Yesterday Forbes released their Fintech 50 list; since lending was one of the early segments in fintech, the companies on the list are some of the most mature businesses; Forbes shares more details on those with traction including Affirm, Better Mortgage, Blend, CommonBond, GreenSky, Kabbage, LendingHome, Tala, and Upstart. Source
While most banks still do not offer a forecasting type feature Wells Fargo has added it to enhance their app experience; the bank says a customer can receive 50 different messages based on their account activity; “Having information in the palm of their hands can help lead customers to take action and make more informed financial choices,” Steve Ellis, who heads the bank’s innovation group, said in a press release reported by American Banker; the bank has had their share of issues recently but innovation has been one area where the company has excelled. Source.
Beyond Blend more suppliers could be coming soon such as Roostify, BankVOD, LendSnap and Quovo; FinLocker, Plaid and PointServ are also currently running pilots with Fannie Mae; Only Blend, Finicity and FormFree are approved suppliers while there are more than 40 approved vendors; there are 20 approved vendors of income and employment validation reports, but only DataVerify and Equifax are approved suppliers of these reports. Source
- SmartBiz Loans Surpasses JP Morgan Chase as Number One Provider for SBA 7(a) Loans Under $350,000
- Another fintech sector could be succumbing to profitability struggles
- Blockchain ensures that your online baby food order is legit
- Monzo given go-ahead to ‘passport’ banking licence to Republic of Ireland
There is no standard for data sharing between banks and fintechs which often results in screen scraping; this leads to concerns around data security and is also an inefficient way to gather data; the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center released an updated version of their recommendations around data sharing called the Durable Data API specification; this could eventually become the standard adopted by the industry; American Banker compares this to PSD2 in the UK and shares more about the new specification. Source
Forbes has released their third edition of the Fintech 50 list which includes 22 new companies; companies included all have operations, customers or impact in the US. Source
Only 8 percent of cybersecurity heads at U.S. financial firms report directly to the CEO; a survey done by the Financial Services Information Sharing & Analysis Center showed the lack of access for cyber heads and pointed to other vulnerabilities; one of the biggest areas for improvement of defenses is better employee training as people can click the wrong link and open systems up; most firms, 54 percent, compile quarterly security reports while 18 percent do bi-annual reports and 16 percent do annual reports. Source.
Ant Financial is looking to raise a new $5bn round that would take the company’s value north of $100bn; the FT reports that the new round might begin later this month; if the valuation is as much the company would be worth more than Uber who right now is worth about $68bn; the biggest reason behind such a lofty valuation is the data collected on users according to Thomas Olsen, partner at Bain consultancy. Source.
With more customers being active on Twitter, TD Ameritrade sees an opportunity to better engage and so they are rolling out a Twitter trading bot; the bot allows traders to execute trades, get market updates and look at educational content; this rollout follows the recent release of the Facebook messenger bot last August; using social media within trading has become a wider trend in the wealth management community as advisors look to cater to younger investors. Source.
The new lender, run by former Funding Circle execs, will offer loans between $5 million and $60 million. Source