Europe provides some interesting examples for fintech bank chartering and licensing as companies SoFi and Varo lead the way in the United States; two top companies to watch include Tandem and Klarna; fintech company Tandem recently acquired a bank, Harrods Bank, which will provide it with GBP80 million ($103 million) of capital and a banking license if the transaction is approved; Klarna has also been a fintech banking leader in Europe; the Swedish payments company recently received a banking license and has reported deals with Permira, Visa and Brightfolk. Source
Yunfeng Financial Group (Yunfeng FG) said it would be the main investor in a $1.7 billion acquisition of insurer MassMutual International's Hong Kong unit; Yunfeng FG will hold 60% of MassMutual Asia and the rest will be owned by other investors such as Ant Financial, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Ltd and China's internet giant Sina; the deal will add insurance products to Yunfeng's existing fintech-focused financial services. Source
At Lang Di Fintech (LendIt's Chinese event), Peter Renton, the founder of Lend Academy, conducted an interview with ZhongAn Insurance CEO Jeffrey Chen; they talked about how the biggest insurtech company uses big data and artificial intelligence to measure risk, the scale of ZhongAn's business, regulatory issues and the future of the company; the article provides five key takeaways from the interview. Source
NTT Data, Japan's largest IT services firm, has announced a new blockchain consortium; 13 participating members including three of Japan's megabanks: the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; other notable participants represent industries such as insurance, logistics, and import and export trade; the consortium's objectives include exploring the lead up to and validation of the feasibility of blockchain applications; the consortium will be officially launched on August 30 and expected to last until March 2018. Source
Amartha is an Indonesian fintech startup focused on using the peer-to-peer business model in rural areas of Indonesia; Amartha originally started as a microfinance institution in 2010, but that business model did not work; they moved to a peer-to-peer model where individual Indonesian investors fund the loans; they focus on small rural villages and to assess borrower risk they blend demographic profiling and psychometric tests to determine the probability of repayment; they currently have 5,000 investors and generate returns of about 15% to 17% structured as a profit-sharing scheme. Source
State regulators are reacting to the proposed federal charter that would grant nationwide licensing to fintech companies; states are beginning to plan for initiatives that would make state chartering more compelling for fintechs while also protecting standards built for banks in the state; states believe harmonizing the regulatory requirements is necessary; New England states are currently working in collaboration on licensing and overall state regulators are envisioning a passporting environment where states collaborating on requirements can institute approvals with lower costs. Source
The company recently held a conference call with investors to discuss options with a company called Jazco reportedly offering to take over the remaining deals on the site; the company was reportedly issued a subpoena by the SEC at some point regarding operational questions; in early 2016 a law firm attempted to restructure the firm but the company continued to face challenges; eventually the CEO William Skelley left the company at which point a consultant stepped in; no deals have been originated since late 2016. Source
In speaking to CoinDesk, AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant said he is looking to fund a blockchain alternative to Twitter; he explained that the prize will be awarded to anyone who can build a Twitter alternative and where people can monetize the contributions; this is part of a program that will help developers who are looking to build applications on the Blockstack platform; Naval tells CoinDesk, "I am indeed helping the Blockstack team and will be donating a small prize for a decentralized microblogging service." Source
Personal Capital is a free app that allows individuals to track their financial life by connecting accounts including bank accounts, credit cards and investment accounts; the app is now tracking $4.9 billion and according to their CEO, Jay Shah, their customer base is increasingly affluent; the company upsells their app users on financial advice and is providing a dedicated financial advisor if users have over $200,000 of investable assets; Shah answers several questions in an interview with Business Insider including their pitch to users, who their paying users are, why he thinks users will pay for the service and where the company is headed. Source
Amber Baldet was ranked 31 and is working with the JPMorgan team to develop blockchain solution Quorum; others in fintech include Vitalik Buterin the creator of ethereum, Brian Armstrong from Coinbase, and Ernie Garcia, Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston from Carvana. Source