Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, or GAFAM as they are beginning to be know are continuing their move towards financial services; payments have become one area in particular where they have seen the tech giants making inroads; mobile wallets for in-store payments, money transfers between friends and even loans to small businesses; tech giants have only started to disrupt fintech as they look to become bigger players in consumers financial lives. Source.
JoinedNov. 30, 2016
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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.
JPMorgan Chase and Barclays have joined IBM’s quantum computing network as they look to use the technology to assess risk and stay secure; Barclays is beginning to test potential uses and JPMorgan Chase is looking to leverage quantum computing for trading, portfolio optimization and risk analysis; there is a lot happening in quantum computing these days as big tech firms look to master the technology seen as potentially 100,000 times faster than classic computers; while there are clear benefits to quantum computing banks are also looking at protecting themselves from the cyber threat that hackers could exploit using the same technology. Source.
As the government cracks down on riskier lenders the more established brands of Ant Financial and Lufax look to become even more dominant; China’s top ten online lenders account for 36 percent of all loans and that number looks to continue to rise as smaller lenders look to be on their way out; the top lenders use spending analysis, AI and more to determine creditworthiness of borrowers; with the rise in wealth and spending power in China the dominant fintech firms are ideally positioned. Source.
Ant Financial’s Yu’e Bao fund has grown since launch in 2013 to become the largest money market fund in the world; JP Morgan’s fund, which launched in 1993, was recently passed by Yu’e Bao in assets and is still seen as the safer fund; according to a report by Fitch Ratings Yu’e Bao is a lot riskier in terms of market concentration, credit quality, liquidity and regulatory risk. Source.
Startups like Salt Lending, Nebeus, CoinLoan and EthLend have all started a new industry by making loans to borrowers using bitcoin as collateral; with the world of bitcoin millionaires growing they will need to buy houses or cars and being able to secure a loan by putting up their bitcoin will allow then to make these purchases; securing a loan for $100,000 could cost a borrower 12 to 20 percent in interest and $200,000 in bitcoin as collateral; the loans could help bitcoin miners secure funding and potentially compete with P2P lenders; it is still early days but the potential is there as more byproducts are coming to light in the bitcoin craze. Source.
Walmart partnered with Even and PayActiv to provide a set of products for their more than 1.4 million employees; employees will be able to access earned weaves ahead of schedule using an Instapay feature; “We’re investing to give our people financial tools that help provide more stability in their lives, which we believe will empower them to be all they can be when they are at work serving our customers,” explained Jacqui Canney, Walmart’s Chief People Officer; Walmart is covering the cost of Even’s tool and it will allow for employees to access Instapay eight times a year for free. Source.
About 4.6 million people are currently in default on student loans which is more than double the number from 4 years ago; the number grew by almost 275,000 borrowers in the third quarter alone; even as the economy grows and there is a multitude of options available to borrowers more people fall behind. Source.
With regulatory changes in China the online lender LexinFintech scaled back their IPO target from $500mn to $120mn; the company is looking to IPO next week and is offering 12 million shares at a price range of $9 to $11; recent IPOs by Chinese fintechs like Qudian have seen a significant drop in value after the regulatory push in China. Source.
Two years ago John Hancock acquired AI startup Guide Financial that helped to set the stage for their newly released robo-advisor Twine; “We weren’t going to be a Vanguard, and on the other hand, there are actors like Robinhood — we landed somewhere in the middle,” said Barbara Goose, John Hancock’s chief marketing officer as reported by Tearsheet; the company is completely separate from John Hancock, in technology stack and management, though they do coordinate with the firm through their innovation officer; allowing Twine to be separate but still connected to the main firm gives them flexibility and allow them to target their millennial customer. Source.
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is exploring options to sell the retailer and use the proceeds to start a digital global property registry; Mr. Byrne would be teaming up with Hernando de Soto who says that formalizing land rights can help to stop poverty; they are looking to use the blockchain to list ownership records, this would make it easier to trace them back to the right owner and account for less forgeries; the new company, De Soto, would start in early 2018 and use more than 10 Overstock employees. Source.