Alexandra Villarreal O’Rourke from McGuireWoods discusses Project Catalyst and the no-action letter program from the CFPB in a Let’s Talk Payments interview; the first no-action letter was issued to Upstart, a consumer lender in the US. Source
Oxbury is a Chester-based challenger bank which looks to smooth out cash flow for farmers; according to James Farrar who...
According to a paper by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) blockchain technology should be adopted by China’s secondary loan market; as CoinDesk reports the paper came out of a trip made by the regulator to their counterparts in the UK and France; European banks are putting together a program to test blockchain technology for the issuance of syndicated loans; the CBRC also considers blockchain technology to potentially be helpful for automating compliance. Source.
In a country where many people are still unbanked, and queuing to pay bills is part of daily life, the impact of being able to pay anyone instantly can't be understated.
Younited Credit is a marketplace lending platform that operates in France, Italy and Spain; the round included the French public investment bank Bpifrance among several other investors; total funding is now €103 mn for the company; François Fournier, chief innovation executive of Bpifrance stated, "We were attracted by Younited Credit’s team and by its unique positioning built in Europe. Its innovative digital platform model, great product agility thanks to big data, as well as its solid regulatory strategy, inspire confidence and sustainability." Source
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman says lower transaction costs from fintech payment processors could save $28 billion and help 30 million people out of poverty; firm is seeking to build partnerships with payment companies and governments to lower transaction fees and advance digital payment services. Source
Online lenders in China have started to self inspect how they run their companies as the government has been a lot more proactive in oversight than in year’s past; the government fears that borrowers are becoming over indebted and are borrowing to pay back other lenders; some of the top lenders fear the government crackdown could cause other panic and trigger outcomes that would be even worse than a few online lenders shutting down; right now it seems as if lenders are in limbo wondering what the future will hold. Source.
Indian banks are working with fintech startups to develop technology similar to what is used in markets like Africa and China; the banks hope to use social data and online shopping habits to underwrite borrowers; FICO recently began to offer credit scores in India using alternative data and there are many startups working on similar efforts. Source
Madhvi Mavadiya, Head of Content at Finextra, just posted a great list of developments in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). She promises to keep it updated and the link is here. It covers every country from Antigua to Curaçao to Iran. 80 countries in all. As my main interests are …
Digital lending software provider Blend (NYSE:BLND) notes that the way people work — and earn money — is quite different than it was in the past. However, income verification solutions haven’t been able to catch up with the latest developments, the Fintech firm claims. As