Messaging app Symphony will be integrated into OpenFin’s platform in hopes of creating a competitor to Bloomberg; “By enabling Symphony to run on the OpenFin operating system, we are making it easy for our mutual customers to unify the Symphony desktop experience with their other OpenFin-based apps," Mazy Dar, chief executive of OpenFin, said as reported by Business Insider; with the integration they are hoping to create a lower cost product and eat into some of the dominance that Bloomberg has over the market. Source.
P2P Lending Expert reviews The Worthy Bond which is a new investment option created under Reg A+; the investment pays 5% annually and has a $10 minimum investment; Worthy invests in asset-based loans. Source
Goldman Sachs is currently in discussions to buy personal financial management app Clarity Money according to reporting by American Banker; they plan to roll the company in their Marcus brand; this is the latest move by the wall street titan to build out their consumer focus; Clarity Money uses AI to help consumers make better financial decisions by lowering bills, finding better credit cards and creating a savings account. Source.
Radius Bank in Boston has been partnering with fintechs for the last few years in an effort to build relationships for the long term that benefit the bank and fintech company; “We’ve built a culture inside this company that believes in the future of virtual banking, and the demands clients are going to put on us to be an Amazon-like experience for them,” says Radius CEO Mike Butler to American Banker; the bank is looking to use fintech companies to build this experience as they are unable to build all of this in house. Source.
Recent research shows that younger consumers are uncomfortable with carrying credit card balances; consumers are more comfortable with products like personal loans that are more transparent and easier to understand; there has been an increased interest in point of sale financing; one company driving this trend is GreenSky which partners with banks to fund loans; the proportion of consumer loans going to point of sale financing has increased significantly at banks that partner with GreenSky including Regions, Synovus and Fifth Third. Source
The UK recently visited China on a trade mission and signed a number of fintech deals worth more than $1.8bn; the deals are looking to create a deeper partnership between the nations and potentially create more than 850 jobs; deals include Innovate Finance and NIFA's memorandum of understanding, CurrencyCloud and X-Transfer's partnership and UK fintech R5FX's collaboration with Shanghai Clearing House. Source.
The UK fintech sector has shaken off the worries of Brexit to take in the second highest amount of capital from VC’s in 2017; they have overtaken China and only trail the US in terms of VC funding; according to data from Innovate Finance UK fintech investment was up 153 percent in 2017 from the year earlier; 24 per cent went into challenger banks, 21 percent into money transfer and foreign exchange, 17 percent into alternative lending and financing and 11 percent into personal finance/wealth management; VC investment globally reached $14.4bn across 1,824 deals, representing an 18 per cent decrease from 2016. Source.
Overstock has been building out their FinanceHub for the past few months to include Overstock credit cards and insurance products, loans by LendingTree, Prosper and SoFi, a robo-adviser for automated investing and a discounted trading platform; Raj Karkara, Overstock VP of loyalty and financial services, tells TearSheet, “Consumers don’t want to sit and sign 50 documents, they just want to go online and get through the steps they need to take to move forward.”; the moves made are part of a broader strategy for the retailer to become a full service fintech firm that caters to their clients needs. Source.
Christine Farnish, the chair of the P2PFA for the past five years, is stepping down and is being replace by Paul Smee. Source