Swedish startup Klarna has acquired BillPay in a transaction that's expected to strengthen its payments business throughout Europe; the estimated price is approximately 60 million British pounds ($75 million) and Klarna was last valued at $2.25 billion in 2015; both Klarna and BillPay have been closely compared to PayPal; with the new acquisition the majority of Klarna's business will now be focused in Germany; Klarna has been focusing on business in Germany, acquiring Cookies in October 2016 and Sofort in 2013, both German companies; the acquisition of BillPay will help increase cross-border payment transactions; according to Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, "Germany is one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world, and we are delighted to have strengthened our position here with this acquisition." 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.
To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.
The Online Lending Policy Institute has been formed to provide research and education on fintech and marketplace lending; Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo has resigned which is favorable for financial services deregulation as Tarullo was a driving force for higher capital standards; the PeerIQ weekly update also provides more details on President Donald Trump's executive order regarding financial services deregulation. Source
The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has released its first report on the alternative finance market, titled, "Africa & Middle East Alternative Finance Benchmarking Report"; the report was created with support from Energy4Impact, UKAid and CME Group Foundation; for 2015 the report cites growth of 59% and a total market of $242 million; Robert Wardrop, executive director at the CCAF says development trends in Africa and the Middle East had a different focus which was on equity crowdfunding and online micro finance as opposed to consumer and business P2P lending in other global markets. Source
The insurtech forum will help to introduce the LendIt audience to one of the most innovative companies in property and casualty insurance, and a leading insurance association focused on this innovation trend; Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber and Adam Kerns of the American Insurance Association will be interviewed by Thalia Smith of Deloitte about innovation currently taking place and how new companies are affecting the traditional players in the insurance market; register today. Source
Laura Shin talks with Spencer Bogart, vice president of equity research at Needham and Company, and Daniel Masters, director at Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment (GABI), about the potential SEC approval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF; both Spencer and Daniel provide insight on the bitcoin market and current funds; Daniel Masters currently manages bitcoin funds at GABI in the UK; Spencer cites three outcomes that could occur on March 11: the SEC could approve or disapprove, the Gemini exchange could withdraw or no decision would automatically approve the ETF; one factor keeping the ETF from a decision is conflict of interest from the Fund's management and Gemini exchange which both would be operated by the Winklevoss brothers’ business; other factors include the structuring of the Fund and the represented value of the underlying cryptocurrency; the Bitcoin Trust ETF would be the first approved by the SEC in the US and its approval would have an effect on the bitcoin market overall; two other firms have also filed for SEC approval of bitcoin ETFs including SolidX and Grayscale Investments. Source
Newly launched marketplace lender Float is using alternative credit scoring to reach a target market of credit averse borrowers; the firm is seeking to provide credit to millennial borrowers with limited credit history; offering a digital lending solution for balancing customers' finances; the firm offers credit lines ranging from $50 to $1,000 and instead of pulling traditional credit reports for credit underwriting, the firm bases its approval decision from access to a customer's bank account transactions. Source
Wave and OnDeck have partnered to offer credit products to small businesses; Wave currently offers small businesses financial tools and software for managing their business; the firm will now offer its clients new credit products through Lending by Wave; with Lending by Wave clients can directly access loans and credit lines from OnDeck through the Wave ecosystem. Source
Deutsche Bank has reported increased defaults in commercial mortgage backed bonds tied to malls and retail stores that they underwrote in 2012 and 2013; the bank is suggesting investors short the BBB- rated portion of the 2012 Markit CMBX price index, known as the series 6, which they say is tied to these investments; their analysis sees these bonds with pre-crisis attributes which successful investors shorted to avoid losses. Source
Lisa Servon worked at a check cashing store to identify its benefits and whether or not the financial system should direct consumers to banking services which have previously been cited as less expensive and more efficient; in her experience at RiteCheck Cashing, Servon found three factors that influenced the use of check cashers by the underbanked; costs were lower in comparison to the fees and charges from using a bank; pricing transparency was more clearly provided for check cashing services; many customers also reported better service from check cashing tellers than bank representatives; Servon has published a book titled "The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives" which provides full details on the benefits of using check cashing services. Source
Large banks are reporting excess capital of greater than $120 billion and in the current market environment are expected to increase buybacks and dividends for the benefit of shareholders; the increased capital is primarily the result of higher Federal Reserve capital requirements for banks following the financial crisis; the higher requirements have helped to increase banking capital ratios to more than 12% of risk weighted assets from 5.5% in 2009; under the new administration, capital ratios are likely to be lowered resulting in more capital returned to shareholders; the Fed's influence is also trending towards lower capital requirements specifically in their 2017 stress test guidelines and also following the resignation of the Fed's lead supervisor, Dan Tarullo. Source