While fintech companies have focused on speeding up the lending process to small businesses, the IRS's continued use of fax machines continues to slow down the lending process when borrowing from traditional institutions; in an article from American Banker, the cumbersome process of getting a tax transcript from the IRS is outlined; when customers need capital on short notice they are often left with higher financing costs; Representative Patrick McHenry recently introduced the IRS Data Verification Modernization Act that aims to provide near-real-time communication of information which may level the playing field across lenders. 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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Funding Circle's, Samir Desai discussed his platform's business model at this week's Web Summit; Desai provided details on how his platform categorizes small business loans and makes credit approval assessments, noting that approximately 80% of businesses funded would likely be approved by traditional banks; also highlights the benefits of diversification for investors who can invest in multiple loans through a single platform; says 90% of investors are earning over 5% a year. Source
Lemonade provides part two of its 2016 Transparency Chronicles with statistics on its first quarter in the market; notes some positives and negatives including confusion around marketing the firm as a peer-to-peer insurance provider; says they are an artificial intelligence and behavioral economics company or a tech company doing insurance; highlights from the first quarter include: average homeowners and renters premiums of $165.5; 123 homeowners policies; 63% of customers 25 to 34 years old; males accounting for the majority of customers at 76.5%; a claim managed in three seconds by artificial intelligence. Source
News of CFPB Director Cordray’s departure could see regulations on payday lenders lessened; one of Director Corday’s main missions was to crack down on predatory lenders; Director Cordray plans to leave at the end of the months and no long term successor has been chosen yet. Source.
During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter...
A group of 37 community groups sent a joint letter to the...
Payday lender, Advance America, and its representative association, the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), have filed a motion with the court to halt regulatory pressure on banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the motion follows the decision by U.S. Bancorp and four other banks to end their relationship with Advance America citing regulatory pressure as a factor; regulators say they have done nothing to pressure banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the court motion is part of an ongoing litigation process involved with a court case filed by Advance America and the CFSA in 2014. Source
The Series C round was led by Ribbit Capital; SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments Capital Management also participated; the company plans to expand lending, invest in products/technology and widen their geographical footprint; Capital Float will focus on loans to small merchants and kirana store owners; the company has raised $87 million and has about 15,000 customers in e-commerce, traditional retail, manufacturing as well as services businesses. Source
International money transfer firm TransferWise announced a $280mn series E raise; investors in the round include Old Mutual Global Investors, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford and Richard Branson; they plan to use the funds for expansion to the Asia Pacific region by having a full set of products available in India and opening offices in Tokyo and Sydney. Source.
The new rule forces lenders to to assess whether borrowers can repay the loans and limits rollovers, where customers take out new loans to repay old ones; the new rule is likely to face legal challenges and is primarily focused on loans under 45 days. Source