Insight Weekly: M&A players predict 2023 activity; SPAC IPOs dip; 2022 capacity retirements up The small group of banks providing blockchain-enabled payments are increasingly looking to leverage the technology to support transactions in areas not related to digital assets. For instance, Tassat Group Inc.'s payment network TassatPay was launched in 2019 to support Signature Bank's Signet, which settles cryptocurrency trading transactions in U.S. dollars. Since then, TassatPay has expanded into...

The slashed valuations of some publicly traded financial technology companies will continue to prompt M&A interest from strategic and private equity buyers. Many fintech companies went public with lofty valuations during the latest peak around 2021 only to see their share prices plummet in 2022. The one-year total return of the S&P Kensho Future Payments Index was negative 19.09% as of Jan. 19, and opportunistic buyers — such as private equity firms — are hoping to take advantage of the...

Previous efforts of fintechs buying banks are giving dealmakers greater clarity into how to navigate the regulatory approval process and whether the combinations are suitable for the parties involved. Bank regulators remain concerned about the potential risks that financial technology companies can pose when they increase their exposure to banking, and deals are not just getting a rubber stamp of approval. A prolonged approval process led to BM Technologies Inc. reconsidering its strategy and...

When Donald Trump speaks about the barriers that US companies face, he often mentions a high corporate tax rate and the ability of other countries to produce more cheaply. Ironically, China, which most often draws Trump’s ire for doing so, is now facing many of the same problems. In fact, in one case that attracted a lot of attention in China, an executive said it is more profitable for his company to produce goods in the US than domestically. The label “Made in China” has long been...