Government officials recently created legislation for P2P lenders in Lithuania; FinBee, a small business lender is the first to have received the license and has officially launched using Madiston's software; according to FinBee CEO Laimonas Noreika: "We were delighted to be the first P2P platform to receive our license to help small businesses borrow to finance their growth. Our technology helped us to achieve this. When we first launched consumer lending, we chose Madiston's software because it was ready to go with what we needed but also gave us the ability to add functionality as we grow. The first step in our expansion plan was to add business lending and the technology was there for us, Madiston has been a supportive partner throughout." 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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India's CoinTribe has partnered with SMERA Ratings to incorporate a new rating system for its online business lending services; through the partnership CoinTribe will gain access to SMERA's ratings database for micro, small and medium size businesses; CoinTribe plans to integrate the ratings information with its current credit underwriting system for enhanced analytics on business credit loans. Source
Patrick McHenry is one of the most active proponents for fintech in Congress; Lend Academy talks with McHenry at LendIt USA following his keynote presentation; in the podcast he talks about the role of the House Financial Services Committee, his perspective on fintech, current legislation and his outlook for financial innovation over the next four years. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was established as part of Dodd-Frank reform following the 2008 financial crisis to focus on financial law pertaining to the protection of consumers in the financial marketplace; in 2016 a three-judge D.C. circuit panel declared the CFPB unconstitutional in the PHH vs. CFPB case and gave full director accountability power to the president; an appeal by the CFPB overturned that ruling and called for a rehearing of the case before a broader panel of judges which is set for May 24, 2017; on Friday, March 17 the US Justice Department filed a brief requesting that the federal appeals court restructure the CFPB; the brief appears to be focused on the fact that the CFPB director was setup to have no accountability to the president; in the case of PHH vs. CFPB, lawyers from PHH reported that the CFPB should be dissolved; the Justice Department's brief appears to focus just on the CFPB director's accountability. Source
New York-based ConsenSys has been elected to advise the City of Dubai on the first ever blockchain city technology effort; the initiative is led by the Smart Dubai Office and IBM, the government's strategic partner; as part of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy 2020, the city of Dubai will now require all government records and transactions to be documented using blockchain technology. Source
China's central bank provided its insight on fintech development initiatives for the country in a recent press conference; the press conference included four of the central bank's government officials including Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China; the central bank reported that it encourages and supports fintech development in the country; it spoke about some of its initiatives including a digital currency and other new blockchain solutions; it also noted its work to strengthen regulation specifically in the areas of unlicensed businesses and third-party payment platforms. Source
American Banker talks with David Klein, CEO of CommonBond about the fintech industry and his insight on the effects of a fintech charter; David Klein says company valuations across the industry are more realistic and the industry is maturing with more lending platform investments focused in later round fundraisings; explains the company's technology solution for employers adding student loan payment benefits; notes the company's default rate is zero; says the OCC fintech charter should give fintech companies better competitive market positioning and help to reduce costs. Source
Over the weekend, the price of bitcoin dropped by as much as 20%; the price has since rebounded slightly with a current price as of writing of $1,041; the recent volatility is due to disagreements between developers, exchanges and entrepreneurs about the size limit of a block; some want to increase the current block limit of 1 MB; two groups have been debating including Bitcoin Unlimited, who is advocating for no limit on block sizes, and Bitcoin Core, who is advocating to keep the block size as is; Bitcoin Unlimited has recently threatened to implement a hard fork. Source
Zopa launched its Plus product one year ago; the Plus product is the firm's highest risk and highest return offering; investors are reporting a 6% short-term return for the loan investments which fall in two additional risk categories: D and E; since introduced the platform has lent more than 100 million British pounds ($124 million) from approximately 9,000 investors. Source
The March MPL Loan Performance Monitor from PeerIQ discusses recent rate increases to riskier borrowers for both Lending Club and Prosper; PeerIQ described the rate increases at Prosper to be mild in comparison to Lending Club, additionally we should see more rate increases in 2017 as the Fed looks to raise rates a few times; the MPL Loan Performance Monitor also takes a look at delinquency and charge-off rates for 36 and 60 month products for both lenders. Source