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☆ Here's the 12-page pitch deck a fintech aiming to be an alternative to BNPL used to raise money from Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin and rapper Lil Baby, among others
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Kasheesh is a fintech that allows consumers to split online payments across multiple cards. Kasheesh allows users to split online payments across several debit and credit cards. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, rapper Lil Baby, actor Damson Idris, and entrepreneur John Terzian most recently joined the cap table in this round. On Kasheesh's web-based browser plug in, users can split any online payment across up to five debit and credit cards. Read the 12-page pitch deck Kasheesh used to raise a $3 million seed extension round.

Finance chiefs are coming into the year grappling with a variety of challenges, from rising interest rates and inflation to managing labor disruptions, pricing and inventory. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CFO Journal The Morning Ledger provides daily news and insights on corporate finance from the CFO Journal team. “But…there’s more and more of a belief that any kind of downturn will be short and shallow, frankly. Some finance chiefs, meanwhile, are finding opportunities to expand in the volatile economy. You can’t take everything that your vendors are sending you.”Labor woes persistHiring, however, remains a challenge for finance chiefs.

Average interest rates on refinanced student loans are mixed from two weeks ago, according to Credible. Federal student loan rates for the 2023-24 school year have risen by the widest margin in about 20 years. While private student loan rates aren't directly affected by federal rates, they're likely to increase because they don't have to stay as low to remain competitive with federal ones. For instance, the Biden administration extended the repayment pause on federal student loans through the end of August 2023. Insider's Featured Student Loan Refinance Companies SoFi Student Loan RefinancingSplash Financial Student Loan RefinancingEarnest Student Loan Refinancing Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.

☆ UK digital pound: 'Britcoin' could arrive in the second half of the decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Central banks around the world are considering whether to issue digital currencies as more parts of the economy move online. In the United Kingdom, £10 of a digital pound would be worth £10 in cash. Central bank digital currencies could make online spending more convenient, ease cross-border transactions and boost competition among providers of digital financial assets. Another fear is privacy, since digital currencies would give governments new insights into how people are spending their money. Eleven countries, including The Bahamas and Jamaica, have already launched central bank digital currencies.

Federal student loan rates for the 2023-24 school year have risen by the widest margin in about two decades. While private student loan rates aren't directly affected by federal rates, they're likely to increase because they don't have to stay as low to remain competitive with federal ones. For example, the Biden administration extended the repayment pause on federal student loans through the end of August 2023. Insider's Featured Student Loan Refinance Companies SoFi Student Loan RefinancingSplash Financial Student Loan RefinancingEarnest Student Loan Refinancing Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. APR Variable: 5.09% - 8.99%, Fixed: 4.49% - 8.99% Editor's Rating 4.5/5 A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star APR Variable: 3.99% - 8.99% with AutoPay, Fixed: 4.39% - 8.99% with AutoPay Editor's Rating 3.5/5 A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star APR Actual rate and available repayment terms will vary based on your income.

The Biden administration has proposed changes that could dramatically lower monthly student loan payments. The plan calculates monthly payments based on a borrower's discretionary income. Insider's Featured Student Loan Refinance Companies SoFi Student Loan RefinancingSplash Financial Student Loan RefinancingEarnest Student Loan Refinancing Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. APR Variable: 4.49% - 8.99%, Fixed: 4.49% - 8.99% Editor's Rating 4.5/5 A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star APR Variable: 3.99% - 8.99% with AutoPay, Fixed: 4.39% - 8.99% with AutoPay Editor's Rating 3.5/5 A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star A five pointed star APR Actual rate and available repayment terms will vary based on your income. According to the Education Data Initiative, half of student loan borrowers still owe $20,000 each on outstanding loan balances after 20 years of entering school.

Average interest rates on most refinanced student loans have increased from two weeks ago, according to Credible. Federal student loan rates for the 2023-24 school year have risen by the widest margin in about 20 years. While private student loan rates aren't directly affected by federal rates, they're likely to increase because they don't have to stay as low to remain competitive with federal ones. For instance, the Biden administration extended the repayment pause on federal student loans through the end of August 2023. Insider's Featured Student Loan Refinance Companies SoFi Student Loan RefinancingSplash Financial Student Loan RefinancingEarnest Student Loan Refinancing Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.

☆ Generation X carries the most credit card debt, study shows. Here's how to get those balances down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Sarah O'Brien | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Maskot | Digitalvision | Getty ImagesWhen it comes to credit card debt, Generation X may be struggling the most. "I think Gen Xers can be especially squeezed by credit card debt because they're living expensive years right now," said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst for CreditCards.com. The cost of carrying credit card debt has become higherCredit card balances across all age groups hit $930 billion in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest quarterly report on household debt. The average credit card now charges a record-high 20.16%, Rossman said. Those calculations, made using Credit Karma's credit card calculator, also assume no additional credit card debt was incurred while paying off that amount.

