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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes AI will eventually shorten the work week and says people should embrace it now, before it transforms every corner of the workforce. Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference at the America Business Forum in Miami, FL, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, Dimon said the future of work may involve fewer hours but greater value — if leaders take the proper steps now. He urged companies to modernize data systems so AI can use them effectively, invest despite power limitations, and create humane transitions for jobs that will disappear. “It’s going to affect every application, every job, every customer interface,” Dimon said, as Fortune reported. “My guess is the developed world will be working three-and-a-half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years, and have wonderful lives,” he continued. As AI takes on more routine work, the same result may require fewer hours — though every transition brings its own challenges. “It will eliminate jobs. People should...
Citibank has lowered its base lending rate by 0.25% on Oct. 30, 2025, from 7.25% to 7.00%, according to a Citibank news release. This follows a similar reduction in September, the bank announced, and comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its policy rate to a 3.75%–4.00% range, the lowest in three years, CNN reports. Borrowers with floating-rate loans tied to Citibank’s base rate may see lower interest payments, potentially saving hundreds of dollars annually, according to The Economic Times. The cut aligns the bank’s lending rate with the U.S. prime rate, standardizing borrowing costs for individuals and businesses. Loans such as mortgages, auto financing, and business credit lines tied to the base rate will see immediate changes in monthly payments. Citigroup, Citibank’s parent company, operates in more than 180 countries, offering personal banking, wealth management, and capital markets services, the outlet notes. Citi has a market capitalization of $177.36 billion,...
Wells Fargo has agreed to resolve a settlement regarding claims around its interview processes. Lawsuit Explained As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the bank giant was accused in a lawsuit of conducting interviews with “ diverse ” candidates without the intention of hiring for the role. Former executive Joe Bruno addressed this concern, saying the “ fake interviews ” were “ inappropriate, morally wrong, ethically wrong, ” according to the New York Times. Bruno was fired in August 2021, and Wells Fargo states that it resulted from his combative behavior with another employee. Nonetheless, other employees have shared similar sentiments to Bruno’s regarding Wells Fargo’s interviewing practices. Some admitted they had to conduct interviews with diverse hires even though the role was already filled. Accounts of these claims surrounding Wells Fargo can be traced back from February 2021 to June 2022 and are documented in a class-action lawsuit filed by SEB Investment Management on behalf of...
Millions of people across the U.S. felt the effects of Amazon Web Services (AWS) going offline. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the global outage on Monday, Oct. 20, disrupted access to websites, apps, and services across sectors. As recovery continues, new details are emerging about just how integral AWS is to everyday digital life. According to CNN, the outage rippled through nearly every aspect of daily routines. People couldn’t order coffee through mobile apps, teachers couldn’t access lesson plans, and smart home systems like Ring and Blink cameras stopped working. For many, it was more than just an inconvenience. Hospitals also lost key communications tools, and customers at digital banks such as Chime couldn’t access their money. The shutdown underscored how essential AWS has become to digital infrastructure. The platform provides the behind-the-scenes computing power for millions of businesses, offering storage, servers, and data management tools that keep operations...
Fifth Third Bancorp to move forward with the acquisition of Comerica Bank. Details Surrounding Acquisition The bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati announced it will acquire Comerica , a regional bank headquartered in Dallas with a large footprint in the Midwest, for $10.9 billion in an all-stock deal projected to close by 2026, according to CNBC. This will lead to about $288 billion in combined assets and would reportedly form the ninth-largest bank in the U.S. with two $1 billion recurring and high-return fee businesses: Commercial Payments and Wealth and Asset Management, CNN reports. “The things that have defined Fifth Third over the course of the past 10 years have been this focus on stability, profitability, and our ability to drive organic growth,” Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence told CNBC. “What’s defined Comerica is an incredible middle-market commercial banking platform, and the access that Comerica has to high-growth markets like Texas and large economies like...
Paga Group, a UK-based African fintech company, has expanded its services to the United States. Founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2009, the company is on a mission to eliminate the pain points of sending and accessing money for Africa’s diaspora. Paga Group has folded three businesses into its structure, including Paga, its consumer digital wallet, which permits users to send money, make payments, and bank in multiple currencies, according to the company’s website. Paga also offers a virtual or physical debit card that can be used at businesses that accept Visa. Additional perks include setting bills on autopay. Paga’s other businesses include Paga Engine — a B2B business serving more than 260 companies — and Doroki — a retail and SME management platform — according to information shared with AFROTECH™. Expanding To U.S. Soil According to information shared with AFROTECH™, in 2024 alone, Paga processed 124 million transactions, valued at nearly $5.6 billion. Paga is now expanding to U.S....
If you had a Capital One 360 savings account between September 2019 and June 2025, you may be entitled to part of a $425 million Capital One savings account settlement, USA Today reports. The payout stems from a Capital One 360 savings account lawsuit that alleged the bank kept interest rates low on older accounts while offering higher rates to new customers. Capital One 360 Savings Account Lawsuit Background According to USA Today, Capital One customers filed the Capital One 360 savings account lawsuit in 2024. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also sued the bank and its parent holding company, Capital One Financial Corp., in January 2025, claiming it froze rates on the 360 Savings account at 0.3% for years despite rising national interest rates. The Bureau alleged that this cost customers more than $2 billion in lost earnings. Per USA Today, the CFPB said Capital One marketed the 360 Savings account as “high interest” with a variable rate “among the nation’s best,”...
