Lend Academy shares some of the biggest news stories of the year; includes Mike Cagney departing SoFi, the Cleveland Fed retracting their report on “p2p lending”, Prosper’s $5 billion deal, Renaud Laplanche’s new venture and more. Source
Business Insider takes a look back at one of the biggest trends in finance from 2017; Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs have become one of the main ways for companies in the blockchain space to raise capital; more than $3.5bn was raised using this method; some of the top raises include $153mn by The Bancor Protocol, $232mn by Tezos and $257mn by Filecoin. Source.
In this week’s WeiyangX Fintech Review reported by Crowdfund Insider they cover the rumors that the CBRC suspended online lending by private banks; private banks were only permitted to be in operation for the last 3 years and this news is reported to be done because of concerns over stability at the banks; a charity crowdfunding platform, Fenbeichou, was accused of fraud; the PBOC released new rules for mobile payment security including all QR code providers now need a permit. Source.
- Uber agrees to sell its US auto-leasing business
- As EOS Tops $8 is the Sun About to Set on Ethereum's Reign?
- Top 10 Companies of the Blockchain Industry in 2017
- Survey: 31% of South Korean Professionals are Cryptocurrency Investors
- How a simple tech upgrade at the IRS could transform the economy (by Sam Hodges, Funding Circle)
- TD's innovation agenda: Experiments with Alexa, AI and augmented reality
- Where fintech dollars will go in 2018
- The Next Big Trade for Bond Investors Is Betting on U.S. Homeowners
- Lend Academy Podcast: Camilo Concha of LendingUSA
- A.I. and Big Data Could Power a New War on Poverty
- Financial technology startups emerged as serious challengers to financial services in 2017
- Best Egg Will Broaden to Financing Purchases in 2018
- OnDeck Adds a BlackRock-Managed Fund to its Platform of Financing Partners
With open banking set to go live in Europe next month US banks will be keeping a close eye on how the process works; US banks have started to share data with fintechs through different partnerships for different reasons; the time is coming where the industry will have to look at open banking as a regulatory standard and some think the banks should really be the ones to set the parameters; coming up with a potential global set of standards is something that could really benefit all parties involved; “You need to globalize that at consistency so you don’t have different standards for each country in Asia, for example,” said Cynthia Murray, a managing director at Bank of America, to TearSheet. Source.
The new head of the OCC, Joseph Otting, reaffirms the agency’s support of the fintech charter. Source
While Amazon is unlikely to buy a bank in 2018, they are still a threat to banks and other fintech companies; the company is already involved in payments, cash, debit cards, small business lending and consumer credit; Tearsheet shares how retail and financial services companies are becoming more intertwined and how this is a trend that will continue into 2018; the way consumers interact across various apps and accounts is also having a significant effect on banks. Source
The UK’s Parliament Treasury Committee said the needs to keep a close eye on a disagreement between banks and independent ATMs; with banks closing branches the worry is people living rural communities won’t have access to cash if they are unable to use these ATMs; the argument came about when the Link scheme said they were looking to lower the cost of withdrawal from 25p to 20p to stay competitive because operator like Visa were undercutting them; the Regulator is looking to ensure access to cash as that is still the main way people in these areas transact; as banks have closed ATMs, independent ATMs have grown significantly and are a crucial part of the financial system. Source.
With cryptocurrency market caps rising and futures markets being adopted 2017 saw hedge funds pour over $2bn into the space; the figures come from a Morgan Stanley note sent to clients with research included from Autonomous NEXT; the note also shows 84 of 100 crypto related funds started in 2017; this year has helped the market to begin being more widely accepted by traditional institutional investors. Source.
In an interview with AltFi, Mambu CEO Eugene Danilkis explained he thinks the UK is the fintech hub of Europe; the digital banking platform sees this as the case partly because the UK government has done a great deal on bring more competition into the banking system; with the government support you have seen dozens of banking applications submitted and new entrants like Starling Bank, Atom and OakNorth have success; Mambu provides software to incumbents and startups, telling AltFi, “Incumbents will have to think like fintechs in order to develop channels of servicing clients quickly, seamlessly and creatively.” Source.