• Distressed-debt investors have been aggressively raising money since the effects of the pandemic on the global economy became clear in the spring.
• The equity markets' bounce back has not taken away opportunities, according to legendary distressed investor Marc Lasry.
• Lasry, the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and a big fundraiser for Joe Biden, said on a webinar last week he expects to see between $500 billion to $1 trillion in opportunities worldwide over the next year.
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Distressed-debt investors have been waiting for a recession after more than a decade of a relentless bull market.

Even though the equity markets have bounced back since the initial crash from the coronavirus pandemic — shocking and confounding many hedge-fund managers— there is still money to be made for distressed-debt investors. By Marc Lasry's count, between $500 billion and $1 trillion in opportunities.

"The biggest opportunity today is investing in companies that are in bankruptcy or going through a restructuring," said Lasry, the billionaire founder of $9.7 billion Avenue Capital, on a SALT Talks webinar with Skybridge Capital managing director Anthony Scaramucci last week.

Read more: POWER PLAYERS: Meet the bankers, traders, investors, and lawyers seeing huge opportunities in a wave of corporate distress and bankruptcies

The difference between now and 2008, he said, is that people know in two years everything will come back in some sense. In 2008, he said, people didn't know if there would even still be a financial system.  

What that means is companies with the liquidity to ride out the crisis are going to be in good shape, and those that were already saddled with debt are being forced to file for bankruptcy because no one is willing to lend them more money. But once they file, Lasry said, the tone of the investing world changes — he used Hertz as an example, since both its stock and bonds have quadrupled or quintupled since the company filed for Chapter 11 protection. 

The change is because the company now has the liquidity to weather the storm, and investing in a company going through the liquidation stage can lead to serious returns, he said. 

"If I could get in at the liquidation level every time today, I would," he said. 

Within different sectors and geographies, he mentioned the massive retailers that have gone bankrupt as targets, and is optimistic about opportunities in Europe and Asia because there's less competition from other distressed investors. While energy companies can be a good bet if oil prices rebound, he admitted that "you've got to pick the survivors, and that's gotten a lot harder."

"Energy's been a bloodbath," he said. 

But in lightning Q&A at the end of webinar, the Milwaukee Bucks owner and fundraiser for Joe Biden had two words for the distress landscape: "Massive opportunities."

SEE ALSO: Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones says the pandemic has thrown off economic models so much that people would 'be better off getting financial advice from TikTok'

SEE ALSO: Hedge funds are in uncharted waters right now. Here's how 12 billionaires like Ray Dalio, Ken Griffin, and Seth Klarman survived the last time the world fell apart.

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• This is a preview of the AI IN BANKING research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• 14-Day Risk Free Trial: Get full access to this and all Fintech industry research reports.

Discussions, articles, and reports about the AI opportunity across the financial services industry continue to proliferate amid considerable hype around the technology, and for good reason: The aggregate potential cost savings for banks from AI applications is estimated at $447 billion by 2023, with the front and middle office accounting for $416 billion of that total, per Autonomous Next research seen by Business Insider Intelligence.

Most banks (80%) are highly aware of the potential benefits presented by AI, per an OpenText survey of financial services professionals. In fact, many banks are planning to deploy solutions enabled by AI: 75% of respondents at banks with over $100 billion in assets say they're currently implementing AI strategies, compared with 46% at banks with less than $100 billion in assets, per a UBS Evidence Lab report seen by Business Insider Intelligence. Certain AI use cases have already gained prominence across banks' operations, with chatbots in the front office and anti-payments fraud in the middle office the most mature. 

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence identifies the most meaningful AI applications across banks' front and middle offices. We also discuss the winning AI strategies used by financial institutions so far, and provide recommendations for how banks can best approach an AI-enabled digital transformation.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Capital One, Citi, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Personetics, Quantexa, and U.S. Bank

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Front- and middle-office AI applications offer the greatest cost savings opportunity across banks. 
• Banks are leveraging AI on the front end to smooth customer identification and authentication, mimic live employees through chatbots and voice assistants, deepen customer relationships, and provide personalized insights and recommendations. 
• AI is also being implemented by banks within middle-office functions to detect and prevent payments fraud and to improve processes for anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulatory checks. 
• The winning strategies employed by banks that are undergoing an AI-enabled transformation reveal how to best capture the opportunity. These strategies highlight the need for a holistic AI strategy that extends across banks' business lines, usable data, partnerships with external partners, and qualified employees.

In full, the report:

• Outlines the benefits of using AI in the banking industry.
• Details the key use cases for transforming the front and middle office using the technology.
• Highlights players that have successfully implemented AI solutions.
• Examines winning strategies used by financial institutions that are leveraging AI to transform their entire organizations. 
• Discusses how banks can best capture the AI opportunity, including considerations on internal culture, staffing, operations, and data.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now
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• Years of an unrelenting bull market and passive investing dominance has brought hard times for long-short equity hedge funds, which have seen their fees squeezed and assets flee.
• Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, hedge-fund allocators and consultants say that there's renewed interested in this flavor of hedge fund, especially after quants struggled to keep up with the market turbulence in March.
• "Fundamental managers are able to act quickly in the new COVID environment," said Julie Lauer Wurster, a due diligence analyst for London-based Albourne Partners.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the markets deal with a never-before-seen pandemic, hedge-fund investors want to go back to the old-school way of investing.

Money has flowed out of long-short equity funds, the most popular type of hedge fund in the industry, for years, including more than $22 billion in 2019, according to Hedge Fund Research. Investors were uninterested in paying high fees for equity managers when the markets churned upward in the long-running bull market and passive index funds gained market share.

Now, hedge-fund investors are getting back to the fundamentals. The market disruption and ensuing reopening create an opportunity for stock-pickers to pick the winners and losers, said Marcus Frampton, chief investment officer of the Alaska Permanent Fund, a sort of sovereign wealth fund for the state that manages around $60 billion.

"It's a more ripe alpha environment than what it was 10 years ago," Frampton said on a webinar in June hosted by consultancy Agecroft Partners. 

Market-neutral funds, which hold longs and shorts in closely related stocks to protect against market moves, in particular struggled during the bull market, but investors expect renewed interest in managers that can generate, and calculate, alpha. 

At Albourne Partners, which works with institutional investors across the world to find managers, there's "more interest in market-neutral funds than there has been in the last 10 years," said Julie Lauer Wurster, a due diligence analyst for the London-based consultancy, on the webinar. 

Equity market-neutral funds have held up well in the pandemic, according to Hedge Fund Research. The average market-neutral fund has lost 2.8% through April, while the average equity fund fell more than 8% through the same time period. 

Lauer Wurster highlighted two additional areas of interest from Albourne clients: sector-specific funds, in areas like healthcare and technology, and equity funds focused on the Chinese market. A former Citadel portfolio manager, Prashanth Jayaram, is in the process of raising money for a healthcare-focused fund called Tri Locum Partners. 

The biggest draw for her clients is the ability of fundamental equity managers to "act quickly in the new COVID environment" — especially compared to quants, which were caught flat-footed in a disastrous March. 

Even with the fundraising environment riddled with challenges, as the virus halts business travel and in-person meetings, allocators expect market-neutral funds and other equity funds to be launched during this time. 

Bill Li, director of portfolio completion strategies at MassPRIM, which manages pension assets in Massachusetts, said that even managers that lost money can get money from platforms like his, which have an emerging manager program.

"Everyone makes mistakes. It's about what you learn from them," he said. 

SEE ALSO: Coatue's $350 million quant hedge fund pulled money out of the market in a move that exposes the dangers of data-driven trades

SEE ALSO: The world's biggest hedge funds like Bridgewater are blending quantitative and fundamental trading. Here's why it's gaining hype on Wall Street.

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NOW WATCH: Why electric planes haven't taken off yet

Buying a home, particularly for Millennials, is a complicated and expensive process – at times it can be complicated and expensive enough to discourage potential buyers from even trying.

Enter Divvy, one of the many Silicon Valley startups working to change the way people buy homes. The company is specifically interested in providing alternative financing options for prospective homebuyers who don't qualify for traditional mortgages.

Divvy accomplishes this by purchasing homes outright and allowing customers to pay the company back through monthly installments — 25% of the total goes toward building equity and 75% goes toward paying "rent."

And some top venture capitalists have bought into Divvy's mission as well. In October 2018, Divvy raised a $30 million series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Caffeinated Capital, DFJ, and Affirm CEO Max Levchin.

Divvy helped purchase homes for more than 100 buyers in its first year, but it has much higher hopes. The startup's official mission is to put 100,000 families into their first homes within five years.

To really understand Divvy's strategy, Business Insider Prime has published the investor deck the company used to acquire that $30 million in funding. Simply enter your email address to receive a FREE download of the full deck!

BI Prime is publishing dozens of stories like this each and every day, chock full of exclusive content and industry analysis. Get started by reading the full investor deck.

