Trustly shares how how loan companies can best differentiate themselves from others and details their partnership with Lendify. Source
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika confirmed that the fintech charter was open to commercial firms like Walmart & Google; this is a departure from former OCC head Thomas Curry who said the charter was designed for companies primarily involved in financial services; Mr. Noreika talked through this issue and others wile speaking at a fintech conference organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Source.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set up an asset management startup hub to help companies as they move between pre-authorization and authorization; the hub will help new entrants to better understand regulations, increase engagement and help to increase the quality of companies. Source.
An article in Business Insider highlights a $96 billion hedge fund, Man Group; the firm initially held off on rolling out their AI powered trading bot out broadly until recently; by 2015 AI was contributing half of the profits to Man Group’s largest funds. Source
Former Securities Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, Sarah Friar, chief financial officer at Square, and Scott Sanborn, CEO of Lending Club recently spoke on a panel about regulation for fintech companies and recent improprieties; Sanborn noted that sound corporate governance is not unique to fintech, referencing the Wells Fargo story; panelists discussed that regulation is always behind innovation and how regulators and fintech companies may strike a balance. Source
HSBC is looking to test the new app to help in preparation for the coming open banking regulations; the app will allow customers to look at all their accounts including loans from 21 different banks; Becky Moffat, head of personal banking and advice at HSBC, tells Banking Technology “Through our Beta app we want to give our customers a complete and joined-up view of their financial life.” Source.
ZhongAn Insurance started trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday; the story shares how popular ZhongAn’s IPO was, why ZhongAn is so successful, what the market’s different perspectives are and what’s the broader context of China’s fintech boom. Source
Fidelity’s chief executive Abigail Johnson spoke about the company’s current projects involving cryptocurrency at the Consensus conference; they have made venture investments and are also looking at applications of blockchain technology; Fidelity has set up a mining operation which is making money for the company. Source
When Tandem Bank acquired Harrod’s Bank in August there were three main reasons for the move; FT Alphaville reports Harrod’s had a banking license, the deal came with a $13.4mn capital injection to fund the company through to deal approval and an additional $107mn from existing investors. Source.