During a panel discussion at LendIt Europe in London representatives from leading incumbent lenders Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), ING, BBVA, HSBC, and Barclays discussed the challenges faces in the new digital world; topics discussed include cultural transformation, more power in the customers hands and trying to stay on top of the latest tech trends. Source.
The San Francisco based blockchain startup has more than 100 institutions using its RippleNet payment network “The technology we have, and the vision we have, is proven," Marcus Treacher, Ripple's global head of strategic accounts tells American Banker. "We've gone from theory to hard-nosed production, and that's a big event.”; the two way protocol allows for banks on both sides of the transaction to verify funds and fees. Source.
India’s lending network for small businesses has increasingly become reliant on the growing sector of non bank lenders; the non bank market has been steadily increasing loan books by 25 percent per year as bank lending has not increased according to data from Edelweiss Financial Services; access to non traditional forms of data has helped non banks to be able to better asses borrower risk instead of using income taxes which were seen an unreliable. Source.
SONECT is a platform that can convert anyone or any shop into a virtual ATM; the startup beat out more than 100 companies and 8 finalist pitches; “Taking part in LendIt this year has given us fantastic exposure to London based VCs in the fintech capital of Europe as well as more insight into the UK market,” SONECT founder and CEO Sandipan Chakrabortty said to Bankless Times. Source.
Insurtech startup Lemonade announced “We’re opening up the Lemonade platform to the world!” says Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade; the new open API will allow Lemonade to be seamlessly integrated with commerce websites, financial advisor apps, property management companies, payment software processors, IoT [internet of things] platforms and more as Banking Technology reports. Source.
This Week in Startups interviews the CEO of 21.co, Balaji Srinivasan; 21.co is one of the most well funded blockchain companies; Srinivasan is also a board member at Andreessen Horowitz. Source
TechBullion interviews Stani Kulechov, Founder of ETHLend; Ethlend is creating a global network for borrowers and lenders; discusses the benefits of using distributed ledger technology for loan transactions; the company currently has 20 people based around the world and delivered their Alpha-version in May 2017. Source
While giving a keynote speech at LendIt Europe 2017 Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche laid out his three biggest predictions for the near future; the growth of online lending will accelerate in the next 15 months, a meaningful secondary market will develop and rebundling will give birth to one major consumer product innovation in the next 15 months. Source.
Ken Sena runs a group within Wells Fargo Securities and recently introduced an artificially intelligent equity research analyst; the bot tracks stocks and put a sell rating on Facebook and Google, two of the top companies working on artificial intelligence; Sena provides his perspective on the new bot and where it might be falling short. Source