The Independent Community Bankers of America have expressed concern about Square’s plans for a bank charter; they believe it would set a precedent for other tech companies like Amazon; According to Jacqueline Reses, Amazon and Facebook haven’t expressed interest in a banking license and they would have to be evaluated on their own merits; Square also recently met with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition to address concerns with the Community Reinvestment Act. 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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This week’s PeerIQ Weekly Industry Update covers the Fed raising rates by 25 bps, Affirm’s big fundraising and securitization news; PNC announced their new lending pro cuts through their mobile wallet and anticipate it will outperform branch loans; Equifax completed their first Securitization, a $200mn deal backed by lender fee revenues; PeerIQ does a deep analysis on the Sharpe Ratio which helps to gauge risk-adjusted returns. Source.
In March the Securities and Exchange Commission denied approval for a Bitcoin ETF by the Winklevoss twins because they said too many bitcoin markets were unregulated; with recent futures markets at the CBOE and CME starting there is new hope for ETF approvals; previous filings for ETFs are now being refilled and newer ETFs are being filed as recently as late last week; there has been similar products in Canada and Switzerland with both trading at premiums. Source.
With AI and machine learning technology becoming better banks of all sizes have started to employ chatbots with more regularity; Crowdfund Insider takes a look at 5 banks employing the technology; banks include Bank of America’s Erica, Swedbank’s Nina, Capital One’s Eno, SEB’s Aida and Wells Fargo; in most cases the chatbots help with simple tasks like checking balances, paying bills and finding the closest ATM. Source.
A new study has found that borrowers in China are taking out loans from multiple platforms; of 61 online lenders in the study, 44% of their customers borrowed from multiple sources; it is difficult to prevent against this since p2p lenders don’t have access to all of the credit data of their borrowers and there is no centralized place for platforms to share data; the study was done by the Beijing Internet Finance Industry Association. Source
M-Pesa is now in 11 countries, has more than 30 million users and helped to lift thousands of people out of poverty; Business Insider took a trip to Kenya to get a look at how the app works and the effect it has had on the region; 80 percent of mobile banking in Kenya is done through M-Pesa and people use the service for groceries, paying off debts with friends and more. Source.
The CEO and Co-Founder of Nav talks small business finance and how his company is helping small business owners become more successful. Source
Amazon is speaking with the Bengaluru-based company; the company is focused on small businesses but is also looking to lend to consumers on Amazon’s platform; According to sources Amazon may invest $5-10 million; Capital Float recently raised $45 million in a Series C; Amazon has recently done other deals with fintech companies in India. Source
- BFS Capital Names Former BankUnited Executive, Mary Harris, as Chief Marketing Officer
- Ranger Direct Lending makes further $9.1m provision for Argon Credit
- Marlette Funding Appoints Sabrina Basht Chief Strategy Officer for Best Egg
- Octopus Choice passes £100m AUM
- Loot Secures £2.2m in Funding
- Australian Fintech Airwallex Secures $8 Million Investment From Square Peg
- Overstock.com CEO aims to sell or reorganize e-commerce biz so he can focus on blockchain
- National Personal Credit Platform Appoints Chairman
- China: WeiyangX Fintech Review
- China’s war on risk hands US$121b loan market to big firms
- China’s Wild Bunch: Startup Investors Are Cashed-Up Cowboys
- Goji Adds to Team
During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news...