Hello, Fintech Friends!

The Synapse bankruptcy and the cyber attack on Evolve Trust & Bank, a banking partner for numerous fintech companies like Stripe, Affirm, and Wise, sent waves through the broader financial services industry. However, for publicly traded fintech companies, June was a quiet month.

The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged sparking the debate about "overdoing it", meaning keeping the rates too high for too long and driving the U.S. economy into recession. Nevertheless, the decision (or the debate about a recession) has not had a meaningful impact on public fintech companies.

July is expected to be a busier month with the big banks kicking off the Q2 2024 earnings season on July 12, and Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Block reporting their results later in the month. So perhaps, June was just the calm before the storm?

Best-performing Fintech stocks

Dave (NASDAQ: DAVE) had a couple of rough months with its stock declining 43% from the peak on May 9. The stock is still up 261% YTD, but at least it fits on the chart now. Read more about the amazing runs by Funding Circle (LON: FCH) and Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) below.

Key Highlights

Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) 🇺🇸

This month's story was certainly Affirm striking a partnership with Apple to offer its BNPL products in Apple Pay. Thus, later in 2024, "eligible U.S customers checking out online or in-app with Apple Pay" will be able to pay for their purchase over time with an Affirm loan. Affirm has shown the world again that they are the masters of partnerships.

An important caveat is that this partnership, at least for now, covers only online and in-app purchases. Apple will be partnering with other lenders (such as Citi and Synchrony in the U.S., and HSBC and Monzo in the U.K.); however, Affirm will be the only partner, that will be directly integrated into Apple Pay, while others will provide installment loans via connected debit and credit cards.