Peter Renton from Lend Academy reflects on the news from SoFi last week which involved sexual harassment at the company; Renton shares his perspective on this problem, which is not specific to any one company or any one industry; there are many recent examples of women who are starting to speak out about inappropriate treatment and the negative behavior is starting to have real consequences. Source
There have been a number of new funding deals closed in recent weeks and CB Insights reported that 278 fintech financing deals were done in the third quarter; Lend Academy provides the interesting mix of companies that have raised debt and equity capital. Source
Based on market capitalization Ant Financial is the 10th largest banking group in the world; Ant Financial recently closed a...
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has released its second report on the Asia Pacific region. Alternative finance volume totaled $245.28 billion in 2016, up from $103.31 billion in 2015; China continues to be a main driver for growth but other geographies continue to grow albeit off of smaller bases; further details about the region are outlined in the report. Source
The LendIt Rewind podcast has audio of all the sessions from LendIt Fintech USA 2018 conveniently published in a podcast...
Lend Academy explores how biometrics technology is going to change the finance world, cutting down on cyber-hacks and data breaches; discusses thumb prints, voice interaction/ authentication, iris scanning and now face recognition with the new iPhone X; one technology with a lot of potential is behavioral biometrics; while we are still early there are still many interesting things happening in this space and it is an area to keep an eye on. Source
The Protecting Consumers’ Access to Credit Act of 2017 was passed by the US House of Representatives. Source
We are quickly approaching LendIt Fintech 2018 which will take place on April 9-11 in San Francisco. Lend Academy shares the three areas of fintech the agenda will focus on and some of the interesting speakers attendees will hear from. Source
Lend Academy shares details about some of the emerging platforms in the real estate market; new platforms have been providing innovative services to help make real estate transactions easier and make homeownership more affordable; companies mentioned are offering lower down payments and some participate in purchasing equity of the home; new platforms are also significantly reducing the expected transaction time for buying and selling a home. Source
The no-action letter shows that the CFPB is open to alternative data being used to expand access to credit data; Upstart will report lending and compliance information to the CFPB to mitigate risk to consumers and aid in the Bureau’s understanding of the real-world impact of alternative data on lending decision making; the no-action letter relates to enforcement of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B; Upstart shares in their application how powerful using data points outside of just credit reports is in reducing borrowing rates. Source