[ad_1]
Cache Valley Bank has selected fintech Finastra for its core banking and digital banking offerings. The Logan, Utah-based bank will use the tech provider’s core banking platform, Fusion Phoenix, and its mobile banking platform, Fusion Digital Banking, for commercial and retail banking clients, according to a May 16 release from Finastra. Cache Valley Bank has […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Fintech Lili, which provides a business platform for small and medium-sized businesses, has teamed up with Amazon Web Services to deploy a generative AI-driven chatbot for its customers. The Accountant AI chatbot is powered by Amazon Bedrock, AWS’ gen AI foundation model, to provide personalized accountant services to SMBs, Lili co-founder and Chief Executive Officer […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
KeyBank launched its virtual account management solution, Key Virtual Account Management, powered by payments platform Qolo, on May 7. Key Virtual Account Management (KeyVAM) is a modern core operating account targeted for small business clients, larger corporate clients and everyone in between, Jon Briggs, head of commercial product and innovation at KeyBank, told Bank Automation […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Global Payments has received EU regulatory approval and is launching a joint venture with CommerzBank — Commerz Global Pay — this month. CommerzBank, based in Frankfurt, Germany, will use Global Payments’ point-of-sale and digital payment solutions for its commercial clients across the EU , Cameron Bready, chief executive of Global Payments, said during Global Payments’ […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
EverBank has selected payment and financial solutions provider Finzly to update its payment processing system, according to an April 18 release. The $34.6 billion, Jacksonville, Fla.-based bank was looking to modernize its payment operations without completely replacing its core, a need many Finzly clients are trying to address, Finzly Chief Executive Booshan Rengachari told Bank […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Navy Federal Credit Union selected SaaS core modernization provider Zafin to update its core and move away from its legacy mainframe. “We selected Zafin to help us as we work to externalize our products and pricing from the banking core,” Pete Amstutz, senior vice president of savings and membership at Navy Federal, told Bank Automation […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
BNY Mellon has selected technology services provider Accenture to enhance the bank’s data and analytics services. The bank will use Accenture’s AI and data expertise to introduce new services and create new client experiences, according to an April 15 release. BNY Mellon’s Data and Analytics business provides software and data management to more than 800 […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Digital analytics platform Quantum Metric used Google Cloud’s Gemini Pro to launch its generative AI-powered session summarization tool Felix AI on April 4. “Our technology allows organizations to … understand where and why users struggle, quantify how many are experiencing the same issue and connect information across the organization to promptly rectify the problem to […]
[ad_2]
Whitney McDonald
Source link
[ad_1]
Lending-as-a-Service platform Epic River has integrated Finastra’s loan documentation system LaserPro into its platform to give customers a place to send the additional borrower information being collected. “We had a lot more banks generating loan application data in our system instead of having borrowers fill out PDFs,” Epic River Chief Executive Jeff Grobaski told Bank […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Swindon, U.K.-based Nationwide Group has offered to acquire U.K.-based financial institution Virgin Money for 2.9 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) in cash, according to a March 21 Nationwide release. The acquisition, which must be approved by the Financial Conduct Authority, would help Nationwide grow its customer base, deposits and operations organically, the release stated. The acquisition of […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Greylock Federal Credit Union has selected Alkami to improve its digital banking offerings. The $1.5 billion credit union will implement the Alkami Digital Banking Platform to provide online and mobile banking to its retail and business clients, according to Alkami’s March 5 release. Plano, Texas-based Alkami will also provide the following to the credit union: […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Coinbase plans to raise $1 billion through a convertible debt offering, following the path of Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy.
The offering has an extra provision, “negotiated capped call transactions,” which will ensure less dilution at the conversion.
The raise comes after Wall Street analysts threw in the towel on their bearish stance on the stock.
The only publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase (COIN), announced a plan to cash in on the recent rally in digital assets by raising $1 billion through selling convertible bonds, avoiding an equity sale that could hurt its stock price and also following the path Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy has taken to fund its crypto aspirations.
Coinbase said on Tuesday that it will offer the unsecured convertible senior notes via a private offering. Convertible bonds can be turned into shares of the issuing company (or cash) at a certain point. For the notes Coinbase plans to offer, that conversion year is 2030. Had the company chosen instead to raise money by selling new Coinbase shares, that would dilute the ownership interest of existing shareholders – something investors may view unfavorably.
By tapping the debt market to fund its crypto business, Coinbase is pursuing a strategy Saylor has pursued at MicroStrategy over the past few years. Saylor’s company has purchased 205,000 bitcoin, which are now worth nearly $15 billion, much of which is funded by MicroStrategy’s sale of more than $2 billion of convertible notes. Just this month, MicroStrategy sold $700 million of them, and there was enough demand that the company could sell more than the originally anticipated $600 million.
