Robinhood, a brokerage app, was beset by outages for a second day as trading volumes soared. The malfunctions put Robinhood out of service during the US trading day yesterday and part of today before service was restored. Prices have gyrated and buying and selling has soared amid concern that Covid-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, is spreading.

This week Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, announced a major retreat from the US. Coincidently, a Berlin-based digital financial startup named N26 is launching there today, aiming to go head-to-head with America’s banking titans. N26, which runs a consumer banking app and payment card, says it has 3.5 million customers spread across Europe, from France and Germany to the UK. It has partnered with San Diego-based Axos Bank, which is an FDIC member and is run by Greg Garrabrants, a former...

Algorithmic fintech lending is less discriminatory against minorities than traditional loan officers, according to a recent study of US mortgages. The findings signal hope that technology could provide financing that’s more fair, but the research also underscores how widespread discrimination remains. The US housing market has long been prejudiced against minorities. When Latino and Africa-American borrowers are looking to buy a home, they usually end up paying 7.9 basis points (0.079...

Jack Dorsey is best known for co-founding Twitter, the micro-posting website that now has around 330 million users around the world. In 2009, the computer programmer also co-founded Square, which was originally designed to help small businesses accept credit cards. Dorsey’s other San Francisco-based startup, known for its plastic card-reader dongle, has widened its footprint over the years. More than 15 million people use Square’s Cash App for peer-to-peer payments, and its lending business...

Uber, the cash burning ride-hailing service, is reportedly making a big push into financial technology. It’s a move that Asian mobility companies have been adopting since at least 2015. Uber is looking to hire dozens of staff in New York, drawing from the city’s pool of engineers with experience in financial services, according to CNBC, citing unidentified sources. The team could, over time, expand to more than 100 workers and may focus on payments (reducing transaction costs) and providing...