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.
The Open Banking Implementation Entity or OBIE chose regtech firm Contego to support OBIE’s identity proofing and verification processes; Nigel Spencer, head of support services at OBIE, tells Banking Technology that Contego delivered a “bespoke solution that combines automated identity checks with the added security of face-to-face verification” and this made the firm “the obvious choice”.; the company can customize their solution and deliver in real time via API. Source.
OnFido was founded by three Oxford grads who are all under 30; Microsoft’s venture capital arm participated in the Series C round; other participants included Crane Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and other existing investors; in total the company has raised over $60 million for their product that uses machine learning to verify identity. Source
European finance chiefs believe that tech companies moving into financial services is a threat to financial stability; they also highlight the need for companies to be held to the same regulation as big banks; banks are especially concerned as open banking regulations are now in effect; article shares perspectives from BBVA, ING and Lloyds. Source
Switzerland’s top market watchdog has called for regulators to take more and proper action on Wednesday to protect cryptocurrency traders from the risks involved in the sphere.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now given provisional approval of the deal which was originally announced last year;...
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and Cyprus’s CySEC have issued warnings to retail traders on contracts for difference based on cryptocurrencies; CFD trading based on the digital currencies has started to become popular with the volatility in bitcoin; regulators are worried that retail investors will suffer significant losses and are looking to limit leverage as a result; this continues a worldwide trend by regulators as they get a handle on the growing crypto asset class. Source.
A second regulatory reform focused on crowdfunding has gone into effect in France; the reform will broaden the offerings available for crowdfunded investing and lending; on crowdfund platforms, companies can now raise 2.5 million euros in equity funding through simple shares, plain vanilla bonds, preferred shares, participatory notes and convertible bonds; on crowdlending platforms, borrower limits were increased for qualified lenders to 2,000 euros individual lending per project; the reform also introduces new minibon debt securities. Source
P2P commercial real estate lender Relendex has received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority; the platform provides secured commercial property loans through its P2P marketplace lending platform and now plans to seek the offering of innovative finance individual savings accounts for its investors; in comments regarding the authorization, Michael Lynn, the firm's founder and chief executive officer said, "FCA full authorization marks a fantastic start to 2017 for the Relendex team and platform which will further encourage and facilitate investment in commercial property from both our UK and foreign investors." Source
UK listed information and analytics group Relx bought online ID verification company ThreatMetrix for more than $800mn; the move will help to beef up Relx’s LexisNexis Risk Solutions unit; ThreatMetrix has built a database of 1.4bn unique online digital identities in more than 180 countries; Mark Kelsey, the head of Relx’s risk and business analytics division, tell the FT, “Bringing ThreatMetrix together with our own strengths in physical identity attributes will give our clients across all forms of commerce and geographies a more reliable, comprehensive approach to fraud and identity risk management.” Source.