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America PAC has been tasked with much of the pro-Trump canvassing operation as his campaign focuses its efforts on a more limited effort targeting so-called low-propensity voters. “I know it’s been flagged for America PAC that this has been transpiring,” an operative formerly on the effort said. As some of that data spilled into public view last month, an operative close to the effort said: “All hell has broken loose” inside the PAC. Through late October, America PAC had spent upward of $54 million on Blitz’s services, according to Federal Election Commission filings — more than the PAC has on the three other vendors combined. America PAC ended its relationships this summer with two other prominent GOP-aligned canvassing firms that were knocking on doors as part of its effort.

Persons: they’re, Donald Trump’s, Trump, canvassers, ” Drew Ryun, Chris Turner, Jefferson Thomas, Josh Penry, Jon Seaton, ”, ‘ There’s, Ron DeSantis ’, Elon Musk, Phil Cox, “ isn’t, Turner, Thomas, Penry, Seaton, baselessly, ‘, ‘ Donald Trump, ’ ‘, it’s, Alysia McMillan, I’ve, “ We’re, we’ve, Helene, “, “ I’m, David Plouffe, Kamala Harris ’, “ Elon Musk, Elon Organizations: Republican, Elon, America PAC, NBC News, Trump, NBC, telltale, PAC, Patriot Grassroots, Synapse Group, Echo Canyon Consulting, Florida Gov, Musk’s, America, Patriot, Synapse, . America PAC, GOP, Blitz, The Guardian, Reuters, ”, CNN, Nelk Boys YouTube Locations: Nevada and Arizona, Florida, Nevada , Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, . In Nevada, America, Nevada, ”, Wisconsin, Iredell County, Charlotte

☆ FDIC unveils rule forcing banks to keep fintech customer data in aftermath of Synapse debacle
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Tuesday proposed a new rule forcing banks to keep detailed records for customers of fintech apps after the failure of tech firm Synapse resulted in thousands of Americans being locked out of their accounts. That's what happened in the Synapse collapse, which impacted more than 100,000 users of fintech apps including Yotta and Juno. Customers with funds in these "for benefit of" accounts have been unable to access their money since May. Keeping better records would allow the FDIC to quickly pay depositors in the event of a bank failure by helping to satisfy conditions needed for "pass-through insurance," FDIC officials said Tuesday in a briefing. While FDIC insurance doesn't get paid out in the event the fintech provider fails, like in the Synapse situation, enhanced records would help a bankruptcy court determine who is owed what, the officials added.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, Federal Register, Bank, JPMorgan Chase

☆ Your Online Lender May Not Be a Bank. Here’s How to Keep Your Money Safe.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-10 | by ( Rob Copeland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If it looks like a bank, advertises like a bank and accepts money like a bank — it still might not be a bank. That is the lesson being meted out in painful fashion to tens of thousands of depositors who entrusted their savings to online-only lenders. But to the surprise of many depositors, these companies merely collect money and funnel it through intermediaries to banks. Because Synapse was not a bank, the F.D.I.C. insurance did not automatically apply, and now nearly $100 million of deposits have been frozen or lost.

Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Synapse Financial Locations: U.S

☆ Banks in Synapse mess make progress toward releasing deposits of stranded fintech customers
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

There may be relief for the thousands of Americans whose savings have been locked in frozen fintech accounts for the past two months. Banks involved in the mess caused by the collapse of fintech intermediary Synapse have made progress piecing together account information for stranded customers that could result in a release of funds in a matter of weeks, according to a person briefed on the matter. The development comes as regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, pressure the banks involved to release funds after media and lawmakers have heightened awareness of the debacle. Beginning in May, more than 100,000 customers of fintech apps like Yotta, Juno and Copper have been locked out of their accounts. "We're strongly encouraging Evolve to do whatever it can to help make money available to those depositors," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told the Senate banking committee Tuesday.

