Daily Tearsheet: Finicity’s Nick Thomas on financial data and transactions in the metaverse, and head of product at Goldman Sachs Jin Hwang joins SMB lender Fundbox
- Bringing financial tools and products to the metaverse is similar to the same push for global open finance.
- Also, what happens when a senior Goldman Sachs product person joins Fundbox?
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'Global open banking is more like the metaverse than you might think' – Finicity's Nick Thomas
Contrary to what many people think, the metaverse isn’t one place, but a collection of digital worlds created on different platforms, some of which blend with the real world. Management consulting firm Gartner predicts that by 2026, one in four people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, or entertainment purposes.
Understandably, such an all-encompassing network of virtual worlds will create massive amounts of personal data, raising complex questions pertaining to privacy, security, and ethics. What will be the geopolitical ramifications of this? As borders blur in the metaverse, what kind of laws will govern these types of environments? Should there be an overarching set of rules for data sharing? And is that even possible?
These were some of the questions raised at Tearsheet's DataDay Conference 2022 by Nick Thomas, founder of Finicity and EVP of global open finance innovation at Mastercard, which now owns his company.
Fundbox’s new chief of product, Jin Hwang, is all set to build UX that will enable better access to capital for SMBs
Last week, Fundbox announced the hiring of former Marcus by Goldman Sachs head of product, Jin Hwang, as its chief product officer. Hwang built the first BNPL solution for Marcus, and also enabled the signing of the company’s first large corporate partner. Before that, he led the product team at Quickbooks Capital.
At Fundbox, he will lead product strategy, UX, and development. I spoke with him to find out what role UX plays in enabling access to capital for small business owners, and what he plans to bring to the screen.
Just look at the charts
1. Revolut is on course to becoming a global bank
2. Amazon is building a bank for itself
Today's stories
Meta is shutting down its cryptocurrency wallet ‘Novi’
Both the Novi app and Novi on WhatsApp will no longer be available, and all accounts will be closed on the 1st of September 2022, with the firm advising all users to withdraw their funds “as soon as possible” (Finextra)
Is it game over for Celsius clients?
Celsius users are now demanding some answers, three weeks after the cryptocurrency lender Celsius revealed that it was halting withdrawals and suspended customer accounts following a sharp decline in valuations (Crowdfund Insider)
Revolut is expanding without new capital
Revolut's boss, Storonsky said his fintech is now profitable, “aggressively expanding”, has enough funding for at least two more years, and would not be looking to raise money, as venture capital dries up across the technology industry (Bloomberg)
Revolut’s chief banking officer is stepping into a new role as US CEO
Sid Jajodia is taking on the additional role at the global financial super app after a year at the company to “accelerate growth” in the US -- where he will lead the rollout of Revolut's international banking operations and is the third recent hire for the US team to help expansion in the area (AltFi)
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