The CEO of NITI Aayog, a policy think tank of the Indian government, said that the fintech market in India...
For the second quarter, Yirendai reported revenue of $174.5 million, beating estimates by $16.36 million and increasing revenue 58% from the second quarter of 2016; earnings per share remained steady at $0.66 and beat earnings estimates by $0.04; the company reported loans originated of $1.2 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 80% in comparison to the second quarter of 2016. Source
Released at the Boao Forum for Asia this week, "The Report on Internet Finance 2017" details China's internet finance market, including its experience in mobile payments and online lending; discusses the opportunity for growth through e-commerce in Asia, specifically through the Belt and Road Initiative; highlights how mobile payments, peer-to-peer lending, online insurance and other internet finance businesses are evolving within the country's economy. Source
Consumer point of sale lender, Finomena, owns India’s most downloaded fintech app and they hope to continue gaining customers in this emerging market; led by Riddhi Mittal, formerly of Microsoft, and Abhishek Garg, a private equity investor, the company has exploded serving millennials who have little or no credit; they focus on extending credit for electronics, laptops, smartphones and furniture, which they view as good and productive categories for loans; the company has also pioneered flexible monthly installments in India and are looking to raise a Series A round soon. Source
In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ant Financial's CEO Eric Jing talked about his plans for growth in payments and blockchain; firm is targeting two billion users by 2027; says it will more deeply integrate blockchain and artificial intelligence. 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
HNA is one of China's most ambitious private conglomerate investors, investing $45 billion in global deals in the last three years with high profile deals including the buyout of Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital, and multi-billion dollar stakes in Deutsche Bank AG and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.; Bloomberg reports on how the business is financed; its findings show a network of capital providers including a number of shadow bank lenders as well as trusts and asset managers resulting in over $10 billion of unlisted shares pledged to non-bank lenders and interest rates from shadow bank financings that far exceed benchmark rates from bank loans and bond issuances; Bloomberg reports additional details on HNA's financing structure and shadow banking loans as well as the shadow banking platforms it currently operates as subsidiaries. Source
New regulations in China tightening controls on P2P lenders will now require P2P lenders to partner with a custodian bank; Chinese banks are not eagerly partnering with the alternative lenders as fraud has been rampant in the industry; less than 5% of the country's 2,534 P2P lenders currently have a partnership with a custodian; custodians will add another layer of authentication for the P2P lending industry since they have high standards for money transfer and safekeeping; currently none of China's big four banks have partnered with P2P lenders for custodian services; smaller banks are getting involved and bank to platform relationships are taking on various forms. Source
India's CoinTribe has partnered with SMERA Ratings to incorporate a new rating system for its online business lending services; through the partnership CoinTribe will gain access to SMERA's ratings database for micro, small and medium size businesses; CoinTribe plans to integrate the ratings information with its current credit underwriting system for enhanced analytics on business credit loans. Source
Chinese fintech company QuantGroup has filed an IPO application with the SEC, planning to raise $200 million from IPO; QuantGroup will start evaluating the needs of potential investors in as early as September; JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley are working as the financial advisors for this IPO. Source (Chinese)