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• BlackRock filed to create a new exchange-traded fund on Friday with exposure to increasingly popular stay-at-home stocks.
• The iShares Virtual Work and Life Multisector ETF will focus on firms that benefit from the growing use of remote work, entertainment, education, and wellness products, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
• The move arrives as markets begin to reconcile with the possibility of a prolonged pandemic. After surging through May on hopes for a rapid recovery, indexes have slumped amid spiking case counts throughout the US.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Investors are betting on stay-at-home trends to boost specific stocks. BlackRock is betting that interest grows.

The world's largest asset manager filed to create a new exchange-traded fund on Friday to capitalize on remote-living firms' success. The iShares Virtual Work and Life Multisector ETF will focus on firms that benefit from individuals' growing use of remote work, entertainment, education, and wellness products, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The fund will pick companies across sectors including information tech, communication services, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. The underlying index holds stocks deemed "tele-work" or "tele-services" firms by ICE Data Indices. The index held 75 companies as of December 23, 2019, according to the filing.

Read more:Main Street traders have been crushing Wall Street in recent months. Goldman Sachs breaks down what retail investors should buy to keep winning — and lists the 12 stocks leading the charge.

Bloomberg first reported on the ETFs creation. The fund's holdings and management fees aren't yet public.

The filing arrives as investors begin to reckon with a prolonged economic recovery studded with smaller coronavirus outbreaks. Markets dipped on Monday after the weekend revealed spikes in COVID cases throughout the US. Firms specializing in stay-at-home trends could see a second surge in popularity as Americans settle in for a longer period of remote work.

BlackRock isn't the first firm to create such an ETF. Direxion filed in early April to create a work-from-home ETF with exposure to infrastructure used by cyber security, cloud tech, project management, and online communication companies. The fund will trade under the ticker WFH.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

Dow dives 300 points on mounting fears of a 2nd virus wave

US economic recovery being slowed by 'uneven' public health responses, Dallas Fed president warns

Famed short-seller Andrew Left breaks down why he's betting against these 4 companies — including Hertz and Tesla competitor Nikola

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Investors should buy the dip in stocks as the risk of a new round of economic lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic remains low, JPMorgan said in a note published on Friday.
• The bank thinks the recent sell-off in the S&P 500 to the 3,000 level is a good place to buy stocks.
• JPMorgan highlighted three key risks the stock market needs to overcome, including social unrest due to the recent protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, tensions with China, and the lingering of COVID-19.
• The note is in line with another note from JPMorgan that detailed why global stocks could rise 47% from current levels.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Investors should be buying the recent dip in stocks, according to a note from JPMorgan published on Friday.

JPMorgan analyst Marko Kolanovic said he is comfortable taking a bullish view on stocks because recent risks surrounding the stock market have been reduced in recent weeks.

In late May, Kolanovic toned down his bullishness on the stock market because of rising tensions between China and the US, and growing social unrest across the US due to the death of George Floyd. But since then, the bank is "more comfortable with taking a positive view - as positioning in equities did not increase significantly and China risks appear to be abating," according to the note.

The note is in line with another note from JPMorgan that detailed why global stocks could rise 47% from current levels.

Read more:GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 9 dirt-cheap stocks now before their share prices catch up to their strong earnings upside

The bank said it thinks that if recent market volatility remains elevated, systematic investors and hedge funds will likely add to equity exposure and opportunistically buy the dips.

Additionally, Kolanovic sees a negative correlation between the three primary risks the market is facing:

"For example, if there are more domestic problems, the [Trump] administration is likely to be less focused on China. If there is  less COVID-19 risks, the population and media may be more focused on social issues. Offsetting between these risks means that there will always be some risk and a negative narrative to push, but also it reduces the chance of a worst case scenario where all risks escalate at the same time."

The bank is not concerned that a second wave of COVID-19 will shut down the economy again, because the modest increase in cases over the past week could be related to higher testing rates, backlogs of hospital visits, and recent large protests, the note said.

Read more:Main Street traders have been crushing Wall Street in recent months. Goldman Sachs breaks down what retail investors should buy to keep winning — and lists the 12 stocks leading the charge.

"Unless these circumstances change, we think investors should be buying the dips, such as the one we saw yesterday," Kolanovic concluded.

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NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• Renowned short-seller Andrew Left told Business Insider he's reluctantly betting against the stock market today.
• Left commented on a series of companies he's shorting either because they're momentum stocks that are rising for no good reason, or because he questions the foundations of their businesses. 
• He also said he's concerned that "retail mania" could create a market bubble similar to the one from the dot-com era.
• Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter Investing Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Andrew Left checked another stock price and could not help but laugh.

"They're going to go bankrupt," he said. "Is it down, actually? No, it's up. There's people who hear 'bankruptcy, it's a good time to buy. It's not going down anymore.'"

To say the least, the Citron Research founder and renowned short seller isn't thrilled with what he's seeing in the stock market right now. He's unhappily betting against the market, saying it makes little sense that stocks have skyrocketed when unemployment is at historic highs and the economy might be years away from full health.

He blames the Federal Reserve's giant stimulus packages and "retail mania" driven by new investors who are buying and selling stocks because there are no sports on TV. As troubling as that might be, the good news, from his perspective, is that there's plenty for him to do.

"I started looking at a lot more (stocks) than I ever did," he told Business Insider in an exclusive interview. "This market's getting a little muddy."

Here's what Left had to say about a series of companies he's shorting.

(1) Bankruptcies

Left said he had taken a short position against Hertz, and voiced grave doubts about other stocks that had spiked following reports that they were either filing for bankruptcy protection or could soon do so.

That group includes Chesapeake Energy and Tailored Brands.

Like some other well-known investors, he says it could become a dot-com-style bubble, although he adds that there's an important distinction: The tech bubble featured the world-changing debut of the public internet even though it was plagued by companies with poor business models. He doesn't see a similar innovation today.

"The internet was obviously something big and everybody knew it was big," he said. "This is unprecedented."

Over the long run, he says it's unlikely that new traders will make money if they're buying Hertz when Carl Icahn sells it or American Airlines after Warren Buffett closes his position. As a rule, he says he's shorting "a lot of the Robinhood stocks."

(2) Nikola

Shares of the newly public electric-truck maker more than doubled after they started trading on June 4.

"I don't think they'll ever get a mass produced car," Left said, dismissing Nikola as a "wannabe Tesla."

Left has also bet against Tesla in the past only to see it rise, and said the company is one of a few stocks that is "in its own world."

(3) GSX Techedu

Left says GSX, a Chinese education technology company, has been dramatically overstating its revenues.

"I think GSX is a fraud," he said. "Hopefully the government will crack down in the next month."

GSX did not respond to a request for comment. 

(4) Credit Acceptance

Left says the auto lender's business practices are harming African American customers in particular. He says federal authorities might put a stop to that, which could hurt its business.

"They have unsavory practices that are going to get hurt by regulations. And I think they're extremely overvalued," he said.

Credit Acceptance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: David Herro was the world's best international stock picker for a decade straight. He breaks down 8 stocks he bet on after the coronavirus decimated markets — and 3 he sold.

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NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship

• The coronavirus has been a catalyst for big changes in the way consumers spend and pay.
• Ongoing trends like contactless payments and buy now, pay later are accelerating.
• New trends are emerging, like consumers' preference toward buy online, pick up in-store.
• Here's how banks, credit card companies, fintechs, and investors are thinking about the new norms in how we shop and pay.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

From banks to credit card companies to retailers, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted virtually every player in the payments industry.

Ongoing trends, like buy now, pay later and contactless payments, have been accelerated. And new norms in the way we shop, like buy online, pick up in-store, are emerging.

We've spoken with execs across the payments ecosystem to understand what's changing, and how they're looking to establish the 'new normal' as shops reopen and stay-at-home orders lift. 

Here's everything we know about the future of how we'll shop and pay in a post-COVID world.

Reimagining retail for a post-COVID world

• SARS created the perfect storm that changed how China shopped forever. The coronavirus could do the same for the US.
• $85 billion e-commerce giant Shopify is trying to make banks irrelevant for small businesses. Its chief product officer lays out why.
• Here are 8 companies, from giants like Shopify to seed-stage startups, that are getting a massive boost as shops and restaurants embrace curbside pickup
• E-commerce giant Shopify just launched a way for retailers to transform stores into fulfillment centers by quickly adding curbside pickups
• Retail will need to be reinvented after the pandemic. PayPal cofounder Max Levchin lays out the future of brick-and-mortar, and the 'software fight' that will go on behind the scenes

Buy now, pay later

• Snoop Dogg-backed fintech Klarna is taking a page out of Amex's playbook and launching a loyalty program to edge out its buy-now-pay-later rivals
• Buy now, pay later startup Affirm just launched a high-yield account with an eye-popping rate. Its CEO explains why the startup wants to cater to both saving and splurging.
• Startup QuadPay is dramatically expanding its reach by partnering with payments giant Stripe to offer shoppers the ability to buy now, pay later at any store
• Tencent just snapped up a $250 million stake in Afterpay. Now the 2 are gearing up to bring buy-now-pay-later options to China's massive e-commerce market.
• Buy now, pay later startups are surging. But Affirm CEO Max Levchin says the industry will see a shakeout as the pandemic hits borrowers.
• Buy now, pay later startups are 'having a moment' — here's why retailers like Walmart and Target are betting on installment payments to keep consumers spending

Banks, credit cards, and contactless payments

• POWER PLAYERS: Meet the 8 PayPal execs shaping the payment giant's future as its stock rockets to record highs and e-commerce surges
• $1.9 billion fintech Marqeta is on a hiring spree and eyeing M&A as its partners like Square, DoorDash, and Instacart rely on virtual card issuing
• Digital bank N26 just raised $100 million. Now, it's rolling out features like contactless payments as users seek a safer way to pay.
• A Mastercard exec lays out how a surge in contactless payments is giving the company an unexpected boost as people rethink touching cash
• Credit card rewards programs are getting upended as travel grinds to a halt. Here's what Chase and American Express are doing to keep 'top of wallet' status.
• Digital-only banks like Chime are seeing record signups amid the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how they drive revenue without lending or charging overdraft fees.

