Wednesday is D-day for US inflation and the Fed
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It’s a neat coincidence that as US payments heavyweight Square was announcing its $39 billion bid for Afterpay on Monday, the Bank for International Settlements issued a paper on the regulation of “big techs” in finance.
The staff paper is timely because Square’s acquisition of Afterpay illustrates how rapidly the fintech sector is growing and evolving, bringing together Afterpay’s buy-now-pay-later business into a mini financial conglomerate that offers everything from payments hardware to retail information management, marketing support and basic banking services.
Fintechs, even the big ones, aren’t banks and aren’t regulated like banks. But they are increasingly offering a range of services and products that look like, and compete with, banking services and products.