Brett King developed his company Moven as a better solution to banking; after gaining only 60,000 customers since the digital bank's launch, he is now selling the software to banks for use in mobile apps; Moven and many other digital bank competitors are losing some of their appeal in the startup space as the Trump administration seeks to ease banking regulations that resulted in less risk taking from banks and greater opportunities for startups; as the landscape changes under the new presidential administration, it's likely that the latitude and interest from banks in partnering with startups will increase. Source
SoFi has announced details of its latest fundraising round which now adds $500 million in new equity capital for the firm; the financing was led by Silver Lake and included SoftBank and GPI Capital; the fundraising will support the continued expansion for the firm; it now offers student loan refinancing, personal loans, mortgage loans, life insurance, wealth management and banking; it also plans to expand its services to Australia and Canada. Source
ING and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking presented a blockchain test prototype for oil trading at IP Week in London; the platform they have developed is called Easy Trading Connect and the prototype tested a live oil trade by global commodity trading group, Mercuria; the blockchain test proved significant advantages in speed, cost and risk benefits; overall the test found blockchain helpful in improving trading inefficiencies, specifically the exchange of physical documents globally; it also helped to reduce the bank's transaction time in the trading process to 25 minutes from three hours. Source
Nick Ogden has launched ClearBank after three years of development on the multi-million-pound project; the bank is marketed as a "bank for banks," targeting fintech startups, credit unions, building societies and other challenger banks; it will focus on payment processing, which it plans to offer at cheaper and faster rates than competitors, and also an "off the shelf core banking service." Source
China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange continues to closely monitor foreign investment with no change reported to the limit for its qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII) scheme following its most recent meeting; the outstanding investment quota under the QDII scheme, which allows investment managers to raise funds and convert them internationally, was US$89.99 billion at the end of February; the country continues to seek to protect its currency from depreciating with the foreign investment quota. Source
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is testing digital currency in efforts to become one of the first central banks to issue digital money; China's population has been increasingly using digital forms of payment with approximately 450 billion mobile users reported in 2016; a cryptocurrency would likely be popular among consumers and is also expected to lower transaction costs for sellers; a digital currency could also help the PBOC to more efficiently manage risks in the financial system and economy with a better way for tracking transactions; the PBOC has outlined how a digital currency would work but it has not announced a specific timeline for implementation. Source
A new consortium for blockchain solutions in financial services has been announced called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance; the consortium includes JPMorgan, Microsoft, Bank of New York Mellon, Intel and Banco Santander S.A.; it will focus on building out an open-source platform started by JPMorgan called Quorum; the platform will seek to develop solutions for realizing cost savings in financial transactions with blockchain technology; the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance plans to launch a working version of its protocol later this year. Source
Former founder of Capital One and current managing partner at QED Investors, Nigel Morris has expertise in connecting banks and fintech companies; in an interview with American Banker he talks about his career experience and current market influence at QED Investors; also discusses the investment strategy at QED Investors and some of the fintech market's leading investment opportunities. Source
In collaboration with Energy 4 Impact, UKAid and the CME Group Foundation, the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has released a study on crowdfunding and P2P lending in Africa and the Middle East; Lend Academy provides details of the report in their article; covers 46 countries in Africa and 12 countries in the Middle East, featuring data on 70 alternative platforms. Source
Noah Holdings Limited, a wealth and asset management services provider in China, has announced its fourth quarter and full year results for 2016; the firm has two leading services including asset management and internet finance; net revenues for the full year 2016 were RMB 2,513.6 million (US $362.0 million), an 18.6% increase from 2015; for the year the firm reported an operating margin of 26.5%, compared to 26.4% for 2015; the firm's internet finance business is led by Mr. Kenny Lam, who reported that the company was pleased with the results, also stating that, "Our newer businesses – asset management and internet finance – are bringing impactful results to the group." Source