deBanked reports that Bond Street has stopped making new loans; seven months ago Bond Street announced a $300 million loan purchase agreement with Jefferies; the WSJ outlines that engineers, product developers, and risk and marketing specialists will join Goldman’s consumer bank; Square is allegedly also in talks with some Bond Street employees. Source
As consumers reel from yet another massive data hack, this time of Equifax, fintech leaders are looking to solve the problem to prevent future hacks from happening; Chris Skinner offers up a couple of solutions that corporates and financial services firms should implement; biometrics & touchID, though these are not hack proof, and blockchain technology; he points out the power and security of the blockchain in helping to keep personal data secure. Source.
Through the partnership, the firm hopes to provide more personalization to their over 270,000 users; both portfolios were vetted by Betterment to ensure quality and affordability standards; Dan Egan, director of behavioral finance investments at Betterment stated, “We wanted to get these strategies out to our clients as quickly as possible, rather than build them out ourselves.” Source
BTCC, one of China’s biggest bitcoin exchanges, on September 14 announces that it will stop new user registration immediately, and will shut down cryptocurrency exchange business from September 30 onwards; its mining pool business will stay intact though; for now, BTCC only trades four “mainstream” cryptocurrencies, being Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and BCC. Source
In the FT’s big read they take an in-depth look at the boom of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and the potential bubble they are causing; ICOs have thus far raised over $1.8bn worldwide and have shown no signs of slowing; the bigger question is will international financial regulators clamp down to kill the market or provide it more structure. Source
SoFi has published a blog post in response to a New York Times article about recent news at the company; discusses what SoFi calls vague claims as it relates to their mortgage and personal loans business; provides updates on what the company is doing related to corporate culture and Mike Cagney’s departure. Source
SoftBank Vision Fund is considering a $500 million investment in the Hong Kong IPO of ZhongAn Insurance, Thomson Reuters’ publication IFR cited people close to the deal; the fund is likely to be a cornerstone investor in ZhongAn’s up to $1.5 billion IPO, which is expected to launch as early as Sept. 18; SoftBank and ZhongAn declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Source
There has been a lot of news coming out about SoFi recently; first came the departures of several senior executives; then news of a sexual harassment lawsuit came in August; now CEO Mike Cagney is stepping down as CEO from the company by the end of the year, having already stepped down as Chairman; in a letter sent to employees Cagney wrote, “The combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company’s core mission. I want SoFi to focus on helping members, hiring the best people, and growing our company in a way consistent with our values. That can’t happen as well as it should if people are focused on me, which isn’t fair to our members, investors, or you.” Source
Goldman Sachs said that their loan business would contribute almost half of the $5 billion in revenue growth it is projecting by 2020; the company will put $28 billion towards loans in the next three years in order to grow that part of the business; Revenue growth has remained flat since the financial crisis and trading revenues remain stagnant. Source