Latest

Fintech

·Sep. 1, 2017

American Express Launches Mobile Loan Feature

American Express' Pay It Plan It mobile feature allows for installment payments on purchases of over $100; the mobile feature is associated with a customer's American Express card; the company says Pay It Plan It is available now on several consumer credit and co-branded cards and cards issued after June 1 will have the feature added by 2018. Source

Read Full Story

Fintech News Roundup USA

·Sep. 1, 2017

AI and Automation for Lending

Source reports on the operational costs associated with loans and how automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can help reduce those costs; automation can now replace manual processes such as credit checks, data consolidation, onboarding, loan documentation, know your customer and more; robotics and AI are also assisting in risk analysis for SMEs; additionally, machine learning solutions have also been evolving to evaluate thousands of data points from various sources; as these solutions evolve, banks too will need to integrate greater automation to stay competitive. Source

Read Full Story

Fintech News Roundup USA

·Sep. 1, 2017

Personal Capital Reaches Assets Under Management of $5bn

Hybrid digital wealth management firm Personal Capital now has $5 billion of assets under management (AUM) after accelerating growth with $2 billion in AUM added in 2017; Jay Shah, CEO of Personal Capital, tells Robo Advice News, "For investors with complex financial lives or for those who are just too busy to manage their own investments, we take the time and worry out of building an investment strategy."; new investors now invest $395,000 as compared to $289,000 since the start of the year, a 37% increase; the company has also launched a number of new features and closed a $40 million Series E round. Source

Read Full Story

Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Passive Investing Becoming Widespread in Wealth Management and P2P

New research from Equifax Touchstone shows that automated investment has become a wider trend in P2P and wealth management; 82% of 141 surveyed investment advisors said they have a consistent approach to allocation and monitoring for clients; P2P platforms like Funding Circle recently removed self selection and instituted an autobid process for investors; John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, tells AltFi, "This approach helps strike the right balance between risk and return, particularly important in a world of increased market volatility."; according to Driscoll the FCA has been a main driver of this trend to ensure risk is maintained correctly for investors. Source

Read Full Story

Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

The Effect of MiFID on Fintech

MiFID II legislation is likely to come into play on January 3, 2018; the legislation will regulate trading activities and further investor protections; article highlights the impact across financial services with robo advisory and high-frequency trading directly influenced. Source

Read Full Story

Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Reminder: PitchIt @ LendIt Europe Applications Due September 4

PitchIt @ LendIt Europe is one of the industry's most popular startup competitions providing eight finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise and funding opportunities as well as invaluable exposure, branding and more at the event; hosted in partnership with Startupbootcamp, the event offers fast-track status to the finalist round for Startupbootcamp Fintech Accelerator as one of its prizes; LendIt also announced this week that it will partner with SeedInvest to crowdfund live from the PitchIt @ LendIt Europe competition; interested startup companies must submit their application by September 4 and finalists will be announced on September 10; more details about the competition can be found here. Source

Read Full Story

Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

PBoC Officials Visit San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and Blockchain Companies

On August 23 and 24, officials from the People's Bank of China and scholars from Peking University arrived in San Francisco and had in-depth discussions with delegates at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as well as some fintech companies including Coinbase, Prosper, Sofi, Circle and Ripple; discussion topics focused on digital currency, regtech, lending and inclusive finance; Sun Guofeng, the head of the Research Institute of PBoC, and Yao Qian, the head of Digital Currency Research Institute of PBoC, attended the tour; a report on the status quo of US fintech market, regulatory environment and its implications on China will be written after this visit. Source (Chinese)

Read Full Story

Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Alipay Uses Facial Recognition Tech for Payments in a Hangzhou KFC Restaurant

Ant Financial has rolled out the world's first commercial application of a payment system that identifies payers using facial recognition technology; starting from September 1, a KFC restaurant in Hangzhou allows customers to authenticate their payments by having their faces scanned; the whole process, which takes about ten seconds, does not require users to take out their cell phones; the function is powered by Face ++ technology developed by Beijing startup Megvii. Source

Read Full Story

Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Othera CEO Discusses Blockchain and Loan Tokenization

Compares blockchain to a library cataloging system; explains public and private blockchain and the centralized way information is stored creating a distributed ledger; also reports on the blockchain solutions offered by Othera which include loan tokenization for secondary trading. Source

Read Full Story

Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Two ICO Unicorns

TechCrunch reports that OmiseGO (OMG) and Qtum both surpassed $1 billion in market cap; they became the first subtokens built on ethereum and subsequently sold to investors to pass the $1 billion mark; both companies have achieved this in staggeringly short amounts of time; OMG raised $25 million in July and now tokens are valued at over $11 compared to $0.27 at the time of the raise; Qtum raised $15.6 million in March with tokens now priced over $17; both companies do not have an actual product available in the market. Source

Read Full Story