Amazon is fast becoming the financial services company of the future; they now have their hands in payments, cash, small business lending, consumer credit and more; partnerships with companies like USAA and Capital One who use Amazon's Alexa digital assistant have emerged; this all shows the threat Amazon poses to traditional banking giants, though there has been no indication they want to become a bank themselves; JPMorgan Chase has started using Amazon's cloud-based AWS service to build a hybrid private-public cloud strategy; AWS sales increased 42% on a year-over-year basis to $4.1 billion for the second quarter; banks are starting to become technology firms and technology firms are helping to change the way banks operate. Source
Consumer lenders Lending Club and Prosper are reporting growth in originations; for the second quarter Lending Club loan originations reached $2.1473 billion, increasing 10% from the previous quarter and the second quarter of 2016; Prosper originated $774.7 million worth of loans in the second quarter of 2017, an increase from $586 million in Q1 and $445 million in the second quarter of 2016; both companies had high Q1 2016 originations which has kept first half 2017 totals down in comparison to 2016. Source
PitchIt 2017 was a competition for fintech startups, in exclusive partnership with global venture capital fund 500 Startups, the world leader in investing in and mentoring early-stage fintech startups; the platform nurtures emerging talent in fintech throughout the competition, provides selected finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise as well as invaluable exposure and branding; eight finalists present their businesses to a panel of select judges who then ask questions to determine a winner. Source