Lend Academy provides details on IBM Watson's acquisition of Promontory Financial Group, a firm used to help navigate complex banking regulations; IBM has acquired Promontory to train Watson on Dodd-Frank which includes 22,000 pages of regulation; Promontory has experience from a long list of banking veterans and will help train Watson on financial risk modeling, surveillance, anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC); the result will be an artificial intelligence solution that can be implemented for all aspects of compliance, regulation and monitoring; Brian Walter, Watson global industry leader for banking and financial markets at IBM will be speaking at LendIt USA 2017 in a featured keynote discussing how financial firms are using artificial intelligence and how it's expected to evolve. Source
Manatt provides an overview of some of the comments received by the OCC on the proposed fintech charter; the New York Department of Financial Services was critical of the charter; the American Bankers Association is supportive of the charter "...as long as existing rules and oversight are applied consistent with those for any national bank"; the Financial Services Roundtable also spoke in favor of the charter, commending the OCC for its development of the proposal; also highlighted are responses from the Consumer Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America. Source
As more and more countries begin implementing biometric technology at their borders, banks are also beginning to use fingerprint analysis and retina scans to verify identities; Canada has used their NEXUS program to track travelers and India has used the Aadhaar program to identify their population; banks have begun testing out these technologies to see what fits their customer best: fingerprints, retina or facial recognition; with the new technology still comes age old issues of theft; stealing a fingerprint then changing it can happen just like the changing of a password; banks are still trying to figure out how to address the new technology and learning lessons from border patrol is one way for them to ensure the best solution. Source
Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada's third largest bank, also known as Scotiabank, has announced a $1 billion investment in digital technology over the next three years; the initiative will focus on bringing more digital technology solutions to clients who are making fewer transactions in branches; 45% of the firm's investment will be focused on foreign markets including Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile; it will also be investing in new facilities for blockchain and artificial intelligence development; the firm expects the investment to help reduce costs and improve future profitability. Source
President Trump is set to sign two executive actions on Friday that take aim at reversing the new financial regulations that were put in place as a result of the 2008 financial crisis; the executive actions will give the labor secretary power to rescind the fiduciary rule and ask the Treasury secretary and regulators to come up with a plan to replace Dodd-Frank; the fiduciary rule was set to go into effect in April and was meant to ensure advisors had their client's best interests at heart; Dodd-Frank was passed in 2010 and began implementation in 2012; the law was meant to limit the chance of another financial crisis like we saw in 2008; uncertainty exists with what will end up happening, but signals show that the fiduciary rule will be struck down and Dodd-Frank will be replaced. Source
Roofstock has hired Jason Altieri as its chief legal and compliance officer; Altieri served as general counsel at Lending Club until October and still remains an advisor for the firm; in his new role he will lead the legal and compliance efforts for the emerging real estate company; the firm matches sellers of single-family rental homes with interested investors and facilitates all of the transactions through a digital marketplace. Source
Property crowdfunding platform Brickowner has completed its first investment for a real estate property in Abbeygate, Chester; their second listing will offer investment in a new housing development; the platform is open to all investors and requires a minimum investment of 100 British pounds ($124.46); it seeks to offer low-risk alternative investments with targeted returns of 8%. Source
Fundrise began its crowdfunded initial public offering (IPO) on February 1; the investment has been oversubscribed and the company has paused the offering due to high demand; it has reported it will increase the available shares to three million from two million; in an updated offering circular the firm says it will offer three million shares at a price of $5.00 which brings the total expected fundraising to $15 million. Source
A number of new smartphone apps are now available with varying methods for inspiring consumers to save; apps such as Stash, Acorns, Digit, Qapital and Long Game are making it simpler and easier to make incremental savings deposits and investments through automated technology; with these new apps, investors can automate the investment of unused cash and round up purchases, saving extra pennies. Source
Former Goldman Sachs banker Mona El Isa has founded an asset management services company that will provide blockchain solutions for hedge funds; El Isa launched Melonport in February 2016 with co-founder Reto Trinkler and has now hired George Hallam, former head of external communications at the Ethereum Foundation; El Isa's hedge fund services will use smart contracts to automate various aspects of portfolio management for hedge fund managers which will lower the costs of building a hedge fund. Source