News Nuggets | 18 April: Apple Offers Savings Account; eToro Adds Google Pay

Turkish Broker Osmanlı Yatırım Integrates with TradingView

The social network and charting platform, TradingView, announced latest integrated broker, Turkey-based Osmanlı Yatırım. Established in 2010, Osmanlı Yatırım has a strong background in investment banking and aims to provide exceptional service to its customers. Over the years, the firm has expanded its product and service offerings, resulting in a network of 7 branches, 250+ personnel, and a diverse range of managed products.

During the last few months, TradingView integrated ActivTrades and SpreadEx.

Nukkleus Announces Year-End Financial Results

Recently, Nukkleus Inc. (OTC: NUKK) filed its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ending 30 September 2022, with the SEC, and continues to concentrate on its merger with Brilliant Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: BRLI).

Nukkleus subsidiary, digitalRFQ (DRFQ), experienced significant growth in trading volume, with over $350 million in digital asset cross-border payments. The COO, Jamie Khurshid emphasized the firm's focus on the merger and the increasing demand for blockchain and modern technology in the financial services sector.

Elon Musk Plans to Launch TruthGPT AI Platform

Elon Musk announced plans to launch an AI platform, TruthGPT, rivaling Microsoft and Google offerings. He accused Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, of "training the AI to lie" and criticized OpenAI for becoming a "closed source," "for-profit" organization closely associated with Microsoft.

FINRA Fines Regal Securities over Compliance Issues

Regal Securities, a FINRA member since 1976, has been fined $50,000 for failing to establish and maintain a supervisory system to ensure compliance with FINRA rules on surveilling potentially manipulative trading.

Regal reopened a self-directed trading account for a customer without implementing heightened supervision or addressing red flags. Additionally, the firm did not adequately review or follow up on surveillance alerts indicating potential manipulative trading by this customer.

Apple Launches Savings Account

Technology giant Apple is now challenging banks with the latest Apple Card savings account launch that will offer an annual yield of 4.15 percent. Apple has tapped the services of Goldman Sachs for the new services.

There is no deposit or minimum balance requirement to receive the interest, but users must have an Apple Card to open the savings account. Users can manage their accounts from the Wallet App dashboard.

"Our goal is to build tools that help users lead healthier financial lives, and building Savings into Apple Card in Wallet enables them to spend, send, and save Daily Cash directly and seamlessly — all from one place," said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s Vice President of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

eToro Card Adds Google Pay Support

eToro has added Google Pay support to eToro Card. It means eToro Card users can add their cards to Google Pay, making transactions directly from the mobile wallet.

However, the company highlighted that some merchants would only accept payments of up to £100 on contactless payments, despite no payment limit on the app. eToro offers eToro Cards under eToro Money, which is regulated as an e-money institution in the UK and also holds a license in Malta.

Recently, eToro partnered with Twitter to integrate real-time asset prices into the social media platform's $Cashtags feature. The new feature means Twitter users will get direct access to trading from the social platform.

Matrixport Partners Taps SignalPlus

Matrixport, a digital assets financial services provider, has partnered with SignalPlus to provide Matrixport Prime clients access to SignalPlus' market analytics dashboard.

The partnership came as the demand for cryptocurrencies is increasing among institutions.

"Matrixport Prime Brokerage clients, such as crypto hedge funds and asset managers, will benefit from a sophisticated options trading platform and market analytics, enabling them to devise complex trading strategies and take full advantage of the crypto derivatives market," said Daniel Egloff, the Head of Prime Brokerage at Matrixport.

SignalPlus' Co-Founder and CEO, Chris Yu, added: "We have always believed in the potential of the crypto options market and that professional investors require advanced and sophisticated tools to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape... We believe that this collaboration will bring immense value to both of our client sets."

Ryan Reynolds Backs Nuvei

Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds has invested in Canadian payment technology company Nuvei Corp. (NVEI.TO). Additionally, the company launched a promotional campaign featuring Reynolds, whose investment in the payments firm remains undisclosed.

This I assure you… @nuvei will never ever build a rocket. pic.twitter.com/pyVdLSraW8

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) April 17, 2023

"I know about as much about fintech as I did about gin or mobile a few years ago," Reynolds said. He partly owned Mint Mobile, a budget wireless service provider, which T-Mobile acquired for $1.35 billion. On top of that, he has a stake in Welsh soccer club Wrexham AFC and American Aviation Gin, which was purchased by Diageo in 2020 for $610 million.

Reynolds added: "But Nuvei is impressive. The leadership team is exceedingly intelligent and hard-working and it's about time a Canadian company got the type of attention American tech companies do."

UBS Makes Changes in Share Buyback

Swiss lending giant UBS made some changes to its ongoing $6 billion share buyback program following the takeover of its rival Credit Suisse. UBS launched its share buyback program in March 2022, which will run until 2024. It has procured 298.5 million shares under the program, equivalent to 8.47 percent of its stock.

UBS will not cancel the buyback. Instead, it will use some of the shares for the takeover. Furthermore, UBS confirmed that it would not issue new shares to cover its Credit Suisse takeover.