After considerable outcry the Cleveland Fed has removed their study about online lending; “In light of the comments received, the authors are currently revising their paper to further clarify the data sample they used in the study,” Cleveland Fed spokesman Tim Dewald said in an email to American Banker; they plan to post a new version of the paper after completing significant revisions. Lend Academy also covered the removal of the report after posting about the release last week. Source.
The Chairman and CEO of ConnectOne Bank, a community bank provides his perspective on small businesses and banks embracing technology in all aspects of their business; ConnectOne is a forward thinking community bank which recently moved lending operations to the cloud; they look to meet the needs of their clients however they want to interact, even if that means coming to a bank branch. Source
Credit-card debt has grown to record highs and some large banks are reporting increased delinquency rates; this trend, combined with higher interest rates could be cause for concern according to Michael Pearce, an economist at Capital Economics; article provides data from the NY Fed on delinquent loans across student, auto, mortgage and credit card debt. Source
CreditMate is a Mumbai based fintech startup; they help dealers and financiers provide vehicle loans to those with no formal credit history; Paytm plans to partner with the firm as part of the investment. Source
Nav Athwal was a founder and CEO of RealtyShares; the company has raised over $500 million for real estate deals and is one of the leaders in the real estate crowdfunding space; Crowdfund Insider spoke to Athwal who stated, “RealtyShares is in the strongest position it’s ever been in. The company is moving from the build phase to the scale phase of its lifecycle. To best position RealtyShares for the future, I made the decision to transition out of my role as CEO to a new role on the Board of Directors. I asked Ed Forst to take on the role of interim CEO, while we look for a permanent CEO who will fit the culture and profile we’re seeking. I am still very much a part of RealtyShares and will be actively involved in strategic decision-making. I am looking forward to supporting the company in this new capacity and getting back into principal real estate investing and agribusiness. As I begin to work on additional projects, I will be sure to let you know.” Source
French based DreamQuark is looking to provide an AI solution to banks, asset management firms and insurance companies; the product, Brain, helps financial services companies to make smarter decisions in fraud detection, anti-money laundering and credit scoring; they can also help to better organize data so firms can offer customers tailored products and cut down on false positives so consumers don’t need to call for verification purposes. Source.
The UK fintech market saw $2.8bn invested across 182 deals through three quarters, which surpassed all of 2016; the third quarter alone saw a record of $1.6bn in invesment; the number of deals closing was down when compared to 2016, though bigger deals have made the amount invested significantly higher; the figures can be attributed to Fintech Global, a UK based consulting firm. Source.
China CITIC Bank and Baidu announced the creation of AiBank as they look to take advantage of the innovating China fintech market; the bank will provide lending services to consumer and SMBs, be comprised of 60 percent tech workers and leverage big data and AI; “AiBank is the future of intelligent finance … It is an institution that understands customers best and understands finance best,” noted Baidu’s COO, Qi Lu. Source.
A consortium of banks that include JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Citi trialed a distributed ledger platform that proceeded equity swaps from beginning to end; the AxCore platform by Axoni would allow for payments to process instantly and reduce potential disputes; Greg Schvey, CEO of Axoni, said in a statement reported by CoinDesk, “Equity swap data is infamously complex and difficult to manage, making it a terrific fit for distributed ledger technology.” Source.