Starling is a challenger bank based in the UK; Boden speaks about Starling, open banking and how she came to discover fintech which in turn led her to founding Starling; Boden previously worked in executive positions at UBS, ABN Amro, RBS and AIB; Starling was founded in 2014 as an app-only bank; in an interview Boden stated: "…and in 2014, I started the journey to build a bank. And it's been a long process because you don't just build a bank overnight. We've done things the hard way in that I'm a big believer that things that are worth doing are things that tend to be quite hard – because easy things anybody can do." Source
Almost a third of venture capital investment in the UK was done by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and since the Brexit decision was made this funding source has been turned off; while the British government has attempted to fill the void they have fallen short; "The pullback of the EIF puts the UK at a structural disadvantage compared to other European countries," Fred Destin, a London-based venture capitalist tells Politico; the EIF accounted for $2.7 billion worth of investment into 144 companies from 2011 to 2015 in the UK; the EIF has said they are just doing more diligence on the companies from the UK but the reality is that they have completely pulled back; the British Business Bank has announced plans to offer over $450 million in investments but venture capitalists have said they are unsure if the government can afford to do this in the long term. Source
Inter-bank payments platform Swift says it is a step closer to adopting blockchain; a project that could potentially move member bank accounts to the blockchain and provide for real time reconciliation is now ready for its next phase; the project is focused on dormant funds held in various currencies supporting transactions. Source
AltFi Data has raised new capital and formed an advisory board; the new initiatives will help AltFi Data launch new products, increasing analytical tools and market transparency; the board’s advisors bring experience in market data and investing. Source
Huddle Capital provides P2P loans for businesses; Terry Fisher talks about the platform's differentiators and advantages; also discusses its ownership by Access Commercial Finance, its relationship with Rebuildingsociety, its technology and what investors can expect. Source
The Series C fundraising included $40 million in equity and a $200 million debt facility; the platform provides post-graduate loans to international students; it plans to use the funding to expand globally and offer more loans. Source
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) has also invested in Netflix, Snapchat and Twitter; with the newest round of funding the company's value is expected to increase to over $1 billion; it has previously raised a total of $116 million; the firm is currently doing more than GBP1 billion ($1.29 billion) of transfers per month on its platform; new initiatives include opening a Singapore office, launching a borderless business account and adding its service to Facebook Messenger. Source
UK Small business lender Funding Circle attempts to simplify the investment process by removing manual bidding in favor of a two tiered autobid process; the two autobid accounts will be: balanced with a targeted return of 7.5% and conservative with a targeted return of 4.8%; UK Managing Director James Meekings tells AltFi: "These changes will make lending at Funding Circle simpler, better, fairer. We want to create a level playing field for all investors and ensure everyone has the same opportunity to lend to UK businesses."; the changes were in response to individual investors "gaming" the system and not allowing the passive investors access to higher return loans which are very popular; according to AltFi this is a trend in in the industry with other platforms, including Zopa in May, moving to this process. Source
The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) is a trade body representing three quarters of the P2P lending market in the UK; RateSetter has breached rules set by the P2PFA; according to RateSetter, "No customer has experienced any loss from our actions but we recognize that our actions breached the principles of the Association."; recently the company has been in the news with regards to their wholesale lending business that it has been winding down. Source
There was a recent technology debate held at the Connaught Hotel hosted by Mortgage Solutions and Capita Mortgage Software Solutions that focused on some of the newer technology coming to the mortgage market; a key piece of the conversation focused on the use of APIs which would help to connect brokers and lenders and cut down on repetitive work; according to Mortgage Solutions, the individuals at the event thought that some lenders might be close to rolling out an API but large scale adoption was still potentially years away; other technology discussed included chatbots, artificial intelligence to help read through bank statements and how the open banking initiative will affect the industry. Source