During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
Don’t sideline earned income access from American Banker – Great op-ed in American Banker on Monday by my good friend Dan Quan. I completely agree that earned income access is a game changer for struggling consumers and is destined to become a standard offering at many firms.
Santander and eBay to launch loans app in UK from Financial Times – Here is an interesting new partnership to help small business lending in the UK. Santander UK is partnering with eBay UK to offer loans to the 200,000+ small businesses that sell on eBay.
Alternative Lenders Continue to Steal Business From Banks from The Financial Brand – It is interesting that three of the largest small business lenders today are essentially tech companies: PayPal , Square and Amazon . Along with industry leaders OnDeck and Kabbage they are taking marketshare away from banks.
As £165m Lendy collapses, experts warn ‘a dozen more peer-to-peer firms will follow’ from The Telegraph – The collapse of UK p2p lending platform Lendy has caused concern for investors with some wondering if there are other platforms in danger of failing.
Fintech start-ups are vying for partnership deals with the likes of Apple and Facebook from CNBC – At Money2020 in Amsterdam today much of the talk was about big tech companies with some fintech leaders already discussing potential partnerships.
Biz2Credit Raises $52M In Funding To Expand from PYMNTS.com – The big funding rounds keep coming in 2019. Now, it is Biz2Credit ‘s turn. They have closed a $52M Series B led by WestBridge Capital to ramp up their new Biz2X banking as a service offering.
ING pushes for open banking with SME financing platform and Yolt expansion from Fintech Futures – One of the most digitally-focused big banks in Europe is ING. They are now expanding their Yolt personal finance app to France and Italy and bringing Funding Options to The Netherlands.
SoFi Loses Three Top Executives from The Wall Street Journal – I am not sure how much to read into this but it is rarely a positive when three executives leave in close succession. SoFi is losing their CMO, head of risk and head of capital markets.
We are “very close” to peak fintech, with more than 10,000 startups jumping into the boom from Quartz – Are we at peak fintech? It is an interesting question particularly given the flood of VC money that has been invested in the last 12 months. But I disagree. I feel like we are just getting started and there is much more innovation to come.
Monzo, Starling and Revolut hunt for older, more diverse, customers from Financial Times – The digital banks in the UK are increasing adding physical places for their customers to use their services whether it is the post office, in the case of Starling Bank or PayPoint in the case of Monzo . They want to appeal to an older demographic.
Will banks take ‘self-driving’ payroll for a spin? from American Banker – I am a big fan of the on-demand wage movement. While it won’t solve poverty it will save billions for the most financially vulnerable as they access their own earned wages instead of taking a payday loan.
Softbank in talks to invest in Brazilian fintech Nubank -source from Reuters – If this comes to fruition the most valuable digital bank in the world will be based in Brazil. Reuters is reporting that SoftBank is in discussion with Nubank to possibly invest $1B at a $10B valuation.
Goldman CEO: If Marcus were a Silicon Valley start-up, people would be ‘throwing money at us’ from CNBC – In a talk to Marcus employees Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon seemed somewhat envious of all the lofty valuations for fintech firms these days.
Where did JPMorgan Chase’s Finn experiment go wrong? from American Banker – Good piece by Penny Crosman asking industry insiders what went wrong with Finn by Chase. Seems that many people are not bullish on banks creating separate digital brands.
Bank overdraft fees targeted in major shake-up from the BBC – New rules banning fixed fee overdrafts in the UK will go into effect in April next year, instead banks will have to charge and disclose a simple annual interest rate.
