According to Bloomberg, Ripple attempted to provide financial incentives to exchanges Gemini and Coinbase for its XRP cryptocurrency to be listed; Some believe that the exchanges are reluctant to include XRP because the token could be deemed securities because it is controlled by one single company; the article by Bloomberg shares that a Ripple executive offered a $1 million cash payment to Gemini which was followed by other incentive offerings; Ripple also offered lending Coinbase $100 million of XRP to let users trade the asset. Source
Japanese banks are looking at digital payments due to a recent regulatory change which may bring in more competition; the law will be introduced in phases which makes it easier for depositors to give third parties access to both their accounts and data; it is part of a government push to reduce high cash use in the country; Projects around QR codes, blockchain and digital currencies are currently in the works. Source
PeerStreet’s Series B round was led by World Innovation Lab with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Thomvest, Colchis Capital, Felicis Ventures, Solon Mack and Navitas Capital; PeerStreet is a marketplace for fix and flip loans; the company said funds will be used to expand to new types of loans and that the company may also be adding more international investors. Source
Deepak Lalit, Managing Director of LendIt Advisors reviews the public companies attending LendIt and their recent track record. Source
- CoinList Raises $9.2M in Series A Funding
- Liquid FSI Adds Key Board Member
- LendingTree Personal Loan Offers Report – March 2018
- LendingTree Mortgage Offers Report – March 2018
- Five Ways for FinTech Lenders to Achieve ROI on a Loan Pricing System Investment (ProBank Austin)
- Enhancing the Business Value of Loan Pricing Systems (ProBank Austin)
- Stripe launches a new billing tool to tap demand from online businesses
- Will fintech realize its potential for financial inclusion?
We’ve seen Goldman Sachs enter a variety of consumer banking verticals over the last few years; now the bank has hired a senior JPMorgan Chase engineer to build cash management tools, deposit accounts as well as other products for big companies; commercial banking could bring even more deposits into the business and also help boost revenue; they will compete with other big names such as JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Source
A recent report by Bain & Company just shares how successful Amazon could be if it were to enter banking; according to the report: "We could imagine Amazon's banking services growing to more than 70 million U.S. consumer relationships over the next five years or so — the same as Wells Fargo, the third-largest bank in the US. Although many retail bankers and observers have pegged the nimble fintech start-ups as the likely disrupters, it has become clear that established technology firms pose a bigger threat.”; the CNBC article shares several of the advantages Amazon would have in banking, products they could expand into and some of the talks that are already taking place with banks. Source