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.
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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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
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
The new loan product is helping Americans get quick access to cash but it is not entirely free. Source
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
- Axial Members Surpass $25 Billion in Closed Middle Market Deals
- Envestnet | Yodlee unveils API solution for PSD2 compliance
- Three major incumbents are dedicating funds to fintech
- PrimeRevenue’s Tom Roberts: ‘More companies are optimizing their cash conversion cycle’
- Remark Holdings Announces New FinTech Product and New Contracts
- Where'd You Get That Token? 7 Platforms Managing ICOs
The new CFPB director Mick Mulvaney is planning to rollback a key regulation that will allow payday lenders to charge very high interest rates; the current rule was set to be enacted soon and allow for lenders to become compliant by the middle of 2019; the rule limited the amount of money or the amount of times a person could borrow from these short term lenders; with the removal of the rule payday lenders can go back to operating like they did prior to the CFPB; many fear that lower income Americans will become mired in debt. Source.
Banks have historically been the guardians of customer information, but that has started to change with open banking; opening up information to third parties via customers has led banks to think more and more about security breaches; Now it’s not just about building a wall and not letting anyone in,” said Ram Bose, global retail banking consulting leader at Genpact, to TearSheet. “It’s about building a filter or strainer that lets some things in or out and not other things.”; the UK has regulations that mandate the sharing of info but the US has only set out standards and banks have been doing one off deals; new technologies like AI and machine learning can help to better secure agreements when banks are working with 20 or more potential partners; it is early days but banks can help to set up the standards they use by working together with fintechs and regulators. Source.
Citi has reduced their branch network by more than 16 percent in the last two years and has plans to continue this trend; the bank has seen their retail banking revenues grow despite less branches as their digital channels have picked up the slack; digital users grew 13 percent and mobile users grew 21 percent as the company looks to expand their digital footprint; “We’re making investments in digital, and growing our franchise through digital rather than the physical footprint,” said CFO John Gerspach on an earnings call; the company has also looked to retool branches by rolling out digital aspects in the branch using computers and iPads. Source.
Peter Renton, Founder of Lend Academy and Co-Founder of LendIt shares his perspective on the likely fintech IPOs in 2018. Source