Lend Academy talks with Jeffrey Chen, CEO of ZhongAn Insurance; firm has seen great success in insurtech in China, issuing billions of small dollar value insurance policies through the internet; Chen talks about the insurance products offered through the platform, how they have scaled the business, some of the innovative technologies they are using and their goals for the future. Source
Transferwise CEO Taavet Hinrikus and LocalGloabe back DeFi start-up Radix in $4.1m fundraise Railsbank continues global expansion and launches in...
Indian online multi-lender Indifi has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round led by Omidyar Network; the multi-lender specializes in connecting micro, small and medium-sized businesses with a network of lending institutions; the firm intends to use the funds for expanding and improving its products and technology. Source
Bank account applicants must now have assets at the bank averaging 5 million yuan ($730,000) per day over the past three months, this threshold is an increase from 50,000 yuan ($7,280); the changes are being enacted to help restrict capital outflows and ease depreciation of the yuan; sources also report that the Bank of China has taken steps to set additional terms for restricting capital outflow; China Construction Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have reported they have no intention to implement similar rules. Source
Singapore hosted the 3rd Singapore-Shanghai Financial Forum this week helping to strengthen relationships in the region; over 200 participants were in attendance; the theme of the event was "Strengthening Singapore-Shanghai Collaboration in a Changing Financial World Order" and discussions were centered around deepening financial connections between Singapore and Shanghai; Jacqueline Loh, deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, was a featured keynote speaker at the event and spoke about the opportunities for fintech collaboration in the region. Source
P2P loan originations for Chinese online lender Dianrong more than doubled from 2015 to 2016; the platform reported 2016 originations of 16.2 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) and the firm plans to continue growing its market share as regulations help the success of established P2P lending firms in China; Dianrong's co-founder and co-CEO, Kevin Guo, talked with Reuters about the firm's growth and China's evolving market; says smaller firms will have difficulty staying in business and that Dianrong plans to grow significantly in the near-term with a new funding round and the goal to grow loan originations by 50% annually over the next three to five years. Source
What Banking For The Unbanked Means For You PPP spotlights shortcomings in credit unions’ small-business push Splitit is quickly adding...
Indonesia's Financial Services Authority has issued regulations for alternative lenders; the regulations are slightly less strict than expected; they require fintech companies to have capital of 1 billion rupiah ($74,239) when registering their business and capital of 2.5 billion rupiah ($187,210) when applying for a business license; the regulations do not set any limits on interest rates. Source
TNG FinTech Group Inc. is close to closing a Series A funding deal that will add $60 million in new capital for the firm and bring its valuation to $500 million; the firm offers global money transfers, foreign-exchange transactions and bill payments; following the funding round it will be one of the highest valued fintechs in Hong Kong; it plans to use the funding to expand its business internationally through acquisition of companies with remittance licenses in Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK. Source
Ning Tang, founder and CEO of CreditEase, has received the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the honor was awarded at the 2nd China Financial Literacy Annual Conference; as an institution, CreditEase was also honored with the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the awards recognize Ning Tang and CreditEase for their broad commitment and contribution to financial inclusion, wealth management, fintech innovation and public financial education. Source