The new lender, run by former Funding Circle execs, will offer loans between $5 million and $60 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.
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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Head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said she thinks it is inevitable that global regulators come up with new regulations for cryptocurrencies; the IMF has been primarily focused on how the new currencies are being used for money laundering and funding illicit activities; this isn’t the first time the IMF has hinted at and discussed cryptocurrency regulations; trends in the direction of new legislation have been hinted at for some time though nothing widespread has occurred yet. Source.
While some of Europe’s biggest banks will not allow clients to buy cryptocurrencies with credit cards or advise on investing in the market, the smaller banks see an opportunity; Vontobel, Falcon Bank and Bank Frick have all agreed to handle cryptocurrency investments on behalf of clients; “There are risks involved but there are also really big opportunities,” Edi Wögerer, chief executive of Bank Frick, told the Financial Times; some of the world biggest banks have said the market is too risky with volatile prices and money laundering concerns; with the potential for more regulation these smaller banks are looking to already stake a place in the market before the bigger firms feel comfortable enough to get involved. Source.
BlockFi offers loans to those who own cryptocurrencies; the company is currently in a beta launch and is lending in 35 states; ConsenSys Ventures, Kenetic Capital, PJC, SoFi, Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary participated in the round. Source
- UAE Exchange Partners with Ripple
- Robo advice app Stash raises $37.5m Series D, releases investing for kids
- Student lending platform on review for ratings boost (CommonBond)
- Dwolla Lands $12 Million
- CreditEase’s Fintech Investment Fund Invests in Automotive Fintech Company Fair
- Sequoia China leads $40M DataVisor Series C
- MoneyLion Reaches 2 Million Customer Milestone As Growth Accelerates
- Borrowell Gives Birth To New TV Campaign (Vide0)
SoFi said it missed their internal 4th quarter earnings projections due to lower than expected loan performance, increased hiring costs and expenses related to management changes according to the WSJ; the company also said they expect the loan performance trend to continue into 2018 as the look to refine their credit model; the company is also looking to improve fraud prevention, automate loan processing and get better at collections. Source.
Writing a piece for Crowdfund Insider BankMobile’s Co-Founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer Luvleen Sidhu talks through the current banking makeover; new technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain are becoming more prevalent; competition in the digital banking space is beginning to increase as banks look to close branches and move more focus online; banks are currently upgrading their cybersecurity defenses in the wake of the recent Equifax breach; these changes and more are happening now as banks better understand their customers and look to become more efficient. Source.
There are four companies that the government contracts to process student loan payments; two firms, Nelnet and Great Lakes Educational Loan Services inc. are now merging; this will result in one company handling over 40% of student loan payments; according to this MarketWatch article, processors play an important role in whether a student pays down debt or defaults. Source
The CEO and Founder of Better Mortgage tells us how his company is revolutionizing the home buying process. Source
Cambridge Bancorp in Massachusetts formed an innovation group in 2016 and is now positioned to compete against bigger banks; head of the innovation Group Scott Chamberlin tells American Banker, “We spent a couple years proving … we could win business externally and, more importantly, internally from a credit standpoint. We’ve proven that out. This is year we start to add scale.”; the bank is looking to be an alternative to the likes of Silicon Valley Bank and Square 1; they see a differentiating characteristic being their local reputation and that they are in it for the long haul. Source.