SoFi has published a blog post in response to a New York Times article about recent news at the company; discusses what SoFi calls vague claims as it relates to their mortgage and personal loans business; provides updates on what the company is doing related to corporate culture and Mike Cagney’s departure. Source
News Roundup
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Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
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SoftBank Vision Fund is considering a $500 million investment in the Hong Kong IPO of ZhongAn Insurance, Thomson Reuters’ publication IFR cited people close to the deal; the fund is likely to be a cornerstone investor in ZhongAn’s up to $1.5 billion IPO, which is expected to launch as early as Sept. 18; SoftBank and ZhongAn declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Source
There has been a lot of news coming out about SoFi recently; first came the departures of several senior executives; then news of a sexual harassment lawsuit came in August; now CEO Mike Cagney is stepping down as CEO from the company by the end of the year, having already stepped down as Chairman; in a letter sent to employees Cagney wrote, “The combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company’s core mission. I want SoFi to focus on helping members, hiring the best people, and growing our company in a way consistent with our values. That can’t happen as well as it should if people are focused on me, which isn’t fair to our members, investors, or you.” Source
Goldman Sachs said that their loan business would contribute almost half of the $5 billion in revenue growth it is projecting by 2020; the company will put $28 billion towards loans in the next three years in order to grow that part of the business; Revenue growth has remained flat since the financial crisis and trading revenues remain stagnant. Source
Speaking at an industry conference JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said bitcoin was a fraud and that it will eventually blow up; American Banker reports, “If we had a trader who traded bitcoin, I’d fire them in a second,” Dimon said. Not only would doing so be against company rules, but it would also simply be “stupid.”; he also talked about the bank's future plans in new locations and mobile banking. Source
Samsung has already been working with bank branches for five years; the new retail pop-ups will be rolled out in “sooner than a year”; an example of the pop-ups is a shopping center which usually has ATMs where banks could setup for a weekend to attract new customers; Samsung provides the devices that help bank employees engage with their customers. Source
Orchard has been working for a long time on their new platform called Orchard Deals; the platform has been redesigned from the ground up and boasts more than just a secondary market; features include deal listings, capital management, advanced analytics, data services and news & insights; Peter Renton from Lend Academy spoke with Orchard CEO Matt Burton and outlines what’s new in the blog post. Source
The UK’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, issued a warning to investors regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs); in particular they warned of the “high risk, speculative” nature of the new capital raising method; financial regulators worldwide have begun cracking down on ICOs in recent months, China has banned them and the SEC in the US issued a similar warning as the UK. Source
Goldman Sachs is investing £100m ($132.6) in UK consumer lending platform Neyber; the financing will come in the form of debt and equity; the FT reports, “We are now in a place where we are confident in our model,” said Martin Ijaha, co-founder of Neyber. “The Goldman Sachs investment of £100m is really about expanding the amount we lend from the £70m we have done to date.” Source