LendingPoint is a near prime lender; in the interview the LendingPoint team discusses how their algorithms work to take thousands of attributes to determine which ones are most predictive; the company is now partnering with hospitals for patients to obtain credit on the spot; LendingPoint originated around $28 million in loans in October with about 60% of applications coming through mobile devices. 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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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has formed a partnership with quant hedge fund MANA Partners that will help the bank test algorithms to stay compliant with MiFID II in Europe; the testing environment allows for traders to see if algorithms are safe and how they affect other traders; the move is seen as part of a trend by banks to cut costs and get more efficient within their trading practices. Source.
While banks might have been a bit slow to react to online lenders they are certainly taking notice today and changing how they operate; fintech companies originated about 30 percent of unsecured consumer loans in 2016 according to TransUnion, up from 1 percent in 2010; banks have started to take notice and compete with fintech companies head on and in some cases partner with them as well; banks hold significant advantages over online lenders in cost of capital and customer acquisition costs which could erode that 30 percent market share that fintechs have built. Source.
- The ten-year ticking timebomb - The Finanser
- Challenger bank teams up with direct lending fund
- Yolt announces integration with Starling Bank
- Douugh Receives Strategic Investment from Choice Financial
- SoFi Launches “Refi and Relax” Program to Combat Against Student Loan Anxiety
- AI-based Fraud Scoring Boosts Loan Approval Rate by 50% for ID Finance
- LendUp Hires First Chief Financial Officer, Announces Significant Growth Milestones
- FinTech Will Change More in the Next 5 Years Than the Last 30, Says PayPal CEO
- Jack Ma says no Ant Financial IPO anytime soon
Revolut is the latest company to apply for a European Banking License; their competitors Monzo and Starling Bank are already licensed; the company expects to have the license in the first half of 2018 which will allow it to offer deposit and credit services in certain markets. Source
The largest non bank service provider, Mr. Cooper, led a series A round into Matic Insurance; Matic is a digital insurance agency that allows homebuyers to get homeowners insurance during the mortgage process; Coverager reports Aaron Schiff, CEO of Matic said, “Mr. Cooper’s customers will benefit from Matic’s ability to expedite loan closings and make it easier for Mr. Cooper to lower their borrower’s payments for improved payment performance. Source.
While regulators have shut down exchanges the market is still showing signs of life as investors are trading bitcoin and buying into ICOs; investors are using the price over the counter market to buy and sell cryptocurrencies; investors are also using messaging apps like WeChat and Telegram to get deals done; bitcoin miners are where the authorities have found greater success as there has been a big hit to miners since the crackdown occurred. Source.
The cryptocurrency space is a space we believe in,” CBOE’s chief operating officer told analysts in a call on Tuesday according to the FT; they also noted that the CBOE is in talks with the CFTC to offer futures on bitcoin; this move follows what the CME said last week that it planned to add bitcoin as well. Source.
Sizable fintech companies should face the same regulator scrutiny as banks according to China’s Central Bank; this follows what the PBOC said in August, that internet finance companies should be included in the Macro Prudential Assessment framework which was designed for banks; having banks and fintech companies operate under the same rules could streamline regulation. Source.
Yesterday LendingClub released their Q3 earnings; they originated $2.44 billion in loans, up 14% from the previous quarter; revenue was on the lower end of projections, but the company had a lower GAAP loss than expected; Lend Academy shares other highlights from the earnings call. Source