Gareth Jones

6 days ago | news.fintech.io | Gareth Jones

With sluggish traditional loan growth, major banks are increasing their lending to non-bank lenders through their trading units. This strategy has boosted fee income, and supports securitization, though smaller regional banks without trading arms risk falling behind this opportunity. One area that is growing rapidly is lending to nonbanks, often through banks’ trading units.

6 days ago | news.fintech.io | Gareth Jones

Marketers are increasingly deploying AI agents to generate personalised campaigns at scale. Brands like Prudential now entrust AI with content creation and compliance, signalling a shift toward automation, with human oversight shrinking as AI sophistication grows. At last year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Prudential debuted an AI photo booth that outlines each user’s potential retirement, complete with a simulated image of the person 20 years into the future.

6 days ago | news.fintech.io | Gareth Jones

Webull’s SPAC-driven surge crowned founder Anquan Wang with a $5.2B paper fortune—more than double Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev—despite ongoing losses. Are SPAC's back? Webull was worth more than $29 billion after its shares closed at $62.90 Monday. Robinhood has a value of $39 billion, giving founder Vlad Tenev a net worth of $2.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It’s the second time in recent weeks that a founder’s paper fortune has jumped to eye-watering levels.

6 days ago | news.fintech.io | Gareth Jones

AI is rapidly surpassing human capabilities in coding, with new models solving complex problems, slashing costs, and redefining developer roles. Start-ups and tech giants alike are capitalising, as coding becomes a key frontier in the AI revolution. San Francisco-based OpenAI released a suite of new models this week that independent benchmarks suggest are among the best yet for computer programming. Its new GPT-4.1, o3, and o4-mini models are...

6 days ago | news.fintech.io | Gareth Jones

UK tech’s future divides opinion: strong fundamentals in talent and capital face headwinds from declining investment and cautious policy. Revitalising the sector may hinge on attracting global talent, fostering international AI alliances, and boosting retail-sourced growth capital. Second, Britain should develop closer connections with other second-tier tech powers to exploit the possibilities of AI. After the US and China, the next five most vibrant AI countries in...