What top investors are looking out for

• Live commerce — think QVC meets TikTok — is booming in China as influencers are converting billions of dollars worth of sales. An Andreessen Horowitz partner explains why the US could be next.
• 2 investors at legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz predict the new ways we'll shop and pay, from livestreaming e-commerce to contactless transactions
• 4 top VCs explain why Stripe, Square, and Finix are going to be big winners in a post-COVID-19 world

Click to buy

• One-click checkout startup Fast used this pitch deck to nab $20 million from investors like fintech giant Stripe. Here's a look at how it laid out its vision for taking on Apple Pay.

Careers

• Virtual ice-breakers and weekly wellness surveys: PayPal's head of talent lays out how the payment giant is hiring and training new employees and interns

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why electric planes haven't taken off yet

• Insider Intelligence publishes thousands of research reports, charts, and forecasts on the Fintech industry. You can learn more about becoming a client here.
• The following is a preview of one Fintech report, the Fintech Accelerators Report. You can purchase this report here.

The fintech industry is growing every year, and the market is starting to fill up with financial services providers and fintech startups trying to fulfill customers' needs and shape the future of finance.

Throughout 2019, fintech startups globally scooped up $34.5 billion in funding. Several innovative financial services and fintech companies are driving that growth by attracting investors who are offering new financial products and services.

But as more and more companies pour into the fintech space, it can be tough to sift through them and identify the major players. To help, we've listed below the most important financial technology startups across six areas: Banking, Payments, Investment and Financial Management, Insurance, Currency and Exchange, and Lending and Financing.

Note: All employee and funding data comes from Crunchbase.

Banking Fintech Providers & Startups

Monzo

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $356 Million

One Thing to Know: U.K. digital-only mobile bank Monzo was founded as Mondo in 2015 and currently 4,245,063 people have a Monzo bank account.

Starling Bank

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $354 Million

One Thing to Know: Starling's personal bank account won Best British Bank and Best Current Account 2020 and its business account won Best Business Banking Provider 2020.

Ally Financial

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of acquisitions: 3

Number of investments: 7

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: Ally Financial went public on April 10, 2014 and is currently used by over 8.5 million people.

Tandem

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $147 Million

One Thing to Know: Digital-only bank Tandem has an official banking license with the Bank of England.

Tide

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $114.8 Million

One Thing to Know: Tide claims it can get you a business MasterCard in just three minutes.

N26

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Total Funding: $782.8 Million

One Thing to Know: Famous Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel has backed the company, which obtained a full German banking license in July 2016.

Atom

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $471 Million

One Thing to Know: Atom users can log in to the mobile banking app using voice and/or facial recognition.

Payments Fintech Providers & Startups

Dwolla

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $51.4 Million

One Thing to Know: In 2019, Dwolla, Inc. announced the Integration Partner Program, which offers more seamless technical integrations between Dwolla, the partner, and their mutual clients.

Venmo

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $1.3 Million

One Thing to Know: Braintree acquired the peer-to-peer payments company in 2012, and today it has become a household name in P2P payments. Companies that accept venmo include: Uber, Urban Outfitters, Lululemon, Poshmark, and Forever 21. 

PayPal

Number of Employees: More than 10,000

Number of acquisitions: 20

Total Funding: $216 Million

One Thing to Know: PayPal was founded on December 1, 1998 and acquired by eBay on July 8, 2002. The Payment provider currently has 277 million active account holders.

Paydiant

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $34.6 Million

One Thing to Know: PayPal-owned Paydiant uses a cloud-based platform that helps merchants and banks deploy their own mobile wallets inside their own apps.

AZA Group (also known as BitPesa) 

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $30 Million

One Thing to Know: BitPesa currently accepts Bitcoin and delivers fiat currency directly to mobile phones in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania. It also sells Bitcoin in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.

WorldRemit

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $407.7 Million

One Thing to Know: WorldRemit is available in more than 90 currencies and 150 countries. It boasts that transactions can be completed in minutes and  is on average 25% cheaper against Ria, Western Union and Moneygram (when sending $200). 

Stripe

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of acquisitions: 8

Number of investments: 18

Total Funding: $1.6 Billion

One Thing to Know: Millions of companies in over 120 countries use Stripe  including Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Shopify, Microsoft, and more. 

Braintree

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $69 Million

One Thing to Know: The PayPal-owned company powers payments for companies such as Uber, Poshmark, and StubHub. 

Klarna

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of acquisitions: 7

Number of investments: 3

Total Funding: $1.4 Billion

One Thing to Know: Klarna is one of Europe's largest banks and is providing payment solutions for 85 million consumers across 205,000 merchants in 17 countries.

Chase Pay

Number of Employees: 5,001 to 10,000

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: Chase Pay officially debuted its app on November 21, 2016.

Azimo

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $88.1 million

One Thing to Know: Azimo promises money transfers in one hour or less.

Xoom

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $104.3 Million

One Thing to Know: PayPal acquired this international money transfer company on July 2, 2015.

iZettle

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $300 million

One Thing to Know: iZettle Go allows you to take both cash and card payments, along with Apple and Google Pay. 

Square

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of acquisitions: 15

Number of investments: 12

Total Funding: $590.5 Million

One Thing to Know: Square was granted a banking license by the FDIC and charter approval from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions for Square Financial Services, the bank it expects to launch in 2021.

Adyen

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $266 million

One Thing to Know: Adyen's customers include ebay, Uber, Etsy, Spotify, and more.

ShopKeep

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 4

Total Funding: $137.2 million

One Thing to Know: ShopKeep has more than 25,000 customers nationally, sees over 289 million transactions annually, and is the No. 1 customer rated iPad POS.

Remitly 

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $420 million

One Thing to Know: With Remitly, you can transfer money from: UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and Sweden to over 50 countries worldwide.

Transferwise

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $772.7 million

One Thing to Know: Transferwise moves over $5 billion every month, and save people and businesses $3 million in hidden fees every day.

Investing & Financial Management Providers

Betterment

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $275 million

One Thing to Know: Betterment is the most popular robo-advisor in the U.S. and has more than $6 billion in assets under management.

Vanguard

Number of Employees: More than 10,000

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: Vanguard had about $6.2 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 31, 2020.

Moneyfarm

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $127.3 million

One Thing to Know: Moneyfarm operates in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Robinhood

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $1.2 Billion

One Thing to Know: Robinhood has a service called Robinhood gold that allows for pre-market and after-market trading, additional buying power, and larger instant deposits.

Advizr

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $10.6 million

One Thing to Know: Advizr was acquired by Orion Advisor Services, LLC (Orion), the premier portfolio management solution provider for registered investment advisors, in 2019.

Nutmeg

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $153.6 million

One Thing to Know: Nutmeg specializes in ISAs and pensions.

Wealthfront

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $204.5 million

One Thing to Know: In 2019 Wealthfron launched the Wealthfront Cash Account, offering a 2.24% interest rate and FDIC insurance that covers balances up to $1 million.

Habito

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $231million

One Thing to Know: Habito targets home buyers and tries to remove the friction of mortgage applications.

Hedgeable

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $3.7 million

One Thing to Know: Hedgeable focuses on millennials and touts itself as "your personal investing sensei."

SigFig 

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $119.5 million

One Thing to Know: SigFig has backing from UBS, New York Life, Santander InnoVentures, Eaton Vance, Comerica Bank, and more.

Scalable Capital

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $72 million

One Thing to Know: The Munich-based company focuses primarily on risk management.

Mint

Number of Employees: 5,001 to 10,000

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $31.8 Million

One Thing to Know: Intuit acquired Mint on September 14, 2009.

Wealthsimple

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $48 million

One Thing to Know: In 2020 Wealthsimple launched a no-fee spending account with 2.4% interest.

Charles Schwab

Number of Employees: More than 10,000

Number of investments: 12

Number of acquisitions: 10

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: Charles Schwab went public on January 10, 2003.

Insurance Fintech Providers

Bought by Many 

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $116 Million

One Thing to Know: In 2019, Bought by Many was voted the Most Trusted Pet Insurance Provider at the Moneywise Customer Service Awards.

Slice Labs

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $35.5 million

One Thing to Know: The insurance technology startup offers a pay-per-use policy for Uber and Lyft drivers while they are on the job.

