As of January 2017 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fully authorized ten peer-to-peer lenders, according to AltFi, while the remainder of the industry operates with interim approvals; AltFi speculates on some of the characteristics of the authorized and interim lenders; of the authorized firms, Folk2Folk is the largest with originations of approximately 100 million British pounds ($120.44 million); the UK's largest platforms including Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle still have not been approved; loans from these lenders are primarily unsecured; characteristics identified by AltFi as issues for the FCA include: pre-funding, collective investment, auto-investing and institutional investment. Source
P2P ratings and research firm 4thWay has released a list of the UK's top P2P lenders by loan originations; Zopa, FundingCircle and RateSetter lead the market with originations nearing 2 billion British pounds ($2.46 billion); UK property lender Wellesley, which has reportedly been struggling for capital, tops the list with 366.5 million British pounds ($451.48 million) in loan originations. Source
The market structure for bitcoin is providing traders with compelling global profit opportunities and as a result, automated trading is now accounting for a significant portion of trade activity; the market is ideal for automated trading algorithms because it includes multiple exchanges for arbitrage analysis, no transaction costs on Chinese platforms and 24 hour trading; price and volumes keep going up and without new trading barriers it seems bitcoin exchanges will become even more popular among automated traders. Source
Business marketplace lender Loan Frame has announced a $2.25 million fundraise that will help the firm expand its business in India as demonetization and the Indian economy present new opportunities for growth; participants in the $2.25 million funding round included the co-founder of Vedanta Capital, the former chairman of Visa International and the co-chief executive of MIO Partners; the platform has stated it is seeking to build the largest small and medium-sized business lending marketplace in the sub-continent; expects to lend $150 million over the next two years with both secured and unsecured loans. Source
LendIt has announced its Lang Di Fintech 2017 conference which will be held on July 15 to 16 at the Kerry Hotel, Pudong, Shanghai; LendIt also announced a partnership with JadeValue Fintech who will co-host the second annual LendIt China PitchIt@LendIt startup competition and offer the winning company six months of co-working space as one of the many competition prizes; LendIt China will also be translating the daily LendIt News on its new Lang Di WeChat channel. Source
Dow Jones has released its European Venture Capital Report for the fourth quarter; shows venture capital investment in Europe increasing from the third quarter of 2016 and also from the comparable quarter in 2015; European companies raised approximately 2.93 billion euros ($3.11 billion) from 539 deals in the 4th quarter, a 35% increase from the previous quarter; the number of deals also increased by 9% from the third quarter; the UK was a market leader for investment with 122 deals totaling 754 million euros ($799.35 million). Source
European banking profits are at risk from digitization according to a McKinsey report; the report, "A Brave New World for Global Banking", says European banks have $35 billion, or 31%, of profit at risk from digitization; fee-based products for traditional banks versus online banks is the main factor for profit; McKinsey says banks must enhance their business models, provide competitive digital tools and data analytic platforms; also suggests that banks partner with financial companies across the industry to reduce and share innovation costs; the McKinsey report also says banks will need to streamline their information technology structures and be more proactive in their regulatory strategies. Source
The online lender is now able to originate mortgages in 27 states, with hopes of expanding to all 50 soon; included in their announcement about the New York license was overall originations reached $1 billion in December, $100 million of which were mortgages; SoFi Chief Revenue Officer Michael Tannenbaum said, "The plan is to continue to roll out a state licensing strategy, our licensing strategy mirrored places where there were large jumbo balances."; SoFi also believes their cross buying strategy and the $1 billion infusion from SoftBank has helped them weather the storm of the last year; in a separate announcement, the online lender has moved their office to 860 Washington Street in New York's Meatpacking District. Source
French bank BNP Paribas, along with Daon, has developed a new biometric login for their wealth management clients using their mobile device; the new service is called myBioPass and it allows users to login using a selfie; transactions are then authorized by fingerprint or voice recognition; the service is currently active for Luxembourg clients using iOS mobile devices; myBioPass will be added to desktops and Android devices later this year. Source
Mobile wallet technology firm YoYo has launched a new marketing platform for traditional merchants that is powered by artificial intelligence; YoYo Engage will provide marketing campaign recommendations to merchants through artificial intelligence suggestions derived from mobile wallet payment activity; the firm launched the new marketing platform at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Source