Persons: Banks, We're, Jerome Powell, Scot Lenoir, Jelena McWilliams, Sankaet Pathak Organizations: Staff, Evolve Bank & Trust, Bank, Synapse, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Evolve Locations: California

☆ What Happens When Your Bank Isn’t Really a Bank and Your Money Disappears?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-09 | by ( Rob Copeland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For close to a century, putting your savings into a federally insured bank has been a sure thing: If the institution fails, up to $250,000 of your money will be protected. The promise of bank insurance — a tenet of U.S. consumer protection since the Great Depression — is now being tested by a crisis swirling around online-only lenders with hundreds of millions of dollars of deposits between them. Most depositors have little clue where their money has gone, and whether they will get any of it back. It operated banking software for fast-growing online lenders with names like Juno, Yieldstreet and Yotta. Their slick websites advertise insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. agency that pledges to pay back lost funds.

Persons: you’ve Organizations: Synapse Technology, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S . Locations: U.S

☆ Fintech app customers locked out of bank accounts after middleman Synapse declares bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-03 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailFintech app customers locked out of bank accounts after middleman Synapse declares bankruptcyCNBC's Hugh Son reports on news from the fintech space.

Persons: Hugh Son Organizations: Synapse

☆ How thousands of Americans got caught in fintech’s false promise and lost access to bank accounts
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-02 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Craft had her wages deposited directly into a Yotta account and used the startup's debit card to pay for all her expenses. CNBC reached out to fintech customers whose lives have been upended by the Synapse debacle. Instead of spending years and millions of dollars trying to acquire or become banks, startups got quick access to essential services they needed to offer. They account for 60% of all new fintech account openings, according to data provider Curinos. The FDIC's exact language about whether fintech customers are eligible for coverage: "The short answer is: it depends."

Persons: Natasha Craft, Craft, fintech, Adam Moelis, Sankaet Pathak, Michele Alt, Scott Sanborn, Sanborn, LendingClub, she's, Rick Davies, Taylor Stitch, " Davies, He's, he's, Davies, hasn't Organizations: FedEx, CNBC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Synapse, Indiana FedEx, Disney, Bank, Trust, JPMorgan Chase, Klaros, PayPal, Getty, Financial Technology Association, D.C, Block, Regulators, Federal Reserve, FDIC, Oakland, San, OCC Locations: Mishawaka , Indiana, Craft, Oakland , California, New York City, Santa Barbara , California, Maryland, Bristol , Connecticut, Seattle, Tennessee, Yotta, Boston, Washington, fintechs, Silicon, San Francisco

☆ Nearly $109 million in deposits held for fintech Yotta’s customers vanished in Synapse collapse, bank says
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ledgers of the failed fintech middleman Synapse show that nearly all the deposits held for customers of the banking app Yotta went missing weeks ago, according to one of the lenders involved. A network of eight banks held $109 million in deposits for Yotta customers as of April 11, Evolve Bank & Trust said in a bankruptcy court letter filed late Thursday. About one month later, the ledger showed just $1.4 million in Yotta funds held at one of the banks, Evolve said. Yotta CEO and co-founder Adam Moelis said in response to this article that Synapse has said in court filings that Evolve held nearly all Yotta customers deposits. "According to the Synapse trial balance report provided on May 17, there are $112 million of customer funds held at Evolve," Moelis said.

Persons: Adam Moelis, Moelis Organizations: Evolve Bank, Trust, Evolve, Synapse, Federal Reserve, Fed Locations: Memphis , Tennessee

The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to an investment, along with the Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital. "GM agreed to let us collect the ground truth data in their factories," Foundation said in the document. "GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so," spokesman Darryll Harrison said in an emailed statement. The contents of the document were confirmed by someone with direct knowledge of Tribe Capital. Tribe Capital and its cofounder Sethi declined to comment, while Pathak didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Persons: General Motors —, Darryll Harrison, cofounders, Mike LeBlanc, LeBlanc, Sankaet Pathak, Arjun Sethi, Sethi, Pathak Organizations: Synapse, General Motors, Robotics Labs, CNBC, GM, Menlo, Tribe, Foundation, Foundation Robotics, Robotics, New Foundation Foundation, Cobalt Robotics, McKinsey, Tribe Capital Locations: Mexico

☆ Synapse bankruptcy trustee says $85 million of customer savings is missing in fintech meltdown
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThere is an $85 million shortfall between what partner banks of fintech middleman Synapse are holding and what depositors are owed, according to the court-appointed trustee in the Synapse bankruptcy. Customers of fintech firms that used Synapse to link up with banks had $265 million in balances. But the banks themselves only had $180 million associated with those accounts, trustee Jelena McWilliams said in a report filed late Thursday. The missing funds explain what is at the heart of the worst meltdown in the U.S. fintech sector since its emergence in the years after the 2008 financial crisis. She said Synapse apparently commingled funds among several institutions, using multiple banks to serve the same companies.

