HSBC looks to become the first major UK based bank to comply with open banking; the bank plans to launch a new app that centralizes information about customers’ accounts; the current plan is set for release in the first week of May and the app will be named Connected Money; HSBC’s UK head of retail banking and wealth management Stuart Haire said the new challenger banks have been have been making progress on customer insight; there is still healthy skepticism about how fast open banking will catch on as incumbents have been slow to comply. Source.
Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky recently wrote that Revolut was not the same company it was 12-18 months ago after stories...
UK peer-to-peer lender FundingSecure is a pawn broker providing loans against secured assets including jewelry, property, classic cars and fine art; its representative APR for borrowers is 35.4% and it markets interest of 16% annually for investors with a minimum investment of 25 British pounds; with the FCA approval it plans to offer IFISAs in the next two months. Source
The bank has seen behavior in the unsecured personal loan market getting out of control; lenders are trying to battle each other to offer cheaper loans in an uncertain time; Paul Lynam, chief executive of Secure Trust, said, "The competition becomes excessive; lenders tend to continue to fight for market share, which means lower pricing."; this is not the first time Secure Trust has pulled back on unsecured consumer loans; in 2006 they ceased originations only to come back in 2009. Source
2019 was another great year for the fintech market overalls but not all companies saw success in 2019; AltFi takes...
Lots of crypto news this past week with a big round from ConsenSys, a big vote in the EU and everyone wonders what Apple will do with crypto.
The bank wants to engage with sports, e-sports, and gaming fans on the metaverse.
AltFi Data is the leading public provider of data for the marketplace lending industry; its data platform, AltFi Data Analytics, aggregates data from originators in the UK, Europe and the US; AltFi Data manages indices and publishes analytics reports with support from the data platform; the addition of data from Prosper will make the platform's reporting more robust for the industry. Source
A partnership between Seedrs, Form3, and LHV UK will allow instant and faster payment processing.
Writing in AltFi Steven Bisoffi, Payments Advisory Lead at Huntswood, asks if 2019 will be the year that open banking will...