Scalable has reached 100 million British pounds ($121.72 million) in assets under management for its robo advisory services; the firm has been averaging new business of 5 million British pounds ($6.09 million) per week and has over 2,500 customers; it offers low fees and daily investment monitoring with risk focused algorithms. Source
Chinese fintech company CreditEase has announced it will use Verint Systems, Inc. for customer service; Verint will provide speech analytics, call recording, quality management and customer reporting support services; according to CreditEase, the service provider will help the company reduce operating costs by approximately 45% annually. Source
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has cited fintech as a risk for traditional banks in its "Semiannual Risk Perspective for Fall 2016"; the semiannual OCC report discusses risks for national banks and federal savings associations with data through June 30, 2016; says strategic planning is important for banking innovation and that banks who do not innovate to meet evolving needs may be at a competitive disadvantage. Source
Consumers are increasingly relying on voice technology for messaging and also through services like the Amazon Echo Alexa and Apple Siri; in voice technology, innovators are now seeking new ways for systems to more broadly understand context and speak coherently in conversations; however as the technology evolves, privacy and security have become concerns; overall, demand from consumers for voice technology is likely to continue because of the convenience it offers. Source
Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are emerging in the wealth management space as a rival for robo advice; AI solutions are providing more sophisticated investment portfolio options than robo advisors using machine learning data optimization capabilities; there are a number of AI solutions supporting investment management that are already being used broadly within wealth management including Watson, Alladin, Kensho and Sqreem; these artificial intelligence systems and others under development have the capability to develop investing portfolios based on a range of technological data inputs while also using machine learning to analyze, interpret and act on information obtained from various sources such as news articles and social media; it's predicted that these AI solutions could evolve into offering more robust portfolio advice directly for retail investors. Source
Investment in Canadian fintech increased in 2016 while slowing in the US and UK; data from Thomson Reuters says investment in Canadian fintech reached $197.41 million, an increase of 74% from 2015; in comparison, fintech investment in the US was down 30% and fintech investment in the UK was down approximately 25%; the Canadian market is much smaller than the US and UK however its infrastructure and ecosystem are growing; political changes were also less of a factor for Canada in 2016 while the US election and UK Brexit vote created uncertainty for investors. Source
A venture capitalist blogpost from avc.com provides some interesting predictions for 2017; expects the US stock market to continue its bullish trend higher into the first half of 2017 with support from corporate and personal tax cuts from President Trump; thinks tech initial public offerings (IPOs) will increase in 2017; Google and Facebook will see some challenges as monopolies; software as a service companies will consolidate; artificial intelligence (AI) will continue emerging with corporate AI strategies a top priority for businesses; venture capitalists will invest in genomics and biometrics; crypto programming will be important for cybersecurity. Source
One of China's e-commerce giants, Baidu, has obtained regulatory approval for Baixin Bank; follows banking sector business activity from competitors Alibaba and Tencent; the banking unit will be digital only, offering online banking, telephone banking, ATM and mobile banking services; Baidu owns 30% of Baixin Bank and will work in partnership with China CITIC Bank which currently owns 70% of the bank. Source
Reports continue to show Chinese investors increasingly investing in bitcoin as the yuan devalues; over 90% of bitcoin trading has been reported by Chinese investors and the cryptocurrency's price is showing close correlation with the value of the yuan; Chinese regulation limiting foreign investment to $50,000 per year in order to stabilize the currency appears to be a factor as wealthy Chinese investors use bitcoin investment to evade the regulation since it is considered a borderless investment; while China appears to be a driving force for the currency's gains, experts also believe improved trading efficiencies and solutions for bitcoin are also factors for its recent appreciation. Source
NYC-based, insurance software provider Namely has obtained $50 million in Series D funding; the company offers software services for human resources, payroll and benefits; its services are targeted for small to medium-sized businesses with 50 to 2,000 employees; they have recently been enhancing their software services to offer new features including daily employee interactions and company news feeds. Source