Dianrong and FnConn have launched Chained Finance, a blockchain lending platform for supply chain companies; according to Soul Htite, founder and CEO of Dianrong, "Chained Finance creates a unique ecosystem that will provide supply chains with easier access to funding at competitive rates."; the companies report the platform could triple financing access for supply chain companies. 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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A husband and wife from Sri Lanka were arrested in Canada for fraud and money laundering; the couple reportedly used fraudulent checks and synthetic identities for fraudulent charges and purchases; both are charged with fraud of CAD5,000 ($3,729) and possession of proceeds obtained of over CAD5,000 ($3,729); the fraudulent charges are an example of the emergence of sophisticated synthetic identities that are more difficult to be detected by fraud prevention systems. Source
SoFi is one of the US's fastest growing alternative finance companies; the Financial Revolutionist talks with Mike Cagney about the firm's accomplishments, success factors and future objectives; Cagney provides insight on the firm's recent acquisition of Zenbanx and $500 million fundraising; discusses how these deals will drive growth for the firm and the other areas of the business the firm is working to expand. Source
ThreatMetrix is a provider of online fraud prevention services and authentication; using rules based technology they allow clients to customize risk factors for identity authentication and fraud prevention; in 2016 ThreatMetrix helped its clients prevent $1 billion in fraudulent loan applications; Frank talks about the company's systems, their recent $30 million fundraising from Silicon Valley Bank and what they are working on for the future. Source
Credit reporting agency TransUnion has announced the launch of a new innovation lab with increase support for client data modeling through broader access to proprietary data and analytics experts; the innovation lab will allow clients to test new models and solve business problems with real time data empowering credit data platforms and solutions across the industry; many companies have already reported success in building new models, analyzing new markets and expanding into new products; the innovation lab is also uniquely positioned to integrate with TransUnion's startup lender development program providing support for new market launches. Source
LendIt News has launched as a new media brand for LendIt; serving as a unique industry resource, it will provide up to date content and analysis on fintech industry news, giving LendIt followers daily insight on the industry's most important topics and trends; subscribers receive daily industry news emails and insight on global activity. Source
Silicon Valley Bank has a joint venture partnership with Shanghai Development Bank Co. Ltd; the partnership led the bank to open its first Chinese branch in Shanghai in 2012 and the firm has now announced their second location in Beijing; the banking branch in Beijing has 14 employees and will offer services for companies in technology, private equity and venture capital which are a key focus for Silicon Valley Bank globally. Source
Madden v. Midland has been proceeding since 2015; Judge Cathy Seibal of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision in the case on February 27; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP provides their insight on the court's decision; the central focus of the case is on the inconsistency between the issuing lender (New York) and Midland Funding, the debt collector, (Delaware); the judge ruled in favor of the borrower in default setting a precedent for better alignment between rates of issuing lenders and the loan's affiliated debt collectors. Source
The Coalition for Responsible Business Finance (CRBF) has announced it will join the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA) in efforts to more broadly support lending for small businesses; the ILPA's network is primarily led by existing members, OnDeck, Kabbage and CAN Capital; with the merger of the two organizations, the ILPA will gain representation from the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Small Business Association, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity; the expanded ILPA will provide even greater resources for advancing online small business lending education, advocacy and best practices; the ILPA is most well known for its work on introducing the SMART Box™ comparison tool for small business lenders; with the merger of the two organizations, the ILPA has also developed an updated industry code of ethics, leveraging the work previously done by the CRBF. Source
Monzo and Revolut alerted customers of an outage due to a processing migration from a third party processor which caused customers to be unable to use cards for transactions; other digital banks affected by the third party processor migration included Starling Bank, Loot, Curve, Pockit and Uaccount; Monzo and Revolut have both reported they will reimburse customers for foreign exchange costs incurred as a result of the outage; Monzo says it has plans to move its processing to an internal unit with transactions processed on the firm's technology. Source