Shift

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $293 million

One Thing to Know: Shift Technology uses data to automatically detect networks of fraudsters in the insurance and e-commerce sectors.

Cuvva

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $18 Million

One Thing to Know: The UK-based company provides insurance on a car for only as long as the customer needs it, whether that's an hour or a day.

WeSavvy

Number of Employees: 1 to 10

Total Funding: $98,000 

One Thing to Know: WeSavvy provides insurance policy rewards for healthy behaviors such as walking, running, and bicycling.

Knip

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $18.4 million

One Thing to Know: The mobile insurance company has offices in Switzerland, Germany, and Serbia.

Roost

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $16.9 million

One Thing to Know: Roost specializes in smart home technology. 

Kasko

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $1.4 Million

One Thing to Know: In 2020 Kasko partnered with  OCC to Build Flexible Classic Car Insurance for the Austrian Market.

Lemonade

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $480 million

One Thing to Know: Lemonade is ranked the No. 1 insurance company in the US by the App Store, Google Play, Supermoney, and Clearsurance.

Teambrella

Number of Employees: 1 to 10

Total Funding: $1.3 Million

One Thing to Know: Teambrella's users provide coverage to each other. When one person submits a claim within his or her team, the teammates reimburse it.

Fitsense

Number of Employees: 1 to 10

Total Funding: $43,000

One Thing to Know: Fitsense uses wearables data to help insurance companies personalize their health and life insurance packages for individuals.

Friendsurance 

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $15.3 million

One Thing to Know: The P2P insurance company rewards small user groups with cash back bonuses at the end of the year if they remain claimless.

Cocoon

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $7.1 million

One Thing to Know: Cocoon specializes in smart home security. 

Markets, Currency, & Exchange Fintech Companies

Ripple

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of investments: 12

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $293.8 million

One Thing to Know: Ripple's network spans 300+ providers across 40+ countries and 
six continents.

Kraken

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 10

Total Funding: $118.5 million

One Thing to Know: The bitcoin exchange says it was the first to have its trading price and volume displayed on the Bloomberg terminal.

Coinbase

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of investments: 9

Number of acquisitions: 13

Total Funding: $547.3 million

One Thing to Know: In 2020 Coinbase made it possible for users to pay a friend, make a purchase, or transfer funds across 100+ countries with just a few taps.

Bitstamp

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $102.4 million

One Thing to Know: Bitstamp was the first regulated and licensed virtual currency exchange in the European Union.

BTC Media

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Number of acquisitions: 3

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: BTC is the world's largest Bitcoin media group.

Ethereum

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Number of Investments: 3

Total Funding: $18.4 Million

One Thing to Know: Ethereum works with bitcoin, developer APIs, consumer applications, and more.

Digital Asset

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 4

Total Funding: $142.2 million

One Thing to Know: Digital Asset has formed partnerships with Accenture, Broadridge, and PwC.

Circle

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 3

Total Funding: $246 million

One Thing to Know: Goldman Sachs, Accel, and other heavyweights have poured their financial support into Circle.

Lending & Financing Technology Companies

AvantCredit 

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $142 Million

One Thing to Know: AvantCredit, a subsidiary of Avant, has lent over £250 million to more than 80,000 customers.

Zopa

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $464.5 million

One Thing to Know: Zopa was one of the first three members of the U.K.'s Peer-to-Peer Finance Association, along with FundingCircle and RateSetter.

Bond Street

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Total Funding: $411.5 million

One Thing to Know: Bond Street was acquired by Goldman Sachs on Sep 14, 2017.

SoFi

Number of Employees: 1,001 to 5,000

Number of acquisitions: 3

Number of investments: 9

Total Funding: $2.5 billion

One Thing to Know: SoFi has loaned $45 billion to date to more than 1,000,000 members.

Assetz Capital

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $23 million

One Thing to Know:Assetz Capital has funded a total of 4,846 new homes since it was founded in 2013. 

Funding Circle

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 3

Number of investments: 4

Total Funding: $746.4 million

One Thing to Know: Funding Circle has helped over 81,000 small businesses worldwide secure $11.7 billion in financing.

Younited Credit

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $122.1 million

One Thing to Know: Younited Credit was formerly known as Prêt d'Union.

Orchard

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $286 million

One Thing to Know: Orchard uses its technology and infrastructure to build systems that help marketplace lenders grow.

LendUp

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $361.5 million

One Thing to Know: LendUp offers credit education courses through its website that cover credit building, consumer credit rights, and more.

Prosper Marketplace

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $415.5 million

One Thing to Know: Prosper was the first marketplace lender in the U.S. when it launched in 2006.

Affirm

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $1 Billion

One Thing to Know: The San Francisco-based financial services company was found in 2012.

Auxmoney

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $2 Billion

One Thing to Know: Auxmoney is a German peer-to-peer loan marketplace.

OnDeck

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $1.2 Billion

One Thing to Know: OnDeck has delivered more than $13 billion to businesses worldwide.

LendInvest

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $1.3 Billion

One Thing to Know: LendInvest has an international capital base of over £2 billion. 

Bondora

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Total Funding: $7.9 million

One Thing to Know: 124,821 people have invested over €372M and earned €45M.

Lendio

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $108.5 million

One Thing to Know: Lendio has helped small business owners get over $1.4 billion in loans.

LendingClub

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 2

Number of investments: 1

Total Funding: $392.2 Million

One Thing to Know: In 2020 LendingClub acquired Radius Bank for $185 million.

Seedrs

Number of Employees:101 to 250

Number of acquisitions: 1

Number of investments: 444

Total Funding: $71.3 million

One Thing to Know: In 2020 Seedrs partnered with Capdesk – creating the first private secondary market for shareholders and employees in Europe.

Kabbage

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Number of acquisitions: 2

Total Funding: $2.5 Billion

One Thing to Know: Kabbage has provided more than $2 billion in funding to more than 84,000 businesses.

Lu.com

Number of Employees: 501 to 1,000

Total Funding: $3 billion

One Thing to Know: Lufax was incorporated in September 2011 in Shanghai with the support of Shanghai's Municipal Government and has since become China's largest Internet finance company.

Market Finance

Number of Employees: 101 to 250

Total Funding: $50.3 million

One Thing to Know: The P2P fintech platform has funded against £1,021,631,610 to date.

Crowdfunder

Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Number of investments: 6

Total Funding: $5 million

One Thing to Know: The Los Angeles-based company focuses on changing U.S. laws to make it easier for startups and small businesses to raise funds through equity or revenue-based financing.

Crowdcube

Number of Employees: 51 to 100

Number of investments: 958

Total Funding: N/A

One Thing to Know: Crowdcube is backed byBalderton Capital, Draper Esprit, Numis and Channel 4, who have collectively invested more than £19.5m across multiple rounds of investment.

BlueVine

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Total Funding: $692.5 million

One Thing to Know: BlueVine has delivered over $3 Billion in funds to over 25,000 customers. 

RateSetter

Number of Employees: 251 to 500

Number of acquisitions: 1

Total Funding: $47.2 million

One Thing to Know: RateSetter has over 84,000 investors, investing over £3.6 billion to date.

More to Learn

This comprehensive list of fintech companies merely scratches the surface of the fintech industry, which is growing in unprecedented ways.

Business Insider Intelligence's Fintech Accelerators Reporthighlights conversations with key figures within the accelerators of top banks — Wells Fargo, Barclays, and Citi. The report details how the accelerators provide guidance to help startups develop their solutions, and highlights notable alumni startups from each program to reveal insights on how both fintechs and banks benefit from their participation.

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how you can gain access:

1. Join other Insider Intelligence clients who receive this report, along with thousands of other Fintech forecasts, briefings, charts, and research reports to their inboxes. >> Become a Client
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• The New York Stock Exchange will allow some market makers to return to the trading floor Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Michael Blaugrund told Bloomberg in a Monday interview. 
• The market makers designated to return will add to the 25% of participants that went back to the trading floor when it partially reopened May 26.
• Those returning will be asked to sign waivers, as well as submit to medical screenings and random testing for COVID-19.
• They will also be required to wear face masks and practice social distancing, and will work on hand-held devices instead of open outcry, Bloomberg reported. 
• Read more on Business Insider.

The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday will allow some market makers to return to its trading floor, Bloomberg reported Monday.

"This is a really important milestone for us," NYSE Chief Operating Officer Michael Blaugrund told Bloomberg in an interview. 

The market makers designated to return will add to the 25% of participants who went back to the trading floor when it partially reopened May 26. Those who will be returning this week will be asked to sign waivers, as well as submit to medical screenings and random testing for COVID-19, according to the report. 

Once inside the venue, things will look a little different as well — market makers will be required to wear face masks, practice social distancing, and will work on hand-held devices instead of open outcry, Bloomberg reported. 

Read more:GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 9 dirt-cheap stocks now before their share prices catch up to their strong earnings upside

According to Blaugrund, the expectation is that the designated market makers will provide manual opening and closing auctions, critical for price liquidity, he told Bloomberg. 

GTS, one designated market maker, will send eight employees back to the NYSE, according to the report. That's half the firm's usual level, CEO Ari Rubenstein told Bloomberg.

