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.
Every Tech Company Wants to Be a Bank—Someday, At Least from Wired – Much has been written about how and why big tech will make moves into financial services. This piece in Wired is one of the best I have read.
OCC proposes ‘Madden fix’ to let loans keep original rates when transferred from S&P Global – There has been movement on the “Madden Fix” with the OCC proposing a rule change to clarify the valid-when-made doctrine so when a bank sells or assigns a loan the interest rate remains permissible after the loan changes hands.
BlueVine raises $102.5M more for banking services that target small businesses from TechCrunch – The large funding rounds keep coming. Leading small business fintech platform Bluevine Capital has closed $102 million in new funding.
BankThink Congress can work around court’s nixing of OCC fintech charter from American Banker – Excellent op-ed by Tom Curry, the former head of the OCC, on why we need a fintech charter and how we can get there given the recent ruling against it.
Stash has issued more than 5 million Stock Back rewards since launching its program from Tearsheet – I am a big fan of anything that will get people saving and investing. So kudos to Stash on their innovative Stock Back program and reaching 5 million rewards.
Fintech: The Fourth Platform – Part One from Forbes – Very interesting column from Matt Harris in Forbes proposing the idea that fintech is becoming the fourth layer of the technology stack.
Vouch raises $45M led by YC Continuity for business insurance that targets startups from TechCrunch – Impressive what Sam Hodges is doing in his second fintech startup. Just two months after launch, Vouch Insurance has closed a $45 million Series B.
The Federal Reserve is looking into developing a digital currency in the US, Powell confirms from Markets Insider – I think it is inevitable that central banks will issue digital currency so it was good to hear Jay Powell say in a letter to lawmakers this week that the Fed is at least exploring such an initiative here.
Personal loans are ‘growing like a weed,’ a potential warning sign for the U.S. economy from Washington Post – Interesting piece in the Washington Post about the personal loan market. The fintech lenders have almost 40% of the $115 billion market, up from 5% in 2013, with 20 million people taking out personal loans.
A digital bank that raised $110 million from investors including Leonardo DiCaprio has run into trouble from CNBC – According to CNBC, the digital bank, Aspiration is struggling to close its latest round of funding and has laid off 15% of its staff.
Charter or not, fintechs are already ‘banking’ from American Banker – I like Todd Baker’s take on the paradox of #fintech banking regulation. Nobody can be a fintech bank…but wait…anybody can be a fintech bank. That is the regulatory world we live in. It should change.
Data and Deregulation Fuel the Global Fintech Boom from The Wall Street Journal – The #fintech boom is in full swing globally. The WSJ discusses what is driving the boom.
Fintech: The Fourth Platform – Part Two from Forbes – In part two of his must read series Bain’s Matt Harris gives his perspective on where the puck is going in #fintech: embedded financial services. This is going to be a huge industry possibly even bigger than all of software.
How Square turns unconventional credit data into loans for tiny businesses from American Banker – Penny Crosman looks into how Square has been able to lend $5.5 billion to 275,000 businesses in the five years since founding Square Capital.
