A new fintech hub has opened in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Financial Services Union Denmark, City of Copenhagen and Danish Bankers Association provided support for the new fintech hub, Copenhagen Fintech; the membership association will focus on five areas of fintech including 1) fintech entrepreneurship 2) platforms, payments, and usability 3) cybersecurity in finance 4) digital processes and 5) financial computation; Thomas Krogh Jensen will lead Copenhagen Fintech as the CEO. Source
The transaction saw the private equity house acquire the payments provider for Vinted, La Redoute and Rakuten, and take the majority stake in a French crowdfunding platform Leetchi....
UK based Nationwide Building Society has partnered with analytics firm SAS to more efficiently interact with their 15 million customers;...
Crypto lending firm Celsius on Monday paused all account withdrawals, sparking fears that it may be about to go bust.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) works with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK to protect investments for consumers; the FSCS is comparable to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the US; the FCA is currently conducting research and undergoing consultation on the crowdfunding market; current consultation has involved communication between the FSCS and FCA on potential solutions for insuring funds; it's not likely that insured funds will be integrated into the FCA's new crowdfunding regulations however the two agencies are discussing options. Source
Leading UK challenger bank, Revolut, is growing fast and now has around four million customers; they are adding new customers...
WeLab Bank launches in Hong Kong JetClosing Raises $9M in Series B Funding How Payments Fintech Is Using Banking As...
UK listed marketplace lending fund, P2P Global Investments, has reported struggling performance in 2016; monthly return in September was 0.23% for a year-to-date return of 3.41%; target annual return is 6% to 8%; peripheral factors such as debt facilities and currency hedges have affected the return; the fund is now selling at a discount of 19.8%; has been steadily buying back shares to help improve the NAV and also using securitization to reduce debt costs; loan defaults and delinquencies have been higher as a result of longer maturities, however the primary factor affecting the return is the broad global diversification of the loans resulting in losses from currency hedging. Source
The UK first created a regulatory sandbox in 2016; the Financial Conduct Authority is now seeking feedback on whether it should expand their sandbox globally; fintechs would benefit by having the ability to test in other countries and regulators could work together on some of the issues related to companies seeking to operate across borders; the FCA stated, "The overall approach would be to better understand and solve common regulatory problems, as well as being more helpful to firms who have aspirations to grow at scale in multiple markets." Source
The UK Treasury has announced it will allow crowd bonds in innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs); crowd bond investors will invest in bonds of companies through crowdfunded platforms with their investments held in a tax sheltered account facilitated by the crowdfunding platform; the expansion of crowd bonds in IFISAs makes the crowdfunded investments more attractive because of the tax shelter, also providing greater benefits for an investment that's not secured by the government's FSCS protection. Source