Join LendIt for a webinar about blockchain technology and how it can streamline operations for wealth managers and insurance back office operations; register here for the August 14 webinar at 2:00 PM EST; presenters include Jayant Khadilkar, global head of analytics and technology at Tiger Risk, and Ryan Rugg, business development at R3. Source
USAA went live on Wednesday with a virtual assistant that works with Amazon's Alexa voice interaction device; Alexa will be able to answer commands from consumers who ask about accounts, balances, spending and transactions; USAA is now one of many financial institutions working with Alexa and as American Banker points out the USAA version is more flexible with voice commands than other institutions; when prompting Alexa they do not need to say the command a certain way, they can say the command as they wish; USAA is working with software company Clinc to customize their experience, as Jason Mars, Clinc's CEO, tells American Banker, "You've got this ability to speak to it in a messy, convoluted way, and the AI can understand everything, you feel like you're speaking to a human in the room." Source
The Bitcoin Cash (BCC) blockchain has successfully split away from the legacy chain; the block was mined by the China-based mining pool Viabtc at 2:14 pm EDT; the first Bitcoin Cash block was 1.9 MB in size, holding 6,985 transactions - much larger than BTC's 1MB limit and approximately 3,000 transaction throughput. Source
VeChain, Viseo and Microsoft have launched a blockchain proof of concept project for the French car maker Renault; the idea is that blockchain can be used to keep record of how a car is maintained and that information from various car service providers can build a trustworthy growth history of a car; auto giants like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Porsche have tried blockchain projects before as well. Source (Chinese)
Chinese marketplace lender Hexindai has added a payments function to its mobile app; firm has partnered with China UnionPay for Quick Pass; QuickPass allows platform investors to use funds for payments at merchants in the China UnionPay network. Source
Blocksure is looking to bring the beneficial aspects of blockchain technology to the insurance market; according to Coverager, Blocksure has developed an insurance policy delivered by a SMART contract; SMART stands for see-through, multifaceted, authoritative and real-time; this would enable insurers and the many parties involved in a transaction to use one centralized location for the contract; this would be a more efficient and secure way to operate; we are likely to continue to see blockchain based proof of concepts across the insurance space in the future. Source
Ratesetter took a minority stake in George Banco in May but now the firm is being acquired; all George Banco loans will be refinanced and RateSetter lenders will be paid in full; RateSetter has GBP30 million ($39.11 million) of outstanding loans with the company; George Banco provides loans to borrowers with poor credit and brings in a third party in case the borrower fails to repay. Source
The Federal Reserve released a report on its initiative to provide real time payments by 2020; the report was created by a task force of over 300 industry contributors; the report, titled, "The U.S. Path to Faster Payments: A Call to Action" outlines payment processing proposals, the task force's vision and goals for the initiative; details on the payments initiative can also be found at FasterPaymentsTaskForce.org. Source
Marketplace lending loan servicer First Associates has announced the opening of a new operations center; the operations center is located in Baja California, Mexico with capacity for 1,000 seats; in comments regarding the announcement, First Associates CEO David Johnson said: "We couldn’t be more excited about our new Baja facility. We are able to deliver the same outstanding quality and service as our San Diego operations center, offer an economically advantageous option to our clients and provide significant opportunities in a developing business community that is an important part of the greater San Diego/Tijuana metro area." Source
Fintech and adtech startup Fluid announced a strategic partnership with Nomad Credit, a financial marketplace for international students in the US; the partnership looks to offer better credit options to this underserved market; together the companies will deliver better financial literacy, credit building tools and more cost effective financial products; Timothy Li, CEO of Fluid, said, "I am very pleased to work with the leadership at Nomad Credit to deliver financial products and credit education to over 1,000,000 international students studying here in America." Source