Happy Tuesday, Fellow Fintechers!
Hoping you all are off to a great start this week!
Today we have extended coverage on CircleBlack, which has just appointed former Scivantage president and CEO Alex Sauickie to the same roles at CircleBlack. Scivantage was sold to Refinitiv earlier in 2020. Industry colleagues will no doubt recall the sad news of the passing of John Michel, founder of CircleBlack in July of this year.
In a strange twist of fate, Sauickie previously worked for Michel at Merrill Lynch in his twenties, and in his new leadership role at the firm his prior mentor founded, has a big vision for future growth. You’ll find further info on this story in both our 3 Questions Q&A and in a separate story filed by FA Mag Senior Editor Chris Robbins.
Familiar with the terms “recency”, “loss aversion”, “herd following” and “action bias?” If not, read Robbins’ breakdown of recent research from Morningstar reporting on how advisors can learn to cope with pandemic-related client behaviors.
Today we also have news of a major expansion of Fidelity’s Integration Exchange API Store, with updated integrations with AdvisorEngine, Black Diamond, Redtail, Orion, Riskalyze and BlackRock’s Advisor Center. Fidelity is reporting that it has seen a major uptick in technological adoption and innovation among its client base. Robbins also reports today on news of a new advisor tech partnership with InvestCloud and Oppenheimer. According to the piece, “InvestCloud will help produce a new web-based advisor-client portal for Oppenheimer’s private client division” and is expected to launch in the first half of 2021.
You may have heard last week that Nasdaq intends to “test” exiting New Jersey in late September and are moving their PSX Exchange to Chicago the week of October 26th, all in response to the state’s threat to levy new taxes on exchange-related high speed trading. Honestly, will these legislators ever learn this tactic doesn’t work? Decades ago, according to industry veteran and Entoro Wealth CIO Bill Taylor, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley threatened to levy city transaction taxes on the CBOE, and they had one foot out the door and were headed to Houston.
“Robinhood Anxiety.” Another new term I recently learned of. It seems Will Danoff, who manages Fidelity’s $230 billion-dollar Contrafund, is seeing huge outflows of AUM despite being up 21% YTD. Apparently his little old mutual fund isn’t “sexy” enough for millennials who want to take control of their money with apps like Robinhood.
Finally, we report an update on crypto exchange Bitfinex, who is in a bit of hot water lately, since it was disclosed that the firm hid the loss of more than $800 million, related to the company’s mishandling of their stablecoin Tether.
Another week in the life of fintech and wealthtech – which never sleep.. Read up and be in the know!
Yours in Fintech,
Cindy Taylor