Chinese conglomerate HNA has reported it will buy a 25% stake in Old Mutual's US asset management unit; HNA will pay approximately $445 million; following the sale, Old Mutual will own 26% of the US asset management business, a decrease from 51%; Old Mutual is expected to also sell the remaining portion of the company with a number of offers from strategic buyers and private equity groups; HNA has been increasingly adding financial services companies to its portfolio with recent acquisitions including Deutsche Bank and Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital. Source
Russia's Sberbank will integrate new artificial intelligence (AI) to replace 3,000 employees in its legal department; the AI solution follows comments from CEO Herman Gref in September 2016 which forecasted that 80% of the bank's decisions would soon be attributed to AI systems; as AI solutions evolve, regulators are considering industry standards and frameworks for changing labor markets. Source
Ant Financial Services Group is focused on serving small and micro enterprises as well as consumers. With the vision "to turn trust into wealth," Ant Financial is dedicated to building an open ecosystem of internet thinking and technologies while working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society. Businesses operated by Ant Financial Services Group include: Alipay for payments, Yu'e Bao for money market services, Ant Fortune for wealth management, Ant Check Later and Ant Micro Loans for financing, Zhima Credit (formerly Sesame Credit) for credit reference, Zhao Cai Bao for online lending and MYBank for small business lending. Source
Chinese marketplace lender Hexindai has added a payments function to its mobile app; firm has partnered with China UnionPay for Quick Pass; QuickPass allows platform investors to use funds for payments at merchants in the China UnionPay network. Source
The National Internet Finance Association has announced the establishment of a P2P Finance Association; the Association will be led by the People's Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission; the Association will seek to improve the industry and promote its development. Source
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has launched a new initiative to fast track Fintech patents; typically a patent...
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked and saw the theft of $543mn worth of customer holdings; the Japanese regulator, FSA, said it was concerned that most of the funds were kept in hot wallets online, instead of cold wallets offline; seeing that this is not the first hack of a hot wallet model the regulators might start mandating customer funds be held offline; nothing has been passed yet but the more thefts we see the more regulators will look to try and mitigate future issues. Source.
New York-based commercial real estate developer Tishman Speyer has partnered with CreditEase Wealth Management to invest $1.4 billion in China and other countries within the next three years; according to Tang Ning, CreditEase founder and CEO, the partnership will focus on long-term development, providing clients with globalized and diverse portfolios. Source
The CreditEase Wealth Management Offshore Private Credit Fund (OPCF) has announced new investments in OnDeck and LendingHome; in 2015 the fund raised $80 million from Chinese clients, including high net worth and mass affluent investors, which it expects to be fully invested by March 2017; a $30 million investment in OnDeck and LendingHome adds to previous investments in Avant and Prosper in 2016; the firm also says it is planning to fundraise for another offshore private credit fund, OPCF II; CreditEase is targeting $200 million for this fund and its investments will likely be similar with a different fund structure, varying durations, new geographies and new types of credit products. Source
Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital are investing in Bitmain, the world's largest bitcoin mining company; Bitmain is seeking $50 million in funding to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities, after previously focusing on developing chips for mining; Bitmain claimed in August that the company is at a $1 billion valuation, and is planning an IPO. Source