Only 25 percent of the Chinese population is considered to have a traditional credit score; for non bank lenders gathering alternative data like transactions and social media has helped them to identify potential borrowers who the banks will not serve; Ant Financial has built out Sesame Credit who gathers this type of data and other online lenders have also begun using different data pieces to assess risk. 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.
Recent news about Chinese online lenders has caused regulators in China to begin looking at new regulations for the industry; “The public has doubts about its operating model and has appealed for it to be brought under regulation,” said Ji Zhihong, head of financial markets department at the People’s Bank of China, according to the FT; the potential regulations could hurt what has become a hot IPO market; Chinese lenders like Qudian who recently did a US based IPO and Paipaidai, Hexindai and Lexin Fintech who all have filed for potential US IPOs. Source.
Though Monzo has seen a share of issues and outages recently the company says the third party marketplace is core to their vision; they also explained it was a key part of their revenue drive and will help to drive down costs per customers in the near future; Monzo have plans to expand product offerings, potentially launch in the US and build out partnerships in the near and mid term future. Source.
Recent IPOs by ZhongAn and Qudian, as well as the prospectus by Jianpu could signal a significant rise for IPOs in the next few years; “There will be a new wave of China concept stocks after these two to three years' quietness," said Tiger Brokers research team to China Daily. Source.
After raising more than $232mn in an initial coin offering the company is now involved in a legal battle that could delay the launch into 2018; the dispute highlights the risk involved in the new form of financing since companies are raising money from a concept; how the case turns out could potentially effect future fundraising and whether or not investors feel secure enough to pour capital into young companies. Source.
Speaking at the Financial Investment Initiative event the former founder of PayPal thinks that bitcoin detractors could be underestimating the currency’s potential; as CoinDesk reports, “underestimating [it] especially because ... it's like a reserve form of money, it's like gold, and it's just a store of value. You don't need to use it to make payments."; he has in the past criticized bitcoin and is not bullish on all cryptocurrencies. Source.
Jeff Garzik helped contribute to the underlying code of bitcoin and is now coming to market with Metronome; "We've really been beating this up on the economic-model side, the engineering side, the legal and tax side," said Garzik, who serves as CEO of Bloq, to American Banker; Metronome does not have it’s own blockchain and has the ability to jump from one blockchain to another; the new cryptocurrency could be appealing to banks because of the flexibility and they are looking to launch in December. Source.
J.D. Power is out with their most recent Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study and small businesses are still dissatisfied with banks; the biggest issue that could increase positive interaction with small businesses and banks is more account representatives; having someone available to speak to SMBs and help them is something that is sorely lacking; banks have seen market share go to fintechs and digital banks in recent years so better serving this key customer group is something the banks need to recognize. Source.
In its annual banking report McKinsey & Co. said there is the potential for 40 percent of revenues that could be at risk by 2025 from firms like Amazon entering the space; Asheet Mehta, one of the authors of the McKinsey report, said in an interview reported by American Banker "E-commerce and tech giants are under pressure to keep increasing revenue, and financial services is a large pool they can go after. We're starting to see that." Source.
Jianpu Technology, a subsidiary of Rong360, has filed for a $200mn IPO in the US; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are bookrunners for the deal; Jianpu is an open recommendation platform for loan and credit card applications; the company has seen revenue jump 112 percent from 2015 to 2016 and thus far in the first six months of 2017 revenue has jumped 170 percent year on year. Source.