Morgan Stanley Analyst James Faucette says Lending Club has upside potential of 35%; cites institutional investment, loan growth at moderate but sustained pace and industry contacts reporting no deterioration in reinvestment or retention rates; targets the stock at $8; the company will announce Q4 and year-end earnings on February 14th. Source
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
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P2P lender TWINO has reached 100 million euros ($107.53 million) in cumulative lending shortly after a new expansion to Russia; firm is the first P2P lender to offer Russian consumer loans; in 2016 platform growth was fueled by demand from all of its Eastern Europe regions specifically with increased interest from its UK investors; in 2017 TWINO expects lending volume of over 200 million euros ($215.05 million). Source
Global wealth managers have been increasingly partnering with fintech companies to provide their customers with new digital wealth management solutions; the Morgan Stanley Addepar partnership is one of the market's most recent deals involving new digital wealth management services; the chart below provides insight on some of the leading factors involved in digital wealth management strategies for global wealth managers; the ability to increase access and collaboration potential with clients and experts is one of the market's top factors. Source
<p>China has accounted for over 90% of bitcoin's trading volume in recent weeks as no trading costs and a devaluing yuan have attracted the attention of traders; the country has approximately 10 of the world's leading bitcoin exchanges which have seen some intervention from Chinese regulators in recent weeks; beginning on Tuesday, three of the largest Chinese bitcoin exchanges implemented a flat fee of 0.2% per transaction to manage manipulation and volatility; trading volumes were significantly impacted following the new fee structure with volumes down approximately 90% on Chinese bitcoin exchanges.
Crowdfund Insider talked with Zopa about 2016 and 2017; the firm had a successful year in 2016 despite the industry's challenges; highlights from the year included lending over 680 million British pounds ($855.02 million) to nearly 100,000 customers, becoming profitable, securitizing its first loan portfolio and announcing plans to launch a bank; in 2017 the firm plans to build on its success while also beginning plans for launching a bank with deposit accounts and overdraft alternatives by 2018; in its core business products, Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana says the firm will be looking for new partnerships that support its auto finance, point of sale and personal loan businesses. Source
Investors in the UK are anxious for new innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA) options with P2P lenders as the new tax year begins; the IFISAs were launched for P2P investing nine months ago however limited options still remain due to the authorizations given by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); it is expected that the largest providers, Zopa, Funding Circle, Ratesetter and LendInvest, will receive authorization however it has not been granted yet from the FCA; platforms currently offering IFISAs include Abundance, CrowdStacker and Crowd2Fund; Folk2Folk is currently the largest lender authorized with plans for also launching an IFISA. Source
Online lender Elevate has released customer progression milestones showing improved credit scores and rate eligibility; 55,000 customers on the platform have improved their credit scores and 20,000 customers can now receive a lower borrowing rate; Elevate's unique RISE credit product facilitates credit scoring improvement by educating customers on their personal financial credit and offering subsequent loans at reduced rates of up to 50% for qualified borrowers. Source
Wilmington Trust provides insight on the marketplace lending industry in their featured blog post; the blog post includes an edited version of a panel discussion on the growing opportunity for institutional investment in the industry; discussion includes how the industry is defined, its borrowers and lenders, and its outlook. Sponsored Blog Post
Diagram has raised $25 million (USD$19.13 million) for a new fintech venture capital fund that will be led by Paul Desmarais III; Paul Desmarais is part of Quebec's Desmarais family which has built a $7 billion (USD$5.36 billion) fortune through investment in the insurance business; the new fund's initial fundraising effort has come from Portag3 Ventures LP and over 50 individual angel investors; the fund will invest in a variety of Canadian fintech companies. Source
Blockchain has been becoming increasingly utilized across a range of industries; speculators believe 2017 could be blockchain's biggest year ever with a number of factors supporting the technology; bitcoin's price has been increasing, reaching a three-year high in January; market participants have been strengthening led by the Hyperledger Project; investment has also been increasing, specifically investment in patented blockchain technology. Source