The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has partnered with HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered and Deloitte to launch a trade finance blockchain platform; trade finance operations serviced on the platform will include lending, issuing letters of credit, factoring, export credit and insurance; overall the platform is expected to increase efficiency, transparency and security. Source
StatPro acquired UBS' Delta platform for EUR 13 million ($13.7 million); news of the deal caused shares in the AIM listed StatPro to jump 10%; the deal will help StatPro to reach scale in terms of revenue and clients according to StatPro's CEO Justin Wheatley; the transaction shows that not only banks are able to acquire or partner with fintech firms, but fintech firms can look to acquire parts of a bank as well; in an interview with Business Insider Wheatley explained, "Acquisitions are part of our strategy, however in the short term this is a very big deal for StatPro — it adds 40% to our revenues — I think we'll be digesting this lump for a little while before we carry on but I certainly wouldn't rule out any more deals later on." Source
Jetty is an insurtech startup that focuses on insuring belongings in customers' apartments; the company also announced a $4 million seed round from investors that include Ribbit Capital, Box Group, Social Capital, SV Angel, Red Swan, MetaProp NYC and Solon Mack Capital; the company is initially offering property coverage, liability coverage, loss of use coverage and medical payments coverage; consumers have the ability to upgrade if they have high priced items in need of insurance; Jetty was founded in 2016. Source
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet has become CFO Marty Chavez's new mentor at Goldman Sachs; the relationship is part of a new initiative that has Goldman Sachs focused on making its services for risk comparable to Google's services for search; the bank wants to be the leading source for trading and managing risks giving its firm the attention of risk managers that Google gets from advertisers; to do this it has created Data Lake, a machine learning platform that manages information on transactions, markets and investment research as well as communication from emails, voice calls and instant messages; the new internal technology system is based on APIs that connect different parts of the business to the Data Lake central database making its communication processes more efficient. Source
Monzo has received a full banking license from the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority; the licensing follows new fundraising that meets the banking capital requirements; it now plans to launch a current account and a current account overdraft product. Source
Samsung has created a cloud-based enterprise blockchain platform; details from its trademark registration also report that the system is permissioned and has been created to form a consortium of trusted participants; functions of the platform reportedly include smart contracts for financial services, a loyalty point program and authentication for financial services; Samsung has previously invested in blockchain-as-a service platform Blocko and is a member of the Hyperledger. Source
Huo Xuewen, secretary of Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Finance, discussed potential standards for blockchain in China in a recent speech; Xuewen is a proponent of blockchain and says the country should implement a standardized approach for its development; the government's current focus is on regulatory standards for bitcoin investments and trading; Xuewen says the country can do more with blockchain across all industries. Source
CB Insights has released a market report on artificial intelligence; the report includes the market landscape, market statistics and an outlook for future growth; in the first quarter of 2017 the sector reported 30 artificial intelligence deals in fintech and insurtech with 48% of the deals by seed or angel investors; other highlights include $14.9 billion in equity funding from 2,250 deals since 2012, over 200 artificial intelligence acquisitions since 2012 and 11 artificial intelligence acquisitions by Google. Source
JPMorgan is one of Wall Street's most active fintech innovators; Jamie Dimon outlined some of the bank's leading initiatives in his annual letter; in 2016 the firm invested $9.5 billion in new technology put towards initiatives in big data, machine learning, cybersecurity and electronic trading; the bank is also developing its customer facing technology and enhancing digital services for its corporate and investment bank and its asset and wealth management unit; other initiatives include promoting financial inclusion, collaborating with fintechs and investing in data sharing. Source
The House of Representatives has passed Supporting America's Innovators Act (HR 1219); the bill will provide increased access to capital for small businesses; among its provisions are changes to the number of investors in a venture capital fund and incentives for rural entrepreneurship. Source