UK consumer lending platforms reported originations of 154 million British pounds ($191.81 million) in January which topped a previous high in September 2016; Zopa led UK consumer lenders in January with originations of 80 million British pounds ($99.64 million); other consumer lenders contributing to the January record included RateSetter, Lending Works, Funding Secure and Lendable. 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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UK firm Populous is seeking to provide a new innovative approach to invoice financing using blockchain technology; the firm plans to utilize smart contracts for invoice financing operations which will lower costs and also provide safer and more secured investments with competitive yields; the platform has been in development for 24 months and plans to launch in May 2017. Source
The focus of the weekly update centered around how the Trump administration will try to ease the regulatory environment for banks and an explanation of the risk retention rule that recently went into effect; banks welcomed the executive orders signed by Trump, the regulatory burden has been high and cost of capital has continued to rise to meet the demands of Dodd-Frank; as of December 24, 2016 all asset types are required to adhere to a 5% risk retention requirement or skin in the game; this is meant to align investor interests with sponsor interests and make the securitization deal safer; PeerIQ goes into a detailed explanation and helps to provide answers to some of the questions surrounding the rule's implementation. Source
Fundrise began its crowdfunded initial public offering (IPO) on February 1; the investment has been oversubscribed and the company has paused the offering due to high demand; it has reported it will increase the available shares to three million from two million; in an updated offering circular the firm says it will offer three million shares at a price of $5.00 which brings the total expected fundraising to $15 million. Source
A number of new smartphone apps are now available with varying methods for inspiring consumers to save; apps such as Stash, Acorns, Digit, Qapital and Long Game are making it simpler and easier to make incremental savings deposits and investments through automated technology; with these new apps, investors can automate the investment of unused cash and round up purchases, saving extra pennies. Source
Former Goldman Sachs banker Mona El Isa has founded an asset management services company that will provide blockchain solutions for hedge funds; El Isa launched Melonport in February 2016 with co-founder Reto Trinkler and has now hired George Hallam, former head of external communications at the Ethereum Foundation; El Isa's hedge fund services will use smart contracts to automate various aspects of portfolio management for hedge fund managers which will lower the costs of building a hedge fund. Source
SoFi was among Super Bowl advertisers with another commercial this year; this year's commercial reflected their expanding services by advertising the firm's support for owning a home, starting a family and seeing the world; with the firm's recent acquisition of online bank, Zenbanx, customers will now be able to use SoFi for a comprehensive suite of banking services, expanding beyond just the firm's core student loan offering. Source
Digital-only bank N26 has launched a new credit product for its customers as digital-only banks struggle for profits due to high operating costs; the new credit product will offer credit lines of up to 25,000 British pounds ($26,810) for 5 years with varying interest rates; the product launch occurs as many digital banks seek expanded offerings to offset some of the high costs associated with deposit accounts. Source
Congressman Patrick McHenry and Congressman Jeb Hensarling have both released comments supporting President Donald Trump's executive order on Dodd-Frank; the executive order on Dodd-Frank signed on Friday outlines core principles for regulating the United States financial system and asks the Treasury secretary and regulators to come up with a plan for replacing Dodd-Frank; Congressman Jeb Hensarling has proposed the Financial Choice Act to overhaul Dodd-Frank; if new policies are enacted it would ease lending requirements for banks making credit more available for consumers and small businesses from mainstream financial institutions. Source
Goldman considers Marcus a fintech startup supported by 147 years of experience from the global investment bank which has given it some advantages in the online lending market; the fintech startup and its use of application programming interfaces (APIs) has been part of some important digital innovation initiatives for the firm; according to Chavez, Goldman is not only exploiting APIs, but open source and cloud services as well; he refers to the integration of the three services as the most "profound drivers" of innovation in financial services he's ever experienced; Goldman has integrated APIs into nearly all aspects of its business and API-centric technology is a key factor for innovation in the global fintech market. Source