P2P Lending Expert reviews The Worthy Bond which is a new investment option created under Reg A+; the investment pays 5% annually and has a $10 minimum investment; Worthy invests in asset-based loans. Source
Messaging app Symphony will be integrated into OpenFin’s platform in hopes of creating a competitor to Bloomberg; “By enabling Symphony to run on the OpenFin operating system, we are making it easy for our mutual customers to unify the Symphony desktop experience with their other OpenFin-based apps," Mazy Dar, chief executive of OpenFin, said as reported by Business Insider; with the integration they are hoping to create a lower cost product and eat into some of the dominance that Bloomberg has over the market. Source.
Zelle has quickly made a name for themselves in p2p payments, now BNY Mellon is looking to leverage the company for business payments; "There are rapid changes in the payments space," Carl Slabicki, director and product line manager for immediate payments at BNY Mellon, said to American Banker. "If you want to remain relevant and allow your clients access to new payment systems, you need to be quicker to market with a faster payment solution.”; b2b payments have no been easier to automate but BNY is hoping to help move the process in that direction. Source.
Banks like Capital One have been investing in creating a cafe style space where people can come to drink coffee and work while also having interaction with a bank but not in the traditional branch way; the idea is to have the bank maintain a presence, get deposits but not have a full branch; “If you can imagine people popping these things up — the competition for community banks would get overwhelming,” said Robert Mahoney, CEO of the $2.5 billion-asset Belmont Savings Bank in Massachusetts, to American Banker. Source.
A record number of Americans experienced identity fraud in 2017, that represents an 8 percent increase from 2016; according to a study by Javelin 16.7 million people were hit by identity fraud; the rate of increase for identity fraud has slowed from 2016 but Americans that were notified about a breach also went up 30 percent; fraud prevention has become one of the main topics in fintech and banking as companies look to leverage new technologies like AI and blockchain for solutions. Source.
Income sharing agreements aren’t new and there were some early fintechs who have attempted this type of model; however there are new companies looking at income sharing agreements to help those with student loans tackle their debt. Source
Immigrants face challenges when it comes to accessing credit when they come to the US; while in their home country they may have established a solid credit history, they now have to start from scratch; several fintech companies tackling this problem include Nova Credit, CreditStacks and Petal. Source
President Trump’s pick to head the FDIC, Jelena McWilliams, has spoken favorably about ILC charters in the past; ILC charters exist in a handful of states, most notably Utah who has seen a spike in inquires about applications; charters can allow fintech companies to bypass state by state licensing; ILC charters are an controversial way for fintech companies to act like banks and with the national charter proposed by the OCC in limbo more companies might look to take this route. Source.
Ant Financial is planning to raise up to $5 billion which could value the company at more than $100 billion; this could potentially lead to an IPO as the company establishes a recent valuation; they last raised a round in 2016 at a valuation of around $60 billion. Source