The EU is working on a license for crowdfunding and p2p platforms to operate across multiple countries across Europe; the aim is to simplify the work required in each specific country to operate; AltFi shares perspectives from multiple platforms in Europe on the plans for a license. Source
The European Commission is developing new legislation that will help fintech companies, in particular crowdfunding sites and online lenders, operate and scale across single market member states; the idea is meant to create a digital single market, removing what some countries add on within their jurisdiction; this move could help propel funding for fintech companies and increase their ability to compete with companies in the US and Asia. Source.
It has been a long time since OnDeck and LendingClub went public in the US; the shares of both companies are down significantly since that time; now Funding Circle is planning to go public as late autumn, but what is the right valuation for the company? Financial Times reviews Funding Circle’s business and the importance of whether investors value it as a finance or software business. Source
The company may go public as soon as late autumn; sources state that the company will exceed a £1 billion valuation; investment banks are expected to be in place by spring; Funding Circle would be the first p2p lender in the UK to go public. Source
The UK’s Parliament Treasury Committee said the needs to keep a close eye on a disagreement between banks and independent ATMs; with banks closing branches the worry is people living rural communities won’t have access to cash if they are unable to use these ATMs; the argument came about when the Link scheme said they were looking to lower the cost of withdrawal from 25p to 20p to stay competitive because operator like Visa were undercutting them; the Regulator is looking to ensure access to cash as that is still the main way people in these areas transact; as banks have closed ATMs, independent ATMs have grown significantly and are a crucial part of the financial system. Source.
In an interview with AltFi, Mambu CEO Eugene Danilkis explained he thinks the UK is the fintech hub of Europe; the digital banking platform sees this as the case partly because the UK government has done a great deal on bring more competition into the banking system; with the government support you have seen dozens of banking applications submitted and new entrants like Starling Bank, Atom and OakNorth have success; Mambu provides software to incumbents and startups, telling AltFi, “Incumbents will have to think like fintechs in order to develop channels of servicing clients quickly, seamlessly and creatively.” Source.
Raisin offers a platform to offer savings account options across Europe; they currently have over 100,000 customers; the funds will be used to accelerate growth across Europe. Source
UK based challenger bank Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group announced they would increase minimum salaries by 11 percent in an effort to boost pay to their female workforce; the bank released news that men were paid 37 percent more than women, mostly due to men being in higher paying roles; the bank signed up for the government’s Women in Finance Charter to help increase their proportion of women in senior roles to 40 percent by 2020 and 50 percent in the long term. Source.
The platform grew 104% year over year; its investor base includes banks, pension and infrastructure funds, family offices and private clients; According to the company, LendInvest has the largest institutional funding base of any European Fintech lender on record; the platform offers loans made to professional property investors and developers. Source
Machine learning and predictive analytics have started to make a real difference in the VC world when it comes to finding investments; VC’s typically traveled a lot and met with thousands of companies to find a few investments; by using machine learning to break down troves of data, like job postings or performance in the App Store, investors can find potential gems without the same laborious effort; VC firms are investing in tools to help them refine searches and comb through thousands of companies quickly; increased computing power and cheaper ways to rent server capacity has really helped VC’s, even the small firms, use these techniques every day. Source.