Fintech Bytes: Elizabeth Warren tackles MrBeast over acquisition of teen money app Step

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants more information about the acquisition of financial technology app Step by MrBeast’s Beast Industries, while UBS is teaming up with Human Interest for recordkeeping.

Warren, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has sent a letter to YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, and founder of Beast Industries, raising concerns about the company’s recent acquisition of Step. The app is aimed at teens and young adults.

In the letter, which was also addressed to Beast Industries’ CEO Jeffrey Housenbold, Warren said that the deal raises serious questions about whether young Step customers will be adequately protected.

“Despite Step’s careful claims that crypto investing by minors was only with the permission of a parent or guardian, Step published resources encouraging kids to pressure their parents into crypto investments,” Warren wrote. “Step for example, produced a video titled ‘How to Talk to Your Parents About Investing in Crypto,’ which was targeted at kids whose parents ‘want nothing to do with crypto,’ ‘think [they’ll] end up losing all [their] money,’ or ‘simply [do] not understand crypto in general’.”

Warren warns that Beast Industries is primarily an entertainment and consumer product company, and warns that “any foray into financial services, particularly services aimed at children – must be done with great care and in compliance with the law.”

“Our primary motivation behind this deal is to improve the financial future of the next generation,” said BeastIndustries, in a statement sent to InvestmentNews. “Now that we’ve completed the transaction and have ownership control, we’re examining all existing offerings and marketing approaches to ensure that Step’s future is developed thoughtfully and deliberately, meets our very high quality standards, and is in compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.”

"We appreciate Senator Warren’s outreach and look forward to engaging with her as we build the next phase of the Step financial platform,” BeastIndustries added.

Wildly popular, MrBeast has 472 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, and has also branched out into ventures such as Feastables snack food and the Beast Games reality TV series on Amazon Prime Video.

MrBeast’s account on X, formerly Twitter, has racked up 34.3 million followers since it launched in April 2014. “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up,” he wrote on X last month. “That's exactly why we’re joining forces with Step! I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had.”

UBS teams up with Human Interest for recordkeeping

Digital-first 401(k) provider Human Interest announced Tuesday that UBS is making the company’s technology available to its financial advisors as a record keeping solution. Human Interest and the wirehouse are partnering to make digital financial tools available to more than 5,000 UBS advisors.

In a statement, San Francsico-based Human Interest said that over 650 leading advisory firms are now using its technology, which automates the setup, administration, and compliance of 401(k) and 403(b) plans.

“Advisors working with retirement plans shouldn’t be held back by manual administration,” said Chris Cupolo, head of strategic partnerships at Human Interest, in the statement. “We’ve built a turnkey ecosystem that automates the operational heavy lifting through deep integrations. This allows financial advisors to scale their practice and focus on high-value, holistic advice.”