While speaking at an event by the office of Financial Research Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles talk about the issues digital currencies could pose to the markets; the current level of use doesn’t pose a risk but as the scale of usage increases so does the potential potential problem; Quarles said, “if the central asset in a payment system cannot be predictably redeemed for the U.S. dollar at a stable exchange rate in times of adversity, the resulting price risk and potential liquidity and credit risk pose a large challenge for the system.”; he also talked about the the benefits of blockchain technology and if the central bank would issue their own digital currency. Source.
The former CEO and Co-Founder of Dealstruck shares his entrepreneurial journey and reflects on the demise of his company. Source
Open banking platform Deposit Solutions raised $20mn from existing shareholders e.ventures and Greycroft; they will use the funds to continue building the platform out and expand to more markets around the globe; “This investment round is a strong vote of confidence from our shareholders and allows us to further focus on our core mission, establishing Open Banking as the new industry standard for the deposit market,” Deposit Solutions founder and CEO Dr. Tim Sievers said to Bankless Times. Source.
Prices of cryptocurrencies NEO, OMG and ETP crashed close to 90 percent on the Bitfinex exchange before reverting back to normal levels; the crash caused the closure of many accounts that made leveraged trades and lost those accounts thousands in potential profits; Bitfinex claims the exchange worked as it should in the situation, but traders disagreed and complained via social media about the crash as well as demanding refunds; the site was slow to respond and traders unable to access their accounts according to complaints; incidents like this test the overall cryptocurrency markets as many believe they are unstable and not safe. Source.
This weeks PeerIQ Weekly Industry Update covers the power struggle at the CFPB and Lending Club’s new pass through security transaction; a federal judge sided with the Trump administration in the CFPB spat and allowed for Mr. Mulvaney to run the agency for now; Lending Club completed a first of it’s kind deal and in turn will help them to expand the market, lower financing costs, address secondary market liquidity and allows valuation agents to calibrate pricing; PeerIQ also took a deep dive on mortgage delinquencies during the 2008 financial crisis. Source.
Many people around the world still lack access to formal financial services and a financial identity; using a smartphone as a means to provide a financial identity is the best place to start when it comes to financial inclusion; article discusses why financial identity matters and the idea of communication as a commodity using data from data scientists at Juvo. Source
Cross River Bank is looking at new opportunities in business payments; Ben Isaacson of Cross River Bank stated, “Payroll is predominantly set up for traditional salary, ‘regular’ employees. There’s a real opportunity to innovate on that front; businesses can change how their employees get paid to be more consistent with how they’re working.”; they are also looking at how they can better improve payments to suppliers for their customers; Cross River Bank currently works with some of the biggest names in fintech and prides itself as being a technology-first bank. Source
Dianrong is a Chinese online lender run by one of the co-founders of Lending Club, Soul Htite; the company is planning an IPO in Hong Kong and could raise $500 million next year. Source
Barclaycard is rebranding as Barclays in the US and launching a digital only bank in 2018; they have been testing the market since last year and plan to fully launch their offering next year; Barclays is more of a household name in the UK but has been offering credit card services under the Barclaycard name in the US. Source.
Prosper CEO David Kimball spoke at a conference last week stating, “Our main concern… it’s always liquidity, and I think most people in this room understand that the best way to get to liquidity is to have a lot of different options. And so I think you’ll see our toolkit expand [in 2018] versus where it is now.” Kimball also spoke about the challenges the company has had to overcome and the recent successes for the company including Prosper’s three securitizations and becoming cash flow positive. Source