FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 22 November 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of fintech this week, featuring Robinhood, CaixaBank, Nationwide and more.
Goldman Sachs to spin out technology platform GS DAP into independent business
Goldman Sachs to spin out GS DAP
Goldman Sachs says it is exploring “strategic opportunities” to spin out its blockchain-based technology platform, GS DAP, into a standalone business.
Operating as part of Goldman Sachs’ Digital Assets business since launching in 2022, GS DAP applies smart contracts to digitise and manage the asset lifecycle for institutional clients through a shared, immutable platform.
With the proposed separation pending regulatory approval, Goldman Sachs adds that it will “continue to scale” its Digital Assets business, while GS DAP will maintain its service delivery.
Robinhood snaps up custodial and portfolio management platform TradePMR in $300m deal
Digital trading app Robinhood has acquired TradePMR, a custodial and portfolio management platform for registered investment advisors, in a deal valued at up to $300 million.
The app says it will leverage its latest acquisition, purchased through a mix of cash and stock, and its open architecture platform, Fusion, to accelerate its “delivery of investment advisory capabilities” in line with its planned expansion into wealth management services.
Robb Baldwin, founder and CEO of TradePMR, along with the TradePMR team, will join Robinhood following the completion of the acquisition, expected in H1 2025.
CaixaBank plans to invest €5bn in technology over the next three years
CaixaBank commits to €5 billion tech investment
Spain’s CaixaBank has unveiled its 2025–2027 strategic plan, outlining a technology investment of more than €5 billion over the next three years “to be ready and able to succeed in a more digital and competitive environment”.
The plan focuses on three strategic priorities: accelerating business growth, driving transformation and investment, and strengthening the bank’s position as a “benchmark in sustainability”.
To meet these priorities, CaixaBank has announced plans to recruit 3,000 young professionals with existing “technical profiles”.
The banking group, which operates over 4,130 branches and 12,000 ATMs, targets a ROTE (return on tangible equity) above 16% by 2027 and a 15% average for 2025–2027.
Nationwide taps HPE GreenLake for private cloud deployment
Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, is migrating its on-premises IT infrastructure to a hybrid cloud platform provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
The HPE GreenLake platform will be used for Nationwide’s private cloud deployment, with HPE GreenLake Management Services acting as a strategic cloud services provider.
In a statement, the two companies say that HPE GreenLake’s consumption-based model is expected to reduce the building society’s IT costs by at least 30%.
SEC chair Gary Gensler to step down on 20 January
Gary Gensler set to leave the SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that its current chair, Gary Gensler, will step down from his role at noon on 20 January 2025.
Appointed as the agency’s chair by President Biden in 2021, the SEC says that Gensler “led the agency through a robust rulemaking agenda to enhance efficiency, resiliency, and integrity in the US capital markets”.
Gensler’s departure date coincides with President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. It is common for commission heads to step down with the arrival of a new administration, while Trump had also previously stated his intention to “fire” Gensler on “day one”.
