Interest rates rose by the most since 1994. Here's what it means for FinTechs 📲; New Samsung Wallet is here and it’s ready to fight Apple 🥊; One feature that could help PayPal win the BNPL wars🔥

Good Morning FinTech, 17 June

Good day Everyone,

And happy Friday! Yesterday’s issue was super important, but today’s is pretty close to that too. We’re going to take a look at what the Fed’s interest rate hike, which is the biggest since 1994, means for FinTechs (bonus is the FinTech Interest Rate Sensitivity Scorecard), Samsung’s new wallet that’s going to fight Apple (and Google, actually), and the one feature that could help PayPal win the BNPL wars (others should actually copy that ASAP!). Without further ado, let’s jump straight into the awesomely good stuff:

Interest rates rose by the most since 1994. Here's what it means for FinTechs 📲

The news 🗞 The Federal Reserve (Fed) has announced the largest rate hike since 1994. That's three-quarters of a percentage point or 0.75%. If that wouldn’t be enough, the Fed is "expected to increase" the rates further later this year.

More (context) on this 👉 As the consumer price index rose to 8.6% in May in the US, economists are trying to curb inflation. This surprised the markets, and the central bank was accused of failing to overcome the cost-of-living crisis.

Bitcoin remained above the psychologically significant threshold of $20,000 when the announcement was made — and brutal sell-offs earlier on Wednesday were linked to nerves over what would be announced.

What’s next? 🤔 Higher interest rates are here to stay and might even continue rising, but how will this affect FinTechs? There will be winners and losers, and here’s what you need to know: