First Republic Bank has acquired Gradifi, a student loan repayment technology platform; the platform offers technology that allows employers to make contributions to the student loans of their employees; an increasing number of employers have been integrating student loan contributions with their benefit plans; Gradifi will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Republic Bank and the acquisition will help it to meet the increasing demand for its technology. 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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Microsoft has partnered with AMIS and the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan to form Asia's first blockchain consortium; the partnership will build on the success of Microsoft's Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) on Microsoft Azure which it announced in April; the consortium will focus on blockchain solutions that provide increased efficiency and cost savings for companies in Taiwan. Source
CommLoan has obtained $2.25 million in seed funding from Social Leverage and ViaWest Group; the firm is the first to offer an online marketplace for commercial mortgage borrowers; it makes loans directly to commercial mortgage borrowers and also uses a network of lending partners to match borrowers with lenders; the firm plans to use the funding for business development. Source
Deloitte surveyed 308 senior executives at companies with revenue of $500 million or more to gain a better understanding of the corporate market's blockchain technology positioning; survey finds widespread interest across all industries; 61% of surveyed respondents had broad to expert knowledge of blockchain and the majority of these respondents said blockchain adoption would be important for their business; while attention for blockchain innovation has mainly been focused on the financial services industry, Deloitte's survey finds significant innovation and progression across multiple industries; most notably, the consumer products and manufacturing industries have reported the greatest number of patent filings, with 38% of respondents reporting blockchain patents filed by their company. Source
Biz2Credit has released data from its monthly small business lending index which analyzes 1,000 small business loan applications processed by the multi-lender; the results show that approval rates from banks and institutional lenders continued to increase while approval rates from alternative lenders and credit unions were lower; Biz2Credit's CEO Rohit Arora attributed some of the increases from larger lenders to improvements in technology at banks which is helping them approve a higher percentage of loans with lower default risk. Source
Ally Bank has expanded its banking products to include mortgages and will offer the loans through an online service called Ally Home; the online service offering seeks to meet heightened expectations and shifting market priorities for digital, tech-driven customer experiences; with Ally Home, borrowers will have the option to manage their communication through email and their documentation online through any device; the bank also says it has partnered with mortgage servicing specialist, LenderLive, to provide fast and efficient service. Source
SoFi has received preliminary ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency for a securitization portfolio including prime jumbo residential mortgage loans; the securitization includes 36 classes with 270 mortgage loans; 31 classes are rated AAA; the remaining classes are rated AA to B with one unrated class accounting for $1 million of the portfolio; the portfolio includes high quality mortgage loans with a comprehensive weighted average credit score of 777; the total principal balance of the portfolio is $168,790,946. Source
British Business Bank (BBB) is a government-owned entity designed to support small businesses in the UK through a fund with 1 billion British pounds ($1.27 billion); it currently has 85 million British pounds ($108 million) invested in the P2P lending industry; the Financial Conduct Authority's release of an update on the crowdfunding market last week noting a number of factors for further investigation has caused taxpayers to question the large allocation to the P2P lending sector; specifically John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, has said, "This is extremely concerning and taxpayers will want to know how this can be good use of their money."; according to a Freedom of Information request reported on by Business Insider, the allocations from BBB include 60 million British pounds ($76 million) invested with Funding Circle, 15 million British pounds ($19 million) invested with MarketInvoice and 10 million British pounds ($13 million) invested with RateSetter. Source
Greenland Financial is expected to report a profit after one year of business; the internet finance company is a newly developed business unit of Greenland Group which is known for its focus on real estate; Greenland Financial offers three main services 1) a wealth management platform with various investment products 2) professional asset allocation and wealth management services and 3) a cloud platform for internet technology and data analysis services; contributing to the success of China's real estate conglomerate, Greenland Financial's president, Yang Xiaodong, had the following comments about the company and its future growth: "The company's revenue and profit will double each year over the next two to three years. I am confident about that. And I hope after three years, the company will seek listing on the capital market." Source
On Monday, ApplePie Capital announced new investment deals with TowerBrook Structured Opportunities Fund and a group of investors led by QED Investors and Fifth Third Capital; the TowerBrook Structured Opportunities Fund will invest $180 million in the platform's loans over the next two years; QED Investors and Fifth Third Bancorp led a Series B investment round for ApplePie Capital raising $16.5 million; ApplePie Capital has partnerships with 40 franchise brands and provides loans to support their franchisees. Source