Converge

The US economy has clearly been in a league of its own in the post-pandemic era. And 2024 has underlined the exceptional position of the US economy compared to its peers with inflation and employment data broadly surprising to the upside.

The lagging data that is relevant for the National Bureau of Economic Research to make a call on whether the US has entered a recession has remained resilient over the past quarters. Still, a weak GDP print for Q1, the softening of leading indicators and job growth cooling have revived the talk of a potential recession this year.

Meanwhile, inflation has remained elevated and proved more sticky than expected going into 2024. This does pose a conundrum for the Fed looking to fulfill its double mandate of full employment and price stability. 

Join macro analyst Boris Kovacevic for the latest on the markets and global economy.

Join Riya Grover, co-founder and CEO of Sequence, as we discuss how her fintech, dubbed "the financial router," is building a flexible toolkit to help companies automate their contract-to-cash process.

The move towards usage-based pricing and the adoption of hybrid pricing models are driving the need for tools like Sequence. And while spreadsheets are still useful, they are increasingly limited when it comes to managing complex workflows across today's modern digital organizations. Sequence aims to provide scalability and automation in finops, allowing companies to achieve more with less human effort.

We also spoke about how important it is for finance leaders to focus on data-driven approaches, strategic investments, discipline, and regular forecasting during economic downturns - and how technology can help.

April has been about many things. In the United States, it was about inflation surprising to the upside and investors pricing out rate cuts from the Fed. In Asia, it was about a strong dollar leading central banks to verbally or physically intervene in FX markets to prop up demand for their own currencies. And in Europe, it was about confirming the bottoming of economic activity.

In this week's Market Update, hear from Boris Kovacevic as we discuss how Jerome Powell failed to promote a hawkish narrative despite inflation remaining elevated and how the strong dollar is more a problem in Asia than it is in Europe.  

It's well known that AI is an incredible tool for productivity, stretching across many use cases. But can AI's tentacles ever reach the C-suite, with the art and science needed to delicately balance the broader needs of an organization?

Siqi Chen believes it can. We discuss how finance has lagged behind other areas in terms of software innovation and why it's solving this problem is long overdue, as well as his perspective on the future of AI in the C-Suite and the potential for AI to automate certain aspects of company management. We also cover the importance of leveraging AI as a tool to increase and improve efficiency in business operations.

Siqi is the founder and CEO of Runway, a platform looking to make business financials "understandable and accessible to everyone." Join us for this exciting discussion with one of tech's leading visionaries.

The macro markets look a lot different now than they did at the beginning of April, and the story has once again been US economic data to blame for volatility.

With the 3-month average jobs growth running at 244 thousand and 3-month annualized core inflation at 4.5%, policy makers will most likely be able to sit out a couple of meetings and hold rates unchanged.  

Investors are coming to terms with this. But the adjustment is also complicated by the recent developments in the Middle East and central banks outside the US laying the groundwork for easing policy.

All of this has created a perfect environment for the Greenback to shine, as its benefiting from its really unique position as a high yielding, high growth, commodity backed safe haven currency. This demand for the dollar is reflected in the costs for protecting against further upside rising to a 7-month high.  

Join macro analyst Boris Kovacevic for the latest breakdown of the global financial markets.

In light of Sam Bankman Fried's recent 25-year prison sentence and the FTX collapse, what are the deeper implications on the crypto industry as we move into a new era of digital asset adoption? In this week's episode, we discuss the erosion of trust, the need for strong governance and risk management controls, and the responsibility of individuals in understanding the risks involved when participating in or operating a business in the crypto space.

Join Jessica Cath, Head of Financial Crime for the UK's Thistle Initiatives, and Mardi MacGregor, partner at Fox Williams LLP, as they highlight the high barriers for entry in the UK crypto market and the importance of ongoing compliance and scaling controls as businesses grow. They also discuss the evolving regulatory landscape and regulatory compliance, how the UK might follow the EU in the future of crypto regulations, AML registration, and the need for balanced regulation to protect consumers while fostering innovation.

2024 has so far been about US soft data surprising the consensus to the upside and investors paring back their expectations for rate cuts across the developed world. Naturally, this has led both government bond yields and the US dollar higher.

However, the low volatility rate in the FX space means that while the Greenback has risen against 78% of its global peers in the first quarter of 2024, the year-to-date gain has only been slightly above 3%. It will get harder for the US dollar to sustain the momentum given (1) how much Fed easing has already been priced out and (2) that the business cycle is turning positive.

Still, the surprising strength of the US economy and central banks outside the US turning dovish has so far shielded the dollar from any negative headwinds. Join macro analyst Boris Kovacevic as he breaks down this week's market news.

Disclaimer: Converge is Convera’s new podcast that discusses a range of financial services topics. We want to remind our listeners that the information shared on this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please note that the opinions expressed on Converge are solely the opinions of the host and the guests, not Convera’s.

The disbursement of humanitarian aid has been a historical challenge for many organizations aiming to provide relief around the globe. The Stellar Development Foundation's Aid Assist program is aiming to change that.

Powered by the Stellar blockchain, Stellar is on a mission to democratize access to financial services, with the goal of revolutionizing how humanitarian aid reaches its recipients through innovative digital wallets - an approach born from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and since expanded to other areas of need.

Join Tori Samples, Sr. Product Manager, Stellar Aid Assist, as she sheds light on the recent shift towards cash-based assistance and the pivotal role of blockchain in enhancing transparency, reducing costs, and speeding up transactions in financial aid. Learn how Stellar Aid Assist facilitates secure and efficient fund transfers directly to individuals' phones for fast, affordable, and transparent payments.

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Global investors have become comfortable pricing in the eventual turn of the global monetary policy cycle to a more accommodative stance. However, the big macro theme in early 2024 has been the paring of G3 policy easing bets against the backdrop of somewhat rebounding inflation rates. This has led to a rebound in bond yields and the Greenback, without putting pressure on equity markets.

Volatility across assets remains low, though, despite the ambiguity surrounding the future policy path of central banks. One reason for the lack of price movement in FX: the synchronization of policy pricing. 

Join macro analyst Boris Kovacevic as he breaks down this week's global market news.

This week, we sat down with Raja Chakravorti, Head of Universal Access at Plaid, to broadly discuss the state of the fintech industry in 2024 and the evolving consumer attitudes that are shaping it.

Why has fintech become so ubiquitous and where is it headed in 2024? How has the definition of fintech evolved over time, and what roles will we increasingly see AI play across financial services?

Learn why pay by bank, emerging alternatives for credit scoring, new methods for financial inclusion, and the importance of fintech education in building consumer confidence are crucial to the industry's growth and success.