RateSetter saw pre tax losses jump to $31mn from $7.1mn due to a bad loan to an advertising company; RateSetter also saw revenues jump by 38 percent as well as increases in customers and borrowers; the bad loan was absorbed by the lender as they explained it fell outside their credit policy and it was unfair to put the losses on their investors. Source.
- BitPay Raises $30M in Series B Funding
- Maxwell Financial Labs Raises $3M in Funding
- Klarna to Power Invoice and Credit-Based Payments for Worldpay Clients
- Global Debt Registry Joins Wall Street Blockchain Alliance
- Mobile Banking App Revolut Adds Litecoin, Ether Trading
- New CFO For Quint Group
- ID Finance strengthens board with ex-CEO of 4finance
- Marking 15 years of Small Business Lending, BFS Capital has Extended Over $1.7 Billion in Financing to Businesses across the US, UK and Canada
- Instamotor Customers Can Now Apply for Financing While Shopping For A Used Car
- ASX selects distributed ledger technology to replace CHESS
- Dianrong Names Executive Chairman, Co-Chairman and CEO
- Securitizations Securing the Future (LendingClub)
- A Lesson on Lending: Alternative Lenders and Community Banks
- Change of pace ahead for fintech in China
Open banking is around the corner in the UK and recently the CFPB released guidelines on data sharing that has banks concerned about cybersecurity; Kathryn Petralia, chief operating officer of the online lender Kabbage believes banks and Fintechs should be held to the same standard regarding data; concerns over data include responsibility on data breaches, encryption and entry points for hackers; as data sharing becomes the norm both banks and fintechs will need to protect themselves at many levels. Source.
Lufax has reportedly hired five banks to work on a Hong Kong IPO which could raise as much as $5 billion; SoftBank’s vision fund is also in talks to invest in the company according to sources; Lufax is the 10th largest unicorn and has delayed IPO plans over the past few years. Source
UK Based Starling Bank has been granted approval by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority to offer financial products; the new authorizations will allow the bank to offer mortgages, consumer loans, ISAs and other investment products; they are the first mobile only bank to be granted such permissions. Source.
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FICO CEO Will Lansing said some banks are confusing customers by using a different score which he has dubbed Fako; VantageScore, the company behind the alternative scores, says their scoring is used by thousands of lenders for credit decisions and FICO is upset over competition; FICO is the most widely used credit scoring method as trillions worth of loans have been extended using FICO; JP Morgan Chase and Capital One both use VantageScore to help customers stay alerted about their credit health and not necessarily to underwrite loans. Source.
Companies like TransferWise, Venmo and PayPal have forced banks in Europe to look at creating their own affordable real-time payments service; the idea is in the early stages but it shows the effect that fintech players can have on the traditional banks; the service would also look to head off the increased competitive threat from open banking which is set to begin in early 2018. Source.
Over $3 billion has been raised this year by initial coin offerings; Tech Crunch shares the current warnings that the market has received from regulators; some market participants report that they have spoken with with the SEC and it is expected that we will hear much more from regulators as we enter 2018. Source
After completing a 16 month pilot program Morgan Stanley has announced their robo advisor Morgan Stanley Access Investing; there is a $5,000 minimum with a 0.35 percent fee and they will offer 11 portfolios, including a socially responsible option; the goal of the new service is to offer current clients’ children a better, more affordable wealth management option. Source.