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·Sep. 1, 2017

IFISAs Report 2,000 Subscribers in 2016

ISA statistics were released on Thursday by HMRC; last year two thousand Innovative Finance ISA accounts were subscribed with retail investors collectively investing GBP17 million (USD $22 million); this compares to GBP22.325 billion ($28.94 billion) into stocks and shares and GBP39.191 billion ($50.81 billion) into cash ISAs; about one third of money invested into IFISAs on P2P platforms last year was from transfers; while the accounts opened and amount invested were low it still shows appetite for such products. Source

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Europe Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Reminder: PitchIt @ LendIt Europe Applications Due September 4

PitchIt @ LendIt Europe is one of the industry's most popular startup competitions providing eight finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise and funding opportunities as well as invaluable exposure, branding and more at the event; hosted in partnership with Startupbootcamp, the event offers fast-track status to the finalist round for Startupbootcamp Fintech Accelerator as one of its prizes; LendIt also announced this week that it will partner with SeedInvest to crowdfund live from the PitchIt @ LendIt Europe competition; interested startup companies must submit their application by September 4 and finalists will be announced on September 10; more details about the competition can be found here. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Alipay Uses Facial Recognition Tech for Payments in a Hangzhou KFC Restaurant

Ant Financial has rolled out the world's first commercial application of a payment system that identifies payers using facial recognition technology; starting from September 1, a KFC restaurant in Hangzhou allows customers to authenticate their payments by having their faces scanned; the whole process, which takes about ten seconds, does not require users to take out their cell phones; the function is powered by Face ++ technology developed by Beijing startup Megvii. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Two ICO Unicorns

TechCrunch reports that OmiseGO (OMG) and Qtum both surpassed $1 billion in market cap; they became the first subtokens built on ethereum and subsequently sold to investors to pass the $1 billion mark; both companies have achieved this in staggeringly short amounts of time; OMG raised $25 million in July and now tokens are valued at over $11 compared to $0.27 at the time of the raise; Qtum raised $15.6 million in March with tokens now priced over $17; both companies do not have an actual product available in the market. Source

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News Roundup Online Lending USA

·Aug. 31, 2017

Millennials Taking More Personal Loans

Online lending appears to be driving increased personal loan borrowing from millennials; data from TransUnion says 4.33% of millennials obtained a personal loan in 2015 and online lenders accounted for approximately 30% of the personal loan market last year; TransUnion also reports that millennials are more conservative about credit card debt with two fewer cards on average than the previous generation. Source

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Europe News Roundup Online Lending

·Sep. 1, 2017

Funding Circle Investing GBP12mn in New Marketing Initiative

The marketing initiative coincides with the firm's recent rebranding announcement and is part of the company's "Made to Do More" campaign; it is spending GBP12 million ($15.51 million) across media and specialist channels with a focus on business borrower and capital investor awareness; the firm has been a market leader in investment deals in 2017 recently announcing a partnership with Aegon and reporting a $100 million fundraising in January. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

PBoC Officials Visit San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and Blockchain Companies

On August 23 and 24, officials from the People's Bank of China and scholars from Peking University arrived in San Francisco and had in-depth discussions with delegates at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as well as some fintech companies including Coinbase, Prosper, Sofi, Circle and Ripple; discussion topics focused on digital currency, regtech, lending and inclusive finance; Sun Guofeng, the head of the Research Institute of PBoC, and Yao Qian, the head of Digital Currency Research Institute of PBoC, attended the tour; a report on the status quo of US fintech market, regulatory environment and its implications on China will be written after this visit. Source (Chinese)

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Sep. 1, 2017

Othera CEO Discusses Blockchain and Loan Tokenization

Compares blockchain to a library cataloging system; explains public and private blockchain and the centralized way information is stored creating a distributed ledger; also reports on the blockchain solutions offered by Othera which include loan tokenization for secondary trading. Source

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News Roundup Online Lending USA

·Aug. 31, 2017

Lend Academy Article: Bills Being Introduced to “Fix” Decision in Madden v. Midland

The Madden v. Midland case has been a closely followed case for over two years by the marketplace lending industry; bills are now being introduced to hopefully fix the ambiguity around the case; Lend Academy shares the history of the case and perspectives from Adam Levitin, professor of law at Georgetown University, Nat Hoopes, executive director of the Marketplace Lending Association, and Brian Korn, partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Source

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Fintech News Roundup USA

·Aug. 31, 2017

Financial Institutions Increasingly Collaborating with Fintechs

Financial institutions are becoming more involved with fintechs as the new entrants show advantages in speed, agility and emerging innovation; CoinTelegraph reports on the industry integration, noting examples from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and HSBC; discusses the benefits for financial institutions from working with fintechs and the capital support needed by fintech startups which is making the two groups interdependent. Source

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