In guidelines released on its website, China said it would restrict overseas investment in sectors such as property, hotels, cinema, entertainment and sports teams; the announcement comes as Beijing is supporting overseas technology and initiatives such as the massive global infrastructure investment plan One Belt, One Road; specific industries under close watch include Hollywood entertainment, the hotel industry and foreign insurance investments; overall, the efforts from the Chinese government are another step in reigning in foreign investment and supporting economic development. Source
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Bloomberg and Quartz have recently been granted access to one of the largest bitcoin mines in the world operated by Bitmain; this Bitmain mine generates about a quarter of a million dollars a day worth of bitcoin; Bitmain's valuation is in the billions and the company is preparing for a possible IPO; Bitmain is also investing in an expansion to US. Source
Standard Chartered China's credit cards can now be added to WeChat user payment accounts, marking the first foreign capital-backed bank to cooperate with Tencent this way; according to Tencent Financial Technology Group (Tencent FiT) Payment Platform Product Manager Chen Qiru. the cooperation will help WeChat Pay to acquire more international users and WeChat Pay will strengthen cooperation with international financial institutions. Source (Chinese)
The Series C round was led by Ribbit Capital; SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments Capital Management also participated; the company plans to expand lending, invest in products/technology and widen their geographical footprint; Capital Float will focus on loans to small merchants and kirana store owners; the company has raised $87 million and has about 15,000 customers in e-commerce, traditional retail, manufacturing as well as services businesses. Source
Ticket Camp, one of Japan's most popular ticket marketplaces, has announced it will accept bitcoin payments starting on August 17; the website's bitcoin payments are processed by one of Japan's largest bitcoin exchanges Coincheck; Japan started to recognize bitcoin as a legal method of payment in April 2017. Source
Currently reconsidering the Winklevoss brothers' ETF proposal, the SEC has now received another approval request for a bitcoin ETF; investment manager VanEck has submitted a prospectus to the SEC for a bitcoin-related ETF; the fund differs from previous funds, with its investments based on derivatives of bitcoin; VanEck is seeking to list the fund on the Nasdaq and says it will also include conventional investments such as US Treasury bonds and cash for risk diversification. Source
Invesco's digital wealth platform for financial advisors, Jemstep, is partnering with the retail broker dealer and investment arm of American financial services company KeyBank; this is the second big piece of news for Jemstep, they recently signed a deal with a network of US financial advisors called Advisor Network; Jemstep is a white label platform for financial advisors to offer their clients; Simon Roy, president and CEO of Jemstep, told AltFi’s Robo Advice News, "Jemstep is proud to partner with Key Investment Services (KIS) to deliver both a quality digital solution to help clients meet their financial goals and an efficient service that integrates within KIS's existing middle and back-office processes." Source
Europe's PSD2 will require financial institutions to share data with third party service providers creating a new market opportunity for fintech developers with guaranteed account data access; in the US fintechs must still rely on relationship building to secure data partnerships thus making technology development more challenging; American Banker reports on details of a recently formed association that's seeking to make data access easier; the Consumer Financial Data Rights (CFDR) consortium includes 31 data aggregators and fintech companies lobbying for data access solutions and agreements; American Banker also outlines the progress that has been made in data sharing and proposals from the CFDR. Source
Online lenders FIP, LLC and Future Income Payments, LLC are being sued by the State of Minnesota; the two lenders target seniors and veterans with pension advance loan products and charge exorbitant interest rates of approximately 200%; the interest rates significantly exceed Minnesota's usury cap of 8%; the court filings argue that the lenders are unregistered and unlicensed to offer loans in Minnesota. Source
BFS Capital Inc., a leading small business financing company, announced that it has appointed Michael Marrache as chief executive officer to succeed outgoing CEO and co-founder Marc Glazer; Michael has been with the company for four years and previously served as COO then President; "I began work with BFS Capital nearly four years ago because I thought the company had enormous potential, and I'm even more certain of this today. I'm honored to have been asked by Marc and the board to lead the company's next phase of growth," said the new CEO; Marc Glazer will continue in his role as chairman of the board. Source