According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal and bitcoin have been used for funding Islamic terrorist attacks in Indonesia; the virtual payments were reported to be more difficult to track; the Indonesian Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center says terrorism financing cases have increased in the country from 12 in 2015 to 25 in 2016. 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.
To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.
Raisin has reported over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in investment through its platform; the company offers investors a range of savings account investments across the European Union and facilitates the account funding for the investors; the platform has gained investment of 300 million euros ($318 million) in the past three months and expects to reach the 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) mark in the first half of 2017. Source
PeerIQ has released its fourth quarter "Marketplace Lending Securitization Tracker" with details on the marketplace lending securitization market; the chart below shows the marketplace lending securitization issuance for the top 10 originators; SoFi leads the list with $6.85 billion in securitized loans, followed by Prosper and Avant. Source
Regulators are inspecting Chinese P2P lenders for compliance with new rules issued last year; specifically lenders must partner with a custodian and limit loans to RMB 1 million ($144,200) for individuals and RMB 5 million ($721,001) for companies; they are also not permitted to guarantee principal or interest; the country currently has more than 2,400 P2P lenders; experts expect the new rules will likely change the nation's P2P lending landscape significantly; Roger Ying, founder and chief executive of P2P lender Pandai stated: "[There] will be shakeouts, though good for those which are compliant. It will take time for P2Ps to move to custodian banks. Presumably the most risk for investors is with P2Ps who do not have escrow [or] custodian bank accounts as retail investor sentiment is low." Source
Chinese regulators are investigating investment in the cryptocurrency bitcoin as its price is reporting high correlation with the value of the Chinese yuan; according to data from bitcoinity.org, yuan transactions have also accounted for 98% of bitcoin's trading in the past six months; regulators have met with bitcoin exchanges to monitor investment activity; they have also requested that the exchanges do not market the yuan's devaluation as an investment incentive; investors have reported that transaction volumes are limited to a few hundred thousand yuan. Source
UK bank Barclays has launched a new service for its small and medium-sized business customers; it will now offer the business customers mobile credit applications for loans and overdraft products; loan approvals and funding can be received in an hour. Source
OneMain has rejected an unsolicited exchange offer from IEG Holdings; on January 6, 2017, IEG submitted an offer to buy shares of OneMain, a consumer finance company offering personal loans; IEG is an online consumer loan provider with stock trading on an over the counter market exchange; OneMain says the offer does not reflect the value of the company or the best interests of its shareholders. Source
Activehours, a startup focused on payment processing, has raised $22 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners; workers can request portions of their paycheck through the app which helps workers avoid overdrafts and late fees; the firm does not charge fees and earns revenue through tips. Source
LendIt, in conjunction with Cadwalader and Lending Times, will host a forum on securitization this Wednesday, January 11th at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will focus on key factors to consider in choosing the optimal risk retention structure, commercial considerations related to sponsors including brand and investor relationships, requirements necessary to establish a majority owned-affiliate including the amount of equity that must be retained by the sponsor versus an investor and other related topics; speakers include Philip Bartow of River North, Bruce Bloomingdale from Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, Rupert Chisholm from One William Street Capital, Abe Kahan of CommonBond, Dylan Schuler of CommonBond and Gregg Jubin from Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft; learn more by registering here today.
Commercial real estate marketplace lending platform Money 360 originated loans of $35.6 million in December; the bridge loans ranged from $2.5 million to $12.5 million with durations between one and two years; according to Founder and CEO Evan Gentry, the firm expects momentum to continue in 2017 with performance from the platform a factor of increased demand from borrowers and investors for commercial real estate financing. Source