The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published details on its fintech charter in a 16-page supplement to its existing OCC licensing manual; the fintech charter supplement addresses capital requirements, liquidity, financial inclusion plans, consumer protection and the application process; Lend Academy provides an analysis in their article; the release of the fintech charter will now be followed by an open comment period which ends on April 14; also noteworthy is that Thomas Curry's term as comptroller ends on April 9 however he can serve until a replacement is confirmed. Source
Lend Academy provides a list of the top eight podcasts providing insight on the fintech market; these podcasts can provide a wealth of information on new companies, industry announcements and regulations; Lend Academy lists Breaking Banks as its top fintech podcast; the Breaking Banks podcast is hosted by industry expert Brett King every Thursday at 3:00 PM EST. Source
Marketplace loans are becoming more integrated into institutional portfolios however institutional investors are still only beginning to take interest in marketplace lending investment allocations; in Europe, Aegon has made a significant institutional investment in marketplace loans from Auxmoney; the investment demonstrates that institutions such as insurance companies are getting comfortable with the asset class; it could also cause increased investment in P2P loans in Europe specifically where fixed income yields are historically low. Source
Sandler O'Neill clients will soon get access to Orchard's suite of data analytics products thanks to a new partnership between the two firms; Lend Academy talked with Orchard to provide more insight on the partnership; clients of Sandler O'Neill include community banks, thrifts and specialty finance institutions; Orchard's Chief Commercial Officer Bill Ullman says the data partnership will provide expertise to help them evaluate investment opportunities in the online lending market. Source
Emmanuel Marot writes about the hybrid robo advice model in a blog post for Lend Academy; says he is not in favor of the hybrid model since machine learning can take care of the needs of investors noting that complexity nor human whims have proven to bring any value. Source
As with past conferences LendIt aims to bring new speakers to the conference; this year LendIt has confirmed Ash Gupta (President of American Express), Harit Talwar (CEO of Marcus) and Thomas Curry (Head of the OCC) among many others who are new to LendIt; the agenda will also include the leaders in online lending with representation from companies such as Lending Club, Prosper, OnDeck and loanDepot; the conference will be the largest for the industry to date with a 100,000 square foot exhibit hall, featuring over 200 companies; LendIt will end the conference with the first ever industry awards dinner. Source
LendIt China 2017 will include the Lang Di Fintech Conference and LendIt China Executive Tour; the Tour and Conference will take place from July 8-17; the China Executive Tour from July 8 to 15 will include networking activities and meetings in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai; following the Tour, LendIt will host its second annual Lang Di Fintech Conference event in Shanghai from July 15 to 17; Lend Academy provides more details on each of the two events in their article. Source
While fintech innovation has greatly evolved in recent years, there is still much more to be accomplished; one area available for significant market growth is financial inclusion; Lend Academy talks about fintech innovation for the underserved bank customer in their article; LendIt will be running a financial inclusion track this year at LendIt USA to help support development of this market opportunity. Source
SoFi bought online bank Zenbanx for approximately $100 million and will now be the first online lender to offer deposit accounts; Lend Academy provides more details on the acquisition in their article; the acquisition will help SoFi become a more central source for financial services to their clients; Zenbanx currently offers mobile accounts in the US and Canada; the current business will become integrated with SoFi's operations and Zenbanx's founder and CEO will be joining SoFi to run banking services; the acquisition gives SoFi significant latitude to launch additional banking products and the deposit accounts will add to the company's current products which now include student loan refinancing, consumer loans, mortgages, wealth management services and insurance. Source
Lend Academy provides insight and highlights from the event's keynote speakers in their article; day one featured Scott Sanborn from Lending Club as the event's leading keynote speaker and also included three keynote presentations on regulation in the industry from Congressman Patrick McHenry, Comptroller Thomas Curry and CFPB Director Richard Cordray; day two began with Alex Tapscott discussing blockchain and followed with a variety of insights from leading industry innovators; Lend Academy also reports on PitchIt and the LendIt Industry Awards additionally including key takeaways from the event overall; videos from the event will all be published within the next few days and can be found on the LendIt USA 2017 video page. Source