SoFi recently partnered with WeWork to offer discounted student refinancing to WeWork employees and members; the move is part of a broader strategy for the company to move beyond their initial target market of alumni from top universities; offering student loan repayments as a workplace benefit is a new trend as companies look to help young employees get out from under the mountain of student debt; “The bigger story is that the student loan pay down as a benefit is a massive industry that hasn’t even got going yet — every Fortune 500 company is going to have this as a benefit in the next year or two,” said Peter Renton, analyst and founder of Lend Academy, to TearSheet. 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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- Bradley Strock, PayPal CIO, Joins Elevate’s Board of Directors
- Redpoint Capital Group Rebrands as Park Cities Asset Management
- Zopa surpasses £3bn in lending
- Juniper Square Raises $8M in Series A Funding
- LendingPoint Names Antonio Martino as new CFO
- Juniper Square raises $6M for its real estate investment platform
- Bitbond Launches Alternative Investment Fund in Partnership with 1741 Fund Management
- Bitfury Enters Bitcoin Crime-Fighting Business
Yahoo Finance's new app called Tanda has a unique approach to helping consumers save money; users pool their money over time with others; those who decide to withdraw money from the pool first pay a small fee while the last person in the group receives a small bonus; Lend Academy shares more details and screenshots of the the app. Source
Ireland has become a hub of technological innovation as big tech, fintech and big financial services companies set up shop in country as an alternative to the UK; “Ireland has always been quite an innovative country; it has to be because it is such a small market, you can’t just lean on the Irish market to produce a decent fintech business.” says Sinead Fitzmaurice, co-founder of TransferMate, to the FT; talent from Google and Facebook have not only started their own companies but have also moved into finance giants like Deutsche Bank; low corporate tax rates combined with the tech talent has help the country become an emerging fintech market. Source.
Overstock.com has launched a robo advising investor platform that will be presented by tZERO Advisors; investors can choose from a group of portfolios or create their own for $9.95 a month; tZERO Advisors uses FusionIQ’s investment platform which allows for the online investing; “This service introduces robo-advising investment management services to our millions of customers and continues Overstock’s commitment to bridging Wall Street and e-commerce,” shared Overstock founder and CEO Patrick Byrne to Crowdfund Insider. Source.
Chain CEO Adam Ludwin sat with Business Insider to talk about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies; the interview goes through the basics of what blockchain technology is and how it has been viewed by the wider market in recent years; the hype around the technology has made many believe it can transform anything and everything; in reality, Adam says, it is a tool that should be applied where relevant; they also explore the differences in selling into an institution and how the technology is used in bitcoin transactions. Source.
With the exception of those who reside in few states, users of Square’s Cash payments app can buy and sell bitcoin; users are limited to purchasing $10,000 in bitcoin per week; Square will not add fees to bitcoin transactions and uses the major exchanges to calculate prices. Source
According to the WSJ, SoFi is laying off around 65 employees in its mortgage division; these employees worked out of offices in Healdsburg, California and Cottonwood Heights, Utah; the company has about 1300 employees; according to SoFi, the company “made some changes to staffing to ensure we have the right people in the right roles and locations to power our growth.”; at the same time SoFi is looking to fill 175 jobs. Source
nCino is a cloud-based banking technology provider that has raised $140 million to date; Salesforce Ventures led their latest funding round; the funds will be used to fuel global growth and further development of their Bank Operating System which is built on Salesforce; the company has 180 financial clients across the world. Source
Chase is starting a new marketing campaign by using GIFs across social media channels in an effort to get millennials to use their QuickPay product by Zelle; the campaign shows a shift by the bank to make campaigns more personalized and geared at a younger target market; Donna Vieira, chief marketing officer for Chase’s consumer bank tells TearSheet, “The channels, mediums and media you use; the copy and creative form like memes and GIFs. Clearly 15 years ago this would be nonexistent, but it’s how this audience communicates with each other, tells their stories and what they find engaging.”; Chase saw a 50 percent increase in p2p transactions in 2017 and a 15 percent increase in new enrollments for their app. Source.