Square is starting to take on the look of a full service...
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 blockchain insurance consortium B3i has secured 38 members worldwide including Allianz, Swiss Re and AIG; the project would help these insurers move away from their paper based processes and secure contracts on distributed ledgers; right now blockchain is not widely used in insurance and the project is hoping to bring along the change; B3i estimates the changes could help the industry to save over 30 percent of costs. Source.
A new report by Fidelity Investments shows that 22 percent of institutional...
Investing startup M1 Finance decided in December that charging 25 to 40 basis points was not working, so it decided to allow users to use their platform for free; since shifting to the free model the company has seen more than $1mn a day come onto the platform; rival robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront think the move is an act of desperation, though both companies offer or have offered some version free services; CEO of M1 Brian Barnes tells Business Insider, “M1 is very limiting from a trading perspective but it is a phenomenal tool for building a portfolio for the investments you want." Source.
According to new data from the Federal Reserve mobile payments have seen a big growth among consumers but fraud has also risen; the shorter clearing period looks to have opened banks on the Zelle network to more potential for fraudulent transactions; Zelle has been using multi-layer and multi-factor authentication during the enrollment process; as banks look to innovate to suit their customer needs they are also looking at newer ways to protect themselves against threats that are evolving just as quick. Source.
The Marketplace Lending Association was launched in April of 2016 and is one of the industry's leading advocacy groups; in September it hired Nat Hoopes to lead the Association and represent the industry in Washington, D.C.; Lend Academy interviews Nat Hoopes in their most recent podcast, providing details on his background in the industry, the evolvement of the MLA and his insight on the current regulatory developments affecting marketplace lending. Source
The new method called DAICO incorporates characteristics of DAOs or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations; the goal is to reduce complexity and risk with ICOs; article shares the benefits of this new approach. Source
Online consumer lender 4finance has raised $325 million from an issuance of bonds; the bonds are senior unsecured, five-year fixed rate notes issued with a 10.75% yield at par; the firm will use the proceeds for debt restructuring, business development and corporate management. Source
While China's fintech market has been a global leader, online auto financing has lagged other countries; it is currently only reporting a 30% penetration rate compared to 85% for the US; despite the slower growth, the market is reporting some recent activity specifically from Guazi.com, Kkucar, Didi Chuxing and UCAR; overall the market is expected to grow from RMB1.1 trillion ($159.758 million) in 2016 to RMB1.85 trillion ($268.684 million) in 2018. Source
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a financial government agency overseen by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, held a fintech forum discussing the industry; industry speakers included Ram Ahluwalia from PeerIQ and Matt Burton from Orchard; SEC speakers included Mary Jo White and Michael Piwowar; Mary Jo White focused on fintech responsibility suggesting thorough testing of various aspects of the business before introduction; Michael Piwowar focused on fintech sandbox testing and suggested that the SEC should be the lead agency regulating fintech; in an announcement on Monday, Mary Jo White also said she would be leaving her role in January. Source