The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has refuted the fraudulent release or misuse of India's Aadhaar biometrics data after media reports claimed the release of Aadhaar data involving a private bank, its business correspondence agency and an e-sign agency; the UIDAI reports that an attempt was made to access data but internal security systems prevented the data's release; the incident exemplifies the strict security surrounding the use of Aadhaar data in India. Source
Sources report that Chinese online property and casualty insurance company Zhong An is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) in China; the firm was founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma and Ma Mingzhe from Ping An Insurance Group of China; a primary product for the firm is e-commerce shipping insurance which accounts for approximately 50% of the business; currently the firm's major shareholders include Ant Financial with 16% and Tencent Holdings Ltd. with 12%; in 2015 it reported a valuation of $8 billion and it currently plans to raise an additional 2 billion yuan ($290 million) to help it prepare for the IPO. Source
Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial has reported an investment in payment provider Mynt which has its business focus in the Philippines; Mynt currently has three million registered customers and reports one billion pesos ($19.9 million) worth of transactions per week; it provides services for consumers, merchants, and organizations primarily through its GCash and Fuse Lending businesses; GCash serves as its micropayment service provider and Fuse Lending offers online personal and business loans. Source
Automotive parts manufacturer Wanxiang Group has been actively investing in China and is the country's largest blockchain investor; Wanxiang Group recently committed $30 million to a smart cities initiative and is now planning a blockchain accelerator 'Chainbase Accelerator' with four startups involved in the program; Chainbase Accelerator will focus on blockchain initiatives for next-generation energy delivery, digital currency and smart governance; Wanxiang has also reported that it will begin to reveal plans for its smart city which will result in an innovative global platform for businesses. Source
As the global leader in cognitive solutions, IBM's Watson is one of the top artificial intelligence offerings for financial services companies; Brian Walter is IBM's Global Leader of Watson Client Insights and Cognitive Experience for the company's Watson Financial Services Solutions group; Brian Walter gave a keynote speech on Tuesday at LendIt USA and also talked with Forbes about how artificial intelligence is changing the financial world; in his interview with Forbes he discusses the use of cognitive solutions for financial services compliance, customer service and customer acquisition; also talks about IBM's cognitive solutions for supporting banks, fintechs and developers. Source
The US marketplace lending industry has matured with a number of self-regulating industry associations however the evolution of the industry and its integration into mainstream financial services has brought about increased regulatory attention which was one prominent topic for discussion at LendIt USA; HousingWire details the keynote speeches from Thomas Curry and Patrick McHenry also discussing insight from Amias Gerety; Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was also a featured keynote speaker discussing government regulatory efforts pertaining to the industry. Source
Deloitte has released its second marketplace lending report; discusses the convergence of digitization across all types of banking services; covers all aspects of lending including varying loan funding sources, securitization and regulations; also reports on credit markets and how different lending categories will scale at varying rates. Source
Chancellor Hammond has reported the UK Spring Budget which provides insight for the region on the UK's economy as it separates from the European Union; the Spring Budget included a 270 million British pound ($328 million) investment by Industrial Strategy challenge fund for development of innovative technologies; Crowdfund Insider provides comments on the Spring Budget from a few executives in alternative finance; of note is the Budget's continued provision that prevents investors from diversifying across innovative finance individual savings accounts and a change in the tax on dividend income. Source
PeerStreet has partnered with Betterment to provide increased access to its platform data for investors through the Betterment service; with the new partnership investors can now view their PeerStreet positions on the Betterment dashboard; the partnership is facilitated by data integration from Quovo. Source
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman is committed to helping support and promote financial inclusion by democratizing financial services and making banking activities more broadly available to everyone; the company is well positioned to support this initiative with more than six billion transactions occurring on its platform annually; Schulman provides some metrics around the benefits of digital transactions noting that the typical underserved population spends 10% of its disposable income on unnecessary fees and interest rates and with technology the cost of basic transactions can be lowered by as much as 80% to 90%.
