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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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Capital One announced last year that they were exiting the mortgage and home equity originations business; some of those employees are landing at Flagstar bank to expand their direct lending operation; Kristy Fercho, president of mortgage for Flagstar stated, “Capital One built a best-in-class digital platform, so we are excited about attracting this proven, high-caliber team in the direct-to-consumer space to Flagstar.” Source
The new loan product is helping Americans get quick access to cash but it is not entirely free. Source
Business Insider reports on the success of Bank of America’s investment in digital channels; reports that they added about 2 million users to digital channels, predominantly to mobile; mobile channel usage rose 34% year over year; article also compares active mobile users across competing banks Wells Fargo and JP Morgan. Source
Harmoney has shared that they are working with DataRobot to improve credit assessments; DataRobot automates data science workflow and allows users to customize predictive models; Harmoney’s models have been trained on data from over 300,000 loan applications; previously it took them 12 to 16 weeks to deploy models, now it takes just minutes. Source
The Open Banking Implementation Entity or OBIE chose regtech firm Contego to support OBIE’s identity proofing and verification processes; Nigel Spencer, head of support services at OBIE, tells Banking Technology that Contego delivered a “bespoke solution that combines automated identity checks with the added security of face-to-face verification” and this made the firm “the obvious choice”.; the company can customize their solution and deliver in real time via API. Source.
Consumers have submitted hundreds of complaints about the p2p payments app because they are unable to sign up or access money that was sent to them; the reason behind the issues is Zelle’s security structure is very similar to that of a bank; if something doesn’t match perfectly or the users bank is outside the Zelle network then its possible they will not be able to sign on; Zelle initially launched inside their bank network only, but in September they launched their stand alone app and thats when the issues began; the company is looking at improving the process but says they will not compromise their security. Source.
As banks look to update legacy technology or partner with fintechs they have turned to consultants for advice; consulting firms like BCG, Accenture and the big four accounting firms, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY have all been called upon to help structure deals or provide banks with advice on regulatory updates; financial institutions are relying on these consultants to help banks implement the technology changes and to adapt quicker as they can help bring knowledge from data scientists or app designers. Source.
Looking to make their consumer lending product more appealing Goldman Sach’s Marcus is now offering loans for home improvement; the bulk of their loans have thus far been originated for debt consolidation; with more banks entering the space and the non bank lenders who have come on the scene since the financial crisis Marcus is looking to differentiate their initial offering; this is a trend across the fintech market as competition has forced firms to try to make products unique. Source.
Mission based digital banking startup Varo Money secured their second significant round of the last two years by raising $45mn; investors in the round include The Rise Fund, led by U2 ‘s lead singer Bono, and Warburg Pincus who also helped to lead their first round; Varo applied for a national bank charter in July and plans to use the money for hiring, product development and marketing. Source.