz19XUrR3kjkX5F7B7CoMJcJCtB3ukENP81DvJVNsktPV29SHt_eeQk-9RLiiodZLdRuPhX8zJ2HBuatOJtPx0EmKd-Y-tjRRFyBVZlpRvy9sKpeP5FFpqX3VV97XplLrC8gn-VHEFtn48PClOwuM1BLEh0nhwhbkPRyxop8/Yf0sysvxnepkyGeGiQKu4mE_4TgwvHYG/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the second theory</a>, which <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Z_xUa8T9nk1-RqBqwt3mIK1jpaG1YlI2e0I6s3srYawrP20p5FIaQ5BVioBliG9mINcFTYvBKmXpUlza-RswbRkPfP5yRenZ5Ww7XT6ErZoDBcpmv5FetZg-wL9GJeceCHQsnXsKHGj1WAcLKywziy3qAAuZWyDAWqJTSXGs6xjQ4mIHzgCm54-eCssEEdChfzYynOtrb1OTU4qhp06WbqpSiS8AIV2wz2R89PPO-CSxtSmHo2PSiba440bRuoz53KEXJd2IIKsHijCpdOrPok_6-_kTG74aeNVnrF-XGXK_jyf_ScSEtmqRTKkoI5FCcB_nRXr6aFQoYUNj0LMBzCMPasERjsRIVruFihdN7nEmfEKsZHCs-v-ACyc/LGrP430_Bcza8qNSXRtH5oelQX1yCtmg/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">in practice meant</a> that crypto was mostly illegal in the US: Most tokens were securities, so they had to register with the SEC, but it was impossible for token issuers to register with Gensler’s SEC, so most tokens were, in the SEC’s view, illegal. (Gensler’s SEC <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/9LOi0llwc89kmgLyYKmE0sb1Z2Gw0DkvBN4f5dZfDrEbFAeh6JjB5Bjxi2nckcHiYU7mlkTQGrx8mY8q5sWmLFm8B_O5JVx0kWZkBJiJUZl5aCYLmSSw5kwyOCXAC3OKz17ECAa8GavJWX7kHhChgaNhUCeUkGpQ-XOQdRWHwUkjq00_Th0iwKgyWqiJNuVq8ujB8NRpnkrL3KAFaNWjUt1aYkVeccNCe50QjRbB9x9hFYJjRJl-tzhRyAuY7IjV3caWZ2BnlAeio1H8dpIpzbDRinU8Em7LBBtNgl85tz270kyTbwxXLlW_DbIwK54GpRw_XLb1LrOFcYZ4UYQGNxNdPxH2gzq37i8580fS6n4UEpi3NVt9hcq46gE/-cR4mwHt9E71LJXdMFGEJ90hsbycdJ_J/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">did not always </a><em><a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/TVzKdHWFtl5Db7CqCu9r05LCIB1_8sAv8w6WKEKRrlPER2LN16At0onBRvTwV08Gs_pwAZvg1A8EGiIVUnjuWc5w4w-ImcHzz4wdZA0ea4ngMjCGEwgGmeasPvTGjAVO0Ed16ntAmYUD1VQJxtdbLbiQZgH5Ep2kkCPVZJAiS-SkNuS2U8YbD0lXW_hP57whwLkR9_-QefHk5aLh2Nj_SQfucJVKqXkdSdW1Tk_4WX5jgijCNPKmr_2i4L82R53_izLD0Xi6UgeHBtCUQjnz-dR-kOSIudx6ucA7XWJCGH8nB8HhuufhAd11lqnEvr9hEfLatdYAOTKWfDc03_dA1rZS0BKXKvvDt73JMuSMMLEeEQ0MEkAHy9hj0HU/wNV6DrDFCqieKz-Yf_QvgS4Rb-uaNIaD/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">win</a> </em>on these arguments, but it made them.)</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Now Gensler is out at the SEC, and Paul Atkins is the new chair. My rough impression of the current SEC is that it leans pretty far the other way, and takes pains to say that <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/8L6lqegY1qxXrk7yaxklBJSPd0DfAKcOGjOa8s3XcVfPk18XCqZscjQjweX3GAQ3KiQCLdz9cCEpNRt3v7CxZEddwnrr9roffrEmEPTTTaJlCoU_k47tiY1OV0i9Kf70cL8-r2HRzB-fSbtI1opRORpl-kmqXoGYHinqNDbwh3xCGpurk-6VuZNBZd29SVvn8o4jBF6O0aklXYAkAsP0GXEuMdhkrZmmZDAegCu1Ijr54RqeEGWBn0SABfQySGc5D4YYV5pPAo-eEbJlYQaopDpb1qaA80atSR5xHOsZoA_u8gZrAay_cM-PUomBO-T2MGZF6kO-VstfIU7eaVsj58smrCo1YZX_QCaDicucgHHh1dZ3K-nM5XuLZE8/U8w64dxugWO-F-yycwPrh5QFdZMveuKt/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">most tokens are not securities</a> even while saying that it will regulate them for securities fraud. But it is <em>possible </em>that it will take the middle ground, saying “sure, selling tokens to retail to raise money to build a project is a securities offering that you have to register, but unlike the Gensler SEC we will actually let you do that.”</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Anyway here’s <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/0ki42r3bRDwh0A-X1rI5L561w0EWA8hrCSDDyXBfleOjuCGRaDIAnKcjWZUIb6WOk5uC9xnSnCKP_OIOJdL2rkJfQPhB-eu1T1uCKPSmIy8_XoNSy4rIISv7uHqbAGURZ5Jhi0vhDuLMp_WU860k2fqq3ep3e-97UDmvOcGRvHImj32FzsZHcdzaQ5f9KqkEcr4v6RzQXAYoVLFoylpNqxRIZJoP7-Gfyr6HNSDkTe6KUR_bPMaSlAyywo3q5mrSLF6WhBQc1j1LW_HAg8wrnyOoUwoRGWoeJwSHbES_T3S_twBvZM8O2l7Wy5QtT6tJC362QMoe8PdZQtoqM-2IPN_4gMk9ofdSvt9kOKH5H-7OW0JgVBXhmxBABBY/ispnMqrf9UowfM4yMrJ-_Z9Gx3FdZIA6/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">a speech Atkins gave last week</a> about what he calls “Project Crypto”:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">A key priority of mine will be to establish—as swiftly as we can—a regulatory framework for distributions of crypto assets in America. Capital formation is at the heart of the SEC’s mission, yet for too long the SEC ignored market demands for choice and disincentivized crypto-based capital raising. As a result, crypto markets pivoted away from offering crypto assets and deprived investors of the opportunity to use this technology to contribute to productive economic enterprises. The SEC’s head-in-the-sand posture—as well as its shoot first, ask questions later approach—are days of the past.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Despite what the SEC has said in the past, most crypto assets are not securities.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Okay, see, when I read “deprived investors of the opportunity to use this technology to contribute to productive economic enterprises,” I think “yes right he’s describing a securities offering,” but then he goes right on to say “most crypto assets are not securities.” There is a tension here. But then he goes on:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In addition, it should not be a scarlet letter to be deemed a security. We need a regulatory framework for crypto asset securities that allows these products to flourish within American markets. Many issuers will prefer the flexibility in product design that the securities laws afford, and investors will benefit from the opportunity to earn distributions, voting rights, and other features typical of securities. Projects should not be forced to establish decentralized autonomous organizations and offshore foundations or decentralize too early if this is not their desired plan of action. I am excited to see new use cases for crypto asset securities in commerce, such as the ability to participate in blockchain network consensus with tokenized equities.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Thus, for those crypto asset transactions that are subject to the securities laws, I have asked staff to propose purpose-fit disclosures, exemptions, and safe harbors, including for so-called “initial coin offerings,” “airdrops,” and network rewards. Regarding these sorts of transactions, our goal should be that issuers no longer exclude Americans from their distributions to avoid legal complexity and lawsuits, but instead choose to include Americans to enjoy legal certainty and an accommodating regulatory environment.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Two points here. One is that this seems to me to be the substantively correct approach: Many crypto projects are securities-ish, so investors should have securities-ish protections, but they are not quite the same thing as stock, and those protections should be tailored to what they are. Under Gensler, the SEC occasionally hinted that it might help token issuers to register their offerings, but its actions were pretty resolutely hostile. Atkins’s statements suggest that the SEC might actually make it feasible to register crypto tokens, which is probably the right approach.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The other point is that this is definitely, in 2025, the correct approach for the SEC as a matter of <em>politics</em>. The Gensler SEC took the approach of “crypto tokens are securities, so they are under the SEC’s jurisdiction, and the SEC will outlaw them.” I think there is a real appeal to that position (lots of dumb stuff in crypto!), but that ship has sailed and crypto is way too globally influential to just ban it in the US. The SEC is in many ways the best agency to regulate crypto — because crypto tokens are obviously securities-like, and because the SEC has long experience in investor protection, disclosure regulation and trading supervision — but it has to affirmatively apply forthe job. “We will ban crypto” is no longer feasible for the SEC, and “we will ignore crypto because it’s not a security so not our problem” is not very attractive for the SEC. The only choice left is “we will regulate crypto, but in a way that you like.”</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Things happen</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Wall Street <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/DVa42wTYlutDVakN7WBlgvjhnLZmVY-gEpvtnCFmsD-W5pNwk9OnAL6l7nKKfGRjcDYhesCdMmf0FPWcBPDgqI_OlPdjPTRl9Fh6VI8INhMjciWsnlxUKzfJc7qbuusNpyMUjMYFQm1mL9jRPj7XtWpmVtA6LtugrBvpCRsv2sOfUMeIYj8fRRUT1EossufBNCZ1arQAWmVF4hHnS45tV1wSsz8BP4smPmHx3b31ECoQkY2QRmUz88ECmZzxfB9FPshHiMaesvSsuOZu9q2ZeDcS-22Y4R6MvkjyRY4Iu0HiIcyM_lEZOw4D8Lv_hmG00G7fcLVr-HNsJPSlGrCv27NDjnTFJB-w274qX8XC1f2eHpuRmin_bqFzBsI/p07VXzSeTNbU3x1MqGRp78BulmuUzrg6/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Bonuses</a> Are on Track to Rise Despite Tariff Uncertainty. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/OwZsDrHik6P8TJuPxWYElroH_sYVa5esrWB8TGFH5HXgKtSdcWIATkrLMfTcd9px2uP3dT34cyVLX3thvjS2ir4C37vkfAH6NQBcNOmOO3v-LXee-JNHYGYoMq6SlpmU47UzqLvqV3H_7yebF4kfpPr3t75qzIE1dpQhDCSGsBmEYxJ33iiRFwiLRWHZWpykcAqoApg1x66ApL9peibrx4ETbIAezF5xtIPp3s4dNS48JEv1j3AyUbLmjutb6u6i3G9MZHUJQFutRK6cMKsrM0yWjF-8ThkUrkBwGn6RBfzAGauIlink5O6f-2oEPl9lYpYORIZUyzHMDkjvzP5r0anonvNGNqyKM30x_0hSY_AWo48wH1T6eMQCUBw/ZOkkDnRB4DSxvqrUQPvEyq8wWNDq6NvD/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color:#ccc;">Regional Banks</a> Are Ripe for Mergers as DC Warms to Consolidation. White House Preps Order to Punish Banks That <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/GzYIJKHjjDjH9tLYmYWhJZPu5IkQNR1pEKXM2VunAJGJGRAL7ocvHmLN88HGT0dl9sSSOkmu1JgFRYdaoDzmSei2UOaE5nJUj1J_m2SQD2xBPuNF6Zl9wyFjPtEfx3FdDgywD5_6gt5SE3DEBMA6Ot4S3k7QDbyBL04nP6lUhYQ1vzv6IuSplTMav8inxqKpoZfysjklHevL9py26cOZP73_3Mh9J8q1mmhRL6W1L9rWCaJrPu6nE7KzlWby-goiEhsbWS8tNmMYFxG1FzRTfb3M3Q9GsZLCGyyx-lViF74DXs-uWaXHPiF5pUzfKIl4XSvTo2OEZGg-z7zHTn4x53sQELdpbzAztlHgo8Kazvo2EEuOTQ95YbWCFbo/3lW9BYy6O3J5etmNIze50YXt7QX1hLGc/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Discriminate Against Conservatives</a>. Taiwan Arrests Six in Probe of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/it5tyhVdwL8dB65U0oMInchSiveHIlliNmOQwDy1anq9jfLP6l3fI22X37zKMM6w7peOvyW1JwnV0jxJoYUDkWeeGVvtWtw_G6-Jt-w8BCY3YTG7H5rPBUKfWCgL73UZKYvG2-ls7FqO_PwebricDVE_Id-4F8qONsiM9vWUdquSeu9z2RfphWlWGVtbpl9eMyeoWNvjkZIKy-OOQtS4E0hRyhiGSDahAOM__vCm_fU_hYLOhv2STufM1Hd6qpOPtY59d9N_fqA5CElSDESWn5LrAkl8cNdBXy8oqI9jcDSgSahnwkCYLNdD_41P92kUaT0qA_GjTPay3QP_BYfWtaSCGA7yYj7rQDxmfS7IeOnhBAvmZNq6sxzBjAQ/4JoXhPqNFOEx9IuNEodpGQP_n0VqjjTU/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">TSMC Chip Technology Leak</a>. Core Scientific shareholders balk at terms of <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/slaqhrIm4jt_Tt6GRn4o-3k8OnWSwoQsPo6vNnmhX-EcRx0bMm0L6a4XIAgQZHLIPVR_BzCW4Fr2wiQocdl15n3E-4CZZSadh1M1mCTY5yvXRWlzQvJjpAlW9jSsqC6QUbQKtzypTLFo3L2Y2-ybMQTKxrAu85kZ49I_SZDgXO8Jz4A9XSSt_qJHq48QfBXXKNCXjaz2OF8aDnc4cnCJrknPaJTwSMxVZ2n_r_SkGP0IyrEdkMj_KNNSyAb-chcjjbKa7oA8kTfjNw56pway0nQOtfgIfHP6t3U31umu4kK6cohNWGQ1Kpsg4a3nCQ5Gf0hmqV_2jD1FbDXei78AVr81_oqHFnI7f1QvytdlvMY8Tg9eAvNc-nUjPLc/Tk7G8lm5RMuYuKNrIGqIYiHR_v0dX6_E/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">CoreWeave merger offer</a>. What Happens to AI Startups When Their <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/VwyqOrPJmrfZ8ZkcB826PpRcb5qLibhV28OTjA2Bnce5Hf1egplKlifk_XnLZuzFidUC7VHIncJAdKHtcOmddsFaFSjBthmOjOfhch2iUN5SI4i6x1642JUocNG8UeruENYeFnAXLqCfPTqc7T6BIvwIpToe-jNaGWU5HzeLcnT-3wL-zw6Z150L9Gx92Pz77TwqT1AqBNq5aTYKE3BFGYYRbRy-qXg0q0EKXt1Wj4uU8LhVSTdF-qBi9rQcDPdwga5C6DcCH3--rtvLB-pxVe7wRt2kWvWkNxfYT8LFiuL-BCpJwpRrGrhMMPoMQuV98W0YVvpQCPcZ9WEouiRWyR4-hlMQTpWI5j3kl4nmVgp41kGP49IEtJGXwHs/c9H46K2VYB_OApISnnp_5YXvznkZdMvA/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Founders Jump Ship</a> for Big Tech. Cognition <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/akoQWKi7VKUy6dn-H7ThOI5BRdMOYrID5rVPbRUlaXranfGl4Uru9SpEFl0R043S2f54qrj72IZogRtzcrGkvXA8drgn0fBUDHol7sRCUIzIHM7aD97IhSulGPl0i9gGM_zODC5FDjgWhvylew7_DITOnXGDF_qjqOpMPrlSNopWdqLE8lhLLEku8QNKVdzXkh7bAuacsBRYD-F49jRz093tpLbC4U6bewoxDOe9JToECSYiQ6TLA3OJyuVE9ttJ-8nk4-QTxBRD-lXMnxJRYhPZPVBAHgrf9eO_eH2qY_Uzhyl2tMQ8X0VrGVSPrxcDeb1OfoA0C22U9I8DwFzO2j-C2RpUnTrrBZhmi8QNx2DsB9kKLokaKPxnCI8/9dvMa_nF-Yh3m0E3SwCxLRdSdOa2w5Dw/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Offers Buyouts</a> to Newly Acquired Windsurf Staff. Push to Add ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Loans to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/LZ1rfR7xc047eQkqTkbBuyvyAqLZGe_ZteLYWq5_L3n1bx4vYFLROjizqZvd6weJybMqTzhXipROCdZfcYm0DnG4olsRdraBUQE8mUpIB4e7TYPipOt-LZ4CLhtewEBlKb2vJ3Cmym-LY5_xFTW4DAtSbyXFqjC5E5x2x4_2zrk4EM20uptIxETD83RLUcXbufrhHOPSLOW9cJflvgVia9iSrCpVvxFMMj8OdDUgwUb_eWPw3Rn-U1p2TOIalUc03bYCy-2ZrC1mXsDD1XgOT1MWx3FFEGuZcTcSuPTTx-tj0hULDNCP3UZCB3c46QM9uxFDToN4iVhLcnNkJ2QBzZf3_8PEwqmBL1ICzzoQjXK6GSC00huOFJFoRPE/R2zKjpnHaCm5ueOwQBZY7WVIPvA8fPcd/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Credit Scores</a> Hits a Snag. A Generation Is Turning to ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ for <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/4PoRs784AJEEDYvdQC7E7ybbvH9UmuHs4rl-7bycboOz8bQhVsXw1E2Y4zW23M3-RwNp6BB_HSqHeMFQ6RwxZgdoyhn6dXwXCH1quhQ9G6QksN_SxkUyqDYyrZnSWI3N7YdDA48hiJzejOxzuLicpaPmdRKkNc3Odvs8r-CY5DsNcClGb7kjeEzOtsbNC-9z3i9uvTJInO88RJzPILOjLuRvXd2bbv742nI3j02RaRU149M-SZZDUvcRXz9ZNqKaf86tRPg1ySHC0rLdEU76Jl3y4vOgnA5lyxwUHzMh8WYBLnWAwoKWASLBZZqCXrLne-nHguUdQ1lToofvmlRDOlOsFG_BD6KzTvfaGFnh--ELSsvyYojvyIFfoxE/M7-e6A0iTONGokNOnKC-ZE2k2N2e6ndK/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Botox and Concert Tickets</a>. Deutsche Bank chief <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Dlj41JH821gLoStVomhegtlFEpq6Tc9Eu9h25LtVM3gK4OEXP95CapXTEnDWx_D_4cdP00X03ttSaD7DRxjyuzgHz2Cq6n41dk27LR15GCYhM70-Cg1I0JMZ-X4EJpIilIJmNGqBpO1hUtVaugLu1ZOEh7ir8KUmBB8ZVQNel_NgWp9zcZjLC0IWT902q_MtXSWTst-ehQtHvvt_04nKqHBoHv3htwK79INxbkuq2nWbbbykxuPTYpjktseK2z76l315ZBiHwJtGx25FCRJpyGkqAGgEps4DdMsvjK6VXkfFTGMvGvWMzL7M6769GtWKYTgdPOK1CMJM5WB4zBat_f7Yhxt7CS_j0fGvzWmdNUPAdU20GYPP4_Wd4cY/OZU9X-Jznwu6xQnmH1PV55eOHMDK0xhO/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">approved controversial trade</a> he was later asked to probe. Russia’s Secret War and the Plot to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/wr4qMC89ZbrV2Idukro-vTfg2uVeLbjexT22xBZ-7y3_qxEvYUDsdaqwNRp3I-ytMouBRCx5s6YgRwaQvJ_kPd0oRzMFk9k0RIffpwP-121LalpsnsPNTfh1CWE78PQTA1CS2ziMVCNDnEnDGi6ODMfwTy3sriGRbOIdsOoVZm85wZ86ja9nRx1pLsCjTR6jzCQunr55IO9GssUA8w_5tydj02amJzSnhC85ksgr9QUs44ywBFtdyB1dV1cedzAQKhpKt7BXCSCEmIBf9I8M-StQT5_dgjZhRR2qsi5KyMpbhASeD3pCsM0TYKO7rvDxJp32PzyRrpIZYK-TQr5V9w1QNOX1VoC66IXENWYWVNg5H9XPA5TK9ZjIWjE/zOmJRAr_xmLrQ6UaD3JSmsI-z6uno_UQ/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Kill a German CEO</a>. HelloFresh Is Investing $70 Million to Have <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/mZEU9LBt65qK-iJIUJkfWHAocTBNtBJpC3y24WXyva75e2M1CMzaigJp-8JKFMc5tj8lbmYSQ1Twv1Esn5Qi5iag6PHoHo8WEUW2lLnwB7qbkxIvtFarX2Pk0CilzRHJ58CfuzseaAdkv8Jh097Y8wCr6oy3bUi_TFakno0feN8aFnRIe-CnVv9SaPy3OPMzgrQH5w_Jnow6BkyrBOZIGT0ufVtBJPSs9GtenahFYsGCCBQLFlOSPvtHKph3NhQypEKhoeiSj9dDiii0dLFhJjvir1zj29yWksPsbxxkLBnzV8Op1ignQuLTM3mdUqM-whbSBUBFCyukFSunY0mPjq-ci0kcbfvGvGu5Y-0u69ARgeojpMsC3tdWkfY/blHsVnxGZlm-jEXrMDT2EexFZgzs37tJ/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">AI Help Plan Dinner</a>. A Zoo in Denmark Wants to <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/u-DCWeFanEUiC2CoidyKSawfq94UywKvsYdMVowaSNid78UkVJmIz8LY29L0M3PzQThC7gjhMG_b8K8ohN6_GuNCEee2KedqxerRslXGtro8TQlsc_0c7TMQaCDM_bAS170Gv9eBbjIMA41NuDprHFP3TK9GUv8ecf5wPICzd7VMl-6fTW9nNL0fnhw_HQMoYs6gmLeMkEfpdvmqJ6t34sxUoweroezqTlnlb4MvUiZeOlw0fM9qtRtzREJTvlRReFg0UyhdeSHuFNWXP7KZ5I6icCY9d1VD3UNmlEQPIuyk-mnVXLBo74QskAONsgfeyLxyhriyjx7ArC9D9KIxMs0VDwIzOFlx3LzQp_LooHSD8Ji7MdHOWS1MqMg/GM9AEYVpZzBc24wo2TxYrdBRiB1rF-hB/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Feed Your Pets to Its Predators</a>. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><span><em>If you'd like to get Money Stuff in handy email form, right in your inbox, please <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/bjyWAyaHA3eSl_VWG27y493dTwK9TTG4nFaKyjykVHgiNG5l8e_oX4iz0TSQu-FUbGCGBLE1HJAulOQs6iseFuBdaZ-dMMd3mWcwDdn0s3tmq67J-hQ6aDwc01PQSJZgLE8Gt653SVYIL8zEg4jtS8aVKx_24jS2X2P0MuZQtpnIxRxhmOkEuwGpxH1-0xvJZZ1flR7AYJBKE2pwb3YMNNbHd4Sdv8PvFoLVCZsgXnV-Olqp1xRUGlre9Ws1fG2RQEYYoUjqK1njWdCNJz7ux0OeijzhLJQVdji0PAi-JrwzKw7kEanOr1IYtjEPITLkJOcAoOf-Q3OOUnCzvA4vjA5PMe_2UlgPkDm2L8x-Lht43UxqEcW-RoqXFVc/kzHTqtgxmNhuku0-ejAgy348ZKFmUa4K/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">subscribe at this link</a>. Or you can subscribe to Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/S9NczoU86CuI162A5NYmo_3rclZwmSCmSZMn4VXkmq5la5nQEm3YIQPi-Z6vSIwzf_P4f9V_1UAJDo3TWsYIoyhI87Mdh7nTkut8obQCDCZYxZGxmnbGoCnD9z2V-o-cnDwfgPB9h3i3UJVBjgdGnsWgkGGx576wWy5bx1LwCVmfH6OjI088HVEa3vOHgXtY6VcQHD4WCSVlHBCRAcHLdFD4_KRgXyJKIvDCAIC6iA3muMbp8yTqVQWmKdRKNMz5JP3oWzn0i71MUl2ktlBO6PRvQvJPgIl38OOy9oDkH8AiDz-Rs-pEbG1iP00HKMTZ6jsG0r7E-Gofb7bo0wDdgp69f501Du06jUp--rayz-EWpwIENVGqZO7dPhU/DAS0c1k2ZJLlqNUFy7YrCVWYS1noT3pO/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>. Thanks!</em></span></p> <div id="footnote-1" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[1] There are occasional exceptions, from unusual CEOs. Elon Musk <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/PeUNMPiB9J9FFLYrLLBlRtNLrqY_Wqr0GeGCZFWnLKU9xPWITthAGH7uYHHkRFMwgNvVxDmJ0tresXXyR9B1zcIKj4L-uYI2c_NZjxVkk6e-qblm1J_t7-gcjmzaxZJbxxmBztNETm6fo0idyq3dn-iTnNC6P_zqHDEYpnbayt1o0Wog6iW7ZxRv6ERQ_FTqyxqmLMYDAdhIsCXEzn0XV0QNhQrGSUoBOcPX0BD0Lge6SKRS57ATBqTYxlbQuBK9UGcq6Z2WNL143LgUyAF0DBqVsgRB6KjhnzFjGEJZ68N_5MdTAcpJtS0dt83gmGKK7T6P5YrxIZ5EVNSNguU1GZ0I6ENowOuMni-LvO-_ye-LDVlB97mwZik45xA/OOEUg5j7uZNotWXYVz22l-jH1Lh1XmeY/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">once tweeted</a> “Tesla stock price is too high imo.” Berkshire Hathaway Inc. did a stock offering in 1996, and Warren Buffett <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/k13a1rQh-XosXPWXPGzUxg9RWeHQnVoTcuVFsp53p-wCppXLpd4Fj48NvHmv_E9UcUgTgsoKVUEVrgFol1nt4X7y85ilEMBYheSn9x_5WJtg96Wn2nWi62rWG5VveOqtdd4nR8mAlDKxu0AIETHN5YJGAIo6bQ306JkCWNZkvDipOg4AoCVh0EoiInowjs08sS9IG2GvLpTBgu4p5DgFzGnGDzXP4gGO5U935iqqycZ4hmEvxBhJNdngy1L-oTrfUBat_s4pF-yaMA1I2a7AejZciAGgznzkbeEAVbL__PZKJWz2tAeNnoY43TqwMQ8g---ztomGuzzwMosAc_ULURcqrZ2TTyJPxAD9lcW0QDskrOxmdMchwEQDdc4/-cdH6uVS7JS-9L25QejISfUH_1cAMElL/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">told shareholders</a>: “Let me also put our thoughts about valuation more baldly: Berkshire is selling at a price at which Charlie and I would not consider buying it.”</p> </div> <div id="footnote-2" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[2] Or to just pretend that these meetings don’t happen? I <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/_HnHwIksswzY2hWd9r5-Ywk0mxIAGv79CvAs7Pfjp8k6SShZCi9h2mHa_3tZVEKCi-bJKxtQS0ZHwADsmjLCWscEWr3Xy2Rz8Y1nofvhPV3z2NwNDh1VkPsawFzijsTKSh1PwIFK8puN7QVpkCt1mS2_bUQa7CwqS7XKxpPdLpHR5ruwJBzRKdr-gRzCp6xORfP5y_i2wFfgulZjnHGtp7_dzFguSDFU60-GUIIE24DF95Mx3qLy3x6L6Q0hBD6PDqHXv_VB4B0DAZYDxq9YbOUOqFo6jnL5cZW8Wr4TsyS-SdSabGBzhEWLgGgVArN34piLBWtzl_p125tEIiyrrjHxMCCFEHYMXbaxxchBeqMKop89BKvOBdFug9c/6YWwMsUwmiuP9mvOyhiFQUp3sW6pDvYR/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">occasionally mention</a> the Supreme Court argument in an <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Mr8K80xa9n_d_HfWCyww1w6t3CcYI1JiMrzS6l3KchGNTklbtNQLnF53grAr6LqIFnct7iTMs-pS_QLyz7lFx9fSblNwUzdyQXESTUznet0iOxNhCUgt_JLgCjZMQAq7xeDiILwG94-K1EC1i5YJ9hXXxIV8VB8icJRBtCG9ITvm0iJe9YyEPOQoe1IO_799rben7W5X0RFVTFPkXexnkvNOL304ZR2jrk0BhXcvVI8s82VCdf8UKT7D5vsecaBez9-j_sDClanl-vwWUd-3D-I0wCOgue-rsNWkS-B7DdlpUmTnGlfTl081eTACUUCpZFAzbbhZbondvA3y7YMcptboj5kjK1Bh_-mClxN-GeeVgkjOR77z2Sd04c4/vQmKHaAgyEvRmQoT4sFY-OQd-b7Kl2K-/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">insider trading case</a> where Justice Sonia Sotomayor told a lawyer “There’s regulations that stop that, talking to analysts.” Not exactly!</p> </div> <div id="footnote-3" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[3] Though I do sometimes <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/GWsUnsxs8DBrpF16rZEPHzybexioQmhdqaBW5CxSyIca5YvUAKV4f_SM3khv8sudVuWQ8rs_5eZyGB4L8vVeWFYepmeMPgJzZAgrvI3nZ0-k9cACwzOcuDZlymHcaJAvB5xNaoWDQQcbU3qUwv5ZxyK41-lxiPJn8pxMESUrstJq1IhrySrZ5p0_pf39en7ap5sEFUfMR5aiWeBN5YBuIDhpiTV59cAkxp_iJgLhAnSENa-IW5AQ4Pnudd06mqlG4LuMro2JpEUbhGQLYW3GQiB5iK7jBYIGMQosXoXId45Jfs6hffzzBexOo1JTTUm4ZNXR8PfFYIYOnbH3e7zScWbeemJ4TBiRtRtBXpmo4GLtzXySRHnuVEac4BQ/Md5SVjSr-_-ylTohJCeqM-mDTwg3A5A9/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">cite an anecdote</a> about a governance specialist at a big long-only manager who met with the chairman of the board of a public company who was “looking unfeasibly tanned for this time of year.” The asset manager sold a bunch of the company's stock, not *exclusively* because of the chairman's tan (he also gave some bad answers to questions), but the tan was in the analyst’s report. “The company eventually went into insolvency.” A tan is not quite “body language,” but it’s a related concept.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-4" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[4] That’s a fascinating explanation of the value of corporate access, by the way. Several of the big multimanager funds rigorously compartmentalize their teams, to make sure they are making independent bets: If a fund has two tech teams, they will each have to come up with their own ideas and won’t be allowed to talk toeach other. The only time they’ll be in the same room is if the fund sets up a meeting with a tech CEO and lets them both come. So the portfolio managers can learn something material and nonpublic from the meeting, but not *from the CEO*: They can each learn what the other is thinking, which makes their own model of the market a bit better. (Though at the expense of being less independent.)</p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;" width="100%"> <center> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/DlqIRCtXv8wIPSaAKVvtBN-EEji-Cr6i9DL9b1x6-hwuqHFpTtsr7aTaNkYxuU-dibCyhbw7c3c6VFGxa_AkiNrmbc1oIrmJwazSPXscFe6DiqKCzSXHqFE4K7VNEDhLl5WbiUmEDa3_Qf_purdb3n9mggnSHo_D__eXFhP2n1NhrFFjLbx9srrDmfLK8RWPHZQO0w4LBE1pqovFALmqsvOAxnMrRSt3attUBQWlmo7UwqNMlNPvIT3zBHSKU9N3FWs0zrXzJYGjtD9WaxzibN5cL8D86fgb9_PsvUWMJp58NC5jF5ZxTExjUicNrnsYwx8-O9GRRrJQxOpk1bZmjc_kvv2-8ytbj_RaSVPFbVapzheMyQ3l6RAJSsk/YH2mY1V7_-tTIYRDCQ1ivrjPCAkeyX23/11" target="_blank"> <!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" style="max-width: 550px; 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  11. Money Stuff: Tesla Gives Musk Some Stock

    Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:36:52 -0000

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width: 100% !important; max-width: 550px !important;"/> </a> </td> </tr> <!--<![endif]--> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Tesla</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In 2018, Tesla Inc. gave Elon Musk, its chief executive officer and Technoking, a big package of stock options to motivate him to transform Tesla from about a $59 billion company into a trillion-dollar company. This worked. Tesla’s equity market capitalization peaked at about $1.5 trillion last year; it’s hovering around $1 trillion today. Musk’s “moonshot” package of stock options is worth, at today’s prices, about $87 billion.<a href="#footnote-1" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[1]</span> </a> That is both a lot of money and kind of a bargain; it does seem unlikely that a different CEO would have added a trillion dollars of value to Tesla.<a href="#footnote-2" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[2]</span> </a></p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And then last year a <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/VY5HXmiHpkxD6X60l8mLVjQtA1gnwnpWQhKfT90D3vZjTZhvg5CDcyS_IfYwKFU4CkGaPj7t3NmTrkWl_T5u_tWlqX6yIjeQIG2kKj6ArGD6rXBUhIruPXy40aGjAAtWFy4tLh7vbAivf8uLz9KC3QxClHRXicWZNKLYF4r2g1ACNPpPqoochvaVjarr04vb1YAn9LmgqIMDQXoyufObiPe9eA1PkfjkvdSwIwO5825HEBQjF7SQEcQg4q2K_uITn_41ALCDRpmr-TbVs5FekigSEI5Jkh4EGeKcEKnzYpHpf2VlQFa6DD-0Brmq9GN-dbRe9RIy6QnVycAghwUwPi8H9m4lgl_QYsgWrCM0CD0hMlplqh3RqJ7gCQ/ACfy8sX0SNfoCQwz4AyBltjPPqqSDOLw/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Delaware judge ruled</a> that this options package was invalid, for conflict-of-interest and disclosure reasons. (She found that Tesla’s board, which approved the options, was in Musk’s pocket, and that the outside shareholders who also approved it were not fully informed about the deal.) Tesla <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/lfbQDED2m8MQ-mwbEDkYuDui0uVLMd0JF9d8sgJywBRnBBlMTlZzV0QAv5xm4n2AGZp6JFI4NEbYnA7kPInFNQGQ1V0yAcdE6dQamVRtXRCyqCEs5Z_xanh3d4m3uP8UiMVmgSV_08kVqnO8rd2qNJce2BGpMk2qau5uR-gnnXhdbUmcjYv2oORfbmaAhibK5fF0bqz7jiURoQ0FHarrgRxg8Y_iSox7Spz5oIlU_9x6jGoys9lO9p4n6ANyKtFuYAi_RNZVZxViAanABLGdlnjlsHDt_weMqWXCf10MNYzcKy5vEbe48IdrFLgSnNfikCKck_rSs3sFacq8aVTm4rbXV9KQvk9F3ao2xNcYmKAXmEdR6ORqskfU7w/-ecJMEJieyLvbC8UUpKGqa64om1xEdQ3/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> responded by</a>: </p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Asking shareholders to approve the package again, and</li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">Moving its state of incorporation to Texas, so that Delaware judges couldn’t meddle in Musk’s pay anymore.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Shareholders <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/9iMo8-wspzbGgtWZB8lrLUtGdxAQE0865QPSy1hjm3NTCDlV7b2mmewCoyUJlJ8OBqNx7Ymg1HDPdaoqjXcpM8Mli-m1Bn1tQ6dKDHeNChDXqNjmpTab0DBs-ZsxOMz34C0CQ3tWEaMumPL94db8hqyus81YvKzQyYtmS6hHWi1z95AKVm0KOBI2gmpnIQVUdScpwzPI_TgUPOT0BWJoQ71ICOsDtr08VIfFeV2ej1JjT_Q2pJb3jUJdZz1pzJCz01IhUckcjFdTdPAufzcMzfatReTPuP733aWfuSSYs_Ukj7T0XQbaVXCcBVm3PWV9-y3jeNLEN2uuH4nraZaXvLqTdlnJUeIWlJCNIz-k1uw_XNF57M7Fcy71_g/aP87Y4y-16lvaL8otfECgAQLQ1mOyXAr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> approved both measures</a>, and the second one worked (Tesla is in Texas now), but the first one didn’t, or at least, it didn’t yet: The Delaware judge found that reapproving the options <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kolUU7scBtmT4ItX_9Z8VIzHEakLVtB4xNBpar0LEk3rAkn94VZT9q_-fim5Mx3O4rcVTCyXdanVVPiAbO-uVshE1AexJs7ZdsJNiv7uOq9dB2QOfITnFNn36FvXPWAFrNT44qlxppB6D9c-tzQ9FZVwOnjcFfzGkrmWpTlD77PQg1_p-XkYw0O08Nc9AAv7fCLHGovefaD3XCtqNySIuVoS-zk_BMGeKe6x9QpbF_IBKShrlr7ws0_ebIYaQQimgucabw1uxJBWJSUu2q5_vWGAU5VWGb_GLqggSh40tDF5tqcGHJMW_Z2_iFb0CGvLkyLJ5CXQLCdTB9-vGzCEUNU9fmb2huci8wDXG_1qjamOkbUHPy6_zRZRD78/A2pUZ7FZfqoXo-DNGmU-mog0eqvcEZhF/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> doesn’t bring them back to life</a>, so they are still invalid. That decision is being appealed. But, for now, Musk’s $87 billion of options are gone.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This situation strikes Musk, and Tesla’s board, and many of its shareholders, and also frankly me, as pretty unfair. Tesla did make a deal with Musk, that it would make him rich(er) if he made Tesla shareholders rich; he held up his end of the deal, but he has not gotten the options he was promised.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">We are also, in 2025, in a pretty interesting market for a man of Elon Musk’s talents. Right now, if you are a talented artificial intelligence researcher, your market value is on the order of hundreds of millions and perhaps billions of dollars. If you are a talented AI <em>executive </em>— if your skill set is not building generative AI models, but attracting and motivating people who build generative AI models — your market value is even higher. Sam Altman’s value to OpenAI is <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rOM6j5azqYAhMdl-dVDjM2C5LqBae20CWHob-8u0mg4GK3adpaUGuARAKiW39-G4EGdujacbEHisikLl87lB60M4_VhGgJNTByaByaPvdvLd-llHZtG3Hsl6sxC4wftCPp6Yiw7tJAJZQiQWQs90M3H4JL8AAXI3LQgK0UzyTwyOXeR08jESDh42CDhOZiCWRepw6bbEi2zkVClDk6NthPPXQ74WDM4v5r2oh4uL0XmkEYniOi_tKGXLQ5f27WPUOfpTmvZ9TDnEYBwU1sa8UBnuVnhBy9rzYzgBbiPH2eNi8hy6PGoIQ9rp6VIMdVfefQLBH6jSWagmLw0QZ436sUN4u6TCJYwrZU4Yc0wY_Y2x61BCtvqG6954iFc/wpokl-X6KQF_gXLLCRBQrdeVbFckWlFp/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> plausibly 100% of its valuation</a>, which is <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/MULA5YWgBRq2h7OeL5vZK6AAdeJJq8_7S6nj5YIkAU6uJ3Wgp3yh_djOHo56OitY0GUDYTmi0zXAyD4BYStjsm_CxstoqlGWaSKzB79S8IbXcKJWWHVwqZQ6zryz-W9_sDZJFpwdh__1GhxBHqIZgQrtaM7Q4m9_C2y0WVt9Zv-z8yczJ6fwmKb6bdA5OwttzCHpevxkEoe4F_qn4iw5Q-egpya6frKStO6-rlQZQuqpcmHIo9INyypCHzU7PSHAynRZ5PYRuEq3Ia3YTpeHPZ6Jbk3KcgTWvIwegfVABuPF1KzNdtp5WWn25s7yD1rAi2qlGqv0ZF3WaQQiM4X9vh8-M8WhxPLWG7pS0Zs1-wp9WE5IkJRXZJ7rci4/gx09HVYtVkHSmVEHpsQDcbHmAl9lcqJd/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">$300 billion</a>.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I am not saying that, if Elon Musk polished up his LinkedIn and started sending around a resume, Mark Zuckerberg would pay him $90 billion to lead AI efforts at Meta. (Though I am writing a pilot for that sitcom.) I am saying, though, that if Musk were to go and start a new AI startup, he could easily raise billions of dollars at a 12-digit valuation. Also he has already done that. The startup is xAI, it <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/lGMSTiKZVRs2gcSKnwHPULHH5B_P6D8j64pcPsu8wk4u-kvtFH6ZwRmWa3bmTG_Olmz1I8v3oyyykjert5q1TTrqrt8xS_lI5NWj9_6DLJCXDlTUXPGqDrNWIz6S01B7_Avxdn5NNya1qfkzXLk_75za7_c7hEgkClngvg2McHhWAl9xhX7eH7dBB9RUQdWUDD6nx2eaxl41tVpxbdoLCnFRdmynGJIyo-qGLPduIj9vZlxp1Zltq1EFVX49yUnb4-2ALoWnrJzSMTV2AstfGldFqubz1Zzy4eranZxBYnQs9poldufg1mNJBLusk_f1RYx_StGSCcjQHIKiYyUPgJhZbM_snPcLoYV-rT_Ik9JC254TwT_z_W8UUpg/lIuqR3PPUxXlGNv78qxUquMo1RKeHoWr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">raised a $10 billion round</a> last month and it’s in talks to do more at a <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/DjmkOlkb7ctsWng1ZEPPLkRsVS16TgJoMDCY3ljcx5Q55lAXqKhE7N3HX-pW3f0Q01lz8Ef4FYS22tc1L8mglqhnvu9DrOTG_f2i2Le3e5F3mheQSoRfyhq0a0yrTo9tcFk296X5DEZQfYqbNKvl-Tc9MtRWaYSfqlFYDrZfHuLgk22TRLMdohpkUPkkZ8UGBZNeJ68CCTor_qw7gPmps3mQ391wrILMe9PM3RTfirXv91OaV6rosDY20rysqX1CcEKIx7M_oGSMbvhhLtSGl8fSX27FcbywOrodm7R_SbgWE9tI7sLigWTaqlJm8Cp0JSjVHP76WLZqmu0YK_dtWOabYrCmZeRGlARaPBSA7Xi2bqHyUPg0aOmEzQw/5knP0zUd5qo5gXHNLyTRU1EgxmTqVi99/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> $200 billion valuation</a>. I don’t know a lot about xAI’s cap table, but Musk <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ivwETzJ5cBU_KXQBANRY1kPGSRXsix5eMQRrNKUdlCv0MHBthgS7p1ZtJChoIdXOofw34ueFSej0NWEc7mTDEsO44SG3QILEZrCkrFG7jLgDPsAZmwQ6B0GSmn_rg7i9bfr4d38fN1L5Px6zP8WVHdCvq2l4LUebAATE26KYan1AKD6WCJkoduPAMzy2lxeIdHcx8qtUKrJ360kMdQweic8SuecmKh0vxOPG6Wb_GYa8MQVS-Mx0Y4AaU-CQYsnPONE9CnOR8RCmkUzDCfyb1MoGU2ayzKrECPvIlspEG7d6dwRz26gSBayCMydWOZb39azEDotI4YReOZW7Eo6brT0FdEixJuFSO_7wJGhUp480UD9QKV0pVhMgrgw/mJr9nPobNchhtYOkE2Rqbkn5iA_i-Rqh/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> might own one third of it</a>, meaning that his stake is worth something like of $70 billion. The outside bid for Musk’s services — what he could get for building AI stuff <em>away </em>from Tesla — is on the order of $70 billion. And meanwhile Tesla paid him, like, negative $87 billion last year? I would quit!</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That’s oversimplified. Tesla is a very important part of Musk’s empire. He <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/hCpgAzVwfQEaI4AfONwHpXFlG4jF46z4Y-NwoiOT9AfggyfWPCUyrw8WucrGr-7RnzUqgMh_L584r2up_qu_sX0K_bhf3ZANeJMiVwi_KNN_2z7iRn3ibABF89TrHP1yKcn6wSxaYjmO4moFiiUDberCRbMrf3gUYsMce8lJ3EmUq3kylmKlGt6uTNlvHdP7p6NmK_CI1_GxZj6bH3omvSg5f7eiisU9Sovby8InOrAbRLxquxJ7usUTJpSigj_H8ZMG-xFaa0Zhib5Z4NAY70WwPIs4sC9T0E0Mf3NgiUJgKoCugX_tol0uFcJthmNzobFV8gKYPIoPgYFBkSfP8btuXoRou1RpraUxXc8DCTx5kr7zahJLWvWtlmI/rjjeMARxj5DCrp6fPaqfsLo0xv01dTBo/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">owns</a> about $127 billion worth of Tesla stock even without the 2018 options, and because Tesla is his only <em>public </em>company, that stock is easier to turn into cash (by selling or pledging) than his private shares are. Musk’s projects require a lot of money, and Tesla is often the most straightforward source of that money. But he does have a lot of projects, and it would be understandable if he devoted his incremental efforts to projects that would pay him a lot of upside rather than to an already-large <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Tw3JafcLmMUJnDCAsxGNUGmsTmpJq1qZXz-2k8y11T0kZOUjtWysP54AP4jorvtv7VRGYv31scaovgvlbbuiVk3altqQgISYEheS6NIsgQXjPc-4fp56IX6PSSUVyp1yXTxxHN5gk22SblI0YJfqmBMW8WyvNQhrsFDlmxAHDZPXRNSYJXwWtpYuE6gTj-Ir7ttn23sdq0GjDt3A2IoAGH_bhJxlxP448-3YVnYTxi_cXN9Y5svnlhWqPTBIWcy6Y2q8Qbuup5R9eS-9HzBleFYPHrR_hOp85xn0oVMMnaa2bDbmD6A5y_C3ZN57KHoMsU5T0ltH7zG0ZPUa0U21lPGRIeCgYputo3PdwChZHSi3yYRYUA9VbFErGng/N3Rkrki7ISvvBVmetw9aZfSXp-y3EAAB/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> slow-growing</a> public company where he arguably worked for free for the last seven years.<a href="#footnote-3" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[3]</span> </a></p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">It’s possible that the optimal outcome here is for (1) Musk to quit Tesla to go build AI stuff at xAI and (2) Tesla to hire a normal car executive to run a normal car company, but I doubt that many Tesla shareholders or directors think that. (That trillion-dollar valuation is not a normal-car-company valuation.) So Tesla’s board would like to throw giant gobs of stock back at Musk to keep him aligned and motivated.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Presumably it <em>can </em>do that, because now Tesla is incorporated in Texas and the whole point of doing that was that everyone assumes (<a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/AQoeamSTv75-dc8oHErhzsmfGDJE1V2TRLJIOKFdiQNR-UR97msU9U6Fww4OQLDwF60022YrG_6oSRvPhHGRFICeRHqqQFkoUksRSme060i-fX3ii631W2Jjr9WrQq8eMQsiQpAA7bWHkvig1wSCFiUbaq8KH6wktZIDGBXeLzZbAY4-S0YKLc1j9aZMmRZLTx30NI-ZFfbezjRGS0PY0pXLa-Vdusr33F4rGNUF7yMFdDvckgvbuJtOoLpljVMQOa3XZNbEWEG12R1jJ7g9098STvqY76e6QOetKgfARCwegI9iT2nrSncRrQssvRmBwyvbgT07dhaXZVe83fnT0aK_8_LBU6yU0JGyN3FU4Ro1XFhzVIz4rsQVNME/TZzd4CnGk35E0DHHVnDsYzxsVVtUk6Q2/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> though nobody knows</a>) that Texas courts will let it pay Musk whatever it wants. But there are tax and accounting issues. When Musk got those options in 2018, they weren’t worth very much, as an accounting matter: They were at the money (the strike price he would pay to exercise the options was equal to the market price) and highly contingent (he’d only get the options if he hit a series of aggressive operational and financial targets, including getting Tesla’s market cap to $650 billion), and they might well turn out to be worthless. If Tesla gave Musk the same options again, now, they’d be worth a ton of money: They’re very in-the-money (the stock has gone up more than 1,000%) and not contingent at all (he’s already hit all the targets). That means that (1) he would pay very high taxes on them and (2) Tesla would <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kT4PBeZTjofqvWV2VeToG0qpBXcZjI9mN_A3iPoL-h3BWXxCqB5jOC-SNpo5dR2Kviwi0wJVvQvsGfhfnIlQxVjb1R-6f-9Mw5u0MXYIMHTMGYZ_VrjKS-WAdFFXZe2aWic_F-jMm_l1us3o_KSccC_0UBjbW8gkUmSuBqHjHij9JTYOSoBIqp5opGW__3gRnnoA9fcAGE0ZAdWMq2-25b1TwfENGTfFUS72FzlGlpXKAI8--dVpCZ3JZ0APZWy9U13p56MMgnDO9AnwuxXELV7UpuLpvJxwGrV9WZYKzh7CeQMHhdCQPC_dX7vjPWWB7dhbodto0HI6qCUa69exNx7Bz765zDa_mkTmlY4YUrE_Xp6D0_vro_mXo8M/25nmpFuAEFIhIi8c2VGQDNSsNwM_yUgM/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> take a big charge to earnings</a>. Giving him <em>different</em> options — at-the-money options contingent on hitting new targets — might be better (to motivate him to hit the new targets!), but would effectively leave him unpaid for his last seven years of work. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Today Tesla announced that it will <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/BLGvK1NpUzrF9bwVFzAk-uYhpZohpmYyjZP2JxLpHIwjd77aC8XH3iFg1E4PY1wYYA-XrUmacxzgbupwDhVv7jngYovyJrF6FdHi13sJyPNMBbCxyvAQMzOzySqosk_EPdEoEH_grLuNdnUIWt51kbDnJuv7yOUlcrNn8bhHMAOBI8q_jqL8rYo9H5dMlOpMgz3hNY_K4_U32xs0QKVHxrIA1Va-NP39PxhJyHwWVrAqZmKHAs4Fb1XCEUkO8T5XvXqMi2C0WBp3U86fox0vFAx5gq53CiYg4oqhRQ5b3lRXAAQXQSNxZmHlnOQsqjSo-Mdy58tFJshwrlLfOWRdRFDnpZd0t5loxL8DWk0qeAfTdrb5--YGcPEcrzs/EvbCY--4DUj_Hs0RHA_lPVjJmHZc-Bic/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">give Musk back a portion of his old options</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Tesla Inc. approved an interim stock award worth about $30 billion for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, a massive payout meant tokeep the billionaire’s attention on the automaker as a legal fight over a 2018 pay package drags on.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The new agreement includes 96 million shares of the automaker that will vest if Musk continues to serve in the top post for another two years, the company said Monday in a regulatory filing. The restricted stock<a href="#footnote-4" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[4]</span> </a> has an exercise price of $23.34, equal to the price in the prior compensation plan. …</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The board emphasized the importance of retaining Musk, saying in a shareholder letter released Monday that the award was a first step “good faith” payment. “After all, a ‘deal is a deal.’” It said it’s working on a longer-term CEO compensation strategy, which will be put to a vote at the EV maker’s Nov. 6 annual meeting.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Here are <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/h3X_81MUCVzr3P2MeqxtWqfHXKpIP93Q7djk_ZMqGe31jFKDv2ljsSyJwrNriJ7hur-j4dMNPHn44lFtNnD0egys3z1qhYiPNx1iW8xKWq6tsbWBYxBLFr4z9-FgEcdDoGRYT7wuTu6X4JnEttLinu29LTJNKAsVPa9wfYYEcPk9CXt10GXWdi6_zFhFX5f5h5wBC4BI2W6mGImyGgTx9k07MEc2L2eDUTyhleETNWHfG2jq63W_tYkFtunXTCVcav716dnecW6Ue80rBpU_gij6jmQ1AEtorVBFI9XGS_5vSiXCMuMZbNvYjli8LY6ChtyzGI_r7yNqQ4PslIrh461u1ygX5nef8IBY8obLDhDYl4tpn9qdpIz1TbE/-2qnmgrMJqpEsYLusTopKz6tLML5x_g9/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the filing</a>, the <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ihSjH-4Dc_ajzX91lDxp0zKqF0sjGLj2c3MrUC72M7safP6Qrujy1REstTAdwEg4pHXVQAqDiGRadaSD05jcV4omKia4iJoiCnhVD2unCtCN1i6dhc17Wax01m-gbnecLNP9Km3KmTFxp6RmUNuTmxV9Oh9tlVKymbILT8ka7ahlDZc1ijtjCoRIAYOB1h4Q4ZfJ2HMyWOUMxzQ5IlXsLywSEVolpT0LGLEUwoZTBIIhxUVSND9o7EIg_dPyb-qGUdGLO3F18kEwTSN-l7rUD6ui75rERtEcEjb6ruWP_-3WmrqFcOwF1YTeZ2OPJr6NPRo0_MJLwm6Ey3wRyjasxvoaj79buRVVCPsQuyVIYr3nEJMItMBEXvftgds/ZSoZRvQE4682VB7NZgXlgGRLaxOK_5qG/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">terms of the new options</a>, and <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Itkcyc2Y2GiPAnDpg5deJYffPK4tl7rNJo7jpTGXbeJTFdIUaslqcShjcd1NrMmbBaudyMslTDshELjIjzpx3TXV5UE0OXC0QmRhe2iiseDcxiHSfDlfizXBs0_l9RIITSQPtDtB0Mt8i6X3aGWV63ZPOhwdVrw4Vjr_N4lHtOjbpDnssIgeoz3Q1hA6dLcFdsiTqoqdopoolJEondIdUS9M1kvi0d5fmJdNOEE498k6RHD_6xI1EEkLRDP2gB9qPDVIS06VIp5WczOqJlPOJ5nZcGN-TQ3XJWvEWqSv5APkj3Sw90krScurSMgR-Vug7ERGaLf32btHLZajo03qdlYjZgbraDoPpoajBEtGGn-MlX7rQWKZiJIYWm4/x594_J36E27EvweUGp3_YxxPaTo4iGVj/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">the shareholder letter</a>, which makes it clear that this is meant to (1) compensate Musk for his <em>past </em>work:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">To recognize what Elon has accomplished and the extraordinary value he delivered to Tesla and our shareholders, we believe we must take action to honor the bargain that was struck in 2018. After all, “a deal is a deal.” Thus, as evidence that Tesla is committed to honoring its promises in the 2018 CEO Performance Award and intends to compensate its CEO for his future services commensurate with his contributions to our company and shareholders, we have recommended this award as a first step, “good faith” payment to Elon.