Still, Rubenstein said that clients have been pushing for market makers to return to the NYSE before quadruple witching this Friday, the rebalancing of the Russell indexes next week, and the start of corporate earnings season, according to the report. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like to travel during the coronavirus outbreak

• Shopify surged as much as 8% on Monday after Walmart announced in a blog post that the two companies are "joining forces" to help more small businesses sell products online.
• The partnership will open Walmart.com to Shopify sellers, allowing small businesses to reach a wider audience with their product listings and better compete with Amazon.
• Walmart plans to add 1,200 Shopify sellers to its Marketplace this year as it looks to capitalize on a surge in ecommerce shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A partnership between Walmart and Shopify helped boost shares of the Canadian ecommerce company by as much as 7.6% in Monday's trading session.

In a blog post, Walmart announced that it was "joining forces" with Shopify in order to expand its Marketplace offerings and add more small business sellers to its platform. Walmart plans to add as many as 1,200 Shopify sales to its platform by the end of the year.

The move comes just one month after Walmart decided to drop its Jet.com brand name to instead focus on its Walmart.com Marketplace.

The partnership should help both Shopify and Walmart better compete against Amazon, as consumers' ecommerce spending surges due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Read More: How Fidelity spurred a 147% productivity increase during the coronavirus pandemic, setting it up to hire thousands more workers

"As we launch this integration with Shopify, we are focused on U.S.-based small and medium businesses whose assortment complements ours and have a track record of exceeding customers' expectations," Walmart said.

Additionally, Walmart complements Shopify's ability to help small businesses scale and its customers would benefit from a greater assortment of product listings on its Marketplace, the company said.

Shares of Shopify traded up as much as 7.6% to $799.02, and Walmart shares traded up as much as 0.80% to $118.68 Monday. Shopify is up nearly 100% year-to-date.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• On June 9, Brex and Rippling shared a broad financial checklist that startups can use when evaluating how to best reopen following statewide shelter-in-place orders and widespread remote work.
• Some of the lessons of the last few months could be used in the long run, such as maintaining remote work, to help cut costs while balance sheets are tight, Rippling CFO Adil Syed said.
• In the coming months, office space could be seen as a perk that startups offer employees as part of a comprehensive benefits package instead of traditional work conditions, Brex CFO Michael Tannenbaum said.
• Another area that could be trimmed down is marketing costs, Syed explained. If startups are unable to renegotiate existing contracts on something like billboards, he suggested revamping the advertising message to make sure it is in line with public sentiment and avoid coming off as tone-deaf.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Startups about to reopen for business are grappling with inconsistent rules between California's phased reopening and the Bay Area's more stringent requirements, leaving young companies flying blind when it comes to longer-term planning.

Of particular concern to startup founders is runway, or how long they can keep going on the cash they have in the bank if they don't change their average cost to run the business. With many VCs pulling back from new investments given the uncertainty in the market, founders are coming to terms with what their runway has to be just to survive. Belt-tightening is the biggest Silicon Valley trend of 2020.

So on June 9, credit card startup Brex and HR startup Rippling unveiled a financial checklist they developed to help startups evaluate what's next, and modify their operating plans if necessary. In the absence of clear federal or state guidelines or best practices from investors, startups like Brex have sought to fulfill the role of educator for their peers. The CFOs for the two companies unveiled the checklist as part of an ongoing series of online presentations for founders.

"Today's conversation was really born out of me and Michael kind of having a chat about our own journeys and navigating financial planning during COVID," Rippling CFO Adil Syed told attendees. "There are a lot of things that we don't have obvious answers for, but we figured there are folks out there that are feeling the same and wanted to have this chat with everyone."

The checklist covers various items that could be dialed back or cut altogether, Syed and Brex CFO Michael Tannenbaum said during the presentation. Given the restrictions in Silicon Valley in particular, Tannenbaum recommended cutting back on pricey office leases, and even going forward, redefining an office-based workspace as more like a shiny perk instead of a standard expectation.

"It used to be sort of like, the 11th Commandment was 'thou shalt be in an office' and I think now, this idea is that office space and the ability to interact with people is more of a perk," Tannenbaum said. "It can be a great thing that a company can offer, but when you start to think about it in that way, particularly in the context of financial planning, I think that's a really valuable framework because you can start to say, 'are we getting this value out of this office relative to other things we could be offering?'"

Another expense that both Rippling and Brex have dialed back on themselves is advertising on billboards and bus stops around the Bay Area. With fewer people commuting to those office jobs, the return on those historically costly ads continued to shrink.

But when Syed attempted to get out of a previously agreed upon contract for a billboard in San Francisco, he realized that it was less flexible than he had hoped. Together with Rippling' CMO, the startup developed an alterative advertising campaign, one that celebrated healthcare and frontline workers. Syed explained that this was an instance where he and his team were able to work within the constraints of the contract that had been agreed upon pre-COVID.

"It was a series of billboards that we put up in San Francisco right as a city was going into shelter-in-place, and the reality is we did it because we had no choice," Syed said. "There was no way for us to get out of the out-of-home contracts that we'd signed up for, but we use that opportunity to sort of flip the narrative into less about Rippling and more about all the, you know, really hard workers out there that were allowing us to stay safe at home."

Here is the financial checklist that Rippling and Brex shared with other founders and CFOs.

SEE ALSO: Here's a survivor's guide for startups weathering their first major recession, according to an expert who's been counseling young companies since the COVID-19 crisis erupted in March

• The Federal Reserve announced Monday it will begin purchases of individual corporate bonds.
• The move comes nearly three months after first unveiling the Secondary Market Corporate Credit facility and one month after it began buying corporate-credit ETFs through the program.
• The central bank will "create a corporate bond portfolio that is based on a broad, diversified market index of US corporate bonds," according to a press release.
• The Fed's late-March announcement of its move into corporate bond purchases set a floor for risk assets and helped valuations rebound from their pandemic-induced lows.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

The Federal Reserve announced Monday it will begin buying individual corporate bonds 85 days after unveiling the purchase policy and alleviating intense credit-market pressures.

The program, also known as the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, will take in up to $250 billion in corporate bonds from eligible issuers. The Fed can also tap $25 billion in funding assistance from the Treasury Department as set aside by the CARES Act. 

The central bank updated the program to "create a corporate bond portfolio that is based on a broad, diversified market index of US corporate bonds," according to a press release. The portfolio will complement purchases of corporate-credit exchange-traded funds through the SMCCF since May 12.

Individual bond-buying will begin on Tuesday, according to a separate statement from the New York Fed.

Read more:Main Street traders have been crushing Wall Street in recent months. Goldman Sachs breaks down what retail investors should buy to keep winning — and lists the 12 stocks leading the charge.

The Fed's first purchases of individual bonds arrive months after the program's March 23 reveal set the bottom for risk markets. Investors flocked back to stocks and corporate debt after the announcement, heralding the facilities as a backstop for both asset classes. Before any individual bonds were taken up by the Fed, the S&P 500 rallied out of its coronavirus slump on the policy-fueled optimism and hope for a rapid economic recovery.

The central bank has taken in roughly $5.5 billion through its ETF purchases so far. Its Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, which will focus on buying debt directly from firms, is not yet operational and can take in up to $500 billion of corporate credit.

The Fed's announcement helped stocks erase the last of their early losses.

Participating issuers need to have been rated investment-grade as of March 22 to participate in the Fed's individual bond purchases, according to a term sheet. Bonds bought on the secondary market must also have remaining maturities of five years or less. The junk-bond market is still receiving some central bank aid from its ETF purchases.

The central bank also opened its Main Street Lending Program on Monday to lender registration. The move allows banks to sign up for offering loans to eligible small- and medium-sized businesses. The Boston Fed will soon begin purchasing 95% of loans made through the Main Street program.

The $600 billion facility was also revealed in late March but has run late in starting operations due to last-minute changes, chairman Jerome Powell said during a Wednesday press conference.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

The world's largest asset manager plans to launch an ETF focused on stay-at-home companies

US economic recovery being slowed by 'uneven' public health responses, Dallas Fed president warns

Famed short-seller Andrew Left breaks down why he's betting against these 4 companies — including Hertz and Tesla competitor Nikola

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NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

Meet the 2019 class of Wall Street's rising stars.

From starting a hedge fund before age 30 to running their own alternative-data shops and helping lead $27 billion investments, this group of young finance leaders is in a league of its own.

It was harder than ever this year to select just 25 people. Our selection criteria: We asked that nominees be 35 or under, based in the US, and stand out from their peers. Editors made the final decisions.

Here's our list of the next crop of Wall Street leaders.

Additional reporting by Alex Morell, Bradley Saacks, and Dakin Campbell.

Click here to read the full list.

Adam Parker, 34, Center Lake Capital

Adam Parker has been focused on running his own hedge fund as long as he can remember – and he's already running $350 million before the age of 35 with his fund, Center Lake Capital. 

Parker started investing in college after he sold a GrubHub-like company he and a couple friends started. From there, he interned at the Lehman Brothers real-estate group in summer 2007 and was choosing between returning for a full-time position or joining the now shuttered Force Capital. He chose Force. 

