The LendIt Content Team discusses LendIt Fintech USA 2018 in San Francisco on April 9-11. Source
- Big banks on notice as tech groups ramp up pressure
- China: WeiyangX Fintech Review
- Landbay Returns to Seedrs & Quickly Raises £1.2 Million in Funding
- Why Marcus Has Changed Everything
- Ohio Insurtech Root Insurance Completes Series C Round With $51 Million in Funding
- Most people probably don't know Goldman Sachs offers a savings account with excellent perks — and anyone can use it with just $1
- Why borrower experience will be the principal driver of bank revenue in the lending market (Cloud Lending Solutions)
- Data-Driven Marketing – Data Management White Paper (IWCO Direct)
- Information and Data Integrity: A Two-Way Street (TransUnion)
- Small Business Confidence Is Up, What Does that Mean? (OnDeck)
- Here’s Why Millennials Are Choosing Personal Loans (ThinkWallet)
Branch CEO Matt Flannery is not new in the micro-lending lending space having previously co-founded Kiva; Flannery realized that there was much more potential in lending across the globe outside of the non-profit space; Branch has an app that uses information from the phone to score credit in places like Nigeria and Kenya; the Series B round was led by Trinity Ventures and included other big names such as Andreessen Horowitz and CreditEase Fintech investment fund; the company also secured a $50 million debt facility from Victory Park Capital. Source
The startup donated its digital currency (XRP) to public schools in the United States; Ripple shared it is the largest cryptocurrency gift to a single charity and will be used to buy materials at over 28,000 schools in all 50 states; Ripple currently owns 60 billion of the 100 billion XRP in existence and has a market cap around $35 billion; the cryptocurrency will be liquidated over a two period in order to not disrupt the market price. Source
The former Treasury Secretary is being replaced by Stanford Economics Professor Susan Athley. Source
BBVA Compass says there is plenty of room in the market for the bank to wade into online unsecured consumer loans; Shayan Khwaja, BBVA Compass' executive director of consumer lending, told American Banker, “We’ve seen the asset class grow, and fintech has shined a light on how we can take this value proposition to the consumers. The general population is fairly savvy with digital products. They’re not just used to it, but they’re demanding it.”; the move follows Barclays and PNC who have recently launched into the same market; analysts are not as bullish on the moving citing fraud concerns and the recent spike in personal loan losses.
Southeast Asia’s largest bank, DBS Bank, has been one of the most innovative and profitable; while presenting at a Credit Suisse investment conference DBS CFO Chng Sok Hui said they could raise the return on equity to 14.5 percent; the digital customers are three times as valuable to the bottom line of the bank; DBS has implemented chatbots and other innovative technologies to improve the digital experience for a customer who is increasingly using their phones to bank. Source.
Betterment is looking to cater to their wealthier clients as they make portfolios more personalized; they launched the Betterment Flexible Portfolio which allows customers to shoes how assets weights are allocated; the typical Betterment client uses the asset weights set by the robo advisor, but this feature is meant to personalize the wealth clients portfolio; the move will try to help the company to position themselves as a full service firm that can cater to different levels of clientele, not just the younger investor. Source.
Online mortgage lender Lenda has plans to make the mortgage process last 30 minutes from start to finish; right now the company takes about 2 weeks to complete the process and has made more than $200mn worth or mortgages to date; Jason van den Brand, its co-founder and CEO, tells American Banker, "The big banks are working on technology that was built in the '70s. We cater to the customer who lives on their phone, laptop and tablet and shops online and compares online."; the biggest impediment is the appraisal process as that is still human intensive; the company has also been testing digital signatures by connecting via video chat with a notary. Source.
Kabbage's study shows the increased usage of mobile devices for loan applications. Source