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">And (2) keep him from running off with an AI startup:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">It is imperative to retain and motivate our extraordinary talent, beginning with Elon. The war for AI talent is intensifying, with recent months including multi-billion-dollar acquisitions of companies and nine-figure cash compensation packages for non-founder, individual AI engineers. Even among this group of highly talented individuals, no one matches Elon’s remarkable combination of leadership experience, technical expertise, and, arguably most importantly, decades-long proven track record of building the most revolutionary and profitable businesses across different industries. While we recognize that Elon’s business ventures, interests and other potential demands on his time and attention are extensive and wide-ranging, including his leadership roles at xAI, SpaceX, Neuralink, X Corp., and The Boring Company as well as his other interests, we are confident that this award will incentivize Elon to remain at Teslaand focus his unmatched leadership abilities on further creating shareholder value for Tesla shareholders and attracting and retaining talent at Tesla. To be clear, losing Elon would not only mean the loss of his talents but also the loss of a leader who is a magnet for hiring and retaining talent at Tesla.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Fine. But the funniest part of the filing is the section on “accounting consequences.”<a href="#footnote-5" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[5]</span> </a> The accounting consequences are: none. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/8UY8Te7nAud1QKh_OurwaPgVQ0PBXsrqGbxZozPfYSfEaynFySoTlyPGspx6JmBCqEEHf648Mcxh0jj-NilZrOWHvZNksn6S-Pj7WuWW-ehEFpqd3lmhd9MFzIwVLYHjQRbMLcF77CG6y5SrCfdG3NxT9okLCk9U4SR1BlAR6fCOUthjtIQ-Ev2kGhBibtI5hdrR1QU4XpUovwypCauvkj5dVBvvnXhxAXAEDc7mEXkqMjRPkALdqWcO6YA1MO72_FtPQL_MRkbILTiYzt0-lo8x85oGECwxjQYHY4vPe5DJjbH4imKecMIhEQiMdBpBY4BhHvFOJwCiEILTh5Q92NWqVNK85_OB2Ep9DOap2gSoM7rmLMQELRF4QsQ/RZYDw_DYbV-vbaMve_LkcNR9say1O99C/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Tesla argues</a> that this $30 billion award is worth nothing, because Musk is unlikely ever to get the shares;</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The Company expects to account for the 2025 CEO Interim Award as a grant of restricted stock with a performance condition in accordance with ASC Topic 718, which for purposes of the 2025 CEO Interim Award is based upon the probability of certain conditions being met. Restricted stock with a performance condition is accounted for by recognizing compensation expense over the requisite service period, based on the accounting grant-date fair value, but only if and when the vesting of the award becomes probable. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">As of the date of this report, the Company expects that the performance condition of the 2025 CEO Interim Award will not be deemed to be probable of being met. As a result, the Company currently expects that it will not recognize a compensation expense upon the issuance of the award. </p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is, the performance conditions in the new award are so onerous that they are unlikely to be satisfied, so Musk is unlikely to get these shares, so Tesla doesn’t have to expense them. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Which is weird: These new options are meant to replace the 2018 options; they are meant to reward them for his <em>prior </em>performance. Putting in onerous new performance conditions seems rough on him. What are these onerous new conditions? Well, there are no operational or financial targets. Tesla doesn’t have to hit a $2 trillion market cap, or sell more cars or develop autonomous robots. The only thing that Musk <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/LEV2DN3zwbGQzuuClWOtdXCYVNE2zKSPOzk6_MtjF_vrWarFvda3EmxkJ67abm6C5cAMyBvTKfvWiQsKC1HoMl2YrrmQ8QDWHZ8PexjWtS05B5JE4xzK0iKkqQaqUH4UnQ3kxi-niPbb7Mxuh_4VQkL4bccDFnzvzcM9YhXt1xe_YB3v4NNqGM3DKeb6PXhcsLFbNjMXn0w_ulUZX84x4WIj0gYQ8JKGfKgFShELROfvLZ-qEkHL4ViFwapR4-Gt0rlcazbCDhjqrKkWcJrC1Cb4U9RYU3GIVpAWGhR67S7o0m5kmXdriMTiUjqir6I3t26b3SCCFhcuyK_f8Tfh95opBEHk2E_qInKc1bb8zG2S5ITbDdSFAOyJDb0/K9R5x0vgAM98lOgdTkUZFcCkPIgSneyM/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">actually has to do</a> to get the award is:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">A requirement that Elon serve continuously in a senior leadership role at Tesla during the two-year vesting term.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Huh. Tesla is saying it’s so unlikely that Musk will stay for two years, that the options are worth zero?</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">No, I think I’m kidding; there’s one other requirement:</p> <blockquote><p style="margin: 16px 0;">The 2025 CEO Interim Award will be immediately forfeited and returned to the Company if, prior to vesting, there is a final, non-appealable judgment, order or decision of the Delaware courts with respect to the action captioned <em>Tornetta v. Elon Musk et al.</em> ... that results in Mr. Musk becoming able to exercise in full the performance-based stock option award he was granted in January 2018.</p></blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">That is, if the Delaware decision gets overturned on appeal and Musk gets his 2018 options back, then these options go away. Perhaps Tesla’s accountants are confident that the decision will be overturned, so they think the probability of him actually getting these options is low.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">You don’t have to choose. The point isthat the only way Musk gets these options is if:</p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal; padding-left: 40px; margin: 16px 0;"> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">He loses the 2018 options forever, and </li> <li style="margin-bottom: 5px;">He stays at Tesla for two more years.</li> </ol> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I suppose Tesla’s accountants concluded that the probability of <em>both </em>of those things happening is low. I suppose they’re right!</p> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/FV-TClTzmk-2arRumN4Ir_3gy4ySxoRDjI0AvzhDf3OK8UwU6nwfIvuMa2stFGdFUngYKT0IGG3bTXYqhOUr0ddI-pv8IzM2kiG7cXugfoZ933fw8qnDXkyicp9qt2w6cKKUXO_bMbbzmDiM60oSmz7WUieFjR40wUtg33n3r7J59Js_qADGz4pYVKFseGrb_ai2wrK9v7uePM4sPHYYvCrgXQ8NJ2Qk_LzMZ80JBz2DZIG5pObDzxm7tZIcmbHtaHgvBK6eQiEL1bNds7TQnsr551LUj0MEIR2BfyNhoANrDS_kwozcMoUuq0LcPVXiy-nOCWOJS-qyXCe0D2wtFD_cIb392zKIqR_Z84pcK47nSoHZTceQFisHD4YmrCBCfjzEN3sFt_oUPhA1V8S1A_q0f04wJ5_aqnm8iLZjnH3yCTzpBR7f-nJsNioS1nw24GFnAmfRKavnJ6RCoYZKw_E-XpkoKm-9Cj3VZ1OFqam9noPERdUHmRHrtM6hzYaca177IUDqI4NuEMJtedi3EEFTvixDtoO_l_7tb9s4Za96FtRyHH3Hqb3uGYPhHyhGzZFtgppDwVQhRI5YxRynhml7USCs7WZa8I_6e78y3nLaQz5T5x7ZEK-vm6qAcseuOvLTwj_7iurLesXHUJE2XTN8RjTETZ5-_SJe2CghoijgQZxTGBB5cLWYq4jL9A/LYBTOALFihRaxiXeHAitcOW9xA0H4V-w/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=desktop&collapse_width=550&li=14468204&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08042025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="550" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;width:100%;max-width:550px;" alt="" class="lihide"/> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"> <!--[if !mso]><!--> <div style="display:none; overflow:hidden; width:0; max-height:0; line-height:0;" class="lishow"> <table width="auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:0 0px"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/p422QgJUSW4PGzkROO_jEcEPUkfxx1VP2AlqyBAI7IctIw4mBvGYA-Wqkp1mOH7I6mI5v767flne0ahcdt24Z-4Md0lAOIfxwNTcXmDPMyyDy0cidMawgooHU8gjaR2PN0axcmM9ihQ9AeP_5bC8Jm2irhKT2zu8Nslw-rOSBa549-YIb7tG3v4utIBgnnuM7NJUK7D6L6vZ9oJNIeYkjpup5W5SqpeWCoOAvisMpo2f93jRICN836xzLGQJCsPyFC7WAFSqI9ZaYyfrZ6HoETSKnepdzyvDExm6WIdljzbzDViv_ZoGBBBGwshB8E09KnzTPaCE7lh_0u-qrDi3fdSKbbLpgrN3vnUFw5yCk3KrePQwVtjZUe1i7561IlGNljfamFH3057jEN1HzrTYf-zpRv0QpJrX6f1jQCoXC0AJ0faEWBOwv0gmlGR9hkzBsAGXf-xJNTeGn1QKpxFzl9ksUjrInw_OBd2LsDn3qHRVf9enlip_raAogE0dfLeFwJby8spbAOE-rSj-lQFCDpb3IhhZ6OCehXExWbERXputGDlQyNh6fldnUu6AO6TjMkViP-B0EnpWvvhAqAUlqM0s7rxAKPhqxVCinlKu0M7N3grw5WIZ28ftC0GnOR3_V2HlIbwsshiqq6Gwf6N7dwt48jcQEuPCW49HWYBudJbB_Oqc6aub-R5Pek_8hQ/CI8mR0hC-l1dHTRZG7gJCmeYpVkdMQjD/11" target="_blank"> <img src="https://sli.bloomberg.com/imp?s=868432&stpe=default&li_coord=mobile&collapse_width=550&li=14468204&m=c869f5c3f0784f1d3b0577b4456d769f&p=08042025&lctg=a19ab05d-8da0-4a2a-9dfe-e93d8d341869" width="100%" border="0" style="display:block;height:auto;" alt=""/> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!--<![endif]--> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Trend following</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">One of the more embarrassing facts in finance is that stuff — stocks, bonds, commodities, etc. — that went up last month will probably go up this month.<a href="#footnote-6" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[6]</span> </a> This is embarrassing because it seems to undermine the idea of efficient markets: “Market prices incorporate all available information, except they always forget whether prices went up last month.” It seems hard to explain except with a story of investor irrationality. On the Money Stuff Podcast, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/QMMnK4ugQ8cxGAg1fvhc9lrT8FbM0lWlZt0ehxEdeUbykE3WZLG0EOG7dBS4b4FzUl1b28bc1JdoJCafbpD1pbUGHT2xmo6C_g34AxpECzh0u8UbHpor-3V04KUcFDq2I7fqVLvmEp3j9DNSq3c67cBRDzcvP5z_lPGV4ECEdCH34EHoFJUUpv9MkfNbhPmadm6T2zEOnQox03I71vONawbZkCMcPkrn_6dlDoWm6Y_NkFEQnWDpSHioMryBiMPjZI503-RUFlWg94mb9DTss6vRyitodcN575umqGsT_GGbBJU3wpuR_WH7X7-2Eu3-HFUHut6zLjm4cV-6TTfxX2GZoyLzK0dNrrd7qO3mgNZJK1P0fV6tFuQKKQI/_uRBhLz8dIl3U_1srKG0s-vpTBsxMNrd/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Cliff Asness pointed out</a> that the two main explanations are(1) “investors underreact to news” and (2) “investors overreact to news,” which is additionally embarrassing.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">There are people who make a nice living from this embarrassing fact: You buy stuff that went up last month, you short stuff that went down last month, and probably you make money. This is called “trend following.”<a href="#footnote-7" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[7]</span> </a> My impression is that most of the hedge funds who make a living from this have more sophisticated models than this but, you know. Something like this.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">But this doesn’t <em>always </em>work; it just <em>mostly </em>works. It works when markets are somewhat irrational. A medium amount of irrational, at a medium time horizon. I <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Rb7JhLjZlpvClDef2Cr5h7e_jbr9uUxQvgPbBAsKdV0bEnA9pbsurqIerjolkfoGBKPhc_cm69IYG2fzgvEgFs41kisUtgYUkhYCVeje6Tr4xJCvWBU0vwjc2ktnVhWftcnZd5g4tGsaf-J4RdOnYfF8DB6S2m5ZzzKX0pXiA5r5Wyrl8PrDm5zGF_cq6ufbwAQzX1kI5LSDqWR4h0MlCmlFgawcbM-QFbrGAI8ngmngAw6cF7-hoO7xWG1Eg5IUvZ1KO_AqoEy37FFGNLbdAjRMDlAiG6q1v1ejvQAB4KwSLu22a704lj1PBeBLKh9Oirr3HblON4thwfPX9kqCmslzH-n9M5IVyqGoKKxihUVeCP8pBtHFZ3rOmP4/eTczRhzY6oKgp6l09PEnQ8SY6yeLQAkE/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> wrote a few months ago</a> that “the current economic policy of the United States is apparently to cause maximum chaos by announcing drastic changes in the global economic order in the morning and then walking them back at lunchtime.” That is a <em>change</em> from the previous economic policy of the US, which was to try to be pretty stable to allow for rational economic planning. When the world is basically stable, the stuff that went up last month will probably go up this month. When the US imposes huge tariffs one month and walks them back the next month, the stuff that went up last month will probably go <em>down </em>this month.<a href="#footnote-8" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: none !important; background-color: transparent !important; display: inline-block;"> <span>[8]</span> </a> The regime has changed; a new and stronger source of irrationality has been added to the market. It’s hard to make a living following trends when there are no trends. The <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ln87W5G4OLxnUKQoFy3f6EGnGL92tbzSm4DK8AEGgNjQiVBdmG_8ioU9dzkh5fc17__3lnWB6v5a1FeYhFS3_uiIq91x1-yyidrQTx_pLYkuJhIoJ81zRePWyY4_QbKZTzkWrLUMfQPVf39OkTIFPyHHub9q-JnwMBFD3G72j33mgjVeg-5yNwAOGF2S4wdS-HbMEhnD2Kb2ef9D_2ohed7KfKr-oyRkCD3BkE-sTyFU98KQGVwd4bznJw2MdAx_J-B1hmkEKmvpHHSekdPej6RommaPJnU_KXbGg4WI6tXOhkdmmPmyc3E5a-XXKO5JhUkkozy3-gkXZTFs9JNZ_bZj-XT6JV6r8HlF1GMztmQ5zoa9v7wyOiQP7AA/K75_3xLOt-ryHEb4YmqGLJ0ATUxGy1pt/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Wall Street Journal reports</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Trend-following hedge funds lost 9.6% in the first half of this year, on track for their worst annual performance since at least 1998, according to the research firm PivotalPath. Meanwhile, hedge funds more broadly returned 4%, net of fees, while the S&amp;P 500 delivered 6.2% to investors, including dividends. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">At Man Group, seen as a trend-following pioneer, the flagship AHL Alpha fund is down 7.8% through June. ...</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Because trend-following funds can take days or weeks to fully buy into a change in a market’s direction, they can be left playing catch-up if asset prices quickly reverse. The funds’ signals might instruct them to buy—just before an unexpected catalyst suddenly sends other investors rushing to sell.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">This year, Trump’s capricious tariff moves and sudden social-media announcements have stoked volatility across asset classes, including stocks, currencies and commodities. Last week, for instance, U.S. copper prices suddenly plunged after the president surprised traders by unveiling 50% tariffs on copper products, but not on the raw material itself.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In general I do not have a ton of sympathy for hedge fund managers who say things like “the market has become too irrational now, so it is hard for me to make money.” That’s not how it’s supposed to work! When the market is irrational, there are lots of opportunities for smart rational hedge fund managers; if it is hard for you to make money using your old tricks, that suggests that the market has become <em>more </em>rational. If I had told you in 2015 that trend following wouldn’t work in 2025, you might have said “ah, yes, as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and hedge funds get more competitive, it should be harder to make money by just buying the stuff that went up last month.” But that is probably not quite what happened.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">SPAC</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Sure. I mean. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/Egv6FscfqAJcov8mypYLrc3GNWubV9R35YAqxB2XdtPHuWesH6p-7zAssU4hAmYpGUEm3ksAaS1shyKqXdSVSa7VWB-i5m36ia7bWIRSxiLPJFNLR7HB7bpfNOLAF1wiRE1B52y_KSa168oT4yTQac_Zjk3D3s6U72jy-Ey4_9SF7RvIa9EjIw-0BCBdzOHWLDa6vGN3j66O-3iFMlF3RUj27fU9ViBuCu858vxTUN-0MtrVqHQVXy8Ar4pNxik9JLUwE0yQU8RaYXkqiP0Paa1X9gtK8yBAHGfs1JyttX_vmlCTgFrfN4U8gvev9coUFoI-S24kZN05NB4urIXDVUNf_mGb6znXfB7vs5V6Lw7TpYg-4EEOBZ1ejbY/aWHLiNaK-flkovrebmqwfJ7-qtHvCnk1/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Sure</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr are backing a new blank cheque investment vehicle targeting US manufacturers and looking to benefit from government spending.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The launch of New America Acquisition I Corp marks the latest Trump family foray into public markets. The vehicle will seek to buy a US company that plays “a meaningful role in revitalising domestic manufacturing, expanding innovation ecosystems, and strengthening critical supply chains”, the group said on Monday.