The UK has launched their borrower referral scheme which came about as a government initiative; businesses who apply for loans at the nine largest UK banks and are rejected will be referred to aggregator platforms Funding Xchange, Business Finance Compared and Funding Options; the aggregators will pass information to alternative finance providers who will be able to provide quotes to the business. Source
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Funding Circle has announced changes to its borrowing rates for small business loans as of November 7; rates will be lower for higher credit quality borrowers and higher for the lower credit quality loans; says with the new rates, investors can expect an average annual return of 7%. Source
In an interview with P2P Finance News, Adair Turner cites P2P loan securitizations and other evolving forms of structured credit as high risk, causing a potential "red flashing light" for regulators; speaks of the evolution of the asset class as securitization portfolios from P2P lenders have been increasing in 2016; discusses complex structured investment vehicles as the most high risk specifically those issuing short term debt against longer term holdings. Source
The new startup, 10X Future Technologies, partners with challenger bank Virgin Money to build a new digital banking platform; the new deal comes to light just one day after 10X Future Technologies was launched to the public; Virgin Money is listed on the FTSE 250 and will count on 10X to build a cloud-based core banking system that will deliver new products in a more cost efficient manner. Source
Analysts at asset manager, Bernstein, believe the future is bright for robo advisors; in a recent client memo the firm concluded that BlackRock and Fidelity will eventually incorporate them into their business and technology giants Google and Facebook could be their main competition; though the current disruption from robo advisors is minimal, the largest one has $60 billion AUM as compared to Fidelity with $5.1 trillion AUM, the technology is what will be most useful for the wealth management industry; you have already seen big names like Deutsche Bank and UBS launch robo advisors, while BlackRock and Invesco have made acquisitions of the technology. Source
UK listed marketplace lending fund, P2P Global Investments, has reported struggling performance in 2016; monthly return in September was 0.23% for a year-to-date return of 3.41%; target annual return is 6% to 8%; peripheral factors such as debt facilities and currency hedges have affected the return; the fund is now selling at a discount of 19.8%; has been steadily buying back shares to help improve the NAV and also using securitization to reduce debt costs; loan defaults and delinquencies have been higher as a result of longer maturities, however the primary factor affecting the return is the broad global diversification of the loans resulting in losses from currency hedging. Source
R3 is making its blockchain code base publicly available, in an effort to drive standards for the technology; its "Corda" platform code will be stored starting November 30th as part of the Hyperledger open-source project, which is run by the non-profit Linux Foundation to encourage cross-industry experimentation and adoption of blockchain; R3's Chief Engineer, James Carlyle, explained, "If we have one platform with lots of products on top, then we get something that's more like the internet, where we still get innovation but we can still communicate with each other."; in related news, R3 and 12 of its bank members recently trialed Ripple's Digital Asset XRP platform for interbank cross-border payments. Source
MasterCard has announced three blockchain APIs to accelerate independent developers' use of MasterCard's technology; the API sets facilitate implementing blockchain nodes/servers, defining 'smart contracts' using MasterCard's technical language and executing transactions on its 'Fast Pay' network; MasterCard is targeting applications in P2P payments, trade finance and supply chain. Source
SBI Ripple Asia this summer announced plans for a Japanese blockchain development consortia; now, it says interest from banks has been so high that they are launching in November 2016 with 47 member banks, as opposed to an originally planned launch in March 2017 with 30 banks; the participants will be working first on a proof of concept for real-time remittance and cross-border payments; participants include Mizuho, Bank of Yokohama and SBI Sumishin Net Bank. Source
In an interview with Forbes, Lend Academy Founder and LendIt Co-Founder shares his thoughts on what he calls "a learning year" for the online lending industry; topics discussed are platform growth, investor pullback, compliance, competition and the recent SMART Box announcement by the Innovative Lending Platform Association; looking to the future Renton believes some firms will expand into other areas of fintech (like SoFi) while some companies will remain niche lenders; he also believes Blockchain will have a dramatic impact on peer-to-peer loans. Source