After working as an analyst, he eventually interviewed with billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, and worked for Duquesne Capital until Druckenmiller closed the fund. He then went to PointState Capital, which was started by Duquesne veterans, and became a portfolio manager after just a year, running $150 million to start out.

Center Lake launched in 2014 with multiyear commitments from a few critical investors, Parker said. Now he believes the firm has differentiated itself because of the concentrated investments and specific focus within the tech world. 

Click here to read the full list.

Evan Feinberg, 32, Tiger Global

Feinberg started at the University of Pennsylvania with plans to be a lawyer and had no idea what investment banking even was. It took only a year for him to transfer into the Wharton business program, and the rest is history.

Feinberg worked at Morgan Stanley during the summer of the financial crisis and joined Silver Lake Capital, a private-equity firm in New York, after he graduated. He joined Tiger Global six years ago as the hedge fund run by the billionaire Chase Coleman decided to expand more into the private markets. 

In that time, Feinberg estimates he has been a part of 40 to 50 different investments Tiger Global's private-investing team has made, including co-leading the firm's investments in the Brazilian financial-technology unicorn Nubank and the buzzy workout company Peloton. Both the investments were made earlier on in the companies' histories — series B for Nubank and series A for Peloton — a fact Feinberg is proud of.

Feinberg is looking for founders that are inspirational but also grounded, so they don't let their vision get the best of them, while also being able to get employees and investors to buy into the potential of the company. 

Click here to read the full list.

Want to meet the rest of Wall Street's rising stars?

BI Prime publishes dozens of exclusive stories like this every day that feature in-depth industry and market analysis. 

>> Get started by reading the full list

• US equities erased losses and turned higher on Monday afternoon after the Federal Reserve announced it would begin individual corporate bond purchases.
• The bond-buying activity comes nearly three months after the central bank first unveiled its lending programs. The March 23 announcement marked a floor for stock prices and fueled a strong rebound through the following weeks.
• Oil reversed intraday losses as well, with West Texas Intermediate crude rising as much as 2.8%, to $37.26 per barrel.
• Watch major indexes update live here.

US stocks erased losses and closed higher on Monday after the Federal Reserve announced it will begin purchases of individual corporate bonds.

The central bank will begin taking in bonds through its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility on Tuesday, roughly three months since it first revealed the program and subsequently backstopped risk assets. Purchases will be made to form a portfolio "based on a broad, diversified market index of U.S. corporate bonds," according to a press release.

The Fed also opened its Main Street Lending Program and is encouraging banks to make loans to eligible small- and medium-sized businesses. 

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET market close on Monday:

• S&P 500: 3,066.59, up 0.8%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 25,763.16, up 0.6% (158 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 9,726.02, up 1.4%

Read more:Main Street traders have been crushing Wall Street in recent months. Goldman Sachs breaks down what retail investors should buy to keep winning — and lists the 12 stocks leading the charge.

Equities tanked at the start of the day amid renewed fears of a second wave of coronavirus cases. Nearly half of the 50 US states are seeing a rebound in infections as reopenings continue. North Carolina and Texas reported record hospitalizations on Saturday, while Florida, California, and Alabama post sharp increases in daily cases.

Airline stocks led early losses and failed to match the market's broad afternoon upswing. United and American slid, while Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines fell as well. Traders continued to bet against travel activity surging back to past norms.

Read more:GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 9 dirt-cheap stocks now before their share prices catch up to their strong earnings upside

Popular bankruptcy-play Hertzslid after the car-rental chain filed to sell $500 million in stock. The struggling firm has seen violent price swings through recent sessions as retail investors bet on a miraculous recovery from severe indebtedness. The new stock offering gives Hertz a preferable fundraising option, though the company warned investors the shares "could ultimately be worthless" if it goes under.

Shopify soared after inking a partnership with Walmart to help small businesses sell products online. Walmart plans to add as many as 1,200 Shopify sales to its platform by the end of 2020, according to a blog post.

Oil also retraced morning losses. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped as much as 2.8%, to $37.26 per barrel. International standard Brent crude climbed 3%, to $39.90 per barrel, at intraday lows.

Read more:Famed short-seller Andrew Left breaks down why he's betting against these 4 companies — including Hertz and Tesla competitor Nikola

Despite rising case counts throughout the US, Morgan Stanley economists doubled down on their bet for a V-shaped recovery in a Sunday note. The firm told clients it expects global gross domestic product to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. Even if a second wave of cases threatens the recovery, the bank's base-case sees "selective lockdowns" keeping the world economy from plunging further into recession.

Monday's leap follows a modest increase to close out last week. Friday saw all three major indexes trend higher to retrace some of Thursday's losses. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey showed optimism jumping the most since 2016 in June as positive rehiring figures boosted hopes for a labor-market recovery.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

Beware the 'Portnoy top': A former Wall Street chief strategist breaks down how the day-trading exploits of Barstool Sports' founder highlight an 'unholy speculative mix' infecting stocks

The world's largest asset manager plans to launch an ETF focused on stay-at-home companies

The recent stock-market crash and the Great Depression of 1929 share an unnerving similarity that suggests the recovery will be more painful than many investors expect

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• After years of procrastinating on moving my savings into another account to earn interest, I finally opened a Wealthfront high-yield cash account.
• Wealthfront cash accounts come with a competitive APY, have a $1 minimum deposit, and are fee-free.
• I moved my emergency fund savings over to Wealthfront and the process couldn't have been any easier.
• Beginning July 1, 2020, anyone can access checking features with their Wealthfront account, including direct deposits and a debit card.
• Currently, Business Insider readers who sign up for a Wealthfront investment account will receive their first $5,000 managed for free in that account in perpetuity.

As someone who writes about personal finance every day, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I've never had a high-yield cash or savings account. That's because I've been with the same monster mega bank since my teenage days.

For years, I had serious bank account inertia. I just couldn't bring myself to put in the effort that would be required to open up a new bank account. But I'd been told that the hassle factor really wasn't an excuse any longer and that I could open an account in minutes.

I finally decided that it was time to bite the bullet and find a cash account that would pay me more than 0.01%. And after taking a look at several great options, I decided to go with Wealthfront. 

Why I chose to open a high-yield cash account with Wealthfront

If you're looking for a high-yield cash or savings account, there are several good choices available. But here is a quick list of the reasons that I chose Wealthfront:

• FDIC insured up to $1 million
• Fee-free
• $1 minimum deposit
• A higher interest rate than what brick-and-mortar banks offer

The interest rate was really the clincher for me, but the other points came into consideration as well.

It's also important to point out that I didn't need all the bells and whistles of an actual bank. I still have all my online bill pay and ACH debits set to pull from the checking account at the bank I've been with for years. I was just looking for a place to park my emergency fund money and hopefully outpace (or at least keep up with) inflation. 

If you're looking to open both a checking and savings, you may be better off choosing an online bank. But for my situation, Wealthfront seemed like the right fit.

I was relieved to find that the sign-up process with Wealthfront was a breeze. It took me less than 10 minutes from start to finish. Here's how it went.

Wealthfront gives two options for creating an account. You can start from scratch using your email address or you can import your personal information from Intuit.

Since, I’ve long used TurboTax (owned by Intuit) as my tax-filing software, I decided to choose the import option. Even so, I still had to give Wealthfront some information before they could begin the import.

The Intuit import only took a few seconds to complete. I verified my key information and then Wealthfront said they wanted to verify my mobile number for security purposes.

The text from Wealthfront came through promptly. I entered the code that I was sent and just like that I was on my way.

Wealthfront wanted to know my primary reason for opening an account.

After I selected "high-interest cash savings," they wanted to know if I planned to open an individual account, joint account, or a trust. Since I wanted my wife and I to both be on the account, I selected "Joint." At this point, the process had taken me a total of four minutes.

Next, Wealthfront wanted to know how I planned to fund my cash account. When I clicked on “Link an External Account” a dialog box popped up that showed several popular banks.

It also had a search box in case my bank wasn’t one of the ones listed. I selected my bank and then typed in my bank credentials.

In only took Wealthfront a few seconds to connect to my bank account. I was asked whether to pull the funds from checking or savings. After selecting my savings account, I was asked to type in the amount that I wanted to transfer over.

After typing in my transfer amount, Wealthfront said I'd been sent a confirmation email. I logged into my email account and, sure enough, the email was sitting in my inbox just as they said. I clicked on the confirmation link 

Then Wealthfront said that my work was done! Now I just had to wait on the transfer to go through. Most transfers go through within one business day, but I'd be notified when the transfer was complete. 

Total time spent creating my account and initiating the bank transfer: eight minutes.

The only thing that I had to do now was wait for confirmation from Wealthfront that my transfer had gone through. It was a short wait. When I checked my email the next morning I had this message waiting for me.

Just like that, my emergency fund money was earning me over 25 times what it had been earning me the day before.

That feels pretty awesome ... and also makes me feel a bit ashamed that I hadn't opened a high-yield savings account sooner.

Learn more about the Wealthfront Cash Account »

Currently, Business Insider readers who sign up for a Wealthfront investment account will receive their first $5,000 managed for free in that account in perpetuity.

