P2P-Banking reports that the bank ING Diba has acquired the marketplace lender Lendico; the company had challenges in Germany where it is based and also had shifted from consumer to SME Lending. Source
In this week’s PeerIQ Industry Update they cover the recent rebound of equity markets after a volatile few weeks, regulatory news and a deep dive on fintech M&A; OnDeck announced they had reached GAAP profitability and it was reported that SoFi missed their internal targets; PeerIQ takes a deep dive on why banks should buy online lenders; some of the key reasons inclined ROE potential for the banks and to avoid potentially losing market share to big tech firms who might enter the space in the next few years. Source.
According to TechCrunch, scammers are using Zelle to take advantage of customers; a seller of a product who is attempting to defraud customers will ask a customer to pay using Zelle instead of PayPal; many users are not aware that Zelle does not provide some of the same buyer protections that PayPal has been known for; Zelle is more similar to Venmo for transferring money to those you trust. Source
Dozens of Coinbase users were complaining on Reddit regarding unexpected charges on their credit and debit cards; Worldpay and Visa issued a joint statement saying the issue was not cause by Coinbase; the Financial Times reports that the source of the problem was still not clear though it did seem related to merchant category codes that were assigned to Coinbase; the issues bring up concerns that regulators have been discussing, rules around the new digital currencies are not clear. Source.
According to a report by Which almost 92 percent of consumers have not heard of open banking; slow adoption by banks is one reason for the low numbers; another reason is many people have started to use non bank services for payments or other tasks, the term open banking is still relatively new; banks are starting to innovate, by building or partnering, and open banking will only help to push innovation forward. Source.
A new report by the Council of Economic Advisers said cyberattacks cost the U.S. between $56bn and $109bn in 2016; the council's report represents between 0.31% and 0.58% of the 2016 U.S. gross domestic product being at risk; the financial sector had the biggest number of attacks seeing about 471 breaches in 2016; the report made an ominous statement on detecting threats saying, “Due to common vulnerabilities, instances of security breaches occur across firms and in patterns that are difficult to anticipate.” Source.
In recent years there have been several companies who are focused on what are called shared-equity contracts; these companies provide help to potential homebuyers by providing a portion of the down payment; some companies also offer the ability for current homeowners to sell equity in their home which is an alternative to a cash-out refinance; investors hope to participate in the upside as property values increase; some of the players in this space are Landed, Unison, Point and Patch Homes. Source
The UK first created a regulatory sandbox in 2016; the Financial Conduct Authority is now seeking feedback on whether it should expand their sandbox globally; fintechs would benefit by having the ability to test in other countries and regulators could work together on some of the issues related to companies seeking to operate across borders; the FCA stated, "The overall approach would be to better understand and solve common regulatory problems, as well as being more helpful to firms who have aspirations to grow at scale in multiple markets." Source
- Groundfloor launches online public offering
- Blinker Now Available in Florida
- World's Most Innovative Companies (Fast Company)
- Q4 2017: An update from our CIO (LendingClub)
- Online lenders and banks may operate as ‘joint ventures’
- Small businesses look to specialist lenders for loans
- As challenger banks seek to enter the US, the business model still faces hurdles
The round was led by TTV capital and included New Enterprise Associations, Relay Ventures, nbkc bank and Canapi; Greenlight offers a debit card with an app for kids and college students; the service costs $4.99 per month; big names such as SunTrust, Ally Financial, the Amazon Alexa Fund among others are forming financial education partnerships with Greenlight. Source