The online lender has named Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Numis Corp to work on their upcoming IPO; the IPO is currently slated for the second or third quarter which may value the company around $2 billion; if successful it would be the largest IPO for a British fintech company; Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Accel Partners were early investors in the company. Source
Capital One’s chatbot Eno just turned one recently and the bank talked about what they learned this past weekend at SXSW; Carla Saavedra Kochalski, director of conversational AI products, tells TearSheet “We saw there was a huge need to build something smarter and more conversational, not only for those types of experiences but to allow customer service through texting.”; the technology is still limited and in most cases customers still interact on a simple basis like asking for an account balance or approving a questionable transaction. Source.
A new report by BNY Mellon and the UN point to flaws in design and marketing that make financial products less available to women than men; the report finds financial firms are missing out on $7bn in credit card revenue, $14bn in personal loans and $4bn in housing; TearSheet sat down with a former financial services marketer in their latest Confessions series to talk about these issues; the interview covers the misconceptions in marketing to women customers, why women are still viewed as a niche customer when they are the majority and that banks don’t really understand their customers. Source.
HSBC looks to become the first major UK based bank to comply with open banking; the bank plans to launch a new app that centralizes information about customers’ accounts; the current plan is set for release in the first week of May and the app will be named Connected Money; HSBC’s UK head of retail banking and wealth management Stuart Haire said the new challenger banks have been have been making progress on customer insight; there is still healthy skepticism about how fast open banking will catch on as incumbents have been slow to comply. Source.
U.K. based personal financial management app Emma recently launched in December and has struck data sharing deals with Starling Bank and Monzo; the app also works across 17 banks to screen scrape data as the banks work towards compliance with open banking; Emma is a budgeting app that helps customers avoid overdrafts and sees a big opportunity with the open banking regulations; “We’re building a tech company, and we understand that the data [play] goes beyond just overdrafts — it’s about understanding when certain events happen, money can be saved or invested,” said Emma founder and CEO Edoardo Moreni to TearSheet. Source.
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BioCatch is a behavioral biometrics company that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to combat fraud; the company monitors over 5 billion transactions per month and focuses on detection through behavior as opposed to endpoint security; the round was led by Maverick Ventures; American Express Ventures, NexStar Partners, Kreos Capital, CreditEase, OurCrowd, JANVEST Capital and other existing investors also participated in the round. Source
Lend Academy Article: MoneyLion Plus Takes An Innovative Approach to Encourage New Investors to Save
Fintech platform MoneyLion is on a mission to change consumers' behavior when it comes to saving. Source
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering creating standards to boost blockchain development; the China Electronics Standardization Institute wants to help form a committee surrounding the issue and try to keep the country ahead of the curve; China has also participated in international efforts on blockchain technology focused on authentication and smart contracts. Source.
Wall Street trading firm TrueEx is launching a derivatives platform for cryptocurrency and they have also entered into a partnership with ConsenSys; the partnership with ConsenSys will focus on building a benchmark for ether; the derivatives marketplace is pending review by the CFTC and is looking to list non-deliverable forward contracts for cryptocurrency. Source.