UK based Lendable raised $400mn to continue lending to UK consumers amid concerns over growing household debt; the capital infusion comes from Castle Trust who is backed by the US private equity shop JC Flowers; this is the second big deal for Lendable in 2017 as they were able to secure over $130mn from Waterfall Asset management in March. Source.
Balderton Capital is best known for their fintech investments in Nutmeg, Revolut, Crowdcuve and Prodigy Finance; the firm has now launched their sixth fund totaling $375 million from investors in Europe, Asia and the US; they have made 10 investments across five countries since March. Source
The focus of the partnership is tokenization of assets to make the lending process easier and bringing in real-world assets as collateral; ETHLend is a peer to peer lender operating on the Ethereum network to connect lenders and borrowers globally; Brickblock is a trading platform connecting real-world assets and cryptocurrencies. Source
MoneyMe is an Australian consumer lending fintech focused on the millennial market; Fortress Investment Group led the facility which also included Evans & Partners; Clayton Howes, CEO and Co-Founder of MoneyMe stated, "A capital investment of this magnitude is recognition of the strength and depth of our value proposition, and an indication of the strong potential for Australian fintechs to capture serious wholesale market funding." Source
As former director Cordray left the CFPB last week he named an acting director to minimize operational disruption in his words; the White House on the other hand thinks he meant to provoke a response from the administration; the agency now is broiled in confusion over who is the true interim leader as the White House appointed their own interim leader; Mr. Cordray is working off of language in the Dodd-Frank Act to appoint a successor, while the White House is acting on the Federal Vacancies Reform Act that gives the President authority to appoint interim leaders; each leader will have a different mandate and the confusion will need to be cleared up soon. Source.
The new regulation came from a new state body focused on regulating internet finance; it put a stop to new approvals of offline micro lending companies; companies already in operation may see heavier regulation which has caused drops in the share price of recent IPOs including ZhongAn, Ppdai and Qudian. Source
Indian banks are working with fintech startups to develop technology similar to what is used in markets like Africa and China; the banks hope to use social data and online shopping habits to underwrite borrowers; FICO recently began to offer credit scores in India using alternative data and there are many startups working on similar efforts. Source
As the date for open banking nears Banks and their digital only challengers are bracing for a new era of banking in Europe; writing an opinion piece in AltFi Lewis Hill of Instinctif Partners explains how digital only banks will need to explain their value proposition to the consumer to take advantage of the new rules; banks are still struggling with legacy technology and poor consumer ratings; the time is now for challengers to truly disrupt the incumbent players. Source.
Innovative Finance Individual Savings Accounts or IFISAs has the potential to see millions pour into UK P2P lenders from retail investors; Samir Desai, CEO of Funding Circle, tells the FT, “We have done lots of surveys and a huge proportion of the base told us they would like to put all of the money they invest with us through the ISA.”; the IFISAs were approved in April 2016 but the big P2P lenders in the UK have just started to offer them. Source.