Coinbase is taking an extra step to reduce the dilution when its debt is converted into equity by offering “negotiated capped call transactions” – essentially a hedge to prevent dilution during the conversion of notes. (MicroStrategy did not include such a provision in its most recent deal.)
Issuers use these hedges with convertible debt to prevent dilution to existing shareholders, even when their share price rises above the conversion price, though they have to pay a fee. During its breakneck rally, fitness company Peloton famously raised $1 billion in convertible debts in 2021, including a capped call option. “The capped call transactions will cover, subject to customary adjustments, the number of shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock that will initially underlie the notes,” Coinbase said.
The move comes after a massive rally in bitcoin, which has taken the price of the digital asset to an all-time high above $73,000. Bitcoin is up 67% this year, while Coinbase’s stock soared by 48% in the same time period. Publicly traded companies often take advantage of bull markets by raising money by selling new securities such as equity, convertible notes, etc.
Coinbase said it may use proceeds from its transaction to repay debt, pay for potential capped call transactions and possibly to acquire other companies.
Coinbase’s $1 billion offering comes after some Wall Street analysts ditched their bearish stance on the stock. Raymond James and Goldman Sachs are bears that have upgraded the stock, citing the massive rally in the digital asset markets.
Read more: Coinbase Gets Another Upgrade, This Time at Raymond James, as Bears Capitulate
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
JPMorgan subsidiary Neovest Holdings has acquired investment management company LayerOne Financial for an undisclosed sum. Neovest, a fintech for brokers and dealers, will now be able to help clients monitor portfolios, conduct risk assessments and send orders to their brokers, it stated in a March 1 release. “Neovest can enable clients to manage their […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
JPMorgan subsidiary Neovest Holdings has acquired investment management company LayerOne Financial for an undisclosed sum. Neovest, a fintech for brokers and dealers, will now be able to help clients monitor portfolios, conduct risk assessments and send orders to their brokers, it stated in a March 1 release. “Neovest can enable clients to manage their […]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Whitney McDonald
Source link
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
With Donald Trump’s legal liabilities growing and a presidential campaign to run, losing control of his company couldn’t have come at a worse time.
After a New York judge ordered the Trump Organization to pay $364 million in penalties and barred the former president from any role in running a business in New York state for three years, Trump now finds himself backed further into a financial corner with fewer options for how to maneuver.
“It will have such an enormous impact on the operation of his business,” said Randy Zelin, a professor of law at Cornell University and a veteran criminal defense attorney with experience in complex financial matters. “But it will also provide a strong basis for an appeal.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James had asked New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to levy a $370 million financial penalty against the Trump Organization and also to ban Trump and his children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump from running any company in the state of New York, where his real-estate empire has long been based.
Engoron’s ruling barred Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from being involved in running any business in the state for two years. The judge also ordered that former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones, who has been serving as an independent monitor of the Trump Organization since 2022, continue in that role with expanded powers for the next three years. The ruling also ordered that an independent compliance officer be appointed within 30 days.
“The Trump Organization shall be required to obtain prior approval — not, as things are now, subsequent review — from Judge Jones before submitting any financial disclosure to a third party, so that such disclosure may be reviewed beforehand for material misrepresentations,” the ruling read.
The outcome of the civil trial sat solely in Engoron’s hands, and in September, he issued a summary judgment essentially ruling in favor of James’s arguments that the Trump Organization had engaged in fraud for years by repeatedly misstating the value of assets to lenders and insurance companies.
The judgment is the latest in a string of legal and financial blows that the former president has faced and that have already had an impact on his presidential campaign.
Trump has incurred $76 million in legal costs over the past two years stemming from the wide array of criminal and civil prosecutions he faces. More than $27 million of the money raised in the last six months of 2023 to support his presidential campaign has instead been used to cover his legal costs, according to campaign-finance filings.
A report by Bloomberg earlier this week suggested that Trump may face a cash crunch caused by his ballooning legal costs as early as this summer, just as the presidential race will be heating up.
Last month, a federal jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he had attacked online after she had accused him of raping her in a department-store dressing room in the 1990s. He had earlier been hit with a $5 million verdict in a state case on similar charges.
Trump has vowed to appeal the verdicts and denied raping Carroll, but in order to appeal, he will be required to put up bonds for the full award amounts. That means he would need to either get a bank to back him or to pledge collateral — like a real estate asset — to secure the bond.
But without full control of his real-estate empire, Trump will likely find it harder to line up financing or use his assets as freely as before.
Under the terms of Engoron’s ruling, Trump will no longer be able to make any moves involving assets held by the Trump Organization without the approval of the court-appointed monitor.