This post was updated on November 1 to reflect a change in the APY for Wealthfront's Cash Account. As of this time, the APY was 1.82%.

• Robinhood traders displayed "impeccable" timing when they rushed into the market as it hit recent lows in mid-March, according to a Monday note from Societe Generale. 
• Using data from Robintrack, the firm found that the March market bottom coincides with an overall step up in Robinhood positions in the Russell 2000, the small-cap benchmark index.
• That was just before the index surged more than 40%. 
• "For all the mocking of Robinhood investors, their timing back into the market looks impeccable, with a significant pick-up in holdings as equity markets bottomed in mid-March," wrote Andrew Lapthorne of SocGen. 
• Read more on Business Insider.

Robinhood traders displayed top-notch timing when they rushed into the market as it hit recent lows in mid-March, according to a Monday note from Societe Generale. 

"For all the mocking of Robinhood investors, their timing back into the market looks impeccable, with a significant pick-up in holdings as equity markets bottomed in mid-March," wrote Andrew Lapthorne of SocGen. 

Using data from Robintrack, the firm found that the March market bottom amid the coronavirus-induced rout coincided with an overall step-up in Robinhood positions in the Russell 2000, the small-cap benchmark index. That was just before the index surged more than 40%.

Read more:Famed short-seller Andrew breaks down why he's betting against these 4 companies — including Hertz and Tesla competitor Nikola

"Credit where credit is due — as retail investors, based on the Robinhood dataset, have charged into the market at its very inflection point," Societe Generale wrote in the note, "Of course only time will tell if this has been profitable in the long run."

The analysis also found that Robinhood traders are buying both high- and low-quality stocks, but that investor money has a bigger impact on smaller, lower quality shares.

A similar pattern was seen when looking at stocks with the highest and lowest prices — Robinhood traders put more money into higher-priced stocks, but their investments into low-priced stocks were more meaningful. 

"Retail investors have long been associated with buying stocks that are largely off-limits to many institutional investors, either because they are too small or because they are just too speculative," said Lapthorne, adding, "this is not to say that all the retail money has solely been flowing in the direction of such speculative stocks."

In fact, the opposite has happened — in US dollar terms, Robinhood traders have favored momentum stocks over reversal stocks, according to the note. 

Robinhood traders have been in the spotlight in recent weeks in stories of "nonsensical trading" occurring on such platforms, including buying the stock of distressed or bankrupt companies such as Hertz or JCPenney.

"When it comes to bombed out distressed equity, retail investors have a bigger voice and therefore greater potential influence," said Societe Generale. "And when it comes to Hertz Group it now seems they can radically change how a company tries to finance itself out of Chapter XI!"

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• Live commerce is new kind of shopping, where brands and influencers stream videos to consumers.
• From apparel to produce, live streaming has taken off in China on platforms like Alibaba's Taobao Live and Douyin, China's version of TikTok.
• Live commerce offers a more streamlined experience than home shopping TV networks like QVC with check-outs embedded in the platforms and payment details stored.
• In the US, platforms like Facebook and Instagram are making a push into e-commerce.
• Live commerce could soon arrive in the US, where influencers are already monetizing their social media followings.
• Click here to subscribe to Wall Street Insider.

It's no secret Gen Z loves video. From YouTube to Instagram, and, most recently, TikTok, social media platforms have amassed huge user bases. The more popular the app, the more brands and influencers will look for ways to monetize through advertising.

In China, a new wave of social media monetization is underway: live commerce.

Influencers and merchants alike are using interactive short-form video (both live-streamed and pre-recorded) to sell products to users on social media and e-commerce platforms. In China, leading live commerce platforms include e-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao Live and Douyin, China's version of TikTok.

From apparel to cosmetics to tech, these live commerce videos give users an interactive and entertaining way to shop from their phones. Mimicking the experience of window shopping at a mall, live commerce videos often feature influencers trying on several outfits in a video stream, where users could interact with the hosts and ultimately purchase the clothes.

Even farmers have taken to live streaming to sell produce. 

"It's entertainment plus shopping," Connie Chan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, told Business Insider. 

And while it might sound like a new twist on QVC or HSN, live commerce offers a more streamlined experience, with check-outs embedded in the platforms and payment details stored. In some cases, users can check out in-app while the video keeps playing.

And in China, live commerce has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"COVID brought it even more to the forefront now that the average person in China is shopping with live streaming," said Chan. "I think in the US, it will roll out and eventually have a lot of features that are largely inspired by Asia."

Live commerce presents an opportunity to further monetize social media

Before the coronavirus pandemic, live streaming was already growing in China. 

During e-commerce giant Alibaba's Singles Day in 2019, Taobao Live recorded $2.85 billion in sales generated from live commerce— about 7% of its total $38.3 billion in sales. 

A key selling point of live commerce is that it's easy to track the effectiveness of the videos in driving sales because users can make purchases directly from the stream.

"Rather than have the influencer hashtag #ad, you can credit to see which influencers are actually converting sales," said Chan.

The influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, with brands continuing to spend more year-over-year, according to Business Insider Intelligence.

Read more: SARS created the perfect storm that changed how China shopped forever. The coronavirus could do the same for the US.

Players like Facebook and Instagram are well-positioned to host live commerce

The US, like China, is awash with influencers who already have loyal social media followings. And Chan expects that the US will see live commerce start to roll out.

"It allows someone who already has an audience to now monetize that outside of traditional brand sponsorships or ads," Chan said. 

Facebook and Instagram are already eyeing e-commerce, with recent announcements around Facebook and Instagram Shops. Instagram also announced in May that influencers will be able to monetize their video content through IGTV, pursuing a similar advertising revenue-share model to YouTube.

And when it comes to live commerce, social media players have a strong advantage because they're already luring in users through entertainment, Chan said. Adding shopping could be a natural next step, as seen in China. 

But the key will be ensuring frictionless checkouts and payments — something Facebook and Instagram are already building by storing users' payment information in-app.

"The key is that live streaming shopping is a blend of e-commerce and entertainment, and that's why the entertainment social companies already have a lot of the DNA required to do it," Chan said. 

E-commerce platforms could tap into the market, but it'll require some reinvention

E-commerce platforms, too, could be well-positioned to host live commerce. Players like Amazon have already solved for the seamless, one-click checkout experience. However, they'll have to reinvent their place in the market. 

"It's not to say that someone like Amazon can't recreate it, but it's a completely different mindset of how to create a product and how to create engagement," Chan said.

In fact, Amazon launched a live streaming platform in February last year. The Amazon Live website features scheduled live content in categories like beauty, fitness, and food. Amazon declined to provide details on consumer and merchant adoption of the platform.

Read more: Amazon just entered the small business loan market with Goldman. Here's how the e-commerce giant is building a bank for itself.

Live commerce is not meant to replace consumers' shopping habits for everyday essentials. And it's not about searching for specific products — it's about entertainment and impulse buying.

"It's really product discovery and impulse purchases," said Chan.

And platforms like Taobao Live and Douyin are designed for just that. While users do have the ability to search, the user experience is designed to keep a never-ending stream of content flowing (similar to TikTok and Instagram). And the purchasing all happens seamlessly within the apps. 

"Even as you're checking out, that stream is still minimized and overlaid on your screen, so you never stop watching it, even as you complete the purchase," Chan said.

And while there are search functions, the videos themselves are the primary way that consumers discover products. It's like Amazon and Pinterest in one, Chan said.

Beyond seamless purchasing within the live streams, the experience has also been gamified in China. There may be coupons that fly across the screen, and users can grab them to gain points or a discount. And there are leaderboards tied to fan bases, where engaging with certain influencers can earn users points and badges.

China's mobile-first market was primed to adopt live commerce

China is a mobile-centric market, meaning much of consumers' shopping and payment behavior happens on their smartphones. Over 80% of smartphone users in China use mobile payments, largely concentrated with leaders like WeChat Pay and Alipay.

Almost 50% of consumers in China use mobile payments, and that number increases to 81% among smartphone users, according to a 2019 eMarketer report. And the mobile payment space is largely dominated by players like Alipay (owned by Taobao Live parent company Alibaba), and Tencent's WeChat Pay.

In the US, only 30% of consumers use their smartphones to pay.

"In the US, we often say we use the phone all day long, but we still are very much PC-centric," said Chan. 

To be sure, those norms could shift. 50% of Gen Z consumers (born between 1996 and 2010) use a mobile wallet on a monthly basis, according to Business Insider Intelligence. And as this social media-savvy generation comes of age, making purchases on their phones may come more naturally.

"Gen Z is video-native," said Chan. "They grew up with YouTube and are used to turning to video for all kinds of things outside of entertainment — education, product reviews, chat and so forth."

And live commerce isn't constrained to mobile, Chan said. There could be opportunities to integrate commerce into live events streamed on computers, too.

While timelines for adoption in the US are unknown, live commerce presents an opportunity for brands and influencers alike to further monetize their followings and reach consumers in new ways.

