Georg Ludviksson, the head of Meniga, a digital bank that was started in Finland back in 2009, says that banks are at risk of losing the top spot among their customer base; tech giants like Google, Facebook and Alibaba are placing themselves between banks, and their customers are no longer seeing their traditional bank as the go to place for financial services; Georg Ludviksson also points out that the coming PSD2 regulation will shift the balance of power from banks to the customer and that the regulation has the potential to transform banking in Europe. Source
Zopa has announced it plans to apply for banking licenses; company will be the first alternative finance platform to seek licensing as a bank; CEO Jaidev Janardana wrote to clients on Wednesday with details on the company's plans; Zopa will seek to offer deposit accounts and new lending products; requires Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority licenses which the company expects to take 15 to 24 months. Source
Updraft intends to lend £200 million in 2022 to help reduce high-interest borrowings for UK consumers and improve their finances.
The fintech investor ecosystem is retreating to 2018 levels, while founding is at a significant low. However, it's not all bad.
The FT has seen regtech as one of the fastest growing areas of fintech with a surge of applications to their Future of Fintech awards; new regulations such as the EU’s Mifid II rules, increased compliance and KYC checks by financial institutions looking for more cost efficient ways to verify customers has helped to bring new startups into the market; fintech has moved well beyond lending and the diversification of the market continues to grow. Source.
Instead of the cyberwars of science fiction we have the fintech wars involving cryptocurrency exchanges, payment cards and remittance systems. While these battles by themselves may not bring the war to a halt, they will certainly communicate the right messages to smartphone-wielding Muscovites.
UK based Lendable raised $400mn to continue lending to UK consumers amid concerns over growing household debt; the capital infusion comes from Castle Trust who is backed by the US private equity shop JC Flowers; this is the second big deal for Lendable in 2017 as they were able to secure over $130mn from Waterfall Asset management in March. Source.
Although some of the prototype design challenges could limit usage, exploration of the CBDC shows positive steps.
Monzo and Starling Bank saw more than 10,000 customers open accounts through the account switching service in the first few...
British Business Bank will be increasing its investment through P2P lenders by adding another 40 million British pound ($49.71 million) investment at Funding Circle; the investment follows some skepticism from UK taxpayers about the Bank's investment management of government funds; following the release of the Financial Conduct Authority's interim update on crowdfunding, it was reported that the British Business Bank had 85 million British pounds ($105.64 million) invested in the P2P lending industry with 60 million British pounds ($74.57 million) invested at Funding Circle; in a statement on the new investment, Funding Circle says over 5 million British pounds ($6.21 million) in interest has been earned by Funding Circle on behalf of the UK taxpayer since March 2013. Source