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
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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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
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
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
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 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
Since launching in 2015, Sharestates, a real estate crowdfunding company, has crossed $275 million in originations across 323 loans; in December 2016 the company originated $42 million, nearly doubling total loan volume in just over three months; average net yield to investors has been 11%; Sharestates recently announced they were raising their Series A through SeedInvest; the company is currently profitable and was previously a finalist for PitchIt@LendIt. Source
ThreatMatrix announced its 2016 financial results with substantial growth in new financial institution customers; firm's business has been increasing traction, reporting $15 billion saved in fraud losses for its customers in 2016; revenue growth rates continue to be 50%; in 2017 the firm is planning for global expansion with an additional data center opening in in Reykjanesbaer, Iceland. Source
Juzhen is developing new blockchain technology for banks that will focus on privacy, biometrics and access control; the firm is the largest China-based blockchain startup; it is working with the ChinaLedger blockchain consortium and has a thorough understanding of the Chinese market's infrastructure and banking culture. Source