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Early Warning Services (EWS), the company behind the popular payment app Zelle, accusing it of failing to protect users from what she calls “massive amounts of fraud,” CNN reports . The lawsuit, filed Wednesday (Aug. 13) in New York State Supreme Court, according to court documents, alleges that Zelle’s key features made it easy for scammers to exploit the platform, resulting in over $1 billion in stolen funds. The documents also state that EWS is owned by a consortium of major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, and Wells Fargo. “No one should be left to fend for themselves after falling victim to a scam, and I look forward to getting justice for the New Yorkers who suffered because of Zelle’s security failures,” James said in a statement, per CNN. According to the complaint, Zelle’s quick sign-up process lacked proper verification steps, enabling fraudsters to pose as legitimate...
The impact of generative AI on the U.S. labor market is already visible in employment data, with signs of a hiring slowdown in the tech sector — especially among younger workers. On the Aug. 5, 2025, episode of the “Goldman Sachs Exchanges” podcast, Joseph Briggs, senior global economist at Goldman Sachs , noted that most companies have yet to implement AI in production cases, so its broader effect on the job market remains limited, according to CNBC. Still, current trends offer a sneak peek at what’s to come. “If you look at the tech sector’s employment trends, they’ve been basically growing as a share of overall employment in a remarkably linear manner for the last 20 years,” Briggs said, per CNBC. “Over the last three years, we’ve actually seen a pullback in tech hiring that has led it to undershoot its trend.” As highlighted in “Quantifying the Risks of AI-Related Job Displacement,” a recent report co-authored by Briggs, unemployment among tech workers aged 20 to 30 has risen by...
When the world shut down in 2020, Alexander Zanders made a decision some may not have dared — selling his crypto holdings to buy 100 acres of farmland in Nigeria, betting on soil over tech or urban assets. “I always tell people I did what any rational person would do when the world feels like it’s ending,” he told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “I started farming.” That move wasn’t just a pandemic pivot. It marked the beginning of UfarmX, a fintech company that, according to Zanders, helps smallholder farmers across Africa access credit, high-quality inputs, and the opportunity to scale what they’ve always done — grow food. A Mission Rooted In Experience A Baltimore native and Temple University alum, Zanders didn’t come from a farming background. His path — from exporting iPads to building agri-fintech infrastructure in West Africa — shows how innovation can grow from direct, on-the-ground experience. Before launching UfarmX, Zanders was already an entrepreneur. As an undergrad, he...
Goldman Sachs is turning to AI to level up its developer workforce — and its latest team member isn’t even human. The global investment bank is testing an AI-powered software engineer from startup Cognition that can handle everything from writing code to fixing bugs and building full applications, with minimal human support, CNBC reports. Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti said the bank sees this as the beginning of a new kind of collaboration between people and machines. “We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with… our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on behalf of our developers,” Argenti told CNBC. Goldman Sachs is the first major bank to use the tool and believes this tech has the potential to significantly boost productivity across its 12,000-person developer team. And if it proves successful, the firm may roll out thousands of AI engineers across the organization. What Makes The Goldman Sachs AI Engineer Different This isn’t your average AI assistant...
American Express (Amex) is planning a major refresh of its flagship Platinum card. In a news release, the company described it as the “largest investment ever” in the Platinum product line, with changes coming to both personal and business versions later this year. “We’re going to take these cards to a new level,” said Howard Grosfield, president of U.S. consumer services at American Express. “Not only in what they offer in travel, dining, and lifestyle benefits, but also in how they look and feel.” Big Moves For Business Builders And Jet-Setters The refresh comes as competition among premium credit cards continues to grow. With options like Chase’s Sapphire Reserve and Capital One’s Venture X gaining popularity, American Express appears to be stepping up to stay ahead. For cardholders who use the Platinum card to manage a busy travel schedule or handle business expenses, the new perks may make it even more worthwhile. Here’s what the company has confirmed so far: New Lounge Access:...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. In recent years, cryptocurrency has been viewed as a risky investment, hyped up by the mega-rich and stealthy hackers. Now, thanks to President Donald Trump, America is fully embracing cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of currency. Without any guardrails or protections, the U.S. could see itself heading towards another financial crisis. Cryptocurrency was anonymously created in 2008 but didn’t gain mainstream appeal until around 2020. The government, or any banking authority, doesn’t have oversight over the digital currency , making it highly volatile. While the Biden administration pursued cryptocurrency fraudsters, the Trump administration had a different approach, embracing the industry. President Trump signed an executive order in the first week of his second term supporting cryptocurrency and even released his own meme coin. There are rarely any regulations on crypto, and from the policies...
JPMorgan Chase has begun removing any mention of its DEI efforts from its website, according to The Wall Street Journal. As AFROTECH™ previously mentioned, the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, had vowed to maintain its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies, despite pushback from the conservative National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). The center had also suggested that JPMorgan Chase, which employs 300,000 people globally, reexamine executive compensation tied to DEI goals — an initiative it introduced in 2020 through its “accountability framework.” That same year, the company had launched a $30 billion program to promote racial equity in personal finance as well. In response to the recent pushback, Dimon said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, “Bring them on. We are going to continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the...
As Americans race toward yet another nail-biter of a presidential election , things like inflation and cost of living continue to rise at a seemingly untenable rate. Many people have been forced to cut back on necessities, pay bills late or even resort to living in cars and tents to try to survive this stifling economic climate. After only a few short years, it seems as though the YOLO economy has officially come to an end. For those not in the loop, the YOLO economy was a period of prosperity borne of the COVID-19 pandemic , which allowed many Americans to spend with reckless abandon for a few short years. Now that the era of YOLO seems to be going the way of the dodo bird, it seems like as good a time as any to examine what the economic system entailed, where the term comes from, and why financial trends have shifted the landscape in the way that they have. Without any further preamble, let’s unpack the history of the YOLO years, and see if we can predict what comes next for those...
