Former Securities Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, Sarah Friar, chief financial officer at Square, and Scott Sanborn, CEO of Lending Club recently spoke on a panel about regulation for fintech companies and recent improprieties; Sanborn noted that sound corporate governance is not unique to fintech, referencing the Wells Fargo story; panelists discussed that regulation is always behind innovation and how regulators and fintech companies may strike a balance. 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.
Fintech companies have found it increasingly hard to work with tier one banks; while most talk openly in private some companies have begun talking publicly about the frustrations; issues the commonly deal with include sense of entitlement, questions about intellectual property, failure to pay and long lead times. Source.
Ron Shevlin, writing for Forbes has compiled a list of fintech companies...
Only 25 percent of the Chinese population is considered to have a traditional credit score; for non bank lenders gathering alternative data like transactions and social media has helped them to identify potential borrowers who the banks will not serve; Ant Financial has built out Sesame Credit who gathers this type of data and other online lenders have also begun using different data pieces to assess risk. Source.
The company says it is recommitting to being a technology company and refocusing on product development; the recommitment will cause less of a focus on customer growth which it has been emphasizing following its new relationship with partner bank Compass; it plans to return to its original mission of being a technology company focused on product development for its customers; the company already offers a number of innovative tech solutions including a checking account product that allows customers to itemize savings for specific goals; the new focus has resulted in the termination of five executives and a 10% reduction in staff. Source
While the Chinese have been quickly adopting fintech in recent years it has come at a cost to the consumer; the Chinese government is able to view troves of information as payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay now need to pass through the central bank; not only in fintech but other areas of tech innovation, like facial recognition, has been a boon to the government; while apps and services are making lives simpler and more efficient, they can also help to make government intrusion a lot easier. Source.
U.S. small businesses make up 47.3 percent of the private workforce according...
Southeast Asia reported 71 fintech deals in 2016, an increase of 29% from 2015; total deal value was down from $177 million at $158 million; angel and seed investments led for the year with 62% of total financings; in 2016, Singapore continued to be the region's most active fintech innovator with 52% of the year's total deals; the top three venture capital investors since 2012 are East Ventures, 500 Startups and Golden Gate Ventures. Source
India has become one of the fastest and most diverse fintech markets in the world; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel featuring leading India fintech firms; panelists talk about what makes the India market unique and what is the size of the opportunity right now; banks have helped to serve the top of the credit pyramid and micro lending has helped to serve the bottom of the credit pyramid, there is a big opportunity in serving the missing middle; panelists focused on how their lending models differ, the differences in the small business and consumer markets and how India has gone from a data scarce country to a data rich country; Aadhaar has also played a key role in helping to get more people and businesses into the financial system; other areas discussed include borrower acquisition channels and leveraging third party data sources. Source
Forbes features entrepreneurs on this year’s 30 Under 30 Asia who are...