Initially started as a pet project The Girl Banker blog by Natalie Bartholomew of Grand Savings Bank has caught on as an industry sensation; her blog talks about the accomplishments of women in banking; “I realized I had a voice in terms of being a woman in banking or a woman in business,” Bartholomew said to American Banker; she has discussed eventually talking about pressure women feel in the workplace and the choice between family and careers; she is also looking at monetizing her success with speaking engagements, partnerships and sponsorships. 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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American Banker has released their inaugural “Best Fintechs to Work For” list; they highlight some of the unique perks fintech companies are offering their employees; some of the names making the list are Best Egg, PeerStreet, nChino, SmartBiz Loans, Nav, Cross River Bank, Jumio and Oportun. Source
In this week’s PeerIQ Industry Update they cover the rising volatility in credit markets and the recent Q4 economic numbers; while at SFIG in Vegas PeerIQ shared comments from investors which show a lot of optimism and demand for MPL; they also talk about their recent product offerings and the continued push by banks to work with fintechs. Source.
The CEO of the U.S. Network of Accion gives us the CDFI perspective on small business lending in underserved communities. Source
- How can today’s generation of lenders fight global financial crime?
- Shinnecock Partners Publishes Definitive “How to” for Private Investors on Direct Lending to Factoring and Merchant Cash Advance Companies for High Yields
- tZero Has Acquired VerifyInvestor for $12 Million in Cash
- Tales of failed peer-to-peer lenders
- Chinese Fintech Wecash Raises $160 Million During Series D Funding Round Led By ORIX Asia Capital & SEA Group
- How tech is transforming the real estate industry
- Kore.ai Unveils New Bots Platform, Adds Former Citi CIO as Strategic Advisor
- A Dialogue with Peter Renton: Cryptocurrency and Beyond
- ‘Fintech’ Firms Take Bigger Bite of Manhattan’s Office Market
- How XRP Fits Into Ripple's Payments Products Explained
- Wealthfront’s mutual fund spurs industry critiques
- Credit-Card Losses Surge at Small Banks
During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news...
Jason Gottlieb, a partner at Morrison Cohen, told Crowdfund Insider that, in his opinion, “Despite its firm view that most (and maybe all) ICOs were unregistered securities offerings, the courts have not yet decided whether the “coins” or “utility tokens” are truly securities.”; the reports point to the SEC investigating at least 12 ICOs and their gatekeepers; regulators have been increasing their understanding of the space in the last year as the ICO market has taken off. Source.
Both Marlette and LendingClub now have their own securitization platforms which has broadened their investor base; Sid Jajodia, chief investment officer at LendingClub spoke at the Structured Finance Industry Group’s conference in Las Vegas this week and discussed the importance of brining LendingClub’s loans in-house; he also spoke about their new whole-loan structured product announced in December as well as changes that might make sense for the company in the future; Karan Mehta, head of capital markets for Marlette discussed changes they are making to their whole-loan program. Source
MasterCard and Facebook Messenger have teamed up to bring Nigerian small businesses digital payments and banking; 98 percent of Nigerians use cash when transacting with businesses; businesses message a Masterpass QR bot on Facebook Messenger to help enable QR code payments; the partnership is then supported by Nigeria’s Ecobank and Zenith Bank by setting up those businesses with accounts at the banks; the biggest hurdle in a partnership like this is the consumers or small businesses cannot transact with one another and so adoption is slow, though the partnership hope to solve that issue. Source.
The company reported an increase in profits and sales last year which were helped by growth in the Nordics and Germany; Klarna processed €18bn in transactions last year which was an increase of 42%; the company partnered with Asos, Topshop and JD Sports in the UK to drive further growth; in the US they have partnered with Microsoft. Source