Chinese conglomerate HNA has reported it will buy a 25% stake in Old Mutual's US asset management unit; HNA will pay approximately $445 million; following the sale, Old Mutual will own 26% of the US asset management business, a decrease from 51%; Old Mutual is expected to also sell the remaining portion of the company with a number of offers from strategic buyers and private equity groups; HNA has been increasingly adding financial services companies to its portfolio with recent acquisitions including Deutsche Bank and Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital. Source
Fintech is expected to generate $65 billion in sales by 2020 and Alibaba and Tencent are projected to capture half of the market; this would significantly increase valuations for both large e-commerce firms; online payments growth is also projected to be significant, supporting further value increases for both firms. Source
The MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) has provided a research briefing on digital banking with Spanish bank BBVA as the focus of the study; the study, "Is Your Company a Digital Leader or Laggard" examines the success of BBVA's digital banking model, and reports on factors that are differentiating leaders and laggards in the digital banking business. Source
The G20 has released a new report titled, "The G20 Countries Should Engage with Blockchain Technologies to Build an Inclusive, Transparent, and Accountable Digital Economy for All"; report shares how the blockchain can play a role in strengthening the global economy and cross-border cooperation; according to the abstract, "The G20 must take decisive steps to harness this technology in service of its policy goals across the core focus areas of economic resilience, financial inclusion, taxation, trade and investment, employment, climate, health, sustainable development, and women's empowerment." Source
Ant Financial is building a new platform for selling money market funds online; it is also introducing "Fortune Accounts" which will sell a broad range of investment products to Chinese consumers through its wealth management app; the first companies to partner for the Fortune Accounts are Bosera Funds, Aegon-Industrial Fund, Tianhong Fund, China Southern Fund and CCB Principal Fund with more companies to be added in June when the platform launches; Ant Financial says it plans to only develop technology to improve platforms for financial institutions, branding itself as a techfin company with no plans to develop its own financial services. Source
The CreditEase Wealth Management Offshore Private Credit Fund (OPCF) has announced new investments in OnDeck and LendingHome; in 2015 the fund raised $80 million from Chinese clients, including high net worth and mass affluent investors, which it expects to be fully invested by March 2017; a $30 million investment in OnDeck and LendingHome adds to previous investments in Avant and Prosper in 2016; the firm also says it is planning to fundraise for another offshore private credit fund, OPCF II; CreditEase is targeting $200 million for this fund and its investments will likely be similar with a different fund structure, varying durations, new geographies and new types of credit products. Source
HSBC has shared insight from the development of its HSBC SmartSave app which it developed within the Financial Conduct Authority's Regulatory Sandbox initiative in partnership with Pariti; the app provides personal finance management services using algorithms and four customer plans; overall the app has proved successful, saving customers 63.17 British pounds ($78.80) per month; of the four service plans HSBC reported "Rounding Up" to be the most popular, allowing customers to round up purchases to save spare change on transactions. Source
Cloudvirga has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round for its automated, cloud-based intelligent Mortgage Platform (iMP); the service can easily integrate with lenders to streamline, automate and manage the compliance of mortgage lending, also offering significantly reduced processing times and costs; the iMP service was launched in 2016 and has processed over $15 billion in loans. Source
Raleigh-based HCG has raised $5.4 million from 12 investors for a fintech fund; firm specializes in digital finance investments and has previously invested in online lenders including Lending Club; firm is led by Chief Executive Officer Hadi Habal and Chief Investment Officer Jose Penabad. Source
CB Insights has charted a market map of investment and wealth management companies; the market map includes 90 companies in seven main categories with subcategories for client group; for 2016, the firm reports a new high of 74 deals in wealth tech totaling $657 million; Betterment reported the top investment deal in 2016 with a $100 million Series E investment; in 2017 CB Insights reports 17 deals with $130 million in funding and the top investment going to Raisin with a $32 million Series C funding round. Source