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The vehicle’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing said it would target a company “well-positioned to benefit from federal or state-level incentives, such as grants, tax credits, government contracts or preferential procurement programs” and where “the US government has an identifiable economic or security interest”.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Of course the presidents’ sons should have a special purpose acquisition company to acquire businesses “well-positioned to benefit from federal or state-level incentives, such as grants, tax credits, government contracts or preferential procurement programs.” What? The Financial Times article doesn’t even bother with the usual routine of calling a spokesperson to say “of course there would never be a conflict of interest.” </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/p7irs_YGFlNberrO4Od0WuGc16uRMwYX6Td8SKpDzcii7oHdVFlBOWZANQlC-GW-lolqcvcwjcWQWosJ4M6ZNR0jRyU9P70nAP49TZg5oXps_LYPy7eiYvXv7ChhEu7HBc1C1yRtCkUMsms_A7o89wTlJUIGQYB4uzzSsDL6wGcBXfjOqCiLEET_IL9DNkfV5K6kbFxNegNl41W0YZ3eDOsqQBzMI5eJ2I9s10Pr-8_YHNEe35E5M2fjwrsv0eVAX7LBMNRSqxxN8o85zk6A2SnrhU67CFNGXAeuW4ni5p5V0yaJy1VhuW1PL3ugjlY8LeUiPCbG2hdOX9NBhPKDR40j6QqKY16vkwEvxMo93DJQHJxFTvL0Cv2Bq-o/PY8hZQl6C2W7odnh5rfLVIUf-6ku9MtG/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Elsewhere</a>: </p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">President Donald Trump is bringing in bank leaders to meet with him one by one at the White House. Beyond the economic discussion, there’s a chance at a big payday for their firms.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Trump is asking chief executive officers for their pitches on monetizing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including a major public offering of stock, according to people familiar with the matter.</p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Last week, Trump invited JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co. CEO Jamie Dimon to meet him at the White House. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon was set to meet with Trump on Thursday afternoon, and Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan is also expected to meet the president in coming days. Talks are likely to include other banks as well, the people said.</p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">I feel like there must have been some tense internal meetings at those banks to figure out how shameless the pitch should be. Like is “just merge them with your sons’ SPAC” obviously the wrong answer, or obviously the right answer?</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Mortgages</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">In April 2016, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/wXlrZPECrQ6risPW53b3RmbdlVOVaSVXZmN2y7TE9FGtC3EZm8-IUe9-nmRuQMcj5BoCLHdrw3ggBNYehtBFM4-kA9DS_AUr1JLITBGv8S3LN01s7iB_QT7M3o3eWcmy7v2kh0nExq6pc8XZ4lxyREh-oZLzHDAXKmGFsR63ifbz7lMREsCmlB_fh1QUkrV8eff7o3PD7Yf8PHk5JfDuf0WLJ4Hsgn5mCUP-Y9LF3Tg-L61M8_5A1yT5dhAdwDwrkj9RdGbFDkWBZB_-reKkzgKyii2fAk2AR9eoYsZNyqLBTL6-RRFskFt3t5ZyVaua9v8lkZvbociksa9qNwQZeS91awVvpFHsIZOZsFzXhEphRsXZoscr4VglfKU/PT0gNjuSBhPiwr7y67HVsAcLMYRKV6QR/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> I wrote that</a> “the great inevitability of modern banking is that some bank will always be settling a crisis-era mortgage case with regulators from now until the end of time.” I was, and am, somewhat given to hyperbole, and realistically I do not expect that in 2035 any big banks will be paying nine-digit fines for their 2008 mortgage practices. But <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kRxZoseQwu0Gp0oCMrazCnG5C2T3KVUOFk8sFsGL7iJPZZr0fFEN0LYMPGLP-fcnZIj5-knmgpXd1d6DefgRITeLJMOaJXDVCngIPJxmWkujHolcEl8XPWBQHeIqkh1OjPjNeEnGeNMUJyhnIpVHAMoqsB-DhHCdbH3ZsY7xHeu0a0lje0znP7lkjJ3zR8Rp2vIaAqUTm0r2Os_R9jAjRUjP3Yr4dDuZe6hyije2IcEeB4J8WNXjwzkymdzVxWJjIfmyMzeT1MmbfbwfBACokztGdLniEqGYxOHsZY94PPZggPtPDH0FhjmnxZef7fOivgDg3NBT0n-ZZaJfvIAdgaSMMqDCYMfVB16o_aFoVxdiQfWUXxIhwNWFPms/FyfywdEYR-4d2l4yJjDF3sZzlox6hPpr/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">in 2025, sure</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">UBS has agreed to pay $300mn to resolve a legacy Credit Suisse case in the US related to the mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The Swiss lender said on Monday it had reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice to draw a line under a 2017 settlement Credit Suisse made with US authorities over the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-linked investments. </p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">The world is in many ways a crazy place right now, so it is soothing that some things never change, like banks paying mortgage settlements.</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: &quot;Arial Black&quot;, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 20px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px 5px;">Things happen</h2> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">Figma’s Pursuit of Long-Term Backers Kept <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/KdlM1cgrzNLncG_JNRRHr6casH2J3iQDW2vutSB4x9zrxjPz8YQW9a0zQvXAQ8Rydwz5phkA-SF8QVsAk3EDquwRWrLppwtyGOHdi08PkgAgG8n522DcpnPzgc_igudt-Ti8pYtuPC797kLP98twQHXvPuedQJVU0THlXefuqw91bvk_-vTZu9p4YUmPoeLB5kKCxo6DYM-RX8zOBViamZ8yzbuG3CCVlEyfHT1pFZUarcMO7dgRvYUA5_AT8rvJv6MMizk6zV3tvrLAYk8b7GwprhiqSPVtdDuByWDq6boDQsDSHtaQtJqlWFD5MG43FJwZpqDzmowuHbioPnVsnrBXSNyPlha6SIRLcIr-5rOJka3VkqdCsVzVET8/u06QtUH57y9ap2XgD2YAVbdBztyMcQj2/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> IPO Price</a> in Check. Bridgewater Founder <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/KdVOaZG0mqKCFaqXV4EXbiOTTM4nA76wNr12UC_o6CJ0cVznsuQfH1j3eEUABmJAIY689F0NLUEpZNqQwIR2LhcyOo7S3MJ1wWLinnjvbPn4IonZEXy8KA3mM6eOWIby_tWCYjIBGLQtofgkZGV1FjNWiHeHZXtGgsWyfZxoq48nfHmhDrkxRfcyNvpInNGhHWfYT6fbK7A8POrSpsqPGZpryG2MIiftACgrGqQTnylXM040X09PHdTrFD8nQHZ7yrcx1hkkZ1b1iJpD0t9p6KvZK-OLzP4rAgd2r6_exnfLycT2op5hKI3I6seK0NGbmbTBSuz1gOd_xgEqO_Zdwkok-Ur0FmaPn93NEKRVezGHanDAtgS3IzmnXPA/WZNGxxkR7ta8_0a_wvlYXG-e3NDRb4Ht/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;"> Dalio</a> Sells His Remaining Stake in Firm. The Fate of a Little-Known Company Behind <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/UIq3ZSfSpXDtxjTLnWEVkbQI-H7_bF6lEBnt-prLwGgQsC6pe0CDMPIH3yjaH_pAg3nBosea9eeoFW3OXq0weHAawV-hWaJsA_UqYi74Px2Lhlso7fhpWK6bYcH6GKi7Gx2Ayf0WCrQhLkSYlrLL6lPIJHUTvZq2WUIbMVpCcSloWqW-tgrnpadyKwNT0nffFNgTUU3lvKwP6qpcURORB6FPVVwiV1q8n0Me56v_c_5FFmjkXJsZBdgku9ephf7JCWq3kFPY1lkQ2erF9w8vqNVLMkNR1HIQovbELrU769foc6h520Bgo8ErBnAnvk9Mt28xlLka6s1GL3vnC9gRsHqUWwAO8tfBjlNaI-yWW5j2X2RiDiIWNiVneLg/SZvabLaK2lSPftZg1NmGuO4uR4yCp4Sf/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Goldman’s Apple Card</a> Is in Limbo. Tech Giants Are Revising <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/rxWizQG5Z88Loo_0HUQCUjuDkXeHT14UEYsIw3b4dOVRgL95Enn3HJssKrqmum4QgT43k6fPGnWOCbroJWU5X7uL7y66G5dxBYd6T8x9XmlnkXLnbbW8Z-7opzckDoxNySXpteFjF6GGx8Y5mDzbm-uoqPGaHmD83dgWQXm-LrxyzGlHJBBwyIUPBRK4aqTJY2aS9866OAGNqhjEkI-j-AKZJabDbJzRq5NwlXeC56y3Y4ky2DdTC79J_RiumoAFoZPSyy9SSLe87ATdwWnydaG_bI_56Uci-nQuEAh1TqyTZJ1AnbSDMwnCLVah3hq2ZCkXpjzerpjkw-6aXrMRPJR6vP_Ma5NYkWiNuY7pajv1q6ySXMAhn0Z-FAc/Zn7oLeLV-az1qxlx7DVZGP-Zzoj7ru4b/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">AI Product Claims</a> That Faced Scrutiny. Delta Gets Blowback for <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/IJ7KaLJ-wEYqujQDJ6gdjX2mP4bURRIQ4KsAhzYZhW7ngGREm00FWxL56KqQsWu5n4maG7HeCFbOzvaXSJEzLJJ5MMEE4ISjDJGNHrMPGzKV5Nef4LELIJCBl7KpV4DSFxeIzhOQZBNOg6ZJiCYxl3g66Zy5CYJMnutYZmdOnw_J0aYvLfZQc4HM1f_g39Kmem5eI770-WdRCxUpqChclAXOcSwJCPIY6nCX_Romx2JQrmEmhZw0qYrFod4Zws9GIwWj8MC09kiQU5AdJ2bMOP6d_ouHlrbdS3fi1FP1bn-l4lD0bwBclS3ce6xCTyt8Plv9cF1LB_RAsO3FR1M0CROHVD6dGhF0AxYQncqampjd1VJPsLvfJemINMQ/E18XvQfTpf3ypkNwqvzKHxr-X-y1EVwM/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Using AI to Set Airfares</a>. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/n0yg1Q67_okzdC0oxObX01pYRTw5jUtgs4eKgpTO7XVT5qqzkeo8clKbHN_EsqgjHZ1f82L4KTWd40QynNss0gOEAgTaZxOUAT4GlmA392jnxToNOTocx4Eh8ixhhMfMhdlCYrXVaM6KVsok5m8-Z8c0B29yqC9ysbGP1_hapRD3lPeHAq2f6tT-uNImKvqLv7GP-lYD-S7vrjW4fzho55eHbiqvjssAqg_1uexKN8SQKuoprpMjpo0FOd0nVtMBtDxDBmtai5qFZGObaJuKrPU5U8TN0Ta_lF6RiESwG6LfdtxsHNZ8N8V8dcywS1yT_dp-mCJq1VPpcDBhVN3EvJRDzIuYVIAN9nwNM6PSsw39i2njx8cZfLHPoHw/z21eBWM18nCJgC1-F9RAH6lC5hQUq196/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">McKinseybots</a>. Iran proposes <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ejdhCGeLxPHheasKcIeqyRVd1WG2RjmZGayzjlcLehkVmM807gVKdJoPSIqxvkhct5IVC2B0i6ZH734QeVCLcsdYJIPBd1h170K9bYUZ8G4mVBv3mgG5hEsc1HO3PGyNHKOqIzDYe98f9uuTxQNvZcdA720cPD-n1BHq5FU71g2GCsci0bSUyAp1CKAZqRfzm932o3Kh0ufiHIbMpEd881or0rdA7-BG2vEbWvzzipnUIqRagc9ajPksHWY_YXZsRvXu89S2pY0xRlol5xUKzB3__dG7UDhQ9KTT8cAOKxobZv3Jugr6a7KB8NCK6dI4VGl9XhNkuii6-w_ZAluC0WquZrZ8YV0u_p6pcHdeYux2aKguaEwFApBzvJ4/Y9szvpH_Uo4SH0N5abisMQNmXQ9jqA-U/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">slashing zeros from currency</a> after decades of decline. </p> <p style="margin: 16px 0;"><span><em>If you'd like to get Money Stuff in handy email form, right in your inbox, please <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/fY1IxVdvRNPhumAxX208uFN05t6n40A8PGU2eQjGTzqTCvcbAZY-m89veJZY4HxV8OZ28ZFBUU7uXJkM_H49CdvQWF5iX2W1U1STehaCBKDtMSsKHHloPlqrgMRPNkqXuLRFCMqMqFzLrJCDmlkopDFihe7jyAnBxA3MfZ1DXA6Ghn4pULA68C2AppCFDAvJ2kbwuxmjGLruuSZ7Ay1RfTgEzdPRuZK6BFiEUZMCF7wM8Kag7mH6-vICR0yNsx-cmOtbsgEQ1G6oKoN7dKvZy-PcTW5v6kKFpkz23PyQo5-NRJlvT8tAMWCpm8bHkDKJJ_mTjydUR0BPoqFBYdfWxMvpI6ASKNSO5AlAoPCwq28ZkvP2VSJaC78-z64/xV9KENpZsJeTj2DNhgmnZBet9UadgZZz/11" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">subscribe at this link</a>. Or you can subscribe to Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/iHfX1vxeE3k_ZoEEUAp58iUTAkI0An25ZVsA6YNwI5e0mwuHSPN0qHSsXe3KSgDwSXyR4qfwf5Oy1ke3KJDE9kR9NBFMfnqLdCXWY6gRBct9z6qiLHWV010LNS4uXDQ_yP-xoM_19SS5QKYc6H8_oWrZpCjOtP0QGul9oUpLnSv9m9tvtZbbf8V72GGsNElmDcmXO2BhGwBkqDOawezaiGcilQJ1tquXGiyBvhd5oeBcf0AouQm6M3jwxogXHnt5xeNl1rljETXlO6NRgbxkpAoQHlhcI6BIQJibvQ_18ZXOiorna5fchcw8ZGoypEzkHPD4O7l6BbpsaglQ57f5wk2J9B9xgZzEM8NTM_E3wes6yesylvg6IGY8QkE/-vMlpcU3ABTm0UTJqa5XnxXaY65byZOg/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">here</a>. Thanks!</em></span></p> <div id="footnote-1" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[1] That is, <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/kOnuL7d9OirhvipTBQGgCpzLZrJHAnaemnx-zGN0aZnyBXkuTvKk6PE3SzsQ6jC5xO9D8zZ2L7KiMl_qEXyt7WSI1pY1fQSKd-RwGuCGGuj9QO1M556gbHTiuaqvgqIO9vVMgRn77J8Th3A9kWk1c0N0AEk5HOLRQGJZUM29rWP7ulojjsMbiIRYMUBAORpS1V8972OJRS2vt48FZ4WxOcpoyILKLmc-TvAMyMuLm_7lWcXu1BS7nnsGQyl-TrfzLshkezNSHcze6dfdc_4tJ-cGbHPhxt0xKqh0e57HvlnB2pR1fi8D3zAMNEwR-mFr5Cuw-bb9WPwW--3BnOblWTMrIUdM9sp_KyJ_VZGBO0IFqJGxlate7kMr2Rk/XBgfsjY_EcP3g6R5ClSX81Bkuwd5_qgi/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">303,960,630</a> shares in the options grant, times (about $308.16 as of noon today, minus the $23.34 strike price).</p> </div> <div id="footnote-2" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[2] Or, also, subtracted half a trillion dollars of value; Musk’s absolute performance is maybe more impressive than his Sharpe ratio, but never mind.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-3" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[3] I would not argue that very hard: Again, he’s a big shareholder of Tesla, so his own wealth increased by tens of billions of dollars due to his efforts, even without the options. Plenty of tech founder-CEO-shareholders *don’t* get huge options packages, and are motivated by their own shareholdings. (Presumably Musk isn’t getting random new options grants at xAI.) Still, a deal is a deal, etc.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-4" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[4] For reasons that elude me, the new award <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/ze-B2I-W838U09PxzjLitsQj2LtOYUs4H1Bpp1oXpkFGXKEpPGOZILQlh5gOnWpVwu5VCMXDFP_Zx0i80KJDI11XL5rH9KEHC6cQaJpk_2UQepIi0i4WohBghGp3Xdft-3cF1qNJc0E2ZQTuO3i_HVMflmWWAC7A3yXT1xt5yfc_uwUGFQkgo8AJrTH-h4-hbbV99pQtZn6l0mOyBLwYGrFOopLyvLR9qtwEo1q_YhjWBBdn5wXPJR-EHuvtbdSNtMQMDjaa5qmi_V_Xj_CcUVcjpMvlV7yui3kcInf7QFz7H5cupaZoj5z9JyWL39yqrIyRdmicRx-dUYBeIwnEI6-XI-3YVn_z7plh7oX8SAYtST3DvL9k3nZoc8s/IilISEBwZER1__8aWTSN00JPbuJJkeW_/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">is documented as</a> “restricted stock” that Musk has to pay $23.34 for, rather than “options” with a $23.34 strike price. (“Participant shall pay the Company $23.34 per Share of Restricted Stock that vests in accordance with this Award Agreement.”) Ordinarily restricted stock doesn't have a strike price, but I guess this is the most efficient way to recreate the 2018 options.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-5" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[5] In what percentage of corporate filings is the “accounting consequences” the funniest part? Like, 10%, right?</p> </div> <div id="footnote-6" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[6] This is extremely not investing advice, and don’t take that time scale too seriously. <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/T5Q2d5sdAkdUp-oShw4gbQkjVnd5sdfK5BYR1IxSwxWuW9yQk9i4SxczXj9D6tcYwd_C28Q0ZIqpHkhSY39TnUvJEo4MaBXkDwUQwxWyCo4hTZ8kTYgu99yyeC8BmQEY2U0__fxtn9PVHac7_WZcNKOVKtuOi1uKYUd_a_pblX3v09QWf9kXD9Vn_R8eP8dYNEke_OmYr6qhSzKKlKwzORAiqo9NKjQyliOVRagc5jG6aOD5ENtIo5oNTii4H9GS2BxlmkwdIAbMq8sci7q5n5M63afngXKdREJ3UlkQPl8PekMJVJxe9WO0tbqTo5ak2TB-nLzWHAz7nJ5BJ7_F2qNpXcEutWl3VaRV5w_HLf7cGFw5WxIuWquqDJs/niL-KcxHjEUzq1JxJDYirrxF0omtCORn/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank" title="page 294" style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; background-color: #ccc;">Antti Ilmanen</a>: “The common empirical finding is a return continuation tendency (momentum bias) except for very short and very long windows (a week or shorter, two to five years) where reversal bias may dominate.” That’s mostly about commodities, though stocks are similar (“a strong multi-month momentum effect sandwiched between short-term and long-term reversal effects”), and “momentum strategies perform well in virtually all asset classes we study,” though not always at the same time scales.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-7" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[7] More or less. As Asness also pointed out on that podcast episode, it’s “trend following” in macro and commodities markets, and “momentum” in individual stocks.</p> </div> <div id="footnote-8" style="font-style: italic;"> <p style="margin: 16px 0;">[8] Also not investing advice.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;" width="100%"> <center> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/wJIAH0tQA3WYh0nZYgHfvxiV1f9HYlrk9fBqB3JwDhWppRZyQzA29NBuEQ9Owkft-Zlqiwh3ISGbj1tAste7ALHspcA7CPTTfVRUhHIT6un14wbh7ORxdFRC2oy4aWH1d4ZP0zzejkI1fRcCpbLoxXm_SfXoZBrkFrC7780q6z6q3uiXiJeJrwNebpa7ZenvdbNm1rLYXO8aQU-c9us-I1_Vu3t9epSFKAH710Brcea84KpJMATWdQFOdn2K1lEcBAhEJbDOow36iKawpiNn5dROJzA7zHHxm0Zct-UGP2CRkFvdAmD6hcRyna4JiVUdSjOHBgj8MFZv8MiZZWmKQJhokBE3IBfnNl3ijuW10lh1EZcInkHUYtx0kkg/3vLS9kgJPjaTRUyn5fkWTn6zXAlAFrYH/11" target="_blank"> <!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i6H.ue2bNPOA/v0/-1x-1.png" alt="Listen to the Money Stuff Podcast" style="max-width: 550px; 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border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;">Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!--[if mso]></td></tr> </table> </center><![endif]--> </table> </body> </html> <a style="display: none" href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/eh/6uIs49Nuwkgn6p172ZTK6cz77VbI2NTzlX5RN8KQMTTwcXEU9fWmFEfXV2z6pQTS72F7gdBGIcoTwYeZthEEwFcGk6MTVFE6eX7iW2SMUUh7FO64EcGxXy7keH58YOUEfCxtbQ_fgX53UB7yN-7XcBq65m2ezL6rVY-3YeBlcE0gJSDBLQ6sIEjLiK-vpZcyFgBHl-T1fSCvKsE0-H5XDmXEerZX4Sb8mGpRoRrs7C6h8AHoN6PBYypkHK9j7jfAqdjmrdoD78cVKE_9FxzDk0emHb8xD8piiE4E0cUkeCyytLXHXqqaNKyNuruCGXz4A6OI7TRUR_2Zh8H6SF0Atofpr_6VR9FVJEYA1qYj/NkeiyjDENGCctPPoSZmshgwSN-TPiH8r/11"/> <img border="0" width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://post.spmailtechnolo.com/q/sB_wotIvjKkwDPXxRVwlmA~~/AARGbBA~/YZeoNr_NxErIBixj8FYT1kJmrbMfcNUg3KWgxms4xawx7vYEyn82RfvLLbax6D6fgxZ5W12zr9L-HMJYL2DdSR1mDoHbue83nWP50wrp2uU~">
  12. Canadian Fintech: First National Scooped 🍦

