RateSetter was the last of the “big three” p2p lenders to be authorized after a two year wait; both Zopa and Funding Circle were authorized in May, 2017; RateSetter will now be able to launch their Innovative Finance ISA; Founder and CEO Rhydian Lewis stated, “Authorisation has been a long but positive journey during which we have learnt a lot, improved our infrastructure and implemented important changes, notably making the business more transparent. Transparency is vital to our business because our customers need to understand what we do to appreciate the risk of lending on RateSetter.” Source
Initial results from a congressional investigation shows that minority business owners are more likely to seek a loan from a fintech firm and potentially pay a higher fee; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) wants to further explore whether or not these lenders are aggressively targeting these borrowers and offering higher rates; the investigation has focused on online lenders and their underwriting practices for emerging minority owned businesses. Source.
IBM announced a partnership with Stellar.org and KlickEx Group to help small businesses in underdeveloped countries participate in global trade; the partnership will focus on financial transactions across borders and currencies; this will allow businesses in these areas to get access to IBM’s scale and bank partnership network. Source.
There have been a lot of executives recently who have expressed their opinions about cryptocurrencies; while many people agree that the technology behind bitcoin has huge potential, there are a wide variety of opinions about cryptocurrencies; Lend Academy shares quotes from Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan), Larry Fink (Blackrock), Mike Novogratz (Galaxy Digital Assets Fund), James Gorman (Morgan Stanley),Axel Weber (UBS), Christine Lagarde (Head of the International Monetary Fund) and Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs). Source
- Spanish bank launches money-transfer app focused initially on US-Mexico remittances
- Quicken Loans and eOriginal Partner on Next Phase of the Digital Mortgage Revolution
- Ripple & the Gates Foundation Team Up to Level the Economic Playing Field for the Poor
- Silicon Valley Vs. Wall Street: Can the New Long-Term Stock Exchange Disrupt Capitalism?
- P2P Series Part 3: China's Online Lending Consolidates As Market Grows
- Blockchain and Smart Cities: On the Way to the Second Capital of China
- Future of Fintech Awards shortlist 2017
Business Insider interviewed Renaud Laplanche last week at LendIt Europe; on his exit from Lending Club, Laplanche stated, “It was very, very frustrating. I'm not commenting on the story, but the best way to actually understand what really happened is to read the filings. I think the press made it sound a lot worse, a lot more sensational, than it really was.”; he is taking what he learned from building Lending Club and applying it to his new company Upgrade; Laplanche stated that he hopes to launch a new product each year with possible expansion into mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, home equity and lines of credit. Source
Once seen as a niche segment of finance online lenders are now originating billions in loans each year; the bigger they get the questions start to arise if they can handle an economic downturn and are their underwriting models good enough; American Banker digs into the overall industry by looking at securitization growth, whether or not traditional banking is dead and more. Source.
PayPal’s shares have climbed close to 75 percent in 2017 and now is considered more valuable than American Express; their market cap has doubled since spinning off from eBay in 2015; while it now finds itself on the heels of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs there is still some who fear they might be valued a bit too high; acquisitions, product diversification and partnership agreements have helped push the company in the last year. Source.
PPDAI plans to raise up to $350 million in their IPO and list on the NYSE. Source
Writing an opinion piece on CoinDesk the Managing Director and CTO of the DTCC Rob Palatnick explores the progress of blockchain technology in finance; he says that while we are still in early days of implementation the industry has learned how important collaboration is to mitigate risk, enhance efficiencies and drive down cost; working together will help to avoid the many silos that exist today and allow for blockchain technology to reach its potential; he also looks at some of the recent consortiums and the work the DTCC has done so far in the space. Source.