Trendwatch Finance: April 10, 2020

Bloomberg: Startups Are Scrambling for Access to $349 Billion in Relief Loans      

So far it appears that many such won’t qualify.

Finovate: Will COVID-19 Be the Final Straw for Cash and the Branch?       

There are two things that the COVID-19 crisis is teaching us. Be careful of what you touch. And be careful of who you are near. Neither one is a good message for the future of cash nor the bank branch.

MIT Technology Review: We Just Glimpsed How a “Digital Dollar” Might Work, Thanks to Coronavirus 

A proposal for a new kind of government-run payment platform didn’t make it into the US Congress’s coronavirus relief plan. But it won’t be the last we hear of the idea.      

New York Times: Young Adults, Burdened With Debt, Are Now Facing an Economic Crisis 

Young people who entered this financial downturn with fewer resources than previous generations are enduring pain.

PopUp City: App-Based Banks Offer Borderless Financial Services to Urban Nomads 

Neobanks are on the rise with Monzo, Starling, Monese and N26 offering alternatives to traditional banks that cross borders and currencies — perfect for the urban nomad.