    Mon, 04 Aug 2025 12:33:12 -0000

    <html style="scrollbar-width: thin;scrollbar-color: rgb(219,219,219)rgb(255,255,255);"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Canadian Fintech: First National Scooped &#127846;</title><style> @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .typography:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); 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width: 25%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 40%; width: 40%; } } @media (max-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { margin-top: 12px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button { font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 12px; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; } } @media (min-width: 600px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 55%; width: 55%; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .poll-editor-modal { min-width: calc(100% - 20px); } } @media (max-width: 750px) { .poll-embed .poll-anchor-target .poll-anchor-copy-button { left: 8px; top: 45px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { width: 552px; padding: 26px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { padding: 40px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-row .modal-cell .modal-exit-btn { margin-right: -20px; } }</style></head><body class="email-body" style="font-kerning: auto;--image-offset-margin: -120px;"><img src="https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUwODA0MTIzMDQwLjMuMjYxZmNjMmE2YTBjOGQ1ZUBtZy1kMS5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20-IiwidSI6MTkyNTY5NTEyLCJyIjoiMDc0ZGw1a3VmZnYzMDRvdUBuZXdzbGV0dGVyLnJvZGVvIiwiZCI6Im1nLWQxLnN1YnN0YWNrLmNvbSIsInAiOjE3MDA2Mjc4MywidCI6Im5ld3NsZXR0ZXIiLCJhIjoiZXZlcnlvbmUiLCJzIjo2NjMzNTMsImMiOiJwb3N0IiwiZiI6dHJ1ZSwicG9zaXRpb24iOiJ0b3AiLCJpYXQiOjE3NTQzMTA3ODIsImV4cCI6MTc1NjkwMjc4MiwiaXNzIjoicHViLTAiLCJzdWIiOiJlbyJ9.Qhb5PxmuNgh6vQwvPuURb0FHkoIh928Ta4vIdzeR30s" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;"/><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">Independent wealth advisors consolidate. Blue J Legal's huge round.</div><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; 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&nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;</div><table class="email-body-container" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td class="content" width="550"></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td class="content" width="550" align="left"><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;max-width: 550px;width: 100%;margin: 0 auto;overflow-wrap: break-word;"><table role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td align="right" style="height:20px;"><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ tw-font-body tw-text-ssm tw-text-substack-secondary" style="font-family: SF Pro Text, -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, Inter, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol;font-size: 13px;color: unset;list-style: none;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset align-right-VJbKw5 size-12-mmZ61m reset-IxiVJZ" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-align: right;font-size: 12px;line-height: 16px;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">Forwarded this email? <a class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-underline-ClTkYc reset-IxiVJZ" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9jYW5hZGlhbmZpbnRlY2guc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL3N1YnNjcmliZT91dG1fc291cmNlPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1lbWFpbC1zdWJzY3JpYmUmcj0zNm5mbDQmbmV4dD1odHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRmNhbmFkaWFuZmludGVjaC5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20lMkZwJTJGY2FuYWRpYW4tZmludGVjaC1maXJzdC1uYXRpb25hbC1zY29vcGVkIiwicCI6MTcwMDYyNzgzLCJzIjo2NjMzNTMsImYiOnRydWUsInUiOjE5MjU2OTUxMiwiaWF0IjoxNzU0MzEwNzgxLCJleHAiOjIwNjk4ODY3ODEsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0wIiwic3ViIjoibGluay1yZWRpcmVjdCJ9.4Awv3SCmuHhRYItcVpLnOjmKzLmzybR2447kEUpSlLA?" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;-webkit-text-decoration-line: underline;text-decoration-line: underline;">Subscribe here</a> for more</span></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="post typography" dir="auto" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;padding: 32px 0 0 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><div class="post-header" role="region" aria-label="Post header" style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><h1 class="post-title published" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 0;line-height: 36px;font-size: 32px;"><a href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=663353&post_id=170062783&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=36nfl4&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxOTI1Njk1MTIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE3MDA2Mjc4MywiaWF0IjoxNzU0MzEwNzgxLCJleHAiOjE3NTY5MDI3ODEsImlzcyI6InB1Yi02NjMzNTMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.Q_Bebvfd3QYnMVfSBOkoVWjyiir5IIE7fTvVOS0zOZ4" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: none;">Canadian Fintech: First National Scooped &#127846;</a></h1><h3 class="subtitle" style="font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: normal;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 4px 0 0;color: #777777;line-height: 24px;font-size: 18px;margin-top: 12px;">Independent wealth advisors consolidate. Blue J Legal's huge round.</h3><table class="post-meta" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin: 1em 0;height: 20px;align-items: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA custom-css-email-post-author" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;text-decoration: none" href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz">Tal Schwartz</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(119,119,119);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><time datetime="2025-08-04T12:32:52.999Z">Aug 4</time></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td align="right"><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><a href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz"><img class="custom-css-email-avatar avatar-QIQ5yR" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!U74y!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc852364-628e-41e0-b9bb-8ebb278dc171_1902x1695.png" style="box-sizing: border-box;border-radius: 500000px;max-width: 550px;border: none;vertical-align: middle;width: 40px;height: 40px;min-width: 40px;min-height: 40px;object-fit: cover;margin: 0px;display: inline" width="40" height="40"></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="email-ufi-2-top" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(0,0,0,.1);border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0,0,0,.1);min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr height="16"><td height="16" style="font-size:0px;line-height:0;">&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><table role="presentation" width="38" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><a class="email-icon-button" 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Funding</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Common Wealth Retirement</strong><span>, a Toronto based group retirement platform for small businesses </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/85d10753-8880-4c19-96f0-6400f6efb3db?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $15m in debt from </span><strong>Flow</strong><span> </span><strong>Capital</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Ceedar</strong><span>, a Victoria based bookkeeping automation platform, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/6035b5f0-877d-4b85-b83b-782a88becf58?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $275k led by </span><strong>Metalab</strong><span> </span><strong>Ventures</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color:rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Blue J</strong><span>, a Toronto based AI platform for law firms raised $167m at a USD $300m valuation </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/937f52bc-e24b-4337-9652-917dec92de77?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">led</a><span> by </span><strong>Sapphire</strong><span> </span><strong>Ventures</strong><span> and </span><strong>Oak HC/FT</strong><span>,</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Cavelo</strong><span>, a Waterloo based cybersecurity firm focused on managed service providers (MSPs) </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/35f85446-1026-404f-8243-a31b269a04a7?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $5m from </span><strong>Inovia</strong><span> </span><strong>Capital</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#129309; M&amp;A</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>iA Financial</strong><span>acquired </span><strong>RF Capital</strong><span>, a Winnipeg based high net worth advisor for $600m.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">The deal makes iA one of the largest independent wealth advisors in Canada. RF had $40b in AUM and 189 advisors.</p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>It also continues a trend of industry consolidation. Last month </span><strong>BMO</strong><span> made a similar acquisition, buying </span><strong>Burgundy Asset Management</strong><span> for $625m.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Wellington-Altus</strong><span> up next?</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>First National</strong><span>, one of Canada&#8217;s largest non-bank mortgage lenders, is being sold to private equity for $2.9b.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">First National is known for its balance sheet light model. They originate mortgages and then sell most of them to institutional investors, making fees along the way. It&#8217;s what makes First National an incredibly collaborative player in the industry.</p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>I always thought at some point we&#8217;d see a megamerger between Stephen Smith&#8217;s holdings: </span><strong>First National</strong><span>,</span><strong> EQ </strong><span>and</span><strong> Fairstone</strong><span> - creating a viable competitor to the big 5.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Stephen Smith and his partner Moray Tawse will hold on to 19% of the company each and the remainder will go to </span><strong>Brookfield</strong><span> and </span><strong>Birch</strong><span> </span><strong>Hill</strong><span>, so there will continue to be strong partnerships between the institutions.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Smith </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/31e76255-df6f-4eed-a0e0-1717b4054e03?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">merged</a><span> </span><strong>Fairstone</strong><span> and </span><strong>Home Trust </strong><span>earlier this year for $6b.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Dye &amp; Durham</strong><span>, a Toronto based legal tech company best known for their corporate registry databases is finally considering a </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b0a1ca8a-52e5-44ec-8ce8-bf97742be1a8?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">sale</a><span> after months of </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f3320c8f-d51d-49cb-bb21-124d30e3abeb?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">infighting</a><span> between the board and the ousted ex-CEO.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128640; Product</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>NDAX</strong><span>, a Calgary based crypto exchange </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/7fa140a5-d2ce-43bf-8cbc-bf658f033181?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">partnered</a><span> with </span><strong>MeetAmi</strong><span>, a Vancouver based platform for wealth advisors to get their clients into crypto.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Money Mart</strong><span>, a subprime consumer lender, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/1be8b1f1-c7f7-478a-a1ab-ed01625dd616?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">launched</a><span> international payments via </span><strong>MoneyGram</strong><span>.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Last year they </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/9e4a2f9c-0504-47c4-8f7c-82e22a6b600e?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">partnered</a><span> with </span><strong>Koodo</strong><span>, to put prepaid phone plans in all of their Canadian locations.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Propra</strong><span>, a Calgary based property management software (accounting, maintenance requests, tenant communication) </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/cdebab82-d9ee-4338-94ad-be4a48e8b3f2?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">partnered</a><span> with </span><strong>Century 21</strong><span>, to power their Canadian property management division.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Wealthsimple</strong><span> now </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/08518f78-251e-4385-a2a9-f4e1d99af702?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">allows</a><span> customers to borrow money to invest using their investment portfolio as collateral in their registered accounts.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Every month I invest $250k in an early stage Canadian fintech.</p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Raising money?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b6059599-f221-424e-96a9-a321a0c05051?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Want to invest?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e01b1f16-94c8-4e5b-b7a0-a06e42dcb633?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Want to get in front of 13,013 fintech decision makers? Reply to this email to become a sponsor.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Have a great week! See ya &#128075;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-bottom: 0;"><span>-</span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/3d6e5a44-1c4f-4a70-a5e2-aa25161ebf19?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Tal Schwartz</a></p></div></div><div class="container-border" style="margin: 32px 0 0;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box;border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"></div><div class="post-cta typography markup" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;font-family: 'SF Pro Display', -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Inter', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 400;text-align: initial;word-break: break-word;margin-bottom: 32px;margin: 32px 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0 auto 20px;text-align: center;width:90%;line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-top: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">You're currently a free subscriber to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/74a4530d-fc0e-420b-8ad8-7147077b23ab?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech</a>. 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  13. Money Stuff: The Podcast: Matt Levine Ripped My Face Off

    Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:02:07 -0000

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="width: 100%;"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1"/> <title>Money Stuff</title> <style>body{width:100%;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;margin:0;padding:0}img{max-width:550px}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.lihide{display:none!important}.lishow{display:block!important;width:auto!important;overflow:visible!important;float:none!important;max-height:inherit!important;line-height:inherit!important}.email-ssl-image{width:100%!important;height:auto!important}.body-image img{width:100%!important}.logo-image{width:100%!important}}</style></head> <body style="width: 100%; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> <div style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;opacity:0;font-size:0px;border:0;max-height:1px;width:1px;margin:0px;padding:0px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0px!important;"><img border="0" width="1" height="1" src="https://post.spmailtechnolo.com/q/khYVIQWs5fIHXHXD7QTA4Q~~/AARGbBA~/7caJrYaofM67mZOG6zX53YePh9HMBEK37KhJE4hogGcfGokYpepc6JGrQmgcQ19Xx-JBn0sgwX-Ins2ZF9X0dlJVS7bqHNnaEyiaczwjSA4~" alt=""/></div> <span style="color:transparent;visibility:hidden;display:none;opacity:0;height:0;width:0;font-size:0;"></span><img src="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/eo/19Qios7n5TXq1ABBXzDm9IVJSMo-aZeYKlRtuTOJcrejJn635uYg6Xk_eN9vFhfP4TzNlg_gRDHD7m9gn_dw--lEpZMX6iWREYm5XbUnBK42bvan6K-fF-Nku91zt9YOsIK5zPzLx1Xqe1e5OubSpTkik-JF99UjDOm1jIW0b1lasRykyxoCE3mZyWbFeAyZ8YcUK2x4IS2rQtz-bcZh9SGTrVIl5nmQ7j2B/Cs31DsECCHg6xwJumofl7nUkdTdZDp3w/11" style="border:0;width:1px;height:1px;border-width:0px!important;display:none!important;line-height:0!important;" width="1" height="1"/> <table id="wrapper" width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 550px; width: 100% !important;"> <!--[if mso]><center> <tr><td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="550"><![endif]--> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <div style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now, in which Katie and I discuss retail private assets, offsetting unicorn closed-end </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 15px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 0px 10px;"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 5px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/DwaDgAqvWpYroC16_g9uuBz6cijF3dYW7aMnprZRKyqVLZjk8H0m0iUfs0BFhvwHTDimHi6OWVdMnlV1DZDu3xm0UyjSp_y0iyIMbunpBcoBR-bQyXYk4HtfzV_8wgwBLmNBYI2UZO4XPAIFSHZ-dCungT2mRHuW06GYGgts4SPwhjXVFpzwooZBxFxkW8FIuw3HDnyGpM60Zj7VBYHkqvfo6RRvRM0WqrCP9Ws-W5eZgLY0ftJnYn7iuke-CH6biXGzZOJM1pdU_Ft5bfB6CKb5XP628XURJCf0O0B8i3xoTMyu0Eb_wkt2ekX7Aiy-vap13pBuaL46hE1dXJYoWbKbiJfwdbKECC9QJNAGqWwEgcWTVgdPhJ4tvg/XbomlBj197EuaWdZmtcpUfUmakZ4R9-L/11"> <!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="Bloomberg" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img class="logo-image" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNRFZUq6PpLs/v0/-1x-1.png" border="0" alt="Bloomberg" style="max-width: 550px; width: 530px; display: block;"/><!--[if mso]></div><![endif]--> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <h2 style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; font-size: 26px; line-height: 28px; font-weight: normal; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; padding-top: 12px; margin: 20px 0px 0px;">Podcast</h2> </td> </tr> </table><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 16px 0;">This week’s episode of the Money Stuff podcast is out now, in which Katie and I discuss retail private assets, offsetting unicorn closed-end funds, Matt’s infrequent trading in his personal account, FX derivatives, unsophisticated clients, limited upside with unlimited downside, hurricanes, never-pay insurance policies and a call for mailbag questions. You can listen to this week’s episode <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/c23Hc1Vcy0HCetEs0uquqZJSddUl8lt0CpPlNY9vqaRCAZ-tZaQJNC1jsJgxlBKXjNx7aX9AwJCJ6f_MUEepg8szaZUy2gl-0EBKn5HP3OHdH-XEzTu99Is-4vuWUhdZGDdq5rGu6IuN0dmyq8VZDVbyvhYw8dzIPqT7EkGUaXU2EuTdw8cfIqfYU60TO7uarjERzVjGAQ6TSp7uBGKZvs-5O6OSYMA0PknRlhWZWCySaFEqPE5znu8yOkp0sj_PRaXfewOUUUV5e7lHmniJPUK8NKVy49Of3GLLn6IrxueCpVjPjv5w9uj1YLovgD_mQ5CQ9Gg68n2C8efn5wxNk61tkzRKQ_7wpGcz88Xks0jNs1WkwgC1gbYLug/73YgPYOooanL0HBJBKFePoNDKAGQo_1D/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank">here</a>:</p><div class="body-image" style="margin: 20px 0px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/yKBogq6czSSq3JH11KcF3ZAB-oVAcGuBKU2nw-sfZEJMHUr6-3SPW_jMXRsc1RxHkqNaBmhONf38zO5ffX0GdNvs7ncgJphB5pXpOMux2Lf9H1ysRAJSWx2l6o8njGG7p5eQyT6bVUV8jR2cRNv289-H04kWYODvH2zr2IhkSb1xidv9Z5bD8mgc7Di0P0W7Tz7Qxo-gtM67y0YnVE6uQ88VJWfl7srEhkKqol4-ci7FDn85wzdgPWCto10m13APTScVJF2vgiQMWEY0V92UWyEAJbgMpeIsQ5ayQigQ3UpEySPRbgj-g87BrZItV0ZDZMvffWpv1yRud3Q-ZXH-TcgFM8S9LOuwll9I6AzDWoOJRJf82JPWKQNKDw/_jVI28rui3TIgXvNWIVoaC9kinIWIXLd/11" target="_blank"><!--[if mso]><table width="550"><tr><td><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iS873rvbkdSI/v0/-1x-1.png" width="550"/></td></tr></table> <div style="display:none"><![endif]--><img alt="" src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iS873rvbkdSI/v0/-1x-1.png" style="max-width: 550px; display: block; width: 530px; margin: auto;"/><!--[if mso]></div><![endif]--></a> </div><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 16px 0;">You can get <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/u1KCgWPdEZLUAKfTLbA4H6JQL_jVUQSSrDTnwgIccDhECwF6QIybw0x2A37wgVEzPbed7o6Ze6azjiHL1jGaSluaSq6yCaH4Ds-vvKLW9Nf1AW3j8Erp7GDq5WsbBDiQjhiIfdIdKgTGhr91QziZSlaUHi7PCly52oCm41iQNoZ8qDvOTQGAoQP0sh_1WHmF_t02Y2lxPPrzSZPH9CDhdzcTutQlh-wUy7sF2JQDWiM_A04tFanRcGwS4BhHsweWqxjWssW9DuklHH-kEWiR-qqChQPZ5sGykgEOm6E2kZtjSDiPOdwk9c4DdzuSSIZL1dv6g7i3H_icr5bkBnFTOg3EAbmmUlojVguGUbE_grEbxan8XdJeuzMdWg/p_Q0LzVPq6GSEKdMiQOAi_9dEo6ggVIg/11" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" target="_blank">Money Stuff: The Podcast</a> at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love your feedback. You can email us at <a href="mailto:moneypod@bloomberg.net" target="_blank">moneypod@bloomberg.net</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 10px;"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 10px;"> <strong style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Follow Us</strong> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/oV6K_ksI2lzwpNhmGaylI1Ll6QgbDAI4MoV6CpIomK1IfFDo63a-kZe2Velr8u65WL5VzSKu-MfUiKxp6eKe3kHrUCu0qA4FLpcvnd5Yg3sbJA4aEmxjAaKTYumqYZV_QaSBhYN6__93XZlq-OP7Nv0W4fmkNTW09Sk2hMw8VDI8F5HrUoLMf0fCIntk1rL3sxfV8mR_XCx38T46a5MsHtBptHOVHv7K6GzdaiAaDt1eeRhDRHzfEBQPhuqYet6mf9_5ANE_67uaIeFP6O94SK29SaD4XNW5wAYjsiG3-_0GuGuNWGui9FK94YYM4cp_K_K-nTHhz2LqTloxeN8qTUt8aYxX8nRtOtReh98z1k2sBQOQJnnhZ6QoYQ/LURfUz3AmHICipmXrXRvDxIoWyS0j94z/11"> <img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i7G4HOaCfw0A/v0/-1x-1.png" width="39" height="39" style="max-width: 550px; vertical-align: middle; width: 39px !important; height: 39px !important;"/> </a> </td> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/83xpAiIU08Ei1uk4EvtFf8nGRkGZ8yDKN-bGUX0mOYV7OlPL2iU48WHArGZy_0mXSSu588992ptEsz8GiSJ5GIQG-X_hWg0SP8Ndg4wKGTnDWYSPhd5f1Ryw34CmqdNo61n6RQUDo8M4MATF-6r24ep3Jr6GJWRos5ctRjbirp9D7TB-KkISaY6B0kANwbfkQBwzqRHOmxGeeXeIED6V7uN53dAbJxqIMLhe4ZzvSDfzygDTEP6JMKbxmeeMn38WG94QidkJZcdQINKzqh3iAJEvj7JwJfEYjBLtxl2QVYJ2lUkxX9cjIwwJVrAgEjCDVsFgYdGfD-9V21dTqaWtldk5H9QpUulLm0Lp9FzNbHUKhpHfXseDypr8Jg/HjhFGV-8JxVgW8xDZe1LXVLpE8QdVBMO/11"> <img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iDRduxloBOSA/v0/-1x-1.png" width="39" height="39" style="max-width: 550px; vertical-align: middle; width: 39px !important; height: 39px !important;"/> </a> </td> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <a href="https://links.message.bloomberg.com/s/c/OmvgbFcAUX_0gzy1sgfFkDn8xzLu1QJQrLtAXLb2sUv9qRYapbUz-70-pU07oEcEZjk7Wz8UaY8PBMJrBhQ8qyjdRtwQUxh_Mx0gvxg0a_Q5K-sJkI6ovmAB9SskENizsW3TBXprRL8tyaz9d4chg6Js9YJAODbXwnBVPMkGCFDevQ-NzRLlDjmGlSZfCADLlKceX-PhYt3osqTG6q9fxYgOR3fgUPfKJSEQuOdW8puWvXNFblZGak1xDsz2he9d5J-sFeUd6nMA-CD0zBIrZ4D2gvSdqH9dQ1_WcA5tUdOlmybQe8aN66gWfJVAX7wXEPSjhyDGRwkusxWHLGY8KTOlBee6Yv0QtYDYw0cGrccrcQ5clJWO1x1emQ/b5crHmkbGgGp4AgXBSqDWqXt0-hlASnP/11"> <img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i5QE5__h22bE/v0/-1x-1.png" width="39" height="39" style="max-width: 550px; vertical-align: middle; width: 39px !important; height: 39px !important;"/> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 0px 10px;"> <table width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding: 20px 0px;"> <table width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 150%;"> <tr> <td style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; padding-bottom: 10px;"> You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Money Stuff newsletter. 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  14. CardsFTW #160: New Rakuten Amex Launches

    Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:15:15 -0000

    <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <!--[if mso]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch><o:AllowPNG/></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <title>CardsFTW #160: New Rakuten Amex Launches</title> <style> .post-title-link { display: block; margin-top: 32px; color: #15212A; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; } .post-title-link-left { text-align: left; } .view-online-link { word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline !important; } .kg-nft-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 4px; } .kg-twitter-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; 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} table.body .kg-cta-minimal .kg-cta-content-inner { display: inline-block !important; width: 100% !important; padding: 0 !important; } table.body .kg-cta-minimal img.kg-cta-image { width: 52px !important; height: 52px !important; } } @media all { .subscription-details p.hidden { display: none !important; } .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } .apple-link a { color: inherit !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; font-weight: inherit !important; line-height: inherit !important; text-decoration: none !important; } #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; } } </style> </head> <body style="background-color: #fff; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, Southwest Card Fee Increases, AI Card Design, and A LOT more</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <!-- Header content constrained to 600px --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header-main" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: transparent;" width="100%" bgcolor="transparent"> <tr> <td class="header-content" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 0; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="header-image-row"> <td class="header-image" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-top: 24px; padding-bottom: 16px;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/2c052b7a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/size/w1200/2024/01/cftw-logo-3.png" width="600" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%;"> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-title post-title-with-excerpt post-title-serif post-title-color" style="font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; text-align: center; color: #000000; padding-bottom: 8px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em;" valign="top" align="center"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; color: #000000;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d832358c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #160: New Rakuten Amex Launches</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-excerpt-wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%; max-width: 600px;" width="100%" valign="top"> <p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-no-feature-image post-excerpt-serif-sans" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, Southwest Card Fee Increases, AI Card Design, and A LOT more</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By Matthew Goldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">30 Jul 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3f15d126?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0cb6a17c?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <!-- MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="body" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="citi-strata-elite-officially-launches" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Citi Strata Elite <em>Officially</em> Launches</h1><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/07/citi-strata-elite-credit-card.webp" class="kg-image" alt="Black card with silver stripes, the Citi bank logo in the top left and Mastercard logo in the bottom right." loading="lazy" width="342" height="216" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Very monochromatic. I guess they missed that &quot;quiet luxury&quot; is over.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As mentioned in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/46636a95?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>CardsFTW #159</em></a> last week, Citi <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/bec909d5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">officially announced</a> the Strata Elite. They claim this card is meant to avoid the &quot;coupon book of perks and benefits&quot; and &quot;You shouldn&#x2019;t need a math degree and a spreadsheet to track your credit card benefits!&quot; They&#39;re right. You should have an app. Or, you know, a Wallaby card. (wink, wink)</p><h1 id="the-new-rakuten-american-express-card" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">The New Rakuten American Express Card</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Rakuten, the Japan-based global shopping conglomerate, announced its new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4e071352?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Rakuten American Express Card</u></a>, powered by fintech program manager Imprint and issued by First Electronic Bank last week. Both the American Express network, which was recently announced as the brand on the upcoming Coinbase card, and Imprint, which has announced a number of new cards, are on a tear of announcing new programs.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeYPxpBsUqQ1y3vbhX4oxTLd2fFgYGaK05uOo7MnUtKp1xs_vlVRsmUdBL-_Kn7VUlE9AzNfvfzy54lB5ZG-syNVkgcd0dwfXM0sQeD6WeGm7ivhMaPBL8dhEftWCrsc1-AlXWp?key=CHVHIuxyq0yQ1NakNzrxIw" class="kg-image" alt="Purple credit card with a silver Rakuten logo in the top left corner and a silver American Express logo in the bottom right corner." loading="lazy" width="320" height="192" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Giving me old SPG Amex vibes (RIP SPG)</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Imprint now powers the Turkish Airlines Miles&amp;Smiles Visa Signature Card, H-E-B Visa Signature Card, Horizon Hobby Visa Card, Holiday Inn Club Vacations World Mastercard, World of Westgate World Mastercard, Brooks Brothers World Mastercard, Eddie Bauer World Mastercard, and the Rakuten Amex.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Unannounced, but seen in the fine print on <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e3434c78?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>https://imprint.co/products</u></a> is an upcoming new product: the Fetch American Express Card, which will be coming soon, according to <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/82fd8cab?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>this page</u></a> at Fetch Rewards. For those unfamiliar with Fetch, it is a shopping rewards app in the same vein as Rakuten, which had a big Super Bowl TV ad earlier this year.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeatfnkv1YEuusThSYjgzp0bN1hC05kfpuCYE81XIPV2Zs9heU2Yqc_u8b1vL-guBkODNtEDWkFxaXpMubR0V13-ls9hbjD_UNZwQDRSJZ71FnGIF4Ax8a1fZKoy6Qix2gPe9G-Nw?key=CHVHIuxyq0yQ1NakNzrxIw" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="574" height="310" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spend a lot of time reading bottom of the page disclosures.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The Rakuten card isn&#x2019;t a brand-new product; it replaces an earlier Visa issued by Synchrony that went on hiatus in 2022.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The new Rakuten Amex has a $25 account opening bonus (with $500 spend in the first 90 days) and a 4% boost on Rakuten online or in-person purchases, up to $7,000 of spending per calendar year. The card also earns 5% at Rakuten dining, 2% on groceries and non-Rakuten dining, and 1% everywhere else.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There has been a bit of online confusion, but Rakuten rewards members can earn their Rakuten cash as American Express Membership Rewards points, which could be a good deal if you know how to use MR points. This is a strong no-fee offering, assuming all your card points can also turn into MR points. Card members can choose between purple and silver cards, both of which are metal.</p><h1 id="totavi-research-survey" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Totavi Research Survey</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">As long-time readers know, my day job is running Totavi, a leading fintech product, marketing, and compliance consulting agency. We <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/eeacd77f?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">publish research</a> throughout the year on important topics, like our recently published <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/a7214a43?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Core Processor Market Analysis</a>. What do you want to see in our next report? Take a quick survey to let us know:</p><table class="kg-card kg-button-card" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="kg-card-spacing" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 0 0 1.5em 0;" valign="top"><table class="btn" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; box-sizing: border-box; width: auto;" width="auto"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 8px 20px 9px; background-color: #F9A60D; border-radius: 6px; text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" valign="top" bgcolor="#F9A60D"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/c848b0a1?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; box-sizing: border-box; color: #FFFFFF; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Tell us what you think!</a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><h1 id="southwest-visa-card-fee-increases" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Southwest Visa Card Fee Increases</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Southwest Airlines is having a rough year. Like many long-time Southwest fliers, I am disappointed in the upcoming changes to the airline, such as baggage fees and assigned seating. (An aside: I rarely fly SWA anymore, but I have hundreds of flights under my belt. I grew up with Southwest cattle call boarding, and I know how to use it to my advantage! Ask me about my Southwest-seat duffel bag.)</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">To add insult to injury, Southwest&#x2019;s card partner, Chase, is increasing fees across all Southwest Cards and changing benefits. New cardholders will see these changes immediately.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There are five Southwest cards, three for consumers (Plus, Premier, Priority) and two for businesses (Premier and Performance). Fee increases range from $30 at the low end (Plus going to $99 from $69) to $100 (on the Business Performance card, moving up to $299). At the same time, Southwest is offering some hefty signup bonuses, I was sent a 100,000 mile offer for the $99 Plus card.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Now that Southwest is charging for bags and seating, these new cards will include benefits like a free first checked bag, earlier boarding group access, and seat selection benefits.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">A lot is going on here:&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXchHEqsSygy8-KyjgngSqEMGHvwFlSK8I8SsEORYjwGUaRLLFrPqPMgUW3xVwb-UlJMeXCnxEPMXZgYcmRMN2cf9fhivH8nBhY7zO5-0Y-GFByD2klhEUozevrVyUdJDHvh7J1z?key=CHVHIuxyq0yQ1NakNzrxIw" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="619" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">I get that you want peopple to choose the middle one, but shouldn&#39;t the most expensive one have the most features?</span></div></div><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfhGF16BaeHCUzGVZgXNdLtDpLtWrOfYlK2iFI_qS9r_J_876zHSGKvNNiruhZ4_nGxd-bIKk8iTJj7kBbI9kx2u82i5pADkhIdJZKmtd1bUprRQjNXpK1Dc-C6Ihfq5rkzztzCCQ?key=CHVHIuxyq0yQ1NakNzrxIw" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="727" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">So many lines and checkboxes</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">If I flew Southwest frequently, these might make sense, but I don&#x2019;t even want to figure this out right now. Coupon book rewards really <strong style="font-weight: 700;">are</strong> everywhere.</p><div></div><h1 id="ai-card-design" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">AI Card Design</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Mastercard loves a new technology trend. Jumping on the AI train, the company announced its new <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/47768c4a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>AI Card Design Studio</u></a>, to help people design cards. Card design is challenging and is a spot where many new card programs get stuck on decisions. I wrote about design in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6ea784e5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>CardsFTW #142</em></a>.&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeqp8w1am5csy0QOjzCtZ77D5GX_AuzlOBRDXNfSu6M9lk4soabwrTduwPean-t_4GIPtqmxkHGgJKqUhrnoYglUEcCwMlMGpGijtNfT7Ney4un2N3oNrZ_dMxMM_Di-cYToeRI?key=CHVHIuxyq0yQ1NakNzrxIw" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="388" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">very beautiful, but that is the wrong chip</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I don&#x2019;t know why you need Mastercard here&#x2014;there are lots of AI tools. These cards are pretty and I am going to call out Mastercard on the samples here that use Apple&#x2019;s proprietary chip.</p><h1 id="goodbye-synovus" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Goodbye, Synovus</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Prior to the Dodd-Frank Act, sponsor banks weren&#x2019;t exclusively small community banks. When I joined Green Dot in 2006, our primary banking partner was Synovus Financial, via several of its charters like Columbus Bank &amp; Trust and The National Bank of South Carolina. At one point, Synovus comprised more than 30 separate state and federally chartered banks. Following a consolidation of charters, Synovus <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e3c10b63?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>announced</u></a> last week that it will merge with Pinnacle Financial. Pinnacle shareholders will own 51.5% of the combined company, so I&#39;m preparing to say goodbye to this brand.</p><h1 id="samsung-wallet-adds-flexible-payments" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Samsung Wallet Adds Flexible Payments</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">In the mobile wallet wars, folks often focus on Apple Pay and Google Pay (or Wallet, or whatever they call it these days). Samsung <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/b6894e68?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>announced</u></a> some new features for the wallet on their phones, including built-in split payments (pay in four) with Splitit. The company says you must have a valid Visa or Mastercard (excluding Chase, which isn&#x2019;t participating) and available credit on your existing credit card. Available split options include: six payments every two weeks, eight payments every two weeks, six monthly payments, and nine monthly payments.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The Splitit <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f67d2292?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>help desk</u></a> helps us figure this out:&#xA0;</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"> <ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">You make a purchase in-store at a Merchant</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">If the purchase is eligible for an installment plan, after checkout you will be given multiple plan options to choose from with the associated interest/fees for each plan <ul style="line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em 0 1em; list-style: circle;"> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">You must make a selection within 24-hours otherwise your purchase will be paid in full</li> </ul> </li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">After selecting a plan option, Splitit will proceed with creating your installment plan and you will see the following transactions on your credit card: <ul style="line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em 0 1em; list-style: circle;"> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">A temporary authorization for the full purchase amount</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">A temporary authorization for the amount of interest Splitit will charge you for creating the plan</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Your first installment payment <ul style="line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em 0 1em; list-style: square;"> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Future installment payments are charged automatically according to the biweekly or monthly option you chose when creating your plan</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">The date each installment payment is charged cannot be changed</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Transactions on your card will be listed as: Splitit_Merchant Name</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">The APR% for your plan will never change</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">There is no pre-payment penalty and you can make extra payments at any time in the Splitit Shopper Portal</li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">To update the credit card on file for your plan, please login to the Splitit Shopper Portal and select the button to &quot;Update Card&quot; <ul style="line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em 0 1em; list-style: circle;"> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">All card updates will result in a new, temporary authorization for the current balance of your plan</li> </ul> </li> <li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">You plan will continue until it is paid in full</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">In short, they authorize your card to make sure you have credit, then they charge your payments directly to your card (stacking a loan payment on a credit card, which I thought would be a problem under network rules). In the end, you pay Splitit interest, instead of your credit card, plus additional network fees. This doesn&#x2019;t seem like a good deal vs. standard BNPL <strong style="font-weight: 700;">or</strong> fixed repayment on credit cards. Also, Splitit really needed to capitalize that second &quot;i&quot;.</p><div class="align-center" style="text-align: center;"><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you for subscribing to&#xA0;CardsFTW. Please consider supporting this newsletter&#xA0;by upgrading to a paid subscription today.</span></p><div class="btn btn-accent"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/14213690?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Upgrade to Paid</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"></p><hr style="position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb;"></div><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/57317d5f?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. 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color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">Comment</p> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="latest-posts-container" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 24px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb;" valign="top"> <h3 class="latest-posts-header" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 8px 0 8px; color: #15212A; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase;">Keep reading</h3> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f807805e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #164: Protecting Cards &amp; Data</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/43a18757?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, ISO 20022 in 2025</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; 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font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-top: 40px; padding-bottom: 30px;"> <tr><td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span>Totavi, LLC,&#xA0;2108&#xA0;N St., Ste. N,&#xA0;Sacramento, CA 95816</span></p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center">CardsFTW &#xA9; 2025 &#x2013; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/unsubscribe/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac&newsletter=4537ad55-eebc-4678-b2bf-fd6731d3805e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Unsubscribe</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="footer-powered" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; text-align: center; padding-top: 70px; padding-bottom: 40px;" valign="top" align="center"><a href="https://ghost.org/?via=pbg-newsletter&amp;ref=cardsftw.com" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.ghost.org/v4.0.0/images/powered.png" border="0" width="142" height="30" class="gh-powered" alt="Powered by Ghost" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; width: 142px; height: 30px;"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END CENTERED WHITE CONTAINER --> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <img width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://email.mg.cardsftw.com/o/eJwszktu7SAMANDVXGY3woD5DLwYYpsk7yVFIrRRd1-p6vDMjpDP4BGNEiT0uTiAYPSqx_k-hGLONaBNKo1VoK64sgeNZqcGkmOLylwEqgTGkkrgKMLKysEc5KxDm7yFCAh2WaU5RO-1BNGE_hXstS1ch9xtPgv3ywyaD8L3v7nJft7DdXkF-6HPfeqcOpbRRbuZtH6e_9-_SzNp2_s9__RF7icAAP__TEJBgQ"></body> </html>
  15. Canadian Fintech: Why TD is getting out of payments 💸

    Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:33:45 -0000

    <html style="scrollbar-width: thin;scrollbar-color: rgb(219,219,219)rgb(255,255,255);"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Canadian Fintech: Why TD is getting out of payments &#128184;</title><style> @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .typography:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); 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} .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell, .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell { margin: 0 0 16px 0; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { width: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls { margin: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls .button.primary { width: 100%; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-text { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) { .post-silhouette { padding: 32px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-title { margin-top: 10.44225025px; height: 120px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta { width: 75%; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta.with-byline-image { margin: 20px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { padding-right: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button { height: 36px !important; /* important to override in-line height style on emails */ } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button .meta-button-label { display: none; } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button > svg { margin-right: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .floating-subscribe-button { bottom: 20px; right: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 1024px) { body .pullquote-align-left, body .pullquote-align-right, body .pullquote-align-wide, body .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { body .markup table.image-wrapper img, body .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (min-width: 1300px) { body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (max-width: 1024px) { body { /* Disable offset on mobile/tablet */ } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) { float: none; margin: 1em auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto; padding: 0; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left.thefp), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right.thefp) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left) .image2-inset, body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) .image2-inset { display: block; justify-content: initial; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed { margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; } body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed:first-child { margin-top: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.youtube-overlay, body .markup div.vimeo-overlay { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { body .markup div.tiktok-wrap { width: calc(95vw - 32px); height: calc((95vw - 32px - 2px) / 0.485714); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.embedded-publication-wrap .embedded-publication.show-subscribe { padding: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe { padding: 0px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button { padding: 10px 12px; min-width: 110px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet { padding: 12px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-text { font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.two, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.three, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.four { height: 200px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-img { max-height: 180px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-description { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .apple-podcast-container { width: unset; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed img.install-substack-app-embed-img { margin: 0 auto 16px auto; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-text { margin: 0 0 12px 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; text-align: center; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-link { display: flex; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { body .header a.logo { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 420px) { body .subscription-receipt table:first-of-type .subscription-amount .subscription-discount { width: 72px !important; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { body .share-button-container { height: auto; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { body .share-button-container .separator { display: block !important; margin: 0 !important; height: 8px !important; border-left: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .digest .item .post-meta-item.audience { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { .digest-publication .logo img { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 8px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comments-page .container .comment-list .collapsed-reply { margin-left: calc(10 + 32px - 24px); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comment > .comment-list { padding-left: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .finish-magic-login-modal .modal-content .container { padding: 24px 0; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-b3 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-h4 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .user-profile-modal { padding-left: 12px; padding-right: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .subscribe-widget form.form .sideBySideWrap button.rightButton { padding: 10px 12px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .pub-icon:hover .logo-hover, .feed-item-icon:hover .logo-hover { display: block; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper { width: 100%; padding: 16px; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper:empty { display: none; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button { width: 100%; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor:active { padding: 0; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 650px) { .file-embed-button.wide, .file-embed-error-button.wide { display: none; } } @media only screen and (min-width: 630px) { .file-embed-button.narrow, .file-embed-error-button.narrow { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player { min-width: 500px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media (min-width: 250px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player { padding: 32px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:last-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 300px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-title { margin-top: 16px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 15%; width: 15%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 25%; width: 25%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 40%; width: 40%; } } @media (max-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { margin-top: 12px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button { font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 12px; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; } } @media (min-width: 600px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 55%; width: 55%; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .poll-editor-modal { min-width: calc(100% - 20px); } } @media (max-width: 750px) { .poll-embed .poll-anchor-target .poll-anchor-copy-button { left: 8px; top: 45px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { width: 552px; padding: 26px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { padding: 40px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-row .modal-cell .modal-exit-btn { margin-right: -20px; } }</style></head><body class="email-body" style="font-kerning: auto;--image-offset-margin: -120px;"><img src="https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUwNzI4MTIzMjAyLjMuYjA3M2Y2M2IyMWNjY2I5MkBtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tPiIsInUiOjE5MjU2OTUxMiwiciI6IjA3NGRsNWt1ZmZ2MzA0b3VAbmV3c2xldHRlci5yb2RlbyIsImQiOiJtZzIuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tIiwicCI6MTY5NDMwNjgxLCJ0IjoibmV3c2xldHRlciIsImEiOiJldmVyeW9uZSIsInMiOjY2MzM1MywiYyI6InBvc3QiLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTc1MzcwNjAxNCwiZXhwIjoxNzU2Mjk4MDE0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImVvIn0.iUTySojxB6aYG82r_GWYMUUYokyiuJ-A3HSCsHKg6kA" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;"/><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">goConfirm will pay you if you get scammed. Addy launches a b2b offering.</div><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; 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Addy launches a b2b offering. </h3><table class="post-meta" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin: 1em 0;height: 20px;align-items: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA custom-css-email-post-author" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: 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Welcome back to the Canadian Fintech Newsletter, an industry roundup for founders, operators and investors.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Every Monday we break down the hottest topics in the industry in under 3 minutes.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><span>If you&#8217;re a </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/82f2e755-93a5-4976-8f96-67dca9350cab?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">paid subscriber</a><span>, you also get access to the </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/76e9e5e5-799b-4d7a-88a8-4b08fdee20a1?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech Database</a><span> - a detailed list of every fintech acquisition in Canada.</span></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Was this forwarded to you? Become one of our 12,965 subscribers by clicking below.</p><div class="subscribe-widget is-signed-up" data-component-name="SubscribeWidget" style="margin: 0 0 1em;direction: ltr;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset button-wrapper" style="text-decoration: unset;list-style: none;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;border-radius: 4px;"><a class="button subscribe-btn primary" href="https://substack.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.-g12lwJ0iAIIdxcX8oepm1hKvmN3EC69W7Hjo-ywyUw?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=subscribe-widget&utm_content=169430681" style="font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';display: inline-block;box-sizing: border-box;cursor: pointer;border: none;border-radius: 8px;font-size: 14px;line-height: 20px;font-weight: 600;text-align: center;opacity: 1;outline: none;white-space: nowrap;text-decoration: none !important;margin: 0 auto;background-color: #e85c57;color: #ffffff !important;padding: 12px 20px;height: auto;"><span style="color: #ffffff;text-decoration: none;">Upgrade to paid</span></a></div></div><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128176; Funding</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>xTAO</strong><span>, a crypto infrastructure firm built on the Bittensor network, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/69593b7f-2c35-45f8-ac4d-e27321968ef5?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> $23m going public on the </span><strong>TSXV</strong><span>.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>xTAO is founded by the founder of </span><strong>Wonderfi</strong><span>, a crypto exchange recently </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/2573c977-ff9d-4cba-8867-7d57cfd67e4b?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">acquired</a><span> by </span><strong>Robinhood</strong><span> for $250m.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>OpenSesame</strong><span>, a Toronto based company that helps clients embed AI agents into their existing enterprise software, </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/eb1233f1-a325-4a3e-8ea4-689226254620?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> USD $1m from </span><strong>a16z</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#129309; M&amp;A</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>TD</strong><span> is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/18492c3d-c0fb-40be-8b77-550a82084f6f?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">selling</a><span> its merchant payment business to </span><strong>Fiserv</strong><span>.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;">TD was the last major Canadian bank still operating its merchant processing unit:</p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>RBC &amp; BMO: co-own </span><strong>Moneris</strong></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>CIBC: outsources to </span><strong>Global Payments</strong></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Scotiabank: outsources to </span><strong>JP Morgan</strong></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Why? Payment processing is a competitive, low margin, tech intensive business. Outsourcing allows TD to focus on banking while earning a referral fee on payments and retaining the client relationship.</p></li></ul></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128640; Product</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>goConfirm</strong><span>, an anti-scam app that allows people to safely buy &amp; sell things online from strangers (via Facebook, Whatsapp, Reddit, etc.) </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/553522f7-7da4-41b0-a29d-352d1b5c7d3c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">launched</a><span> free payment loss protection up to USD $250.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Blossom</strong><span>, an app for retail investors to share stock tips, is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/34437bc6-bc50-40a8-ac7a-013364e02656?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">live</a><span> in 32 countries and has had 4x revenue in the last year to </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/986af2c8-949f-4206-8228-ddd188b31d8d?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU"rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">nearly</a><span> $1m.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Addy</strong><span>, a fractional real estate investment platform connecting issuers and investors is launching a b2b offering.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Exempt Market Dealers will be able to use Addy to run transactions for their own investors (handle KYC, money transfers, etc.)</p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Addy now joins a list of Canadian fintechs providing capital markets software for whitelabel private market investing: </span><strong>DealMaker</strong><span> &amp; </span><strong>Capiche</strong><span> (private placements), </span><strong>Vessel</strong><span> &amp; </span><strong>Brio</strong><span> (venture capital GP investing).</span></p></li></ul></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Every month I invest $250k in an early stage Canadian fintech.</p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Raising money?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/4fbef590-870c-41b8-b338-80d40289739d?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Want to invest?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/11074ea4-c77b-4528-9b1e-dcd87ae941c5?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Want to get in front of 12,965 fintech decision makers? Reply to this email to become a sponsor.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Have a great week! See ya &#128075;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-bottom: 0;"><span>-</span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/44e3e7d1-3ada-4f60-94a8-964c9be2db13?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Tal Schwartz</a></p></div></div><div class="container-border" style="margin: 32px 0 0;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box;border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"></div><div class="post-cta typography markup" style="--image-offset-margin: -120px;font-family: 'SF Pro Display', -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Inter', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 400;text-align: initial;word-break: break-word;margin-bottom: 32px;margin: 32px 0;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0 auto 20px;text-align: center;width: 90%;line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;margin-top: 0;"><span class="pencraft pc-reset reset-IxiVJZ" translated="" style="list-style: none;color: unset;text-decoration: unset;margin: 0;">You're currently a free subscriber to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/43b1245e-a0a3-424a-9674-cbe371e75358?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech</a>. 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href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=663353&post_id=169430681&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&isFreemail=true&comments=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxOTI1Njk1MTIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE2OTQzMDY4MSwiaWF0IjoxNzUzNzA2MDE0LCJleHAiOjE3NTYyOTgwMTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi02NjMzNTMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.Q-Z5v6tfNqCP9E1QQOLHeDDY4wIOCitNMMiyxmcZdKs&r=36nfl4&utm_campaign=email-half-magic-comments&action=post-comment&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" style="font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';display: inline-block;font-weight: 500;border: 1px solid rgb(0,0,0,.1);border-radius: 9999px;text-transform: uppercase;font-size: 12px;line-height: 12px;padding: 9px 14px;text-decoration: none;color: rgb(119,119,119);"><img class="icon" 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href="https://substack.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.4JWR_WBSbtHAhwFspSsTSU0cdV5OU988giXRQnmFlgY?&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" style="font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';display: 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style="font-size:0px;line-height:0;">&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="footer footer-ZM59BM" style="color: rgb(119,119,119);text-align: center;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;padding: 24px0;"><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;padding-bottom: 24px"><p class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s size-12-mmZ61m reset-IxiVJZ small meta-B2bqa5" style="list-style: none;font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';padding-bottom: 0;font-size: 12px;line-height: 16px;margin: 0;color: rgb(119,119,119);text-decoration: unset;">&#169; 2025 <span>Tal Schwartz</span><br>221 Clinton St. Toronto, Canada, M6G 2Y4 <br><a 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  16. CardsFTW #165: Everyone Wants a Super-Premium Card

