A study by Ernst and Young and DBS Bank finds Chinese fintech companies are advanced in their financial innovation services which they are developing for a strong consumer demand; this demand is being driven by minimal access to credit, increased internet users and few regulatory barriers; success is occurring in numerous fintech markets with an increased focus on the payments industry. 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.
According to a report from Reuters, more large businesses in China are increasing their internal mergers and acquisitions teams and relying less on investment banks for intermediary deal support; Fosun, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are examples, with all three reportedly expanding their in-house mergers and acquisitions teams. Source
Business commerce and supply chain finance platform, Tradeshift, received an undisclosed equity investment from Santander InnoVentures; the capital will be used for expansion of their current platform and for growing the ecosystem around their B2B marketplace; Tradeshift is a business commerce platform where companies can buy, sell and tailor their B2B solutions. Source
The new head of Ant Financial's international operations, Douglas Feagin, helped ink a deal with 930,000 merchants across Europe to help Chinese travelers use Alipay; Doug Feagin explained to the Financial Times why the deal was done: "120 million Chinese travelers went abroad in 2015 and that's growing at 18% a year. The vast majority of whom use Alipay."; Alipay has now expanded into India, Europe and Southeast Asia; it is still looking to go public in the near future. Source
A new law has passed in New York to provide support for online lending; the law includes direction for the development of an outreach campaign that will educate small businesses about marketplace lending; educational materials will come from the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Financial Services and will include simple language detailing potential costs and risks including the disclosure of percentage rates, fees, charges and early repayment options. Source
Atom Bank, a digital-only bank, has been growing significantly, now announcing a new mortgage offering; the company will offer residential mortgages through brokers; adds to its small business lending product; company recently announced it has 100 million British pounds in deposits; in the UK it is one of the region's most well-funded digital-only banks with over 135 million British pounds of capital raised from company investors. Source
In a report by Moody's Investor Services, the rating agency has downgraded the global asset management industry to negative; factors for the downgrade are focused on active management performance, global regulation and increasing costs; a McKinsey report published last month pointed to the new fiduciary rule, set to be enacted in April 2017, as an industry altering step as advisers will be forced not to consider their self interests with high commissions when servicing their clients; capital has continued to flow from actively managed funds to ETFs with costs being significantly lower. Source
In an outlook from Moody's, the rating agency says marketplace lending securitization performance is likely to be stable in 2017; outlook says marketplace lenders have strengthened their business models resulting in improved credit characteristics for the loans backing new securitizations; increased confidence in marketplace lending best practices is likely to continue however performance of loans may vary by category and economic conditions may also be a factor. Source
Orchard has announced a new data services partnership with investment bank, Sandler O'Neill; Sandler O'Neill provides investment banking advisory services for clients in the financial services industry; the partnership will provide access to Orchard's full suite of marketplace lending data analytics services for Sandler O'Neill and its clients making Sandler O'Neill a leading investment advisory service for financial institutions considering bank partnerships. Source
Partech Ventures has raised 100 million euros for its Partech Entrepreneur II investment fund; funds are used to invest in seed funding for startup companies; investment was raised from 90 entrepreneurs, business angels, senior managers of tech groups, and public and private participants; the fund invests in disruptive companies with the potential for major technological innovations; the company plans to use the funds to invest in 80 startups with company investment averaging three per month; the firm has been an active investor in marketplace lending companies. Source