Persons: Jelena McWilliams, Al Drago, Andreessen Horowitz, McWilliams, Bank —, it's, Banks, Cravath, Judge Martin Barash Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs Committee, Washington , D.C, Bloomberg, Getty, Synapse, Evolve Bank & Trust, American Bank, AMG, Bank, Partner Bank Locations: Washington ,, U.S, what's

☆ Savings app CEO says 85,000 accounts locked in fintech meltdown: ‘We never imagined a scenario like this’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Instead, his company has inadvertently been a source of deep pain for thousands of customers who relied on Yotta accounts to receive paychecks, pay bills and save for emergencies. For the past three weeks, 85,000 Yotta customers with a combined $112 million in savings have been locked out of their accounts, Moelis told CNBC. Accounts at crypto firm Juno and at Copper, which offered savings accounts for families and teens, also have been frozen. Adam Moelis, Co-Founder at Yotta Savings. Representatives of the agencies have pointed to efforts they've made to encourage banks to manage the risks of using fintech partners.

Persons: Oscar Wong, Adam Moelis, Trust —, Moelis, Dave, We've, they've Organizations: Synapse, Bank, Trust, CNBC, Evolve Bank, Evolve, Mercury, Yotta Savings, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Locations: Tennessee, Yotta, fintech

☆ Fintech nightmare: 'I have nearly $38,000 tied up' after Synapse bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The situation deteriorated in April after Synapse declared bankruptcy following the exodus of several key partners. That has left users of several fintech services stranded with no access to their funds, according to testimonials filed this week in a California bankruptcy court. One customer, a Maryland teacher named Chris Buckler, said in a May 21 filing that his funds at crypto app Juno were locked because of the Synapse bankruptcy. Synapse had contracts with 20 banks and 100 fintech companies, resulting in about 10 million end users, according to an April filing from founder and CEO Sankaet Pathak. The freeze-up of customer funds exposes the vulnerabilities in the banking as a service, or BAAS, partnership model and a possible blind spot for regulatory oversight.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Buckler, Buckler, Dave, Juno, Sankaet Pathak, Pathak, Joseph Dominguez, Dominguez, Jason Mikula, Mikula Organizations: Istock, Synapse, Evolve Bank & Trust, Mercury, CNBC, Evolve Bank, Trust, Regulators, FDIC, Federal Reserve Locations: California, Maryland, Joseph Dominguez of Sacramento , California, Silicon

☆ Google and Harvard unveil most detailed ever map of human brain
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Jacopo Prisco | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Now, after the lab team’s decade of close collaboration with scientists at Google, that data has turned into the most detailed map of a human brain sample ever created. The result is an interactive 3D model of the brain tissue, and the largest dataset ever made at this resolution of a human brain structure. And of course, it would reveal many more problems, things we hadn’t expected.”What about mapping an entire human brain? “Much of what we think we understand about the human brain is extrapolated from animals, but research like this is critical for revealing what truly makes us human. “Each human brain is a vast network of billions of nerve cells,” said Sporns, distinguished professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University.

Persons: Jeff Lichtman —, Harvard University —, ”, Lichtman, Harvard University That’s, Viren Jain, ” Jain, Jain, there’s, we’re, “, ” Lichtman, haven’t, Michael Bienkowski, ” Bienkowski, Andreas Tolias, Berger, Olaf Sporns, Sporns Organizations: CNN, Harvard University, Google, Google Research, Lichtman, Harvard, Cisco, University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, “, Stanford University in, Indiana University Locations: Stanford University in California

☆ The future of cloud infrastructure
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Sponsor Post | Sponsored Microsoft | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That's why "lifting and shifting" existing on-premises SQL Server environments to SQL Server on Azure Virtual machines is a simple, quick, and cost-effective path for companies that are concerned about complex cloud migration for legacy workloads, but need to gain cloud benefits today. Simple path of migration to accelerated performanceSQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines is 100% compatible with on-premises SQL Server. Once migrated, teams can leverage their existing SQL Server skills seamlessly — using the same powerful SQL Server they are familiar with, now in the cloud. SQL familiarity with cloud innovationAzure Virtual Machine customers benefit from a comprehensive cloud computing platform with security from the ground up. The use of Azure Virtual Machines made the success of Atrium's Azure ecosystem possible.

