RateSetter Australia is one of the country's leading P2P lenders, introducing the first P2P lending platform in the country for retail investors in 2014; the company has announced a new addition to its Australian board of directors which serves separately from its parent company RateSetter UK; Vaughn Richtor will join the board bringing significant retail banking experience from his role as CEO of ING Direct; Richtor will help advise the company in key initiatives including improving alternative banking channels and growing market share in personal and business loans. 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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The UK's National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has lifted insurance restrictions for its brokers; it will now provide insurance coverage to its brokers for all P2P loans; "Peer-to-peer lending is booming and it's fantastic that our members can now use it as much as they like, safe in the knowledge that they enjoy protection arranged by NACFB Insurance Services," said Paul Goodman, NACFB chairman. Source
Ernst & Young has released its EY Global Banking Outlook 2017 report which provides insight on incumbent bank investments; says approximately 60% plan to invest in new technologies and reports that banks have the highest priority on customer facing technology; the survey report includes data from approximately 300 banks across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Source
Lisa Caplan from Nutmeg provides insight on investing in individual savings accounts (ISAs); reports on six myths that keep UK investors from investing in ISAs; notes the tax free advantages of investment in ISAs up to the allowance limit of 15,240 British pounds ($18,588) and the allowance limit increase to 20,000 British pounds ($24,394) beginning in April. Source
London-based FOL Wealth has launched a new robo advisor service for its wealth management clients; the solution offers clients automated service at an annual fee of 0.90% with a minimum investment of 1,000 British pounds ($1,216); it is intended to serve as a hybrid solution complementing the human advice of the firm's wealth advisors. Source
Revolut has announced a new partnership with Lending Works that will allow the mobile banking app to offer P2P loans; through the partnership, the app's mobile users can submit loan applications and receive funding; loans will be available for 500 British pounds ($608) to 5,000 British pounds ($6,079) with APRs of approximately 9.9% and Lending Works will use customer data from Revolut in loan underwriting approvals; the partnership is expected to bring a significant amount of new business for Lending Works which was launched in 2014 and has lent a total of 50 million British pounds ($61 million) to consumers. Source
Fintech solutions are rapidly evolving and their growth appears to be creating increased market opportunities for innovative fraud; the frictionless payments market specifically has reported a spike in digital financial crime as money launderers find new and innovative ways to steal identities and develop synthetic profiles; the Financial Times also reports on the use of e-commerce for new types of fraudulent activity, noting that criminals can use fraudulent transaction platforms to setup inexpensive e-commerce sites that elicit funds from internet shoppers; with innovative fraud solutions growing fast, the costs of monitoring and mitigating fraudulent activity are becoming an even greater factor for fintech companies. Source
Berlin-based solarisBank has raised 26.3 million euros ($27.95 million) in a Series A funding round; investors included Arvato Financial Solutions, Japanese SBI Group, FinLeap, Hegus and Yabeo Capital; the company offers a banking platform solution that helps companies connect with innovative banking service modules for business integration. Source
European digital bank N26 has increased its customer base by 200,000 users in just 14 months as digital bank solutions become increasingly more popular in Europe; the company has also reported a new transactions milestone of 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion); the Berlin-based company is targeting tech savvy millennials and has introduced a number of competitive features to attract new customers including a lending product that allows for mobile loans up to 25,000 euros ($26,556); the business has raised over $55 million in capital and is planning to expand to Britain in 2017. Source
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has released data for its February Small Business Optimism Index; the Index shows a decrease to 105.3 from 105.9; the NFIB says that the reading is still one of the highest in 43 years; the lower report for February is primarily due to uncertainty around President Trump's deregulation plans, new healthcare law and tax reform. Source