During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
Credit Karma’s Kenneth Lin on building a billion dollar brand from Tearsheet – One of the most valuable private fintech companies in the US is Credit Karma. Good profile of them by Zack Miller including comments from CEO Ken Lin on their early days.
Ping An-backed Lufax raises $1.3 billion at lower valuation: sources from Reuters – The headline is misleading, this is NOT a down round for Chinese fintech Lufax. They raised $1.3b and were hoping for a $40b valuation but it came in at $38b. Still more than double the $18.5b valuation of their last funding round in 2016.
A “fintech sandbox” might sound like a harmless idea. It’s not from The Financial Times – I have been a big proponent of the sandbox approach so it is good to hear the other side of the argument.
International P2P Lending Volumes November 2018 from P2P-Banking – The November European p2p lending loan volumes are out with Latvian platform Mintos leading the way.
Banks will be hit with ‘massive disruption’ from fintech in the next five years, Klarna CEO says from CNBC – The CEO of Klarna is interviewed on CNBC saying that banks will face massive disruption in the next five years as their margins will be eroded by fintech platforms.
In just 2 Days, Digital Bank Monzo Closes on £20 Million Crowdfunding Round from Crowdfund Insider – This is pretty impressive. Monzo has raised £20m in just two days on Crowdcube. It speaks to not just the popularity of the UK digital bank but also to the popularity and acceptance of equity crowdfunding in the UK.
Stanford grads raise $20 million for a company that aims to make life cheaper and easier for immigrants from CNBC – Good profile of Nova Credit and the important need they are addressing. When you move to the USA from another country your credit history should move with you.
CUNA Mutual Group acquires lendtech Mirador from Fintech Futures – Another acquisition in the online lending space. CUNA Mutual Group has acquired Mirador, an online small business lender.
Is regulators’ green light on AML tech a game changer? from American Banker – Federal regulators issued a joint statement this week encouraging AI’s use to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money-laundering rules.
The CEO of a startup that raised $25 million hopes people eventually think of his personal-finance app like a washing machine from Business Insider – One of my favorite fintech startups these days is Tally. I like the work they are doing to simplify credit card debt for the masses. Interesting comments from CEO Jason Brown on the future of personal finance.
We can do better on de novos from American Banker – The head of the FDIC, Jelena McWilliams, writes an op-ed on the lack of new bank charters and what her organization plans to do to change that.
OnDeck Announces Agreement to Combine Canadian Operations with Evolocity Financial Group (press release) – In Canada OnDeck is expanding as they combine operations with small business lender Evolocity.
Fintechs look to fill void in private student lending left by banks from American Banker – International students coming to the US often struggle to obtain financing for college. Banks ignore this population so naturally fintech platforms are filling the void.
New institutional investor to fund £1bn of UK loans through Funding Circle from AltFi News – In the UK Funding Circle gets another huge funding commitment. US-based asset manager Waterfall Asset Management has committed £1b over the next two years.
Fintech is driving rising personal debt levels, in 4 charts from Tearsheet – The growth in online personal loans is moving millennials away from credit cards.
