Ahead of his presentation at LendIt Europe 2017, Richard Peers, Director of the Financial Services Industry at Microsoft discusses fintech with Verdict; provides his perspective on artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, challenger banks, why London is a great place for startups, and what firms can learn from the Chinese market. Source
Consumer lenders who are repaid from borrower’s salaries have raised $232mn recently in the UK; Insurer Legal & General are set to announce a $53mn Investment into SalaryFinance for their US expansion; other market leaders in this segment include Neyber who recently raised $179mn in debt financing; the companies have built relationships with more than 50 groups in the UK and tying repayment to salaries helps to keep defaults extremely low. Source.
Funding Circle lead originations for the month of September followed by Zopa and RateSetter; many other originators across Europe are included in the list. Source
80 percent of UK consumers were unaware of the term fintech; a new study by the Telegraph shows that fintech knowledge and adoption is surprisingly low; even larger name brands like Funding Circle, Atom Bank and Nutmeg were not known to most surveyed consumers; the results point to an uphill climb by industry participants. Source.
The Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative B3i announces that 23 new entrants are joining its Market Testing program; The new entrants are: AIA, AIG, Aon, Chubb, Covéa, Everest Re, Gen Re, Guy Carpenter & Marsh, JLT Re and more; the new companies will join the existing group in testing the prototype platform. Source.
LendIt Europe 2017 is just one week away and we've compiled a list of the speakers to follow. Source
Zopa launched a pilot with provide Uber drivers with low credit scores car loans; however the partnership didn’t attract the amount of customers it had hoped; Zopa stated in the FT article, “The pilot was interesting, but demonstrated that the potential opportunity was limited for us, and we had other priorities.”; Bryan Zhang, co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance discusses one of the problems in the industry today, attracting borrowers . Source
Zopa's Chief Product Office Andrew Lawson told investors last week they launched a new credit risk scorecard; the scorecard is meant to better help the platform assess borrowers and what is behind their approval/denial; Zopa has seen higher than expected losses and has also cut down on lending to higher risk customers; Lawson explained how the new model will use traditional credit methodology mixed with data science. Source.
According to Peer2Peer Finance News, "The inaugural Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50 list aims to identify the big names in the industry who have helped it grow into a force to contend with over the past decade and who will play a key role in its future."; rounding out the top 10 include executives from RateSetter, Zopa, Funding Circle as well as Christine Farnish from the P2PFA, Bruce Davis, co-founder of Abundance, Mark Carney, governor, Bank of England and Andrew Bailey, chief executive, Financial Conduct Authority. Source
Trustly shares how how loan companies can best differentiate themselves from others and details their partnership with Lendify. Source