Ant Financial is looking to raise a new $5bn round that would take the company’s value north of $100bn; the FT reports that the new round might begin later this month; if the valuation is as much the company would be worth more than Uber who right now is worth about $68bn; the biggest reason behind such a lofty valuation is the data collected on users according to Thomas Olsen, partner at Bain consultancy. 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.
To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 is marketed as having a better camera and can take clear pictures in low light; the technology could solve one of the bigger facial recognition issues which is poor quality pictures in low lighting; thus far banks have been slow to adopt the new technology as they have yet to be comfortable wit the way it currently works; with Samsung and Apple continuing to improve their cameras and a younger generation of customers increasing, facial recognition will soon be an important piece for all banks. Source.
The new unit at the SEC was started in September to focus on potential illegal activities in the digital currency market; the ICO that was shut down promised returns of 1,000 percent; the SEC filed charges against Dominic Lacroix who they claim was trying to raise $15mn from thousands of investors. Source.
Currently reconsidering the Winklevoss brothers' ETF proposal, the SEC has now received another approval request for a bitcoin ETF; investment manager VanEck has submitted a prospectus to the SEC for a bitcoin-related ETF; the fund differs from previous funds, with its investments based on derivatives of bitcoin; VanEck is seeking to list the fund on the Nasdaq and says it will also include conventional investments such as US Treasury bonds and cash for risk diversification. Source
Orchard's weekly snapshot highlights some new securitization activity in the online lending market; SoFi has filed for its third securitization of 2017 (SCLP 2017-2); Kabbage has filed for their first securitization of the year; in its fourth quarter 2016 earnings report, Lending Club also reported a new securitization program with quarterly issuance of up to $100 million. Source
UK based online real estate lender LendInvest announced a $328mn securitization deal...
According to cybersecurity company BioCatch, new market trends such as faster payments and...
A new Senate proposal circulating yesterday would allow the Treasury and the...
The P2PFA has announced changes to the standards for its members which will be put in place next April; the new rules, according to Christine Farnish, Independent Chair of the P2PFA are “…built around the principles of transparency, integrity, honesty and competence.” Source
Anchorage is launching a new cryptocustody service as an alternative to financial...