Government-owned British Business Bank has added challenger bank OakNorth to its Help to Grow program; allows the company to receive loan funding of up to 2 million British pounds ($2.43 million); OakNorth is the first challenger bank to join the Help to Grow program; the funding follows a recent announcement of three new executive hires for OakNorth to support anticipated lending of 500 million British pounds ($608.39 million) in 2017. Source
The Japan Exchange Group has been approved to use blockchain in trading and will begin testing blockchain on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; its approval follows a previous restriction on blockchain's use in exchange trading; with the approval the Japan Exchange Group may also explore artificial intelligence; other market exchanges working on blockchain developments include Myanmar's Yangon Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq; the Bank of Japan has also reported increased research in the use of fintech. Source
HouseCanary is working to provide better real estate property valuations through its fintech services; uses machine learning and algorithms to analyze data and identify home values; the company has reported a funding round with $33 million in new capital from investors including Eric Schmidt and Kobe Bryant. Source
CreditEase Wealth Management announced the first close of their second fund dedicated to investing in Israeli tech startups; the amount raised was $32.2 million; final target for the fund is $50 million; the focus of investments will include virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital healthcare, internet of things technology, cloud and data storage, and advanced manufacturing. Source
Northwestern Mutual has formed Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures which will invest in fintech firms; according to the press release, the commitment will focus on innovation to build greater digital relevance for clients, increase data-driven decision making and create back-end efficiencies with the goal of creating value for its more than four million clients; investments will range from $500,000 to $3 million; the company has already seen benefits from the acquisition of LearnVest in 2015 and is looking to invest more in similar companies. Source
FundersClub is an online venture capital firm investing in startups; it has invested in 217 companies in the past four years with 19 exits; the firm has announced a commitment to disclose quarterly public reports providing more transparency in a historically un-transparent industry; the firm's investments have been successful over the past four years with a comprehensive multiple for returns on realized exits of 1.1. Source
This week Digit announced it was launching a savings bot which will operate on Facebook's messenger; to date users have saved over $350 million with the app which tracks income and spending and subsequently transfers small amounts of money to a savings; the company is also rolling out a financial goal program using artificial intelligence which will allow users to set savings goals and timelines. Source
Artificial intelligence startup Kasisto raised a $9.2 million Series A round that was led by Propel Venture Partners; the company intends to use the funds to expand into new markets, grow the engineering and sales teams and develop partnerships with systems integrators to enhance their platform; Kasisto is a fintech startup that lets companies engage and transact with their customers through natural, intelligent conversations via smart bots and virtual assistants. Source
ClearBank has received its license for digital banking services in the UK; firm is run by Nick Ogden who also has payment services experience with WorldPay and CashFlows; the UK currently leads the challenger bank market with approximately 42 digital only banks. Source
State legislators have voiced opposition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) proposed fintech charter; primarily concerned with nationalized rules that would ease regulations currently in place by state governments and allow payday lenders to evade state rules established for consumer protection; senators have also opposed the national charters suggesting that federal regulators collaborate with state regulators; the OCC's comment period for the proposed fintech charter is open until January 15. Source