Lloyds Bank is testing biometric authentication technology for its online banking customers; the development is centered around the use of Microsoft's Windows Hello which has fingerprint and facial recognition capabilities and can be used with Windows 10 devices. 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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Alibaba payment affiliate Ant Financial has announced the acquisition of helloPay; the company is based in Singapore and will help support Alipay's strategic growth initiatives in Southeast Asia; its primary payments focus is on serving e-commerce platforms; helloPay will be rebranded as Alipay following the acquisition. Source
Goldman Sachs reported its first quarter earnings on April 18 with few details about its new online lending platform, Marcus; the only mention of the new platform was in the analyst Q&A; the firm said the new platform is evolving slowly and is operating according to plans; the firm reported revenue of $8.03 billion, an increase of 26.7% from the first quarter of 2016; net earnings were $2.26 billion and earnings per share were $5.15; disappointing trading revenue was a point of emphasis for the quarter; investors are interested in more details about Marcus, which has a competitive cost advantage and is reporting potential return on assets of three times the return on assets of the firm as a whole at 3%; as Goldman Sachs progresses further with its retail business expansion, investors will be watching the retail business contribution overall which could help to cover some of its recent shortcomings and give it an edge over its competitors. Source
Pi Capital International LLC has advised Money360 on a $250 million structured debt facility; the funding comes from a financial institution in South Korea; Pi Capital was able to facilitate the transaction through its global alternative capital network. Source
Online franchise business lender ApplePie Capital has announced the acquisition of Funding Solutions, LLC and the appointment of Ronald Feldman as chief development officer; Funding Solutions is a six-person franchise loan consulting firm based in Michigan and will help business and product development for the firm; supporting ApplePie Capital's brand portfolio and product strategy, Ronald Feldman will also bring significant franchise market experience from roles at FranData, Franchise America Finance and The Siegel Financial Group. Source
Orchard has updated its US Consumer Online Loan Index; constituents providing data for the Index have increased to five; new methodologies pertaining to estimates and delinquencies have also been incorporated to improve the Index’s reporting; the updates increase the credibility of the Index as a performance benchmark for the marketplace lending industry; Bill Ullman, Orchard’s chief commercial officer, provides some additional details on the Index’s updates and an analysis of its performance in a blog post. Source
The creation of a secondary market for marketplace lending loans has been a hot topic recently; if a robust secondary market existed many believe more pension plans, registered mutual funds and other institutional investors would participate because loans would have a price and there would be liquidity for investors; currently marketplace lending loans trade on an over the counter market where many of the panelists currently participate; the panel explores whether whole loans are securities, why that matters and dives deep into the key aspects of a secondary market: price discovery, connecting buyers and sellers and fulfillment. Source
Deutsche Bank acquired a 12.5% stake in receivables auction platform TrustBills as the company looks to upgrade their core technology system; in September 2016 Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan reportedly told employees they needed to begin thinking more like a tech startup if they were to keep their positions; the move to acquire TrustBills looks like the beginning of a fintech strategy by the bank; TrustBills is a marketplace for national and international trade receivables and they have begun looking to expand to more markets soon. Source
The BBC reports on the practices of internet lenders, noting that borrowers should be cautious when searching for online loans in order to protect their credit scores; TSB says some loan providers issue a hard inquiry for a loan price or quote which can harm borrowers who are only considering loan options; the bank is lobbying for more regulated practices and says, "Personal loans providers must agree never to perform a hard credit check until the customer chooses to actually purchase a loan in full knowledge of the price being offered." Source
Edward Jones has announced a multi-year partnership with St. Louis based venture fund SixThirty; SixThirty invests in eight to 10 fintech startups annually with each startup receiving an investment of up to $100,000 along with support from a business development program that includes mentoring and networking; Edward Jones will be involved in numerous aspects of the venture fund's investing and Frank LaQuinta, a general partner with Edward Jones, will join SixThirty's investment committee. Source