Mike Baliman runs the London Fintech Podcast and last made an appearance...
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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Ant Financial has become a fintech giant in China and is currently valued at more than $150bn; while their successes are well known the company does have a number of pending issues; the company operates in legal limbo, their chairperson is leaving, regulators are becoming more active and competition is increasing. Source.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has released data for its February Small Business Optimism Index; the Index shows a decrease to 105.3 from 105.9; the NFIB says that the reading is still one of the highest in 43 years; the lower report for February is primarily due to uncertainty around President Trump's deregulation plans, new healthcare law and tax reform. Source
The partnership is with Bud through first direct and will offer an integrated offering of financial services products and tools across the market; Raman Bhatia stated, “At HSBC we recognise that the sector needs to innovate to meet changing customer needs and we’re investing significantly in digital innovation, including working in partnership with fintechs such as Bud” Source
RealtyShares closed investment for its Diversified Marketplace Equity Fund on Monday; the platform offers a range of crowdfunded investments including both debt and equity; the Diversified Marketplace Equity Fund offers investors exposure to middle market equity real estate investments in a diversified portfolio with 10 to 20 property investments. Source
Seeking to be more involved in auto financing, the firm has launched Clearlane; the platform has been developed from the firm's acquisition of BlueYield; the integration and enhancement of the acquired business has resulted in a simplified customer experience and broad range of offerings; the platform includes over a dozen finance providers offering consumers auto financing and auto loan refinancing options with various opportunities identified for expansion. Source
Lisa Servon worked at a check cashing store to identify its benefits and whether or not the financial system should direct consumers to banking services which have previously been cited as less expensive and more efficient; in her experience at RiteCheck Cashing, Servon found three factors that influenced the use of check cashers by the underbanked; costs were lower in comparison to the fees and charges from using a bank; pricing transparency was more clearly provided for check cashing services; many customers also reported better service from check cashing tellers than bank representatives; Servon has published a book titled "The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives" which provides full details on the benefits of using check cashing services. Source
New insurtech startup, Zensurance, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Ferst Capital Partners; the funds will be used to help grow the business and hire new employees; Zensurance is an online commercial insurance broker which offers a full range of products to small businesses, with a particular focus on digitizing businesses and technology startups. Source
10x Future Technologies will soon announce a new funding round of over $40mn from China's Ping An and global consulting firm Oliver Wyman; the funds, according to Banking Technology, will help to speed up technology development and expand the company into Asia. Source.
Artificial intelligence usage continues to increase inside the banking world and banks...