Read more:

• SARS created the perfect storm that changed how China shopped forever. The coronavirus could do the same for the US.
• 2 investors at legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz predict the new ways we'll shop and pay, from livestreaming e-commerce to contactless transactions
• Retail will need to be reinvented after the pandemic. PayPal cofounder Max Levchin lays out the future of brick-and-mortar, and the 'software fight' that will go on behind the scenes

SEE ALSO: SARS created the perfect storm that changed how China shopped forever. The coronavirus could do the same for the US.

SEE ALSO: One-click checkout startup Fast used this pitch deck to nab $20 million from investors like fintech giant Stripe. Here's a look at its vision for taking on Apple Pay.

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• Some buyers have tried to walk away from deals that haven't yet closed, citing, among other issues, a contract clause called a material adverse change. 
• Even though it's difficult to trigger, the clause is coming into play during the pandemic.
• On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Simon Property Group was terminating its $3.6 billion bid for a rival mall operator, citing a material adverse change, among other issues.
• A deal between Carlyle and a sovereign wealth fund to buy a stake in American Express Global Business Travel is currently winding through Delaware Chancery Court.
• One top M&A attorney cautioned that when buyers and sellers spend too much time negotiating the clause, deals can fall apart.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories. 

Editor's note: This June 9 story was updated with information about Simon Property Group on June 10.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, buyers' remorse hit hard, leading to lawsuits about when, if at all, companies could back out of deals.

Courts, keeping with earlier cases, ruled against buyers who wanted to walk away from transactions because their acquisitions' financials worsened after a deal was agreed.

For example, after an Apollo-backed chemical company agreed to acquire Huntsman Corporation in 2007 and before the deal closed, Huntsman's earnings worsened.

Apollo and its portfolio company tried to invoke a material adverse change clause, which gives the buyer the right to end a deal if its acquisition's business experiences a significant change, but the Delaware Court of Chancery found that Huntsman's financials didn't represent a significant enough change, among other issues. 

Now, similar discussions are cropping up again for buyers who signed deals before the pandemic hit and who now look to get out of their purchases as revenue dries up and uncertainty sets in. On Wednesday, Simon Property Group said it was terminating its bid for mall operator Taubman Centers, Bloomberg reported. 

At the heart of these arguments is a common contract clause known as material adverse change or material adverse effect. Companies often stipulate what doesn't count as an MAC, including, for a number of deals in recent months, a pandemic. 

But even before deals are agreed, negotiations over this clause can derail things, said one top lawyer. And after the deals are signed, buyers' threat of expensive, long litigation over the clauses can lead buyers and sellers to rethink their original agreement and potentially prompt renegotiation.

Simon Property Group is asking a court to rule that Taubman suffered a material adverse effect and breached merger covenants, Bloomberg said. 

Other recent deals that have invoked the MAC clause, often alongside other issues, include Sycamore Partners' purchase of a majority stake in Victoria's Secret, which fell apart last month, and a deal between Carlyle and a sovereign wealth fund to buy a stake in American Express Global Business Travel, which is currently winding through Delaware Chancery Court.

Read more: Lease obligations are 'suffocating' retailers — and a potential court fight over a Victoria's Secret flagship NYC store highlights a wider battle between tenants and landlords

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton had discussed ways to lower the price it was paying for jeweler Tiffany & Co in a $16 billion deal announced in November that hasn't yet closed, according to media reports earlier this month. 

The coronavirus pandemic has slammed the global luxury goods market, and Tiffany on Tuesday reported that sales plunged for its fiscal first quarter. But the company said it had received some antitrust clearances needed to proceed with the deal, and CEO Alessandro Bogliolo said in the earnings release that "Tiffany's best days remain ahead of us and I am excited we will be taking that journey with LVMH by our side."

Kevin Lehpamer, an M&A-focused partner at Clifford Chance, told Business Insider that conversations around MACs are becoming more focused because of the pandemic.

"Clients want to understand if they could use that as a lever to get out of a deal. While you may have had that conversation on certain transactions before, now you'll have it on every transaction," he said. 

This all comes as the dollar volume of announced M&A deals has plunged in recent months.

Goldman Sachs research analysts wrote in a June 3 report that the year-to-date total of announced deal activity had tumbled 46% versus 2019, and that they expected full-year volumes to end up some 40% lower than the previous year. 

Read more: Equity is the new debt, with Corporate America selling record amounts of stock to stockpile cash. Here's what prompted the sudden shift.

Short-term hiccups don't count

Buyers who try to invoke a MAC condition in lawsuits to get out of a deal face an uphill battle, making some of the current debates around the clause "much ado about nothing," said Ben Sibbett, an M&A-focused partner at Clifford Chance. Courts have only ruled that a MAC occurred in a single case. 

"When you dig into what a material adverse change is, and what it isn't, you quickly realize that it's not as simple as people think," Sibbett said. "When you look at the case law around it, that law and related history make clear that buyers face an exceptionally high burden to demonstrate that a MAC has actually occurred." 

Any lawsuit citing a MAC because of the pandemic will likely be on shaky ground, because the adverse change must be significant to the company's long-term earnings power; last for years, not months; and affect the company more than its peers. In recent months, wide swaths of industries, from retail to entertainment to travel, have been hit by stay-at-home orders and uncertainty stemming from the pandemic. 

"The case law says that short-term hiccups in earnings don't count," Sibbett said. 

Tom Harris, a Dallas-based attorney who chairs Haynes and Boone's M&A practice, said that when he advises buyers, he asks them to think through what would cause cold feet. Often, arranging and closing the deal's financing is a top priority, which can be dealt with outside of the MAC clause. 

"If the market falls apart and nobody's lending money ... then the buyer doesn't have to close, but it's not based on a general MAC provision," Harris said. 

Read more: Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to halt big M&A during the pandemic. 4 dealmaking and antitrust experts explain why that's not necessary.

Constructive ambiguity

David Katz, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, said in a late May panel hosted online by Reuters that more parties will try to negotiate the MAC.

Buyers and sellers took similar steps in 2009, he said, when some deals fell apart because the parties couldn't agree on specific thresholds for what constituted a material change.

"When parties are forced to say '$75 million' or 'this decline in revenue' ... and they try to negotiate those, that's where the deals often fall apart because people aren't willing to be that finite, and they're also concerned about whether the deal will actually close," Katz said. 

The ambiguity of an MAC can be "constructive," he said.

"The buyers think of it one way, the seller may think of it a different way, but because you're not trying to specifically define it and narrow it to a very small band, the parties each have their own perspective and they can enter into the deal on that basis." 

Read more:  

SEE ALSO: Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to halt big M&A during the pandemic. 4 dealmaking and antitrust experts explain why that's not necessary.

SEE ALSO: For certain corners of Wall Street, dealmaking is happening faster than ever. That could mean a permanent lifestyle change for some investment bankers.

SEE ALSO: Equity is the new debt, with Corporate America selling record amounts of stock to stockpile cash. Here's what prompted the sudden shift.

SEE ALSO: Inside a 'big short' bet against malls: Investors are claiming wins, and a research analyst who said the wagers were misguided is out

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• This is a preview of the Fintech and Financial Inclusion research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• Purchase this report.
• 14-Day Risk Free Trial: Get full access to this and all Fintech industry research reports.

Historically, the US banking industry has discussed financial inclusion solely in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Offering services to the underserved — unbanked consumers who lack access to banking products, and underbanked consumers who make only limited use of mainstream financial services — has long been economically unviable. But two forces have flipped the conversation from CSR to a genuine business opportunity.

First, digital tools from mobile banking to AI are driving down costs and allowing financial institutions (FIs) to offer previously untenable products, such as fee-free accounts or credit scoring based on unconventional data.

Second, the US' financial landscape is more competitive than ever, as fintechs, incumbents, and even tech companies like Amazon vie for larger shares of the overall space. That's creating a compelling reason for banks to seek out fresh growth opportunities, and the financially underserved represent just that. And with close to 33 million US households either unbanked or underbanked, the opportunity for fast-moving banks is huge.

In Fintech and Financial Inclusion, Business Insider Intelligence explores the business opportunity for incumbent banks looking to tap the growing opportunity presented by the financially underserved, highlights through case studies how innovative players are utilizing technology to capture share in this market, and outlines recommendations for how banks can enter the space as well.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, BBVA, Chime, Citi Bank, Experian, FICO, LendingClub, Petal, and Synchrony.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Despite the US being one of the most developed financial ecosystems in the world, a quarter of households in the country make little or no use of mainstream banking products.
• Several barriers have stymied underserved consumers' adoption of mainstream banking products, both from the consumer and FI perspective.
• Innovation in digital banking channels has helped reduce some of these barriers to adoption, making financial products viable for consumers and FIs alike.
• Banks planning to target consumers that are financially underserved need to consider a number of factors, including product fit, financial literacy, and how they measure metrics for assessing of a financial inclusion effort.

In full, the report:

• Details the key reasons why millions of US households are either unbanked or underbanked.
• Forecasts the market opportunity of serving this group.
• Explores how seven players have leveraged technology to tap into this lucrative market — Citi Bank, Chime, BBVA, LendingClub, Petal, Amazon, and Synchrony Financial.
• Provides actionable recommendations for how banks can successfully pursue a financial inclusion project.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are three ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now
3. Current subscribers can read the report here.

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