In this week’s PeerIQ Industry Update they look at the record levels of consumer debt, some regulatory changes, new securitizations and give an update on recent hirings; consumer credit is now at an all time high surpassing $1tn, though per capita levels remain below peak; the Trump administration is looking to revise the Community Reinvestment Act rules to include small business loans; Marlette’s newest securitization, MFT 2018-1, consists of loans originated by Cross River bank for over $390mn and it has received ratings from Kroll; PeerIQ also announced the hiring of 6 new employees as the company continues to grow. Source.
JoinedNov. 30, 2016
Articles1,635
Todd is the host of PitchIt: the fintech startups podcast, a weekly interview show featuring emerging fintech founders and leading venture capitalists. He is responsible for leading the content team which covers fintech through daily & weekly email newsletters, editorial, virtual events, and in-person conferences. He has been covering fintech, banking, and venture capital for more than 15 years, including speaking regularly at industry events.
Wells Fargo has seen customers become more adept at using digital and plans to accelerate their branch closure plans; the company is looking to close more than 800 branches by the end of 2020; “Our vision of satisfying our customers’ financial needs remains unchanged, but how we execute this vision has evolved; this evolution includes developing new ways to more efficiently serve our customers and create a better customer experience,” said CEO Tim Sloan on a conference call as reported by TearSheet; the closures are expected the save the bank about $4bn. Source.
This past weekend p2p payments platform Zelle started a marketing push in 6 major US markets; Early Warning, Zelle’s owner, started the ads during last weekends NFL football games and has plans to further advertise during the Grammy Awards, the NBA All-Star Game and more upcoming events; while Zelle has past Venmo in volume the platform is not nearly as widely known and it isn’t entirely clear how many users they have because it is integrated with your banking app; the company also plans to do a push in print and digital ads over the coming months. Source.
Investing startup M1 Finance decided in December that charging 25 to 40 basis points was not working, so it decided to allow users to use their platform for free; since shifting to the free model the company has seen more than $1mn a day come onto the platform; rival robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront think the move is an act of desperation, though both companies offer or have offered some version free services; CEO of M1 Brian Barnes tells Business Insider, “M1 is very limiting from a trading perspective but it is a phenomenal tool for building a portfolio for the investments you want." Source.
The new express branches are meant to help customers with routine transactions like withdrawals and deposits; customers looking for further advice or a loan would be able to connect via videoconference or go to a typical branch; they are looking to serve millennials in a more efficient way and allow them to access bankers and wealth managers through a digital experience using iPads; removing some of the human intensive areas of the bank and making it more self serve will cut down on costs and help to serve the younger, digital customers. Source.
Kreditech, looking to launch in India, partnered with Mambu and their Software as a Service banking platform; Kreditechis planning to launch in India this year with their partner PayU, the payments provider; Alexander Graubner-Müller, CEO of Kreditech, tells Banking Technology that Mambu’s cloud-native solution “easily integrates into our architecture, allowing us to quickly scale and adapt to market and consumer demands”.; this will now be the sixth country the company is in and they plan to get it up and running in the first quarter of 2018. Source.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced it has partnered with fintech firm CellTrust for messaging to clients; the new service will be focused on client to advisor text messages; the partnership will allow the bank to catalogue all communication with time and date stamps, tracking and logging activity; they plan to launch the new program over the next two months. Source.
UK based challenger bank Monzo announced what their plans are for 2018; three specific areas they wanted to highlight were launching a feature to help customers manage bills, ending their prepare program and helping customers to switch to their payments platform; as the company continues to build out new features they said they plan to keep updating clients on a month by month basis. Source.
In recent months Jersey City has seen three more companies relocate to the area; companies recently relocating include Yellowstone Capital, World Business Lenders and Principis Capital; this is in addition to BlueVine and Funding Metrics recently opening up operations in the city; one of the main drivers behind the move is the Grow NJ tax program helping businesses save money by relocating. Source.
Since the financial crises banks, for the most part, have focused their time and effort on complying with new regulations and building up capital ratios in case another crisis hits; while they were doing this another industry, fintech, emerged and has eaten into some of the core profit making businesses of the banks; banks have started to catch up with technology and as countries like the US look to pare back some crisis era rules the banks see the next few years as the perfect opportunity to invest wisely in technology; the one thing the banks might not be able to handle is if Amazon, Facebook or Google begin to encroach further into fintech, potentially bring in competition who can immediately match up in size and strength. Source.