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Europe

·Aug. 18, 2017

Follow Up Friday: Fintech Bank Licensing in Europe

Europe provides some interesting examples for fintech bank chartering and licensing as companies SoFi and Varo lead the way in the United States; two top companies to watch include Tandem and Klarna; fintech company Tandem recently acquired a bank, Harrods Bank, which will provide it with GBP80 million ($103 million) of capital and a banking license if the transaction is approved; Klarna has also been a fintech banking leader in Europe; the Swedish payments company recently received a banking license and has reported deals with Permira, Visa and Brightfolk. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 17, 2017

Funding Circle Inks Partnership with Aegon

UK small business lender Funding Circle formed a strategic partnership with the Dutch financial services firm Aegon; Aegon will look to fund about $205 million worth of loans in the first twelve months and then steadily increase that amount for the next three years; the deal helps to ease the gap left by the European Investment Bank who pulled back a $129 million commitment in the wake of the Brexit vote; Funding Circle CEO and Co-Founder Samir Desai explained to AltFi: "This partnership is validation of the attractive risk-adjusted returns that are being generated to investors by lending through Funding Circle. We hope our joint programme with Aegon will develop to deliver increased lending to UK small businesses over the coming years." Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 17, 2017

Savings Marketplace Raisin Reaches EUR4bn Milestone

German-based savings marketplace Raisin has received over EUR4 billion (USD $4.7 bn) in investments on its platform in less than four years; founded in 2013 it was the first investment marketplace of its kind in Europe and now has two times the total investment assets of its closest competitor; partnering with 34 banks across 17 European countries it helps customers find the highest retail deposit market rates. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 17, 2017

MarketInvoice Partners with Veritas

Veritas is a specialist in commercial credit management services; through the partnership, MarketInvoice will be available to customers using the firm's VeritasVirtual platform; clients use this platform to monitor the status of outstanding payments and will now be able to obtain access to the MarketInvoice Pro credit line through the VeritasVirtual platform. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 17, 2017

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority Looking at Mortgage Application Overhaul

Online mortgage broker Trussle is currently in the early stages of talks with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to potentially overhaul the mortgage application process; the plan that Trussle is pitching to the FCA is to help standardize documents needed in a format that they are needed in; Mr. Mahli told FTAdviser: "There's an unnecessary inefficiency in the way mortgage applications are packaged and submitted, which varies wildly from lender to lender. Uncertainty is the last thing a buyer wants when making what's often the biggest financial decision of their life."; currently the FCA will not comment on talks that are in such a nascent stage. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 17, 2017

UK P2P Lending Rate Comparison

P2P Finance News breaks down the projected returns of marketplace lending platforms in the UK; notes that business and property lending platforms offer the highest projected returns. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 16, 2017

Activist Asian Fund Manager Increases Stake in the Ranger Direct Lending Fund

The LIM Asia Special Situations Master Fund has increased its ownership in the Ranger Direct Lending Fund to 9.2% from 5.48% reported in July; the Ranger Direct Lending Fund is primarily focused on high yield direct lending platforms; it has recently been troubled by its exposure to losses from marketplace lending platform Argon Credit which it invested in indirectly through the Princeton Alternatives Fund. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 16, 2017

Juniper Research Releases 2017 Disruptive Technologies Report

In the "Top 10 Disruptive Technologies in Fintech" report, Juniper identifies the emerging technologies that are disrupting and influencing financial services in 2017; the top three include PSD2 and open APIs, regtech, and chatbots; at the top of the list, open APIs are a trend influencing financial services globally and Europe's PSD2 legislation is expected to help accelerate innovation. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 15, 2017

ABF Joins UK Bank Referral Scheme

Multi-lending platform Alternative Business Funding (ABF) will become the fourth alternative finance business to be involved in the UK's bank referral scheme; the bank referral scheme began in November 2016 and has been reporting success with over 8,000 SMEs being referred to alternative funding sources; the other three businesses in the referral scheme network include Funding Options, Funding Xchange and Bizfitech. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 15, 2017

Zopa Updates Loan Pricing

Zopa has made updates to its loan pricing valuations after recently reporting technical issues; affected investors will be receiving refunds based on the updated calculations; the firm says that it has resolved any issues and is reporting monthly loan volumes of GBP80 million ($104 million). Source

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