Even pledging his assets as collateral for the bond that he would be required to post in order to file an appeal would be complicated by the imposition of a monitor.
“When you lose control of your company, you lose control of who is going to be paid and how much they will be paid. All the money will, first and foremost, be used to operate the business, and how much goes to Trump and his children becomes a secondary concern,” Zelin said.
Add to that the mounting legal costs for multiple criminal cases being brought against him — on charges related to Jan. 6 as well as charges of mishandling classified documents, election fraud, racketeering and illegally paying hush money to women who claimed they’d had affairs with him — and Trump finds himself in a worsening financial bind.
So far, the former president has managed to cover many of his legal costs through donations from his political supporters, but that means that money won’t be available to fund his campaign for president. At the end of the year, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign had about $46 million cash on hand, while Trump’s campaign had $33 million, Federal Election Commission filings show. Some $50 million held by Trump’s political action committees has already been used to cover his legal bills.
Regarding the properties held by the Trump Organization, while Trump has been able to refinance many of the loans underlying his bigger real-estate holdings, pushing their maturity dates back several years, he still has a stake in some high-profile buildings that have debt coming due in the next few years.
With the court-appointed monitor part of the equation, it might now be more difficult for Trump to secure new debt in order to refinance those buildings, and that could even technically trigger defaults, depending on how the loan covenants were written.
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link
[ad_1]
Why are mortgage rates still so high?
After a year of mortgage rates near 8%, home buyers are eager for good news. Some forecasters have buoyed their hopes, estimating that the rate on the 30-year mortgage will drop to 6% or lower this year.
But rates have not fallen by much thus far. The 30-year rate is currently averaging 6.64%, according to Freddie Mac. That’s despite the fact that the U.S. Federal Reserve hasn’t raised its benchmark interest rate since July 2023 and signaled in December that it would cut that rate in 2024. Meanwhile, economists in the real-estate sector have been anticipating a drop in mortgage rates since last fall.
“Homebuyers may be feeling like the lower mortgage rates they’ve been promised in 2024 are not materializing,” Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, said in a statement. In a recent survey of Americans’ feelings about the housing market, 36% of respondents said they expect mortgage rates to fall in the next 12 months.
While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, it can influence them, just as it influences the overall U.S. economy through monetary policy. But even though the central bank has hit the brakes on tightening monetary policy, with the economy giving off mixed signals of strength and weakness, the timing of anticipated cuts to the benchmark rate remains unclear.
That in turn creates uncertainty about when mortgage rates will drop enough to “unfreeze” the housing market. Home buyers are probably going to have to wait until the Fed acts definitively before they see those lower rates.
The strength of the U.S. economy is one reason mortgage rates have not yet fallen much, economists say. The job market is still hot, and inflation remains higher than the Fed’s goal, which is why the latest read on inflation, out Feb. 13, will be so closely watched. The fact that rates haven’t fallen this year is “a result of uncertainty about the economy and the timing of the Fed’s rate cuts,” Sturtevant said.
“The strong job market is good news for the spring buying season, as higher household incomes are a necessary component, but it also means that mortgage rates are not likely to drop much further at this point,” Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, told MarketWatch.
Another reason mortgage rates are still high is that lenders are trying to protect themselves against lower rates in the future, Cris deRitis, deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told MarketWatch. If rates fall, lenders run the risk that a borrower will pay off a loan early by refinancing. That would limit how much in interest that lender could expect to make.
“In an odd sort of way, then, the expectation that mortgage rates will be lower in the future can lead lenders to increase rates today to compensate for the prepayment risk,” deRitis said.
So when can prospective buyers expect mortgage rates to fall significantly?
“Homebuyers should expect mortgage rates to move lower as we head through 2024,” Sturtevant said. While Fannie Mae expects rates to fall below 6% by the end of the year, other economists, like Fratantoni, expect the 30-year rate to finish the last quarter of 2024 at 6.1%.
But even if rates do fall, that won’t necessarily mean buyers will be better able to afford a home, because a drop in rates could heat up competition for homes even as it boosts buyers’ purchasing power.
“There is still very low inventory in the market, and buyers need to act quickly when they find the right home for them,” Sturtevant said.
For the many homeowners who currently have a mortgage rate below 4%, rates stuck in the 6% range may be leading them to put off plans to sell their home and buy a new one.
But it’s worth noting that since 2000, rates on 30-year mortgages have ranged from a high of about 8.62% to a low of 2.81%, averaging about 5% over that span. And compared with the historical average of the 1970s, which was 7.7%, the current rates in the 6% rage are not that high, deRitis noted.
[ad_2]
Source link
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Vaidik Trivedi
Source link