Persons: Nic Hopper Organizations: Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine, Intel, Microsoft, Virtual, Atrium Underwriters, Insider Studios Locations: London

☆ Check out the 12-slide pitch deck marketing tech company Simon Data used to raise $54 million in fresh funds
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Martech company Simon Data raised a $54 million Series D round this month. Marketing technology company Simon Data raised $54 million in fresh funds earlier this month as it plans to bolster its research and development division. The problem isn't collecting data — it's enabling data for business stakeholders to access it," said Simon Data cofounder and CEO Jason Davis. He said Simon Data was likely to grow somewhere between 45% and 50% this year. The Simon Data Series D round was led by Australian financial group Macquarie Capital with participation from existing investors, including Polaris, .406, and F-Prime.

Persons: Simon Data, Simon, Jason Davis, Davis Organizations: Macquarie Capital, Marketing, The, JetBlue, Bombas, Australian, Polaris Locations: The New York

☆ Microsoft is bringing an A.I. chatbot to data analysis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence group, speaks at the Microsoft CIO Summit in Redmond, Washington, on Feb. 1, 2023. Microsoft 's hefty investment in artificial intelligence chatbots is finding its way into data analysis. For example, the data can be tapped in Synapse Data Science for collaborating on AI models and Power BI business intelligence software for building charts and dashboards. A single Copilot will be available for the tools in the Microsoft Fabric portfolio, which includes Data Factory, Synapse Data Engineering, Synapse Data Warehousing, Synapse Real-Time Analytics and a new monitoring tool called Data Activator, in addition to Power BI and Synapse Data Science, a Microsoft spokesperson said. He said that Copilot will be able to write formulas using Microsoft's Data Analysis Expressions language in Power BI.

☆ Electric cars make utility bills cheaper for everyone, new research finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Electric cars are helping push electricity rates down in the US, according to a new study. They bring lots of revenue to utility companies, but don't cost much to provide energy to. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. Researchers at Synapse Energy Economics zeroed in on three California utilities that serve lots of households with electric cars (more than 735,000 at the end of 2021). Synapse Energy EconomicsSo utilities and their shareholders are getting rich off of Tesla drivers?

☆ Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup takes on mass producing spacecraft
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Los Angeles-based Apex Space, led by co-founders Ian Cinnamon and Max Benassi, wants to better produce spacecraft at scale. "The one element holding everything back is really on the satellite bus side. They enter an increasingly competitive space subsector of satellite bus manufacturing, with the likes of York Space, which recently reached a $1 billion valuation. But Cinnamon says the market standard is still "handmade" spacecraft that take years to evolve from order to design to delivery. "We're not designing a new satellite bus every single time.

☆ How to get into Stanford Graduate School of Business, according to the assistant dean of admissions
▼ + stars: | 2020-12-07 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

A 2019 ranking of business-school admission rates showed Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) at the top of the list of most selective schools. Education specialists Quacquarelli Symonds recently released its 2021 Global MBA Ranking, and Stanford ranked as the best business school in the world. To that end, Insider asked six Stanford business school grads, as well as the assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid, for their insights on how to get noticed and tapped by Stanford GBS's extremely selective admissions committee. His top advice for Stanford business school applicants is to not be an imitation of a type. Other Stanford business school alumni validated this advice.

☆ One of the most popular courses among Stanford MBA students is informally named 'Touchy Feely' — here's why
▼ + stars: | 2020-09-23 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The popular course "Interpersonal Dynamics" was nicknamed "Touchy Feely" by professors and students. Stanford GSB shared with Business Insider that 95% of Stanford GSB students take this beloved course, even though it's not required. Courtesy of Ian CinnamonCinnamon added that now, whenever he's in any difficult situation, it's become "instinct" to think back to what he learned from the "Touchy Feely" course. "'Touchy Feely' has been influential in much of our work at Impact Experience," she said. "'Touchy Feely' and the courses in leadership that build from its approach … helped me develop the tools I now employ on a daily basis."

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