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Europe

·Sep. 1, 2017

Reminder: PitchIt @ LendIt Europe Applications Due September 4

PitchIt @ LendIt Europe is one of the industry's most popular startup competitions providing eight finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise and funding opportunities as well as invaluable exposure, branding and more at the event; hosted in partnership with Startupbootcamp, the event offers fast-track status to the finalist round for Startupbootcamp Fintech Accelerator as one of its prizes; LendIt also announced this week that it will partner with SeedInvest to crowdfund live from the PitchIt @ LendIt Europe competition; interested startup companies must submit their application by September 4 and finalists will be announced on September 10; more details about the competition can be found here. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 1, 2017

Funding Circle Investing GBP12mn in New Marketing Initiative

The marketing initiative coincides with the firm's recent rebranding announcement and is part of the company's "Made to Do More" campaign; it is spending GBP12 million ($15.51 million) across media and specialist channels with a focus on business borrower and capital investor awareness; the firm has been a market leader in investment deals in 2017 recently announcing a partnership with Aegon and reporting a $100 million fundraising in January. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 1, 2017

IFISAs Report 2,000 Subscribers in 2016

ISA statistics were released on Thursday by HMRC; last year two thousand Innovative Finance ISA accounts were subscribed with retail investors collectively investing GBP17 million (USD $22 million); this compares to GBP22.325 billion ($28.94 billion) into stocks and shares and GBP39.191 billion ($50.81 billion) into cash ISAs; about one third of money invested into IFISAs on P2P platforms last year was from transfers; while the accounts opened and amount invested were low it still shows appetite for such products. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

The Effect of MiFID on Fintech

MiFID II legislation is likely to come into play on January 3, 2018; the legislation will regulate trading activities and further investor protections; article highlights the impact across financial services with robo advisory and high-frequency trading directly influenced. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Passive Investing Becoming Widespread in Wealth Management and P2P

New research from Equifax Touchstone shows that automated investment has become a wider trend in P2P and wealth management; 82% of 141 surveyed investment advisors said they have a consistent approach to allocation and monitoring for clients; P2P platforms like Funding Circle recently removed self selection and instituted an autobid process for investors; John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, tells AltFi, "This approach helps strike the right balance between risk and return, particularly important in a world of increased market volatility."; according to Driscoll the FCA has been a main driver of this trend to ensure risk is maintained correctly for investors. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 5, 2017

Assetz Capital Gets FCA Approval

Assetz Capital is a large P2P lender in the UK and now has authorization from the FCA; the company has lent more than GBP316 million ($410 million) to businesses and is now working on the final stages of its Innovative Finance ISA which it expects will be available in Q4 2017; Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, stated: "Our cautious approach of employing a world-class credit underwriting team and taking realisable security on loans is essential for our investors' peace of mind. Our focus remains to ensure the growth and security of our lenders' investments, as well as the success of our borrowers' businesses. Our team has done fantastically well to deliver such success to all of our stakeholders over the last few years and yet there is also so much more to achieve ahead of this milestone and we are all excited about the continuing journey." Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 5, 2017

P2P-Banking Reports August MPL Originations

Funding Circle led originations for August with loan issuance of EUR99.3 million ($118.18 million); Zopa followed closely behind Funding Circle with EUR87.4 million ($104.02 million) and RateSetter reported loan issuance of EUR38.2 million (45.44 million); the report does not include US marketplace lending platforms. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 5, 2017

Passive Investing in P2P Lending

Source reports on increased passive investment in UK P2P lending; notes Funding Circle's removal of manual loan investing and a greater number of platforms offering "black box" investing; IFISAs are supporting this trend as well as UK platforms offering the accounts with diversified loan investments. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 5, 2017

Habito Raises EUR18.5mn Series B

Habito has raised its Series B funding round, led by Atomico; existing investors Ribbit Capital, Mosaic Ventures and Revolutionary (Ad)Ventures also participated; total funding is now EUR27 million ($35.14 million) for the London based company; the company brings the mortgage process online, describing itself as a digital mortgage broker; one of their biggest competitors is Trussle; funds will be used to integrate with major retail banks and high street lenders; Habito also plans to expand offerings to other parts of the mortgage process including home and life insurance. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 6, 2017

Zopa Says It Will Improve Loan Sale Times

Zopa has promised its investors it will speed up the time for selling loans on the platform after investors complained of loan sale times taking weeks; the platform has identified this as an issue, reporting in a blog post, "Recently, some of our processes have been running slower than normal, resulting in it taking longer for you to sell loans and access your money early."; Senior Developer Joe Hutchinson says the platform has been working to upgrade its technology with steady progress and it has more enhancements planned which will provide more capacity on the server improving performance significantly over the next few weeks. Source

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