☆ Oil prices climb on hopes for Fed slowing interest rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday on optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will ends its tightening cycle, buoying the economy and boosting fuel demand. Both closed 1% higher on Thursday, near their highest closing levels since Dec. 1. A number of other Fed officials have expressed support for a downshift in the pace of rate rises. A rebound in Chinese economy and the Russian oil industry's struggles under sanctions could tighten energy markets in 2023, International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol said on Thursday. Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Bangladesh Bank has accused RCBC and several others, including top executives, of conspiring to steal its money. The New York Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 13 that, contrary to Rizal bank's argument, it does have jurisdiction over the case, and dismissed Rizal bank's motion against Bangladesh Bank. In the same ruling, the court ordered the Bangladesh central bank and RCRC to initiate mediation. In response to the ruling, Rizal bank said it would continue to fight the case. Bangladesh Bank has welcomed the court ruling, saying in a statement this week that it clears the way for the matter to progress in court in New York as needed.

☆ Iraq Economy Reels as U.S. Moves Against Money Flows to Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( David S. Cloud | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Iraq’s currency has fallen as much as 10% against the dollar as controls have been implemented on the U.S. currency. BAGHDAD—Iraqis are blaming an unexpected culprit for a weakening currency that has caused the price of food and imported goods to rise: a little-noticed policy change by the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed began enforcing tighter controls on international dollar transactions by commercial Iraqi banks in November, in a move to curtail money laundering and the illegal siphoning of dollars to Iran and other heavily sanctioned Middle East countries, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

☆ Fed's Williams says Fed needs more rate rises to cool inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

“Bringing inflation down is likely to require a period of below-trend growth and some softening of labor market conditions,” Williams warned. A number of other Federal Reserve officials have expressed support for a downshift in the pace of rate rises. Last year, the Fed moved its short-term interest rate target higher at a historically aggressive pace in a bid to fight the highest inflation seen in decades. It moved from a near zero federal funds rate in March to between 4.25% and 4.5% by year's end. At the December meeting, officials penciled in a 5.1% stopping point for rate hikes this year and increased their target rate by half a percentage point at that gathering.

☆ Americans are already starting to pull back on their spending, survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Minneapolis CNN —Americans have already started to rein in their spending — and expect to pull back some more this year, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey released Tuesday morning. Monthly household spending growth, after hitting a series high of 9% in August, fell to 7.7% in December, according to the New York Fed’s latest household spending survey. The drop in spending activity is expected to continue through this year, the survey showed. A slightly larger share of survey respondents also noted that if they were to receive an unexpected 10% pay raise, they would put it toward paying down debt. The retail sales figures are not adjusted for inflation.

☆ Morning Bid: Ugly duckling
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Anshuman DagaWhile Chinese economic data didn't come in worse than markets had feared, investors still couldn't come to terms with the scale of the economic pain being felt in the world's second-largest economy. Asian stock markets dipped and the broad-based MSCI's Asia Pacific share index outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) retreated away from seven-month highs, and Chinese equities stocks also retreated. European and UK stock futures, however, pointed to a steady start. The FTSE 100 (.FTSE) is just a whisker away from its record high of 7,903.5 points. Tuesday's batch of economic data coming up include UK jobs numbers, German inflation and Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey.

☆ Companies, Lenders Clash Over Loan Spreads in Switch From Libor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

As part of the shift, companies typically propose changes to their loan agreements with lenders, adjusting for the price difference between SOFR and Libor. The adjustment of the credit spread adds basis points to the interest rate on a loan to make up for the fact that SOFR has traded lower than Libor. The difference between SOFR and Libor can be as much as 25 basis points for loans with maturities of five to seven years. There will likely be more disagreements over credit spread adjustments as companies stop using Libor prior to its end. “There’s no reason to burn bridges over a few basis points,” Mr. Kerschner said.

☆ Americans lean more on credit cards as expenses stay high: 46% of cardholders now carry debt from month to month
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

With day-to-day expenses staying high due to inflation, more Americans are relying on credit cards to make ends meet. "The real test, of course, will be to follow whether these borrowers will be able to continue to make the payments on their credit cards." Now studies show fewer Americans are paying off their credit cards off in full. Not only can carrying a balance lower your credit score, but sky-high annual percentage rates also make credit cards one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. The average credit card rate is now 19.6%, on average — at an all-time high — after rising at the steepest annual pace ever, in step with the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes to combat inflation.

☆ US consumers increased their borrowing by $28 billion in November
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Minneapolis CNN —US consumers’ credit-hungry approach to spending continued in November, with borrowing rising by nearly $28 billion, according to Federal Reserve data released Monday. Revolving credit, which includes mostly credit cards, grew by 16.9%. It’s the largest jump in revolving credit seen in three months and the fifth-largest monthly increase in Fed record-keeping that goes back nearly 55 years. “It’s really revolving credit, mostly credit card debt, that’s carrying the day right now,” Rossman said. That has filtered down to historically high, if not record, interest rates for car loans, credit cards and personal loans.

☆ Happy Fed Year: What’s on deck for the central bank in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Minneapolis CNN —America’s central bank found itself in a glaring spotlight for much of this past year, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wielded blunt tools of interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening to curb surging inflation. That means the Fed, with its “laser focus on the job market,” could be “continually hawkish” at the start of 2023, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. “This latent strength in the job market could be the reason that the Fed over-tightens,” he told CNN. Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, from right, Lael Brainard, vice chair of the board of governors for the Federal Reserve System, and John Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, during a break at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Aug. 26, 2022. That’s 0.2 percentage points higher than the 4.4% rate they were expecting in September and significantly higher than the current 3.7% rate.

☆ New retirement account rules make it easier to tap savings early for emergencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But they said the rules also amount to another source of so-called "leakage" that run contrary to the overall goal of retirement savings: to build a nest egg for the future. Participants can also access 401(k) savings via loans or non-hardship withdrawals. Non-hardship distributions also hit an all-time high in October — almost 0.9% of participants took one that month, according to Vanguard. And the share of workers taking 401(k) loans rose to 0.9% in October from 0.8% at the beginning of 2022. Beyond the apparent acute financial need among households, hardship withdrawals carry negative repercussions like tax penalties.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer at investment and advisory firm Guggenheim Partners and a prominent Wall Street bond investor, has died, his firm said on Thursday. During his 25-year stint with Guggenheim, Minerd became a prolific commentator on financial markets and was often quoted by the media. He will be greatly missed by all," Mark Walter, chief executive and a founder of Guggenheim Partners, said in the firm's statement. Guggenheim said it had implemented a succession plan, with Anne Walsh, managing partner and CIO of Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, assuming many of Minerd's responsibilities on an interim basis. Minerd was regarded in the past few years as one of the U.S. "bond kings," along with Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine, and Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer of bond giant PIMCO.

☆ Worker demands for more money on the job hit a record level, a New York Fed survey finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The level surpassed the $73,283 record reached earlier this year in March, which it had more recently dipped below. The continued strength in the labor market will will put pressure on companies to keep using price as a lever to make back some of the margin lost to labor costs. This approach to offering more pay doesn't tie them into salary increases which can't be easily reversed, and also does not factor into the wage inflation trend for long. But for now Powell is stuck with a labor market that isn't relenting to Fed policy as quickly as hoped. "We do see a very, very strong labor market, one where we haven't seen much softening, where job growth is very high, where wages are very high.

☆ 401(k) 'hardship' withdrawals hit record high, Vanguard says — another sign households feel the pinch of inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Thomas Barwick | Stone | Getty ImagesThe share of retirement savers who withdrew money from a 401(k) plan to cover a financial hardship hit a record high in October, according to data from Vanguard Group. Nearly 0.5% of workers participating in a 401(k) plan took a new "hardship distribution" in October, according to Vanguard, which tracks 5 million savers. Americans are 'feeling the pinch from inflation'Nearly all 401(k) plans allow workers to take hardship withdrawals, but employers may vary in their rationale for allowing them. Participants can also access 401(k) savings via loans or nonhardship withdrawals. Beyond the apparent acute financial need among households, hardship withdrawals carry negative repercussions.

☆ Markets are bracing for a 'Powell recession' that could be coming soon
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Markets are essentially saying there will be another man-made economic contraction soon: the 'Powell recession.'" The New York Fed even has a tracker on its site that gauges the possibility of a recession by the three-month/10-year curve. As of the end of November, the inversion level implied a 38% recession chance within 12 months, according to the central bank's methodology. Markets also anticipate the Fed will approve a few more increases, ultimately taking the bottom end of the range to about 5%. Similarly, Wells Fargo economists noted that "Our own yield curve forecast signals turbulent times are ahead, aligning with our expectation for a recession starting next year."

☆ More Foreclosures, Easier Mortgages Would Help Fix America's Housing Market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

These standards are based on factors including the borrower's financial stability and the state of the housing market and economy. Finding the right size for the credit box is much easier said than done. A tidal wave of foreclosures followed, plunging the US housing market — and the global economy — into chaos. Even just stabilizing the credit box over time could also help smooth out some of the boom-and-bust cycles that have come to define the housing market. "If we do not address this intrinsic cyclicality, the housing market will continue to experience boom-bust cycles, leaving destruction in their wake," the paper said.

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