Elon Musk has declared himself the «Technoking of Tesla;» the US has a new most valuable startup; and if your stimulus check is «pending» in your bank account, you aren’t alone.
Tonight: Elon Musk has declared himself the «Technoking of Tesla;» the US has a new most valuable startup; and if your stimulus check is «pending» in your bank account, you aren’t alone. WHERE’S THE MONEY? Nothing like waiting months for a stimulus check only to see it’s «pending» in your bank account. What, are the banks depositing the $1,400 with those paper rolls of pennies? That «pending» is what a lot of big bank customers saw over the weekend and Monday — $1,400 just out of reach. Those payments may not clear until Wednesday, nearly a week after President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion economic relief package into law. And when you live paycheck to paycheck, that is a long time. But banking startups are moving much faster, my colleague Matt Egan writes. By Monday afternoon, Chime, the most valuable US consumer fintech startup, had already made about $3.5 billion in stimulus payments to more than a million customers. Digital bank Current says it immediately credited member accounts, with the funds beginning to flow Friday morning. BUT WHY? Big payments like this flow through the banking world via the ACH system, which is run by the Federal Reserve. When transactions are initiated, banks receive a notification indicating money is on the way. Hence, «pending.» Fintechs like Chime, however, don’t wait for the money to actually arrive. They pay it out early, trusting that when the Fed says the money is coming, it’ll get there eventually. QUOTE OF THE DAY «I don’t have to choose between lifestyle and career. I get to do both now.» Nicole Maddox accepted her job at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase less than a week before San Francisco went under shelter-in-place orders in March last year. So she packed up an Airstream trailer with her dog, Stanley, and hit the road.
