Earlier this week, the UK launched its bank referral scheme to help extend credit to small businesses not funded by nine of the UK's largest banks; it seems that UK banks outside of the UK consortium are also increasing their efforts to provide alternative options for business borrowers; this week NatWest announced it has added iwoca to its alternative lending panel, Capital Connections. Source
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
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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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Ireland has become a hub of technological innovation as big tech, fintech and big financial services companies set up shop in country as an alternative to the UK; “Ireland has always been quite an innovative country; it has to be because it is such a small market, you can’t just lean on the Irish market to produce a decent fintech business.” says Sinead Fitzmaurice, co-founder of TransferMate, to the FT; talent from Google and Facebook have not only started their own companies but have also moved into finance giants like Deutsche Bank; low corporate tax rates combined with the tech talent has help the country become an emerging fintech market. Source.
Quicken was one of the first companies to offer a way for...
The Daily Telegraph reports that the challenger bank is hiring executives to...
The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has issued an alert to investors, warning them about potential scams with companies claiming to be involved with ICOs; according to the report, fraudsters may use new technology such as ICOs to defraud customers in various ways; discusses recent trading suspensions, pump-and-dump, market manipulations and tips for investors. Source
Innovate Finance is out with numbers on UK fintech investments in the...
European deposit marketplace Raisin has passed $6mn in brokered savings deposits; deposits grew by more than $3.5mn in 2017 and they saw their international customer base grow by 20 percent; the company acquired PBF Solutions, passed 100,000 customers, added 12 new partner banks and received more than $49mn in interest income last year; “We are pleased to be able to offer savers throughout Europe an attractive alternative.” said Tamaz Georgadze, CEO and founding member, to AltFi. Source.
Personal Capital is looking to compete with banks offering high yield accounts;...
Louis Beryl, CEO of marketplace lender, Earnest, speaks with Jim Cramer about the firm's credit evaluation process; Cramer discusses Earnest's lending specialization which focuses on student loan refinancing but also includes personal loans; Beryl primarily talks about Earnest's edge in credit underwriting which considers a borrower's full financial profile including additional details on assets and bank accounts; this is facilitated by direct connection to online banking accounts; Beryl says Earnest has passed the $1 billion lending mark with $300 million saved for clients using the company's online lending technology. Source

Securitization was a bright spot in online lending in 2016 with significant securitization growth; Ram Ahluwalia's firm PeerIQ provides data and analytics services to issuers, investors and originators; helps stakeholders price, value, exchange and structure risk in securitizations; Ram Ahluwalia talks about themes relating to securitization growth; year over year growth was 59% from 2015 to 2016 with over half of loans being funded via ABS; securitizations are also becoming increasingly rated by ratings agencies; originators have benefited by accessing lower cost of capital providers such as pension funds, banks and insurance companies; major online lending platforms have also launched their own branded securitization shelfs; Ahluwalia also speaks about the challenges of the securitization market and answers audience questions. Source
