The Chinese online lender issued over $2 billion loans in the quarter to over 200,000 borrowers; this represented year over year growth of 95%; 2017 total originations were $6.3 billion across nearly 650,000 borrowers; Revenue in the fourth quarter was $280.5 million and net income was $69 million. 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.
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Revolut continues to add functionality to their accounts as they apply for their banking license; while Revolut customers have access to card payments, in Europe many utilities require that you pay phone and electricity bills with direct debits. Source
The finalists for LendIt Fintech’s 2018 startup competition have been released; BitButter, BlockFi, CreditStacks, Flowcast, Genivity, Narmi, Spacequant and Trusted Key will pitch in front of judges at LendIt Fintech 2018 on April 10 in San Francisco. Source
- Retail Banking: Bridging the Gap from AI to ROI (White Paper)
- The Top 5 Trends of Institutional Investors Allocating Capital to Marketplace Lending
- Digital Assets Data Raises Seed Funding Round
- Funding Circle fund announces on target dividend
- Experian Acquires ClearScore for $385 Million
- Lenders warned against selling products to vulnerable consumers
Amazon is I Talks with JPMorgan Chase to offer a co-branded Credit card for small business owners; the credit card would have rewards points for purchases and they would also look to add business insurance plans; this is first time Amazon will look to have a credit card specifically for small businesses. Source.
Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, added a provision to the bill for the FHFA to review credit scoring alternatives; the FHFA currently uses FICO’s classic scoring model for loan applicants; the provision adds a new piece to the ongoing argument occurring between FICO and VantageScore; FICO and some lawmakers say the FHFA is already going through a review process for credit scores; the FHFA did ask for input on new scoring models in December and is working through the comment process. Source.
While speaking at the Futures Industry Association event in Florida the former JPMorgan executive talked about the issues women in finance face; It is somewhat disappointing having spent the better part of three decades in financial services to move to technology and find things are even worse there,” said Ms Masters, CEO of Digital Asset, as reported by the FT; other panelists brought up the idea that education needs to be better and more needs to be done to encourage women to focus on math and science. Source.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has granted Coinbase an E-Money License; Barclays is also allowing Coinbase to access the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme which is the core payment infrastructure in the UK; Coinbase’s Zeeshan Feroz stated, “There is no other exchange today that has access to domestic banking. UK consumers today have to jump through all sorts of hoops around sending money to European accounts using euros in order to get money in and out." Source
deBanked has collected originations figures from many of the top small business financing companies; according to data available, OnDeck led 2017 originations with over $2.1 billion; PayPal Working Capital and Amazon Lending are not included in the list. Source
Beginning in June ads promoting cryptocurrencies and ICOs will be banned on Google; this follows a recent ban from Facebook; both companies have a large share of internet ads and combined collected 60% of online ad spend in 2017; many cryptocurrencies fell on the news. Source