According to reporting in CoinDesk last month money manager VanEck filed to create the VanEck Vectors Bitcoin Strategy ETF and last week that effort was given bad news by the SEC; the SEC sent a letter to VanEck stating that they cannot review the offering because "the underlying instruments in which the fund intends to primarily invest are not yet available." Source.
American Banker reports on the lobbying group called Financial Innovation Now and that some technology giants are meeting individually with government agencies; Amazon met with the OCC starting in the second quarter of 2016 and met again this year; PayPal has also met with OCC officials in several quarters last year. Source
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two companies who they claim were operating fraudulent ICOs; REcoin Group Foundation and DRC World were claimed to defraud investors and sold unregistered securities; both companies claimed they had significant operations and networks when in reality they were shell companies; this continues a worldwide trend by financial regulators who are beginning to come down on the exploding ICO market. Source.
LendIt Europe 2017 is just one week away and we've compiled a list of the speakers to follow. Source
Lend Academy looks at 10 years of data from Lending Club and Prosper; shares data on returns over the time period and where current returns are trending. Source
Kathryn Petralia, co-founder and head of operations of Kabbage talks about their SoftBank deal, tech partnerships, culture and more. 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.
According to the WSJ, Goldman Sachs is considering a new trading operation dedicated to digital currencies; a spokeswoman for Goldman stated, “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them in this space.”; several banks have been exploring the use of blockchain technology; Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase recently spoke out against bitcoin calling it a fraud. 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.