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
Indonesia-based mobile payments and micro-loan startup Pundi-Pundi raised $4 million in a pre-A round of funding; the company plans to use the funds for user and partner growth in Indonesia and expand into other Southeast Asian markets like Singapore; they have over 100,000 users and 500 merchants in Indonesia; Pundi-Pundi translates to "wallet" and they are looking to help create a cashless society in Southeast Asia. Source
Artificial intelligence company, Flamingo, has listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and partnered with online lender, DirectMoney; the company seeks to help increase the sales conversion rate of online customers through web chat, web forms and artificial intelligence that guides customers through an online purchase. Source
City A.M. reports on Sydney-based Othera's use of blockchain for improving liquidity in online lending; Othera is a P2P lender; once its loans are made, it has developed a process through blockchain operations that can assign loan portions to tokens that can then be tracked through blockchain operations and sold on an exchange; the firm already uses blockchain for all of its lending operations and has a global patent pending for the tokens. Source
Shanghai Securities News reported on market statistics and a continued commitment by Chinese authorities this week to manage fraudulent financing activities in the country; 5,197 new criminal cases were reported in 2016 involving 251.1 billion yuan ($36.5 billion); Yang Yuzhu, a Chinese regulatory director involved with a meeting of regulators, says, "The cases severely destroyed the order of financial markets."; in 2016 China approved the arrest of over 9,000 people on suspicion of illegal solicitation of public deposits and it prosecuted over 14,000; regulators plan to continue with enforcement action; they are also considering prohibiting organizations and individuals from publishing investment-related advertisements and are requesting provincial governments to closely examine potential illegal funding activities from May to July. Source
The Asset provides details on recent decreases in China's P2P lending market; the chart above notes a significant decrease in transaction volume for P2P lenders in China since December 2016; the publication also reports on the number of Chinese P2P platforms and the number of problematic P2P platforms from January 2014 through February 2017. Source
As of December 2016, shadow loans in China reported an annual increase of approximately 15% to 14.1 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion); a study by UBS reports that as the market grows one area adding increased risk is regional banks, specifically banks located in China's Rust Belt region, which have been integrating the shadow loans into various methods for diversifying their balance sheet risk as the steel and metal-producing provinces struggle to remain profitable in the changing economy; the UBS report says alternative financial statement accounting regarding the loans could lead to a number of issues including overstated capital adequacy ratios, understated nonperforming loans and reduced provision charges. Source
Afterpay and Touchcorp are merging to form NewCo which will provide an advanced solution for merchant network installment payments; Afterpay has steadily grown its merchant network which pays a 4% fee for the installment service; Touchcorp will help provide advancements in payments technology for Afterpay and the integrated services will allow for broader expansion. Source
Chinese regulators are considering custodian requirements for bitcoin to help mitigate effects from its market risks; the custodian support appears to be welcomed by platforms and investors in China; overall, Chinese regulators are taking a more active role in bitcoin market activity as Chinese investors increasingly account for a majority of bitcoin's trading volume. Source
