Global Times recently comments on China's unregulated internet finance sector, stating that the online finance market requires cooling through tighter regulation after years of explosive but unruly growth; due to the lack of regulation, internet finance is often associated with financial irregularities, with many players operating without obtaining any license, for one; Global Times believes only a regulated internet finance industry can serve the real economy, and that chaotic development of internet finance will only pose risks to the country's financial stability. Source
Open banking is facilitating innovation across the banking sector and ING has plans to use it for voice automated artificial intelligence services; the bank's vision includes voice automated banking services through devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, where digital assistants can pay bills and provide personalized advice through voice prompts; the bank is seeking to utilize new concepts being developed in Europe and has invested EUR800 million ($945 million) in a digital transformation. Source
Australian online lender SocietyOne is celebrating its fifth year in business with its first loan issued in August 2012; in June 2017 the platform reported cumulative originations of $300 million and since inception has helped over 13,000 customers; the firm says it has plans for expanding to new areas of lending over the long-term and will seek to obtain a 2% to 3% share of the $100 billion consumer finance market. Source
Lend Academy talks with Greg Gibb, CEO and co-chairman of Lufax; Greg Gibb talks about the founding of the business as a P2P platform, its relationship with Ping An and how it has evolved to become a broader provider of wealth management product offerings; the podcast interview also discusses Lufax's future plans for international expansion and a potential IPO. Source
Ping An Insurance Group's online lender Lufax reported that it is now profitable and is hoping to keep that trend for the rest of the year; "Lufax's development is extremely robust. It actually turned around in the first half. We are very confident that it could stay profitable for the full-year," said Jessica Tan Sin-Yin, Ping An's chief operating officer and chief information officer, during the Chinese insurance group's earnings announcement; Lufax is the largest P2P lending platform in China with $225 billion of outstanding loans; according to their latest funding round in January the company is valued at $18.5 billion with 43% being held by Ping An; the company is planning to go public soon and according to CEO Gregory Gibb they have done a lot of homework for Hong Kong ahead of the potential listing. Source
In guidelines released on its website, China said it would restrict overseas investment in sectors such as property, hotels, cinema, entertainment and sports teams; the announcement comes as Beijing is supporting overseas technology and initiatives such as the massive global infrastructure investment plan One Belt, One Road; specific industries under close watch include Hollywood entertainment, the hotel industry and foreign insurance investments; overall, the efforts from the Chinese government are another step in reigning in foreign investment and supporting economic development. Source
Bloomberg and Quartz have recently been granted access to one of the largest bitcoin mines in the world operated by Bitmain; this Bitmain mine generates about a quarter of a million dollars a day worth of bitcoin; Bitmain's valuation is in the billions and the company is preparing for a possible IPO; Bitmain is also investing in an expansion to US. Source
Standard Chartered China's credit cards can now be added to WeChat user payment accounts, marking the first foreign capital-backed bank to cooperate with Tencent this way; according to Tencent Financial Technology Group (Tencent FiT) Payment Platform Product Manager Chen Qiru. the cooperation will help WeChat Pay to acquire more international users and WeChat Pay will strengthen cooperation with international financial institutions. Source (Chinese)
The Series C round was led by Ribbit Capital; SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments Capital Management also participated; the company plans to expand lending, invest in products/technology and widen their geographical footprint; Capital Float will focus on loans to small merchants and kirana store owners; the company has raised $87 million and has about 15,000 customers in e-commerce, traditional retail, manufacturing as well as services businesses. Source
Ticket Camp, one of Japan's most popular ticket marketplaces, has announced it will accept bitcoin payments starting on August 17; the website's bitcoin payments are processed by one of Japan's largest bitcoin exchanges Coincheck; Japan started to recognize bitcoin as a legal method of payment in April 2017. Source