The comment period for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's fintech charter proposal closed on January 17 and the New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) was among the commenters; the NY DFS opposes the federal fintech charter; says state regulations have evolved to provide the necessary oversight; also notes that the regulations will create confusion, harm small business innovation, create monopolized institutions, increase competitive risks of non-bank entities and facilitate evasion of consumer protection. 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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Established fund management companies are leading the next wave of market computerization through investment in robo advisors; robo advisors offer automated investment options with lower fee structures; investment managers are buying and integrating these services to expand their offering and mitigate competitive factors; a partnership between John Hancock Financial and NextCapital is one of the latest examples; other deals have included SigFig with Wells Fargo and UBS, BlackRock with FutureAdvisor and Fidelity with eMoney. Source
The marketplace lending industry has evolved with investments coming from a range of market channels; to help marketplace loans integrate even further into the mainstream the industry needs involvement from 'gatekeepers' and needs to educate the asset allocator community; Lend Academy discusses the investment consultant process to bring new types of investments to asset allocators; to help facilitate this communication, LendIt is offering asset allocators free tickets to LendIt USA 2017 and is planning a special event at the conference for asset allocators, hosted by fund managers. Source
According to a new report by Accenture and McLagan, which is part of Aon Hewitt a business unit of Aon plc, blockchain technology could reduce infrastructure costs for eight of the world's 10 largest investment banks by an average of 30%, translating to $8 billion to $12 billion in annual cost savings for those banks; key figures include a 70% cut on central finance reporting, a 50% cut on business and central operations, and a 50% cut on compliance. Source
LendIt will be hosting a LendIt Forum today featuring speakers Peter Renton from LendIt and Andrew Dix from Crowdfund Insider; participants can submit questions for the speakers to learn more about the evolution of the industry and how to effectively invest in marketplace loans; the forum will take place at 2:00 PM EST; register here and join the webinar today. Source
Banks are integrating automation to help improve cost pressures yet competition from fintech companies continues to increase; professionals believe the market's fintech revolution will transform the industry and lead to greater automation, consolidation and fintech partnerships; banking automation appears to be one leading factor banks are focusing on as they analyze the market's competitive challenges; automation, blockchain and new technologies are all important topics being discussed at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. Source
Motive Partners is launching a new venture capital fund this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos; Motive Partners plans to raise $150 million for the fund which will invest in fintech; LMRKTS will be one of the firm's first investments; LMRKTS is supported by ex-US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and is focused on technology for managing foreign exchange transaction costs. Source
Chinese P2P lender Dianrong has announced its 2016 financial results; loan originations increased 148% from 2015 to approximately RMB 16.23 billion ($2.36 billion) in 2016; the firm's investor base grew to 3.62 million investors; loan loss rates were low overall with a 1.17% cumulative non performing loans rate and 2.46% current non performing loans rate; average interest rate earned by investors was approximately 7%; the firm says new regulations in China have helped large firms with established brands like Dianrong and sees continued growth ahead for the business. Source
Bitcoin market exchange CoinBase has received licensing from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to expand its business to New York; the bitcoin licensing process involved analysis of the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection and cyber security policies; along with CoinBase, the New York DFS approved four additional firms for virtual currency business operations including licenses for XRP II and Circle Internet Financial, and charters for Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company. Source
We had an all-star panel of the pioneer fund managers at LendIt 2016 to discuss how to prepare their portfolio for a market downturn. The managers were beginning to see greater dispersion in returns and started to question whether a downturn was coming. However, as we have seen, the bull market continued its historic rise throughout the year. Nevertheless, it was great to hear firsthand from these managers on how they stay prepared for a market correction. Source
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