One of China’s largest online lenders has shelved their IPO because of the regulatory crackdown on online lending; the FT reports that Lufax is waiting until the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) required online lenders to apply for a license; the current thinking is the government will approve licenses in April, though the time frame could be a bit longer; Lufax wants to ensure they get it right instead of rushing to be first. Source.
Naspers is the most valuable listed company in Africa and is now selling $10 billion worth of shares in Tencent to invest in fintech, classified and online food delivery businesses; Naspers stake in Tencent is estimated at $545 billion; this is the first time the company has sold shares in the company after initially investing in 2001. Source
UK based digital bank OakNorth reported an annual profit of $149mn, becoming the first digital bank to do so; in their second year of full operations the bank has seen their loan book triple in size and deposits double in size; Rishi Khosla, OakNorth chief executive, told the Financial Times, “we build them for profit and on strong foundations so as you grow you’re scaling a real business rather than what happens to a lot of fintech where you just keep building for top-line or number of customers, but don’t necessarily have the strongest business model.” Source.
The CFPB handles more than 84 thousand debt collection complaints in 2017; consumers also downloaded advice on settlement negotiations more than 800 thousand times; "From now on we will be working closely with the FTC to enforce the FDCPA while protecting the legal rights of all in a manner that is efficient, effective, and accountable,” acting Director Mulvaney said in a press release reported by American Banker; the CFPB and FTC filed more than 14 enforcement cases as a result of collections last year. Source.
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond will announce the creation of a task force focused on cryptocurrencies; the task force will include the Treasury, the Bank of England, and Britain's financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority; the task force will help manage the risk surrounding cryptocurrencies and better understand how blockchain technology can be implemented. Source.
Punjab National Bank in India recently was the victim of a fraud that cost the bank more than $2bn; some have argued that if the system in which the bank used was on the blockchain the fraud would not have happened or it would have been detected quickly; banks still operate on systems that don’t always connect or still involve a lot of paper; enlisting blockchain will help to make the process more efficient, transparent and safe; when this could be implemented is a different question as banks have started testing the new technology, it has yet to be widely adopted across the globe in banking. Source.
According to Bloomberg, Google is working on its own blockchain technology in their cloud business; the distributed ledger would allow third parties to post and verify transactions and will also offer a white-label product for companies; Google has also been active in acquiring and investing in startups according to the source. Source
Many consumers love the convenience of digital communication but still seek live human interaction. Source
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