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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UK-based mobile banking app Monese raised $10 million in funding from Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Korea Investment Partners and STE Capital; funds will be used to expand into continental Europe and to offer new credit and direct debit services; since launching in 2015 the company has signed up 40,000 customers from 179 countries who have made 1.8 million transactions; total dollars transacted is over $180 million. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has fined TransUnion and Equifax over $23.2 million for deceptively advertising services; the agencies reportedly advertised credit services costing customers over $200 as free and misled customers about the use of credit reports they obtained; according to the CFPB, TransUnion will pay $13.93 million to consumers and a $3 million fine while Equifax will pay $3.8 million to consumers and a $2.5 million fine. Source
CreditEase was China's first P2P lender, founded in 2006; since its founding the firm has been expanding its services to wealth management and robo advice; Ning Tang, CreditEase founder and CEO, provides his insight on the business and the online lending industry in an interview; highlights how the company plans to expand its business lines through partnerships while also managing regulatory controls. Source
AltFi highlights four main factors influencing alternative finance in 2017; UK regulatory developments continue to influence the market with new authorizations from the Financial Conduct Authority and ongoing consultation on the crowdfunding market; the small business lending referral scheme began in November with high expectations for increasing alternative lending originations; the launch of Marcus by Goldman Sachs is expected to affect competition and potentially set a precedent for online lending platforms lending from deposit capital; the Article 50 clause, which begins the process for the UK leaving the European Union, is still open for debate with the final action occurring in March; the March results will significantly influence the economic environment in 2017. Source
India's demonetization of the Rs 500 ($7.32) and Rs 1,000 ($14.65) continues to help online alternative finance lenders; uncertain investors are increasingly utilizing alternative finance platforms as a safer investment over gold, real estate and the stock market; invoice financing platform KredX has reported investment increases of 400% to 500%; with less of a cash focused society, P2P lenders Capital Float, Faircent, i-lend and AnyTimeLoan.in have also reported significantly higher platform investments. Source
Data from Financial Technology Partners reports $36 billion in fintech financing in 2016; the funding was provided by over 1,700 investors through approximately 1,500 deals; banking and lending companies represented 29% of deals while the payments, loyalty and ecommerce category obtained 38% of the total funding. Source
P2P-Banking.com has released its monthly report on marketplace lending originations; Funding Circle, RateSetter and Zopa led in December however loan volume for the UK lenders was down from November; Funding Circle originated €114.1 million ($118.92 million), RateSetter originated €68.2 million ($71.08 million) and Zopa originated €60.2 million ($62.74 million); in December Funding Circle's loan volume decreased -14% from November, RateSetter's originations decreased -1% and Zopa's originations decreased -25%.
Morgan Edwards, chief financial officer at CommonBond gives an overview of the company and the student lending opportunity in this video from LendIt USA 2016. CommonBond provides student loan refinancing but one thing that makes them unique is their "1-for-1" model where they fund an education of a student in Africa for each student loan refinancing. As of April, the company had $625 million in capital committed with zero defaults and zero 30+ day delinquencies.
Morgan believes we are in a growth cycle and capital is here to stay although we may experience some ebb and flows through the cycle. He stated, "Capital flows where there is understanding and there is a return," and highlights several aspects that make this a favorable environment for student lending and marketplace lending broadly.
You can view the full video below:
LendIt provides details on LendIt USA 2017 training sessions in their blog post; the training sessions will be focused on sales and marketing, and technology and operations; the two sessions will be held on March 6 and will include interactive discussion; the sales and marketing training session will be in the morning and will include discussion on digital marketing channels, and lead generation, retention and engagement; the technology and operations session will be in the afternoon and will include discussion on artificial intelligence and the importance of mobile. Source