    Wed, 23 Jul 2025 15:43:20 -0000

    <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <!--[if mso]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch><o:AllowPNG/></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <title>CardsFTW #165: Everyone Wants a Super-Premium Card</title> <style> .post-title-link { display: block; margin-top: 32px; color: #15212A; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; } .post-title-link-left { text-align: left; } .view-online-link { word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline !important; } .kg-nft-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 4px; } .kg-twitter-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; 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font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, Gaming Cards and the Endof Chase Dining (Did You Know That Existed?)</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; 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text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, Gaming Cards and the End of Chase Dining (Did You Know That Existed?)</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By MatthewGoldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">23 Jul 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1c4460b5?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/794db710?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; 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font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="how-far-can-premium-go" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">How Far Can Premium Go?</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I wrote in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/3629929e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>CardsFTW #161</u></em></a> about the upcoming changes to the flagship Chase Sapphire Reserve. It&#x2019;s a popular topic amongst credit card nerds, mass-affluent millennials, and fintech folks. All of us are always watching Chase.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">It&#x2019;s not just us: I noted in that post that American Express, who pioneered the ultra-premium credit card space, tried to get in front of the Chase announcement by letting everyone know that changes to the Platinum card are upcoming. (If anyone at Amex is reading this, I&#x2019;m waiting for you to make the Platinum card unequivocally better than the Gold Card. I feel like the Gold card, both personal and business, is a better deal. Amex has said this will be its &#x201C;largest investment ever&#x201D; in the Platinum card, so they better make it worth it!)</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Not to be outdone by Chase+Visa and American Express, news about Citigroup+Mastercard is hitting the market. <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f0501d62?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u><em>Bloomberg</em> reported</u></a> that Citibank announced during an earnings presentation last week that it plans to launch a new version of its Strata Card called &#x201C;Strata Elite&#x201D; in the third quarter which &#x201C;rounds out our family of proprietary rewards cards.&#x201D;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Terms and images of the new card leaked to the Internet this week.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/07/stata-elite.jpeg" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="283" height="178" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leaked card image</span></div></div><h2 id="citi-strata-elite-rewards" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Citi Strata Elite Rewards</h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Citi&#39;s flagship cards earn ThankYou Points, which are a transferable points currency. Like other premium cards, the big win here is for travel booked via Citi&#39;s proprietary travel platform. Amex and Chase do this as well. The problem with these portals is the pricing isn&#39;t market-leading. I can often find better deals on the hotel&#39;s or airline&#39;s proprietary website, especially if I can use an easy discount code like AAA. How is it that Citi, Chase, and Amex can&#39;t at least match AAA?</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Strata Elite will earn:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">12 points per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked via Citi Travel</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">6 points per dollar on airfare booked through Citi Travel</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">6 points per dollar at restaurants during &quot;Citi Nights&quot; which is Friday 6:00 PM through Saturday 6:00 AM ET, or Saturday 6:00 PM through Sunday 6:00 AM ET. </li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">3 points per dollar at restaurants other times of the week</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">1.5 points per dollar on everything else</li></ul><div class="kg-card kg-callout-card kg-callout-card-blue" style="display: flex; margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; padding: 24px; border-radius: 8px; background: #E9F6FB;"><div class="kg-callout-emoji" style="padding-right: 12px; font-size: 20px;">&#x23F0;</div><div class="kg-callout-text" style="color: inherit;">A decade ago, Chase had First Fridays, when Chase Sapphire Preferred (pre-Reserve) cards would earn extra points on the first Friday of the month. At the time that was a unique rule&#x2013;just one day. This is the first time I&#39;ve seen such a hyper-specific rule as a 12-hour period twice each week for a bonus. (This is why we build custom reward platforms!)</div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Like other ultra-premium cards, there are a number of additional cash credits, such as:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">$300 hotel benefit via Citi Travel</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">$200 Annual Splurge Credit (this appears to be a surprise merchant activation; details are sparse, although assume it involves entertainment and/or travel)</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">$200 credit to Blacklane chauffeur service</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">GlobalEntry/TSA Precheck Credits</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">There are also a few other non-cash benefits:</p><ul style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: disc; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Discounted annual fee for Citigold banking customers</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">PriorityPass Select</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">4 passes to the American Airlines Admirals Club</li></ul><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Given the price increases from Chase and the upcoming changes from Amex, this card feels like it was designed to compete with the prior versions of these cards. I expect a 2026 refresh.</p><h2 id="mastercard-world-legend" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Mastercard World Legend</h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The new Citi Strata Elite card will be a Mastercard World Legend card, which is a new type of BIN (Bank Identification Number). Visa and Mastercard have product types that are structured by BIN and have looked like this to date:</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/size/w1600/2025/07/CardsFTW--165-3.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="419" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know the Rewards level gets called Platinum, but I&#39;m making a point here</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Visa Infinite was launched in 2015 by City National Bank before Chase Sapphire Reserve launched as an Infinite card.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I have long thought of the Infinite as pairing up with World Elite, but perhaps it will pair against Legend? Or perhaps Legend is a level higher.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/68d12b7e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>press release</u></a> about World Legend doesn&#x2019;t say much, but it does indicate some timing:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">Mastercard is launching the World Legend Mastercard &#x2013; its most prestigious consumer card to date. Designed for individuals who want access to exceptional and exclusive experiences that bring them closer to their passions, World Legend is available to banks globally today and will debut to cardholders in the U.S. in Q3 2025, followed by a broader international rollout.</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Sounds expensive to me.</p><h1 id="me-elsewhere" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Me, Elsewhere</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Conference season is starting. Half of my calls last week included the question, &#x201C;What are you attending this fall?&#x201D; </p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Here are a few places you can find me (by date order):</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ad500d7a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Fintech Devcon</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: 700;">, Denver, CO, August 4 - 6. </strong>I&#x2019;ll be speaking on rewards ledgers. It&#x2019;s not too late to register and join me. Use code&#xA0; &quot;Friend25&quot; for $195 off registration or $1,000 flat rate.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/b5cbb846?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">SardineCon</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: 700;">, San Francisco, CA August 20.</strong> </li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d38a08c2?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Money20/20</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: 700;">, Las Vegas, October 26-29.</strong> My colleague Ellen Dearborn, Principal at Totavi, will moderate a panel on credit cards.</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d4d42575?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><strong style="font-weight: 700;">Fintech NerdCon</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: 700;">, Miami, November 19-20.</strong> I&#x2019;ll be speaking about something super nerdy.&#xA0;Promise. Discussions have already caused rolled-eyes and Googling.</li></ol><h2 id="fintech-takes" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Fintech Takes</h2><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I appeared last week on Alex Johnson&#x2019;s <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/550db8c0?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>Fintech Takes</em></a> podcast. We talked about Chase Sapphire Reserve, Bilt, and stablecoins.</p><div> <!--[if !mso !vml]--> <div class="kg-card kg-bookmark-card " style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0; width: 100%;"> <a class="kg-bookmark-container" href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/db498771?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="display: flex; min-height: 148px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; border-radius: 3px; background-color: #ffffff; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25); border: 1px solid #e0e7eb; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12); overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> <div class="kg-bookmark-content" style="display: inline-block; width: 100%; padding: 20px;"> <div class="kg-bookmark-title" style="color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; font-weight: 600;">Fintech Takes: Cards, Rent, and Crypto &#x2014; Fintech Takes &#x2014; Overcast</div> <div class="kg-bookmark-description" style="display: -webkit-box; overflow-y: hidden; margin-top: 12px; max-height: 40px; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; font-weight: 400; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; -webkit-box-orient: vertical;"></div> <div class="kg-bookmark-metadata" style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; margin-top: 14px; color: #15212A; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400;"> <img class="kg-bookmark-icon" src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/icon/logo-black-2.svg" alt style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; margin-right: 8px; width: 22px; height: 22px; display: none;" width="22" height="22"> <span class="kg-bookmark-author" src="Overcast" style="line-height: 1.5em;">Overcast</span> </div> </div> <div class="kg-bookmark-thumbnail" style="min-width: 140px; max-width: 180px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; background-position: center; border-radius: 0 2px 2px 0; background-image: url(&#39;https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/thumbnail/logo-2.svg&#39;);"> <img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/thumbnail/logo-2.svg" alt onerror="this.style.display=&#39;none&#39;" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: none;"></div> </a> </div> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if vml]> <table class="kg-card kg-bookmark-card--outlook" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #e5eff5; background: #ffffff; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0;" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="100%" style="padding: 20px;"> <table style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0;"> <tr> <td class="kg-bookmark-title--outlook"> <a href="https://overcast.fm/+AA7NDmiC2zg" style="text-decoration: none; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; font-weight: 600;"> Fintech Takes: Cards, Rent, and Crypto — Fintech Takes — Overcast </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div class="kg-bookmark-description--outlook"> <a href="https://overcast.fm/+AA7NDmiC2zg" style="text-decoration: none; margin-top: 12px; color: #738a94; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; font-weight: 400;"> </a> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="kg-bookmark-metadata--outlook" style="padding-top: 14px; color: #15212A; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5em;"> <table style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0;"> <tr> <td valign="middle" class="kg-bookmark-icon--outlook" style="padding-right: 8px; font-size: 0; line-height: 1.5em;"> <a href="https://overcast.fm/+AA7NDmiC2zg" style="text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;"> <img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/icon/logo-black-2.svg" width="22" height="22" alt=" "> </a> </td> <td valign="middle" class="kg-bookmark-byline--outlook"> <a href="https://overcast.fm/+AA7NDmiC2zg" style="text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;"> Overcast </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <div class="kg-bookmark-spacer--outlook" style="height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</div> <![endif]--></div><h1 id="charta-crediti" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Charta Crediti*</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I wrote about a new MGM Rewards card back in <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4b7a2585?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>CardsFTW #152</u></em></a>. I mentioned a few other gaming company co-brand cards (Unity by Hardrock, Caesars Rewards). I&#x2019;ve always been surprised that banks have been happy to do gambling credit cards, even when they were originally resistant to things like crypto. Now, we have having a ton of crypto cards (see <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/2848758a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>CardsFTW# 145</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e4a2cd11?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>146</em></a><em>, </em>and<em> </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/a1bc9ccb?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>156</em></a>) and Caesars and its existing partner Bread Financial/Comenity Bank are launched an updated card: the <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/eee8acee?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Caesars Rewards Prestige Visa Signature card</u></a>.&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeY4OrjAag49Wiye2pAy40pgTM7CdJu6uOVF0TkSV1vVLtsba474HDV2zNnwPHp3Nnic1gs-C9pfRF5zZuMFPE6U2nVHWKrBxJr6oMVxrCFx2qweUWoJbf1Fq5HUej-wBhmlnnSNg?key=_GR9_TzL6LmYfam0VN7otA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="338" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Et Tu, Visa?</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The new card has a $149 annual fee, comes with a variety of benefits at Caesars properties, including 7 points per dollar at Caesars, a complimentary hotel night, $100 in dining credit, and $50 in Slot Play credit. You can even earn Diamond Tier status by charging a mere $50,000 to the card per year.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Next up, I&#x2019;m predicting cards from Draft Kings and FanDuel.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">*I tried to translate &#39;credit card&#39; into Latin. This isn&#39;t the actual name of a product, though if you make one, I want shares.</p><h1 id="lloyds-catches-a-curve-ball" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Lloyd&#39;s Catches a Curve (Ball)</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">I don&#39;t normally write about funding and acquisitions, but if you know my history as the founder of Wallaby (see <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/181d680d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em>CardsFTW #136: There is No One Card to Rule Them All</em></a>), then you&#39;ll understand why I&#39;ve been following the story of <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/e1aae6e9?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Curve</a> so closely.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/07/image.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="397" height="251" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it a flag? Are all the straight lines a joke about &quot;curve&quot;?</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Curve was founded in 2015, following my exit of Wallaby to Bankrate. The company aimed to be an all-in-one wallet, which they achieved in the U.K. due to open banking regulations, but failed to launch elsewhere.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">News hit on Monday that Lloyd&#39;s Banking group is <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1b2e85b3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">acquiring</a> Curve for $161 MM. That&#39;s a lot of money, but less than the $301.7MM raised across 11 rounds (per <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/76ed992d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Crunchbase</a>). Congratulations to Shachar and team on a landing. Getting acquired is really, really hard, whether it&#39;s a &quot;good&quot; deal or not. I wanted Curve to win, because I wanted (still want) a Wallaby card. It is not to be, however. I&#39;m curious to see what Lloyd&#39;s does with the assets; given the history of big banking groups buying fintech companies, I won&#39;t be holding my breath for much.</p><h1 id="chase-dining-we-hardly-knew-you" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Chase Dining, We Hardly Knew You</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Chase sent a message to cardholders this week letting them know that Chase Dining is ending</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfnVh1GxZCg86MkYIscDYdj6u0qnWPII0tn_8Lofky0LpMcq_htue8M4ioJw8-elrB71eKwn7jcJvFQYGw9_oG-uyFiP8WkKK4jTnWgjreBPdPXpVTPwBVNAWq6VFi7emfmXeL3nw?key=_GR9_TzL6LmYfam0VN7otA" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="243" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can you miss something you never knew existed?</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">To which I promptly responded, &quot;What is Chase Dining?&quot;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">This benefit was provided via a partnership with Tock, the high-end reservations platform. American Express has since acquired Tock, so I suppose its not too surprising that this is ending. However, in our continuing conversation about the complexity and overwhelming nature of coupon book credit cards and card-linked offers, Chase Dining has (soon to be had) the problem that few people used or even knew about the benefit.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Sure, 10x points sounds amazing, but:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Did you know about it?</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Did you ever use it?</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Are there restaurants near you that use Tock?</li></ol><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">My quick research tells me that there are approximately 750,000 restaurants in the United States. Of these some ~65,000 take reservations. Tock has 4,400 restaurants (or 7% of the reservation market; 0.6% of the total restaurant market). Tock is smaller than other reservation platforms like OpenTable (46%, and now with a big Visa collaboration), Yelp (14%) and Resy (12%).</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Not a useful feature, not sure anyone will miss it. Let me know in the comments if you will!</p><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d17e722d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6c11d548?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Totavi</u></a>, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management &amp; marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/6e8f6df3?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>www.totavi.com</u></a> to learn more.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>Interested in reaching our audience? </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4c71c239?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>You can sponsor CardsFTW.</u></em></a></p> <!-- POST CONTENT END --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!-- END MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <tr> <td class="feedback-buttons-container" dir="ltr" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 32px 0 24px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; text-align: center; background-color: #ffffff;" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="feedback-buttons" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; margin: auto; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td dir="ltr" valign="top" align="center" style="font-size: 18px; color: #15212A; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; font-family: inherit; text-align: center; padding: 0 4px 4px; cursor: pointer; width: 30%;" width="30%"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/cardsftw-165-everyone-wants-a-super-premium-card/#/feedback/687e9bdfedfced1ab5bc21d0/1/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&amp;key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac" target="_blank" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;"> <img src="https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/more-like-this-mobile.png" border="0" width="42" height="42" alt="More like this" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; vertical-align: middle;"> <p class="feedback-button-text" style="display: inline-block; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">More like this</p> </a> </td> <td dir="ltr" valign="top" align="center" style="font-size: 18px; color: #15212A; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; font-family: inherit; text-align: center; padding: 0 4px 4px; cursor: pointer; width: 30%;" width="30%"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/cardsftw-165-everyone-wants-a-super-premium-card/#/feedback/687e9bdfedfced1ab5bc21d0/0/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&amp;key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac" target="_blank" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;"> <img src="https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/less-like-this-mobile.png" border="0" width="42" height="42" alt="Less like this" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; vertical-align: middle;"> <p class="feedback-button-text" style="display: inline-block; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">Less like this</p> </a> </td> <td dir="ltr" valign="top" align="center" style="font-size: 18px; color: #15212A; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; font-family: inherit; text-align: center; padding: 0 4px 4px; cursor: pointer; width: 30%;" width="30%"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4ffd98c0?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" target="_blank" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;"> <img src="https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/comment-mobile.png" border="0" width="42" height="42" alt="Comment" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; vertical-align: middle;"> <p class="feedback-button-text" style="display: inline-block; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">Comment</p> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="latest-posts-container" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 24px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb;" valign="top"> <h3 class="latest-posts-header" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 8px 0 8px; color: #15212A; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase;">Keep reading</h3> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 16px 0; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" class="latest-post-title" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <ahref="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/a11d4245?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #164: Protecting Cards &amp; Data</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d846024e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, ISO 20022 in 2025</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 16px 0; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" class="latest-post-title" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0028a81d?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #163: The Core Processor Market Analysis</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d3ad5713?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, Wawa Gets a Card</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 16px 0; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" class="latest-post-title" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <ahref="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/070bf85f?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #162: A Deep Dive on Credit Card Approval Rates</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/2ce67626?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, insights into the approval funnels of popular cards</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="subscription-box" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; padding: 32px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <h3 style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-top: 40px; padding-bottom: 30px;"> <tr><td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;"><span>Totavi, LLC,&#xA0;2108&#xA0;N St., Ste. N,&#xA0;Sacramento, CA 95816</span></p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); margin-top: 20px; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;" valign="top" align="center">CardsFTW &#xA9; 2025 &#x2013; <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/unsubscribe/?uuid=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e&key=44d661c4f7da07f15bd29599b4345e87e54ce5bd0afd084e1bee49ee89a327ac&newsletter=4537ad55-eebc-4678-b2bf-fd6731d3805e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Unsubscribe</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="footer-powered" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; text-align: center; padding-top: 70px; padding-bottom: 40px;" valign="top" align="center"><a href="https://ghost.org/?via=pbg-newsletter&amp;ref=cardsftw.com" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"><img src="https://static.ghost.org/v4.0.0/images/powered.png" border="0" width="142" height="30" class="gh-powered" alt="Powered by Ghost" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; width: 142px; height: 30px;"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END CENTERED WHITE CONTAINER --> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <img width="1" height="1" alt="" src="https://email.mg.cardsftw.com/o/eJwszktu7SAMANDVXGY3sg0OzoDFAHY-7yVFIrRRd1-p6vDMjiYv6JmdJYzsSTgAOLvycb4PTbMIggc1Xasp5sKlEgm7PYnKErkwlywakcx4hjx7FbBqeXVHIiCGSB45eIwTinqNcQmYZ6sLvQJc21Rz13sdz1Tb5XoaD-P3v7Hpft6dmr4CfNhznzaG9ak3teZGKp_n__fv0o207e0ef_pK9BMAAP__pRdAWA"></body> </html>
  17. Canadian Fintech: RBC Backs a Client ☝️

    Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:31:39 -0000

    <html style="scrollbar-width: thin;scrollbar-color: rgb(219,219,219)rgb(255,255,255);"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Canadian Fintech: RBC Backs a Client &#9757;&#65039;</title><style> @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .typography:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } .typography:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right), .typography.editor:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (min-width: 1300px) { .typography .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); 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} .typography .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography.editor .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), .typography .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right), .typography.editor .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin: 1em auto; } .typography .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left) .image2-inset, .typography.editor .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left) .image2-inset, .typography .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) .image2-inset, .typography.editor .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) .image2-inset { display: block; justify-content: initial; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { .typography .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed, .typography.editor .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed { margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; } .typography .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed:first-child, .typography.editor .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed:first-child { margin-top: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup div.youtube-overlay, .typography.editor .markup div.youtube-overlay, .typography .markup div.vimeo-overlay, .typography.editor .markup div.vimeo-overlay { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .typography .markup div.tiktok-wrap, .typography.editor .markup div.tiktok-wrap { width: calc(95vw - 32px); height: calc((95vw - 32px - 2px) / 0.485714); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup div.embedded-publication-wrap .embedded-publication.show-subscribe, .typography.editor .markup div.embedded-publication-wrap .embedded-publication.show-subscribe { padding: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, .typography.editor .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, .typography .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, .typography.editor .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, .typography .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, .typography.editor .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe { padding: 0px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, .typography.editor .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, .typography .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, .typography.editor .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, .typography .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, .typography.editor .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button { padding: 10px 12px; min-width: 110px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .tweet, .typography.editor .markup .tweet { padding: 12px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .tweet .tweet-text, .typography.editor .markup .tweet .tweet-text { font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.two, .typography.editor .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.two, .typography .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.three, .typography.editor .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.three, .typography .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.four, .typography.editor .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.four { height: 200px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-img, .typography.editor .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-img { max-height: 180px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-description, .typography.editor .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-description { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .typography .markup .apple-podcast-container, .typography.editor .markup .apple-podcast-container { width: unset; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { .typography .markup .install-substack-app-embed img.install-substack-app-embed-img, .typography.editor .markup .install-substack-app-embed img.install-substack-app-embed-img { margin: 0 auto 16px auto; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { .typography .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-text, .typography.editor .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-text { margin: 0 0 12px 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; text-align: center; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { .typography .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-link, .typography.editor .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-link { display: flex; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { .share-button-container { height: 38px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { .share-button-container a.comment { height: 38px; line-height: 38px; padding-right: 10px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .share-button-container .separator { display: block; margin: 0; height: 8px; border-left: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .share-button-container a.share.first img { padding-left: 0; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { .share-button-container a.mobile { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .settings-add-pub-modal-wrapper .container .add-recommending-pub-modal-container { padding: 36px; height: 680px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .settings-add-pub-modal-wrapper .container .add-recommending-pub-modal-container .footer { position: absolute; bottom: 36px; margin: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .header-anchor-parent { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .post { padding: 16px 0 0 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-header .post-label { margin-top: 8px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-header .meta-author-wrap.alternative-meta .meta-right-column .post-meta { margin-top: 6px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .footer-facepile-container { height: 64px; padding: 0 16px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: flex-start; width: 100%; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-footer.use-separators { justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .post-footer.next-prev { height: 64px; justify-content: space-between; box-sizing: border-box; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-table { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-table-row { display: flex; flex-direction: row; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-userhead-cell, .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-cell { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-cell { flex-grow: 1; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-table { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-body-table-row { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell, .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { display: block; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-copy-cell { margin: 0 0 16px 0; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls-cell { width: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls { margin: auto; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-controls .button.primary { width: 100%; } .post-contributor-footer .post-contributor-bio-text { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) { .post-silhouette { padding: 32px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-title { margin-top: 10.44225025px; height: 120px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta { width: 75%; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-silhouette .post-silhouette-meta.with-byline-image { margin: 20px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { padding-right: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 14px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .use-theme-bg .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication, .post-meta.alternative-meta .post-meta-item.guest-author-publication { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button { height: 36px !important; /* important to override in-line height style on emails */ } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button .meta-button-label { display: none; } .post-meta .post-meta-item .post-meta-button > svg { margin-right: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { .post-meta .post-meta-item { font-size: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post .floating-subscribe-button { bottom: 20px; right: 20px; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { body .markup table.image-wrapper img, body .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body:not(:has(#toc)) .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (min-width: 1300px) { body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left) { margin-left: var(--image-offset-margin); } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin-right: var(--image-offset-margin); } } @media (max-width: 1024px) { body { /* Disable offset on mobile/tablet */ } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) { float: none; margin: 1em auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto; padding: 0; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left.thefp), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right.thefp) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-left), body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-offset-right) { margin: 1em auto; } body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-left) .image2-inset, body .captioned-image-container figure:has(> a.image2-align-right) .image2-inset { display: block; justify-content: initial; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed { margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; } body .markup div.sponsorship-campaign-embed:first-child { margin-top: 0px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.youtube-overlay, body .markup div.vimeo-overlay { display: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 370px) { body .markup div.tiktok-wrap { width: calc(95vw - 32px); height: calc((95vw - 32px - 2px) / 0.485714); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.embedded-publication-wrap .embedded-publication.show-subscribe { padding: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe { padding: 0px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.subscription-widget-wrap-editor .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button, body .markup div.captioned-button-wrap .subscription-widget.show-subscribe .subscription-widget-subscribe .button { padding: 10px 12px; min-width: 110px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet { padding: 12px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-text { font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.two, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.three, body .markup .tweet .tweet-photos-container.four { height: 200px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-img { max-height: 180px; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .tweet a.expanded-link .expanded-link-description { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { body .markup .apple-podcast-container { width: unset; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed img.install-substack-app-embed-img { margin: 0 auto 16px auto; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-text { margin: 0 0 12px 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; text-align: center; } } @media (max-width: 420px) { body .markup .install-substack-app-embed .install-substack-app-embed-link { display: flex; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { body .header a.logo { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 420px) { body .subscription-receipt table:first-of-type .subscription-amount .subscription-discount { width: 72px !important; } } @media screen and (min-width: 481px) { body .share-button-container { height: auto; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { body .share-button-container .separator { display: block !important; margin: 0 !important; height: 8px !important; border-left: none !important; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .digest .item .post-meta-item.audience { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 500px) { .digest-publication .logo img { width: 42px; height: 42px; border-radius: 8px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comments-page .container .comment-list .collapsed-reply { margin-left: calc(10 + 32px - 24px); } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .comment > .comment-list { padding-left: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .finish-magic-login-modal .modal-content .container { padding: 24px 0; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-b3 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .reader2-text-h4 { line-height: 24px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .user-profile-modal { padding-left: 12px; padding-right: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .subscribe-widget form.form .sideBySideWrap button.rightButton { padding: 10px 12px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .pub-icon:hover .logo-hover, .feed-item-icon:hover .logo-hover { display: block; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper { width: 100%; padding: 16px; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button-wrapper:empty { display: none; } .post-ufi.single-full-width-button .post-ufi-button { width: 100%; justify-content: center; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor { padding: 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .file-embed-wrapper-editor:active { padding: 0; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 650px) { .file-embed-button.wide, .file-embed-error-button.wide { display: none; } } @media only screen and (min-width: 630px) { .file-embed-button.narrow, .file-embed-error-button.narrow { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player { min-width: 500px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress { border-left-width: 16px; border-right-width: 16px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-progress .audio-player-progress-bar .audio-player-progress-bar-popup { top: -54px; } } @media (min-width: 250px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player { padding: 32px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:last-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 300px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-title { margin-top: 16px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 15%; width: 15%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-substack-logo { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 350px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 25%; width: 25%; display: block; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { display: flex; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button:first-of-type { display: block; } } @media (min-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 40%; width: 40%; } } @media (max-width: 400px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group { margin-top: 12px; } .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .btn-group .button { font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 12px; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; } } @media (min-width: 600px) { .audio-player-wrapper-fancy .audio-player .audio-player-hero-image-container { padding-top: 55%; width: 55%; } } @media (max-width: 650px) { .poll-editor-modal { min-width: calc(100% - 20px); } } @media (max-width: 750px) { .poll-embed .poll-anchor-target .poll-anchor-copy-button { left: 8px; top: 45px; } } @media screen and (min-width: 541px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { width: 552px; padding: 26px 24px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-table .modal-row .modal-content > .container { padding: 40px 0; } } @media screen and (max-width: 650px) { .poll-embed .poll-wrapper.poll-web .poll-dialog .modal-row .modal-cell .modal-exit-btn { margin-right: -20px; } }</style></head><body class="email-body" style="font-kerning: auto;--image-offset-margin: -117px;"><img src="https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUwNzIxMTIzMTEzLjMuNzU3MWZhMzdmZmNlNzhhMUBtZy1kMS5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20-IiwidSI6MTkyNTY5NTEyLCJyIjoiMDc0ZGw1a3VmZnYzMDRvdUBuZXdzbGV0dGVyLnJvZGVvIiwiZCI6Im1nLWQxLnN1YnN0YWNrLmNvbSIsInAiOjE2ODg1MTAyMywidCI6Im5ld3NsZXR0ZXIiLCJhIjoiZXZlcnlvbmUiLCJzIjo2NjMzNTMsImMiOiJwb3N0IiwiZiI6dHJ1ZSwicG9zaXRpb24iOiJ0b3AiLCJpYXQiOjE3NTMxMDEwOTEsImV4cCI6MTc1NTY5MzA5MSwiaXNzIjoicHViLTAiLCJzdWIiOiJlbyJ9.nsabaUepuQ2-s2fBmfd7xliA3H704qq1KC4Ozs9zhBs" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;"/><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">Insurance broker software raises. Exited founder gets back into fintech.</div><div class="preview" style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:#333333;line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;">&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; &nbsp; &#8199; &#173;&#847; 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Exited founder gets back into fintech. </h3><table class="post-meta" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin: 1em 0;height: 20px;align-items: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA custom-css-email-post-author" style="list-style: none;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;text-decoration: unset;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" style="list-style: none;color: rgb(54,55,55);margin: 0;font-size: 11px;line-height: 20px;font-family: 'SF Compact',-apple-system,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: 500;text-transform: uppercase;letter-spacing: .2px;text-decoration: none" href="https://substack.com/@talschwartz">Tal Schwartz</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><table role="presentation" width="auto" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA" 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Welcome back to the Canadian Fintech Newsletter, an industry roundup for founders, operators and investors.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Every Monday we break down the hottest topics in the industry in under 3 minutes.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><span>If you&#8217;re a </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/55d51511-6679-4316-bdbe-aa7db83b6725?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">paid subscriber</a><span>, you also get access to the </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/62504474-a655-451e-b261-067d8d337d05?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Canadian Fintech Database</a><span> - a detailed list of every fintech acquisition in Canada.</span></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Was this forwardedto you? Become one of our 12,945 subscribers by clicking below.</p><div class="subscribe-widget is-signed-up" data-component-name="SubscribeWidget" style="margin: 0 0 1em;direction: ltr;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><div class="pencraft pc-reset button-wrapper" style="text-decoration: unset;list-style: none;font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;border-radius: 4px;"><a class="button subscribe-btn primary" href="https://substack.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.oVrhFSpi0WYfQbGpEvQ6ppe4nBgq_YYQ0vBE_ZfvyQE?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=subscribe-widget&utm_content=168851023" style="font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';display: inline-block;box-sizing: border-box;cursor: pointer;border: none;border-radius: 8px;font-size: 14px;line-height: 20px;font-weight: 600;text-align: center;opacity: 1;outline: none;white-space: nowrap;text-decoration: none !important;margin: 0 auto;background-color: #e85c57;color: #ffffff !important;padding: 12px 20px;height: auto;"><span style="color: #ffffff;text-decoration: none;">Upgrade to paid</span></a></div></div><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128176; Funding</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Quandri</strong><span>, a Vancouver based platform to automate personal insurance policy renewals for brokerages </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/7eaf8d8e-3573-4b12-9be8-631a3335d8ca?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">raised</a><span> USD $12m from </span><strong>Framework</strong><span>, </span><strong>Intact</strong><span> and </span><strong>FUSE</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Trusty</strong><span>, a Toronto based estate planning app for families to track and pass down valuable items (jewellery, art, etc.) raised $1m from </span><strong>Relay</strong><span>, </span><strong>Graphite</strong><span> and </span><strong>Mistral</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>D1g1t</strong><span>, a Toronto based risk management platform for wealth advisors </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b4a9b537-f409-4023-abcb-cb1e2cdb33a1?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">received</a><span> a strategic investment from their client </span><strong>RBC</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Ready Plan Go</strong><span>, a Montreal based accounting automation platform </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/43a95e41-e23e-4377-94b5-b9cb7f5a994c?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">won</a><span> $175k in grants at Startupfest.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#129309; M&amp;A</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>AutoCanada</strong><span> is </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/da891a6f-2987-4c20-8e5a-b2a948f15cf2?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">selling</a><span> its US dealerships for $83m to focus on the Canadian market.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post" style="position: relative;font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol';font-weight: bold;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: antialiased;-webkit-appearance: optimizelegibility;-moz-appearance: optimizelegibility;appearance: optimizelegibility;margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 1.16em;font-size: 1.125em;">&#128640; Product</h4><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Sellit9</strong><span>, a platform for shoppers to trade-in their old products in exchange for cash, crossed $1m in annualized GMV.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;">Sellit9 raised $1.5m last year.</p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Home.ca</strong><span>, a platform for Canadians to purchase, finance, maintain and upgrade their homes </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f4ff134a-e609-48a3-8ee2-33b76efe06ae?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">launched</a><span>.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>The founder previously launched </span><strong>WebsiteBox</strong><span>, a drag and drop website / CRM builder for realtors, which was acquired by </span><strong>Questrade</strong><span> in 2021.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lotly</strong><span>, a shared equity down payment funder for Canadian homebuyers </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/8a24c6ba-4314-4c10-b164-5def0a6b0e3b?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">crossed</a><span> $2m ARR.</span></p><ul style="margin-top: 0;padding: 0;"><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><span>Shared equity funders like Lotly and </span><strong>Ourboro</strong><span> let home buyers put down as little as 5% in exchange for a share of the home&#8217;s future appreciation upon a sale.</span></p></li></ul></li><li style="margin: 8px 0 0 32px;mso-special-format: bullet;"><p style="color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;margin-bottom: 0;box-sizing: border-box;padding-left: 4px;font-size: 16px;margin: 0;"><strong>Village Wellth</strong><span> launched a deal management platform to help small business owners model, finance, and close deals to sell their businesses.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Raising money for your fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ec3f7d1d-365f-4e26-9ecf-72e1ceb9cdf6?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;"><strong>Want to invest in Canadian fintech?</strong><span> </span><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/9bc92167-3da4-43d3-80b6-2203fe730cd5?j=eyJ1IjoiMzZuZmw0In0.4eiGI4rivRuKCtZpUgTEqhM2H3NJM6U8dLH7tXnICvU" rel="" style="color: rgb(54,55,55);text-decoration: underline;">Fill out this form</a></p><div style="font-size: 16px;line-height: 26px;"><hr style="margin: 32px 0;padding: 0;height: 1px;background: #e6e6e6;border: none;"></div><p style="margin: 0 0 20px 0;color: rgb(54,55,55);line-height: 26px;font-size: 16px;">Want to get in front of 12,945 fintech decision makers? 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  18. CardsFTW #164: Protecting Cards & Data

    Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:15:08 -0000

    <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <!--[if mso]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch><o:AllowPNG/></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <title>CardsFTW #164: Protecting Cards &amp; Data</title> <style> .post-title-link { display: block; margin-top: 32px; color: #15212A; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; } .post-title-link-left { text-align: left; } .view-online-link { word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); text-decoration: underline !important; } .kg-nft-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 4px; } .kg-twitter-link { display: block; text-decoration: none !important; color: #15212A !important; font-family: inherit !important; 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font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0; padding: 0; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #15212A;"> <span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; height: 0; max-height: 0; max-width: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; mso-hide: all; visibility: hidden; width: 0;">Plus, ISO 20022 in 2025</span> <!-- HEADER WITH FULL-WIDTH BACKGROUND --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="header" width="100%" style="mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; background-color: #ffffff; width: 100%; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-top: 24px; padding-bottom: 16px;" valign="top"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/72a28a79?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: anywhere;" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/size/w1200/2024/01/cftw-logo-3.png" width="600" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%;"> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-title post-title-with-excerpt post-title-serif post-title-color" style="font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; text-align: center; color: #000000; padding-bottom: 8px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em;" valign="top" align="center"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; color: #000000;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/f3738b9b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #164: Protecting Cards &amp; Data</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="post-excerpt-wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%; max-width: 600px;" width="100%" valign="top"> <p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-no-feature-image post-excerpt-serif-sans" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 32px; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Plus, ISO 20022 in 2025</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="post-meta-wrapper" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; padding-bottom: 32px;"> <tr> <td height="20" class="post-meta post-meta-center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; padding: 0;" valign="top" align="center"> By Matthew Goldman &#x2022; <span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;">16 Jul 2025 </span> </td> <td class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online desktop" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; display: none;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/62bb995b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> <tr class="post-meta post-meta-center view-online-mobile" style="color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center;" align="center"> <td height="20" class="view-online" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;" valign="top" align="center"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0222518b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" class="view-online-link" style="word-wrap: none; white-space: nowrap; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">View in browser</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </td> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> </tr> <!--[if mso]> </table> </center> </td> </tr> <![endif]--> </table> <!-- MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="body" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <!-- Outlook doesn't respect max-width so we need an extra centered table --> <!--[if mso]> <tr> <td> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"> <![endif]--> <tr> <td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top">&#xA0;</td> <td class="container title-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; display: block; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" valign="top"> <div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 600px;"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; border-spacing: 20px 0; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; background: #ffffff; background-color: #ffffff;" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr> <td class="wrapper" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; box-sizing: border-box;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr class="post-content-row"> <td class="post-content-sans-serif" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212A; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <!-- POST CONTENT START --> <h1 id="section-1033-data-isn%E2%80%99t-free" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Section 1033: Data Isn&#x2019;t Free</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">The big news this past week in fintech comes from Evan Weinberger and Paige Smith, two favorite journalists of mine at <em>Bloomberg</em>, who reported that JPMorgan is <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/cbb6984b?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>telling</u></a> fintech companies they must pay for accountholder data. According to Bloomberg&#x2019;s reporting, the bank has told aggregators like Plaid that they&#x2019;ll now need to pay for continued access to JPMorgan customer data, which was previously provided at no cost under a data-sharing agreement. While the specifics aren&#x2019;t public, the implication is clear that the era of &#x201C;free&#x201D; data might be over.&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/size/w1600/2025/07/President_Obama_Signs_the_Dodd-Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A group of men in dark suits and a few women in light colors watch President Barack Obama sign a document at a small table." loading="lazy" width="600" height="400" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">President Obama signing Dodd-Frank in 2010. Everyone is excited, but Biden and Maxine Waters are staring each other. Why? Nobody knows.</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">2010&#x2019;s <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/5dcdbb04?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Dodd&#x2013;Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act</a>, which was born out of the massive harm inflicted on Americans by financial institutions, included a key section, 1033, which requires financial institutions to make consumer data available.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">You can find Section 1033 on page 633 (of 848), which reads:</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">SEC. 1033.&#xA0; CONSUMER RIGHTS TO ACCESS INFORMATION.<br><br>&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;(a) In General.--Subject to rules prescribed by the Bureau, a&#xA0; covered person shall make available to a consumer, upon request, information in the control or possession of the covered person&#xA0; concerning the consumer financial product or service that the consumer obtained from such covered person, including information relating to any transaction, series of transactions, or to the account including costs, charges and usage data. The information shall be made available in an electronic form usable by consumers.</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">In more plain language, the rule states that if a bank holds your data, they have to make it available to consumers in a format they can actually use.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">It took a very long time (until last year!) for the CFPB (the mentioned Bureau in Section 1033) to make the rules as stated in the legislation.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Banks didn&#x2019;t like the new rule from the CFPB, so they immediately sued to block the rule. As soon as the Trump administration came to power in January, the suddenly-defanged CFPB declined to defend the rule, claiming it was a reach in a capricious manner (although given all the time in the making, I don&#x2019;t think it was in any way capricious).&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">You can read more about this history in Jason Mikula&#x2019;s <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/7851556e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>Fintech Business Weekly</u></em></a><em>.</em></p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">What I want to discuss is the central argument here: how open banking data both helps and hinders fintech companies, card programs, and banks. I would argue that data is valuable. I think this is a good moment to remind everyone of the <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/009ebe55?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>real quote</u></a> behind &#x201C;information wants to be free.&#x201D;</p><blockquote style="margin: 0; padding: 0; border-left: #F9A60D 2px solid; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.6em; letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: #15212A;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 25px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0; color: #15212A;">On the one hand you have&#x2014;the point you&#x2019;re making Woz&#x2014;is that information sort of wants to be expensive because it is so valuable&#x2014;the right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information almost wants to be free because the costs of getting it out is getting lower and lower all of the time. So you have these two things fighting against each other.<br><br>-Stewart Brand, <em>Hackers Conference</em>, November 1, 1984 (<a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/76b8ffeb?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>video!</u></a>)</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">This thinking applies to open banking data, which is extremely valuable. However, thanks to APIs and modern processing costs, the actual cost of distribution continues to decline. This shift has opened up a new argument about the data.&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">For years, banks complained about data aggregators like Plaid and Yodlee using scraping practices to access consumer data. The push towards APIs was supposed to fix that by providing cleaner, safer, and (perhaps more importantly in this context) bank-controlled ways to access records. This move by JPMorgan shifts the conversation away from whether consumers can access their data and by what means, towards how much that access should cost and who is going to have to pay for it.&#xA0;</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/4efbc0ff?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/07/Data-Aggregator-Cover-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Some graphs and charts with no meaning on an orange background, with the title 2024 Data Aggregator Market Analysis and the Totavi name and logo." loading="lazy" width="600" height="503" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"></a><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Want to learn more about Data Aggregators? </span><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/da7df769?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">There&#39;s a report for that!</span></a></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">It&#x2019;s not so much that most consumers want their data to be free and easy to access solely for themselves (budgeting is not a popular activity), but that people want the outcomes of data accessibility. Consumers want:</p><ol style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; padding-left: 1.3em; padding-right: 1.5em; list-style: decimal; max-width: 100%;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Accurate underwriting</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Easy payments</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Not to enter ACH routing information</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">To search transactions easily across accounts</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Budgeting tools</li><li style="margin: 0.5em 0; padding-left: 0.3em; line-height: 1.6em;">Many other things ...</li></ol><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Open banking helps with these needs. Generally speaking, consumers are in favor of it. There are entire fintech businesses and categories built around assuming access would remain free. If banks start charging aggregators, underwriters, or income verifiers for their access, it begs the question of what the costs of products consumers have to rely on may look like in the future.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">That said, this is a form of government-mandated disruption. I suppose a bank can claim that as long as consumers can download their own data, they are satisfying 1033. I am not a lawyer, but I don&#x2019;t think 1033 says, &#x201C;You must let people use Plaid.&#x201D;&#xA0;</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Banks don&#x2019;t want to make it easy for others to ingest their data because it has so much value. If it&#x2019;s easier for consumers to verify and validate ACH data, that can lead to pay by bank replacing cards and reducing bank interchange revenue. Which, unsurprisingly, they don&#x2019;t like. In reality, I don&#x2019;t think pay-by-bank makes cards go away. If banks want to make more money on ACH transfers, they should figure out how to charge for them.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">So there is a tension here between what consumers want, what banks need and are incentivized to do, and what the law actually says. Banks are not wrong to see value in the infrastructure they have built, and providing secure, reliable access to data is not free. However, Section 1033 was not written to protect existing revenue models. It was written to give consumers more control and transparency.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">If charging for API access supports better infrastructure, that is fair. But charging to block competition, whether it is pay-by-bank or third-party income verification, is not aligned with the law&#39;s intent.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">If JPMorgan sets the standard for paid data access, it is likely that every major bank will follow. What was once a compliance obligation may quickly become a new revenue stream. That shift could redraw the economics of fintech, and the cost may ultimately be paid by the very consumers 1033 was meant to protect.</p><h1 id="wire-upgrades" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">Wire Upgrades!</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">Did you notice a lot of email messages from your bank about &#x201C;not being able to execute wires this weekend&#x201D; and think to yourself, &#x201C;Wires?&#x201D; Well, many businesses use wires, and your cards do, too.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em;color: #15212A;">Last weekend, the Federal Reserve executed its long&#x2011;anticipated single-day conversion of the Fedwire Funds Service to the <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/1e0411ea?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">ISO&#x202F;20022</a> messaging protocol&#x202F;. This upgrade replaces the legacy FAIM format and brings richer, more structured data into every wire transfer, enabling better interoperability across global payment systems and more detailed remittance information&#x202F;. For financial institutions, this meant ensuring systems could process complete address fields for sender, beneficiary, and intermediary banks, validating ISO templates, and having manual fallback plans during the quiet July&#x202F;11&#x2013;13 switch&#x2010;over window&#x202F;.</p><div class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"><img src="https://www.cardsftw.com/content/images/2025/07/Swift-and-Iso-logos.png" class="kg-image" alt="A circle with horizontal and vertical lines with the word &quot;SWIFT&quot; in the middle and a circle with horizontal and vertical lines with &quot;ISO&quot; over the top of it and ISO 20022 below the circle." loading="lazy" width="600" height="291" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"><div class="kg-card-figcaption" style="text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 13px;"><span style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Logos for reference (I&#39;m really stretching for images this week)</span></div></div><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;">It&#x2019;s easy to overlook how the wire transfer network underpins card&#x2011;based payments. When you swipe, chip, tap, or enter card details, you&#x2019;re traversing rails managed by the issuing bank, acquiring bank, and card network, but the back&#x2011;end settlement for those transactions often flows over Fedwire (in the US). Remember: Visa and Mastercard are messaging networks, and the money moves over the wire! That means ISO&#x202F;20022 doesn&#x2019;t just modernize wires, it also future&#x2011;proofs a core plumbing shared by high&#x2011;value card settlements, cross&#x2011;border ACH, and real&#x2011;time railslike RTP and FedNow. In short, this conversion is as much about upgrading card&#x2011;linked infrastructure as the wire rails. See, I knew there was a way to make everything about cards.</p><h1 id="cardsftw" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 42px; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; color: #15212A;">CardsFTW</h1><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/83ea048e?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>CardsFTW</u></a>, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/9a92df51?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>Totavi</u></a>, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management &amp; marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/d1cfdb8a?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><u>www.totavi.com</u></a> to learn more.</p><p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"><em>Interested in reaching our audience? </em><a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/8b95c371?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #F9A60D; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><em><u>You can sponsor CardsFTW.</u></em></a></p> <!-- POST CONTENT END --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <!-- END MAIN CONTENT AREA --> <tr> <td class="feedback-buttons-container" dir="ltr" width="100%" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 32px 0 24px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; text-align: center; background-color: #ffffff;" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="feedback-buttons" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; 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color: #15212A; font-weight: 500; margin: 1em 0 0 0; line-height: 1.4em; word-break: break-word; font-size: 13px;">Comment</p> </a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="latest-posts-container" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 24px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb;" valign="top"> <h3 class="latest-posts-header" style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 8px 0 8px; color: #15212A; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase;">Keep reading</h3> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/0f8c0e13?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #162: A Deep Dive on Credit Card Approval Rates</a> </h4> <p class="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/5de8f525?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, insights into the approval funnels of popular cards</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td class="latest-post" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 16px 0; max-width: 600px;" valign="top"> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" class="latest-post-title" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-right: 12px;"> <h4 class style="margin-top: 0; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.01em; margin: 0; padding: 2px 0 4px; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; color: #15212A;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/deeb8d20?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">CardsFTW #161: Chase Sapphire Changes</a> </h4> <pclass="latest-post-excerpt" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/r/ae87c8b7?m=c62b746c-f2ed-4fee-8f26-488cc07e1c4e" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212a; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);" target="_blank">Plus, Stablecoin Settlement, Lending Club Checking, and more</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="subscription-box" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; padding: 32px 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e7eb; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <h3 style="margin-top: 0; line-height: 1.11em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 18px;">Subscription details</h3> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 16px; color: #15212A;"> <span>You are receiving this because you are a <strong style="font-weight: 700;">free subscriber</strong> to CardsFTW.</span> </p> <table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"> <tr> <td class="subscription-details" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A;" valign="top"> <p class="" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Name: roger</p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Email: <a href="#" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;" target="_blank">tw51yjtgdhlsr2od@newsletter.rodeo</a></p> <p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; margin-bottom: 0; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.45em; text-decoration: none; color: #15212A;">Member since: 7 March 2024</p> </td> <td align="right" valign="bottom" class="manage-subscription" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #15212A; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400; text-align: right; line-height: 1.45em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <a href="https://www.cardsftw.com/#/portal/account" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; text-decoration: underline; color: #F9A60D;" target="_blank"> Manage subscription</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="wrapper" align="center" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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