Alibaba announced it was taking a 33 percent stake in their fintech affiliate Ant Financial; the agreement allows for Alibaba to pick of shares of Ant Financial and also ends the revenue share agreement they had in place; TechCrunch reports the deal was focused on “certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial.”; Alibaba saw their shares drop after the announcement and many think this is a prelude to Ant Financial’s IPO. 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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During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news...
- Zorin Finance reaches £300m of lending
- Pace of Small Business Investment Remains Strong
- New Product Alleviates Mortgage Lending Compliance Risk and Worry
- Bitcoin Investors Had a Tough Week. Credit-Card Companies Are About to Make It Tougher
- India to bar cryptocurrencies from its payments system: finance ministry official
- NYC-Based Behalf Secures $150 Million in Debt Capital
Robo-advisors are far less prevalent in Europe compared to the US; however this is a growing market particularly in the UK and Germany; the UK market is larger, but Germany is growing at a faster rate; total assets under management stand at $3.5 billion at the end of 2017 according to TechFluence; it is estimated that there are around 98-126 robo-advisor services in Europe; article shares the biggest robo-advisors in Europe and the major differences between markets. Source
The head of NetCredit, a division of Enova, talks about their underwriting, bank partnerships, the human touch in credit and more. Source
European finance chiefs believe that tech companies moving into financial services is a threat to financial stability; they also highlight the need for companies to be held to the same regulation as big banks; banks are especially concerned as open banking regulations are now in effect; article shares perspectives from BBVA, ING and Lloyds. Source
This week’s PeerIQ Industry Update covered the strong job growth reported and the chances of a rate hike in March; Marcus made key hires in an effort to launch a credit card as it builds out their consumer banking businesses; Marlette completed its largest securitization for $464mn and saw the senior tranches of the deal rated AA by Kroll; PeerIQ also highlighted key points from testimony by Nat Hoopes of the Marketplace Lending Association when he testified before the House Financial Services Committee. Source.
Ally Bank is launching an augmented reality game during the Super Bowl to help customers visualize and think about savings; Ally Big Save can be used during Super Bowl commercials to drag bills in a digital piggy bank and they are granted points during the game; the goal is to make people have fun but think about saving money; “While the game is a lot of fun, it’s also a way for Ally to help consumers focus on saving for something bigger to make a more meaningful impact on what matters most to them and those they care about,” said Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer, to TearSheet; Ally is not the first bank to experiment with augmented or virtual reality, other banks have started to use the technology as means of innovative marketing to engage customers. Source.
PayPal saw payment volumes grow by 29 percent and they added 8.7 million new accounts in Q4 2017; the recent announcement that eBay was replacing PayPal with Adyen for processing overshadowed what was another strong quarter by the company; while the Adyen news was not positive for PayPal it could be seen as that in the long term as the company has been diversifying more in recent years; PayPal has seen growth through more partnerships with card networks and banks globally. Source.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced the start of the R5-SHCH Connect Partnership between London and China; the partnership will allow banks in China to have access to London’s foreign exchange market; the partnership is between London's R5 and the Shanghai Clearing House; companies involved include HSBC, LSE, BP, Standard Chartered and Standard Life Aberdeen; Jon Vollemaere, CEO of R5 commented to Finextra, “The new service offers benefits for all institutions trading FX. It provides Chinese banks with increased access to the global FX market, it enhances liquidity in major currencies, and it advances the internationalisation of the RMB.” Source.