The SEC's Division of Investment Management has published an investor bulletin including suggestions for investment advisers on meeting disclosure, suitability and compliance obligations under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy also published a bulletin for individual investors providing information to consider when investing with robo advisers. Source
The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and JPMorgan Chase have announced the launch of their third annual Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab); the FinLab challenge provides support for fintech companies developing innovative solutions targeting the financial health of overlooked populations; the FinLab is currently taking applications and will announce its winners at the EMERGE Forum 2017; FinLab winners receive $250,000 and support from FinLab advisers and partners. Source
The UK Financial Conduct Authority and Ontario Securities Commission will now partner on fintech innovation; an agreement between the two agencies will help facilitate expansion for financial technology companies; both agencies will support cross-border business growth and will also share information on trends and regulatory proceedings. Source
Corporate loan trading has historically been a manual process involving millions of emails annually between buyers, sellers and borrowers making it difficult to automate; however new technologies, including blockchain, have been advancing with potential solutions for automation; a new rule which went into effect last September has helped to increase transaction and settlement times; the new rule provides a compensation incentive for faster loan settlement and has improved the average settlement time by four days; the faster settlement has caused many fintech innovators to change their focus from settlement automation to process efficiency. Source
Wealth advisor Snowden Lane has partnered with Artivest to offer investors easier access to private equity and hedge fund investments; Snowden Lane is an independent wealth advisor with no proprietary product offerings; through the partnership, Artivest will now be the firm's main provider of private equity and hedge fund investments; Artivest provides a curated platform of hedge funds and private equity investments. Source
Andy Rachleff, CEO of Wealthfront, makes the case for automated advice and technology powered software; reports that Wealthfront's new system, Path, can analyze a client's spending and savings preferences through access to their accounts, creating financial plans in minutes; Wealthfront also has plans for adding artificial intelligence solutions to improve its services. Source
Fintech firm Quovo launched its bank API in November 2016 with 18 financial institutions; it has now expanded to 215; the API technology allows fintech firms to verify accounts and offer ACH payments and transfers; Quovo's recent partnership expansion has also included credit unions and regional banks. Source
Nasdaq Vice President Fredrik Voss is optimistic about the use of blockchain in capital markets trading; according to Cointelegraph, stock market transactions and the core premise of blockchain are compatible making stock market trading ideal for blockchain integration; blockchain technology could help with a number of trading factors including transparency and efficiency; according to Voss, blockchain technology is helping industry trading specialists to look at some of the market's trading problems with new options and solutions from blockchain's capabilities; while he is optimistic, Voss also says, "There is a long way to go before we see a very wide scale adoption of the technology in capital markets, but it looks more promising now than we thought three years ago." Source
AT Zuche is a Shanghai-based peer-to-peer car rental platform with over five million users and 200,000 vehicles; it has announced a $58 million Series C financing round from investors including Matrix Partners China; Matrix Partners China also recently invested in insurtech app Anxin Doctor which raised RMB200 million ($28 million) for a healthcare service focused on women and children; CreditEase Insurance Agency, a CreditEase affiliate, has also added new capital of RMB80 million ($11 million) for its insurance platform. Source
Lufax sees a growing market opportunity in China's retail investment space and is planning to increase its focus on this area of the business; the firm is currently the world's highest valued P2P lender at $18.5 billion; it has $56.9 billion in client assets with P2P loans accounting for a third which is expected to decrease to 15%; it plans to expand the investments it offers through online brokerage accounts and also enhance its mobile and online trading capabilities; the firm is also rumored to have plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong in the second half of 2017. Source