Errol Damelin has been steadily growing his presence in London's fintech sector; founder of Wonga, Damelin's expertise and mentorship has helped over 200 employees currently working in London's fintech scene; his company Wonga is a case study for online payday lending in Europe and despite his exit from the company in 2014, Damelin has gone on to successfully invest and mentor a wide range of startup businesses in London. Source
Uber has announced it will partner with Moneyfarm to provide financial advice services for its employees in the UK; Moneyfarm and Uber will offer the robo advice to approximately 40,000 UK drivers; speculators believe the UK market will see more robo advisory partnerships as the services have yet to gain significant market traction in comparison to other countries. Source
Facebook has partnered with TransferWise for international money transfers as the firm continues to increase its financial services activity on the platform; TransferWise has internally developed a Facebook Messenger chatbot that will facilitate the international money transfer service; the service will expand on Facebook's current domestic money transfer capabilities. Source
Plum uses artificial intelligence to suggest and automate savings for its customers; the RateSetter Plum partnership will add a new savings option for Plum customers; through the platform customers can now choose to automate investment to a RateSetter account with an average return of approximately 4.7%. Source
Data from KPMG's Q4 2016 The Pulse of Fintech report showed US fintech funding decreasing to $12.8 billion in 2016, down from $27 billion in 2015; deal flow was also lower with 489 deals in 2016, a decrease from 615 deals in 2015; globally, funding was lower at $25 billion versus $47 billion in 2015. Source
Bob Kerrey highlights positive factors resulting from an OCC fintech charter in an American Banker opinion editorial; notes the regulatory perspective of both democrats and republicans; says the charter will lower prices and result in better products while also promoting competition; Kerrey also suggests a continuation of state and attorney general enforcement of civil and criminal laws against fraud and unfair and deceptive practices which would ensure the charter does not allow businesses to escape set standards. Source
Sentient Technologies has been developing an AI powered hedge fund for over a decade; Co-Founder Babak Hodjat has played a significant part in developing the company's AI powered system; Hodjat has 21 patents and his experience also includes development support for Apple's virtual assistant Siri; while many firms in the hedge fund space have been utilizing AI, Sentient is one of the only firms to build their entire business around it; the firm's AI system can analyze billions of data points, spot trends and adapt as it learns; in addition to developing investment decisions the AI system also facilitates trades which helps investment opportunities to be identified and acted upon faster; according to Hodjat, the vast amounts of publicly available data in the financial industry make AI ideal for investment management; the Sentient portfolio is highly diversified with a wide range of US stocks and trades hundreds of times per day; while the firm is becoming more well known for its AI focus it has yet to publicly disclose its performance; the company has received approximately $143 million and is owned by Li Ka-shing, and the Tata Group. Source
Technology and financial services innovation continue to create new market opportunities in a number of different ways; leading US tech companies Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA) have already begun to introduce financial services and some believe they could significantly disrupt the traditional financial system; the Financial Times outlines current activities from GAFA and also notes similarities to Ant Financial's plans in China; as services from these tech companies continue to expand into payments and other forms of financial services, market speculators believe one of the GAFA companies could even potentially buy a bank; while regulatory constraints and low ROE make this option unlikely, customers have expressed their increasing loyalty and trust in the GAFA companies; a report from Accenture says one in three global banking and insurance customers would switch their accounts to Google, Amazon or Facebook; while buying a bank could potentially be the extreme, given PSD2 changes in the UK and consumers interest overall it is likely that these companies will expand further into new types of payment technologies and fintech services in the near future. Source
A 2015 McKinsey report says today's technology is ready to replace approximately 45% of US jobs across a wide range of industries; federal and state governments have been receiving numerous inquiries about the effects of robot automation on the labor market however little has been done by legislators on the topic; Bill Gates has one suggestion for the economy; he suggests a tax for robot automation; a number of scenarios have come from Gates' robot tax suggestions, including: a company tax for robot automation that would contribute to social programs, designating government funds for salaried workers affected by robots, using taxes to provide a universal income for all citizens and a negative income tax. Source
Jason talks about this year's LendIt USA event which will take place on March 6-7; while initially focusing just on online lending at its first event, LendIt USA has evolved to include a much broader agenda of fintech topics; IBM Watson will be giving a keynote on artificial intelligence this year and beyond just lending other featured topics will include blockchain, financial inclusion, wealth management and biometrics; PitchIt@LendIt has gained increased interest across the industry and this year had over 250 entries; attendees will also hear from asset allocators and learn about bank partnerships; LendIt has expanded networking within the LendIt mobile app to include 1-1 meeting functionality. Source