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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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The US Senate's Banking Committee majority leader says a full reform of Dodd-Frank is unlikely but the Committee will seek to pass targeted reforms; the Banking Committee majority leader also sees larger regulatory changes coming mainly from the independent agencies; the outlook means the Financial Choice Act led by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling is also unlikely to be passed in the Senate; "The Choice Act is our omnibus legislation, but we will also reintroduce its component bills," says Hensarling; a previous executive order from President Trump which halts new federal regulations or requires regulators to repeal two rules for every new one issued is also slowing the regulatory process. Source
Innovative banks and fintech companies are disrupting the traditional one-stop banking model; a 2016 report from Accenture says bank customers are purchasing low margin products but looking elsewhere for brokerage accounts, auto loans and home mortgages; in 2016 nonbank mortgage lenders reported a significant milestone with 51.4% of the market's loan issuance an increase from 9% in all of 2009; as the trend continues, banks will have to increasingly monitor customer activity and offer new products that match nonbank competition. Source
Bank of America says it will invest $1.5 million in a Charlotte fintech initiative over the next three years; the investment is the first for the city from a financial services company; regarding the investment, Cathy Bessant, Bank of America's chief operations and technology officer, said: "Charlotte has proven to be a place where a sustainable company can be founded, emerge and grow. Fintech is a significant, new opportunity for Charlotte that connects our strong finance and technology infrastructure with innovatively minded people, creating tech jobs and new paths to economic mobility."; Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts is expected to publicly announce more details on the initiative in the next few months. Source
SeekingAlpha reports on the valuation of Square, Inc. citing several factors that have led to an overvalued stock price of $17.37; the author reports that assumptions on the growth of its customers is overestimated; says it will have difficulty when expanding to higher value customers and internationally also reporting that the business model is at risk to lower cost market competitors; also says that its reliance on Square Capital lending to retain customers and balance attrition of gross payment volume is unlikely primarily due to market competition. Source
HSBC has announced a partnership with Tradeshift that will connect the Tradeshift network of companies to working capital lending at HSBC; Tradeshift has over 1.5 million companies on its platform; it offers HSBC the advantage of seeing the whole supply chain which can add insight for lending decisions; the partnership follows a significant investment in Tradeshift by HSBC last year; Business Insider also notes other fintech bank partnerships and the increasing interest from banks to partner with fintechs for innovative solutions. Source
Fifteen employees of Jinxing Investment are on trial in Shanghai for fraudulent lending of 1.5 billion yuan (US$220 million); the employees are charged with illegally raising funds and taking investments from the public that were not used for their intended use; Ji Jianhua, the company's chief financial officer, told the court that the investments were fake and that funds were directed to personal or related accounts of president Wang Mian; the company shut down in June 2016 and Wang Mian escaped and has not been found. Source
Bloomberg reports on Wins Finance Holdings (WINS) which currently has an inception to date return of 3,305% and is trading at $230; the Chinese company has a small business loan and equipment leasing business; the stock is in the Nasdaq Composite and reports the index's highest 12-month return; while the Chinese stock appears to be a little known discovery, its business financials are rather abstract; Bloomberg provides details on the company including information from its public reports which began with its 2015 Nasdaq listing. Source
The panel explores consumer litigation funding also known as pre-settlement funding, non-recourse funding or lawsuit lending; provides funding to plaintiffs who commonly have a personal injury case; money is used for life needs such as rent, mortgage, tuition, food, etc. and is not a loan; LawCash has provided funding for around 100,000 cases and has been in operation since 2000; YieldStreet is an investment platform for investors to access these types of investments; other topics discussed are how litigation funding is uncorrelated, how deals are underwritten, transparency of companies in the industry and the evolution of litigation finance. Source
CB Insights reports on artificial intelligence (AI) startups that have been acquired since 2012; top acquirers include Google, Apple, Facebook and Intel; 200 AI companies have been acquired since 2012 and the first quarter of 2017 reported 34 AI acquisitions including the largest deal from Ford which acquired Argo AI for $1 billion. Source