CompareEuropeGroup is a London fintech company using artificial intelligence to develop digital and automated services for financial companies; it has obtained 20 million euros ($21.32 million) in new capital from a Series A funding round; investors included ACE & Company, Pacific Century Group, Nova Founders Capital, SBI Holdings, Mark Pincus and Peter Thiel; the company will use the funds to develop its technology and machine learning services. Source
The agreement was signed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the People's Bank of China, the intention of the deal is to strengthen regulatory cooperation and boost market access for fintech startups in both markets; the "Fintech Bridge" as it is being called will allow the countries to share information about financial services and help to spot emerging trends in each market. Source
Fleximize is a SME revenue-based finance provider; offers financing from GBP250,000 ($310,000) unsecured and GBP500,000 secured ($621,000); funds from the facility will be used to increase lending capacity; anticipates GBP100 million ($124 million) in funding by 2019; lending in 2016 was GBP40 million ($49 million), up 132% from 2015; company also plans to expand their product set and tech platform. Source
UK Bond Network has received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); allows UK Bond Network to offer investors access via the innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA); the FCA is now authorizing both crowdfunded lenders and bond platforms. Source
Commercial credit data sharing scheme (CCDS) is a market solution providing data sharing for alternative lenders in the UK; the CCDS was launched on April 1, 2016 and is now nearing full integration which means the majority of mandated banks have implemented systems to share their data with UK credit agencies; CCDS will provide current account banking data to credit agencies for approximately 98% of small businesses in the UK which is expected to help improve credit underwriting and broaden credit availability. Source
A new fintech startup called Soldo aims to initially target families that may want to distribute money to children, split household bills or give a domestic worker an expense allowance; firm has larger vision in launching to businesses; company is not a bank but holds an electronic money license and is regulated by the FCA; Soldo has already partnered with Mastercard and aims to solve the problem of single user wallets and debit cards. Source
The bank has seen behavior in the unsecured personal loan market getting out of control; lenders are trying to battle each other to offer cheaper loans in an uncertain time; Paul Lynam, chief executive of Secure Trust, said, "The competition becomes excessive; lenders tend to continue to fight for market share, which means lower pricing."; this is not the first time Secure Trust has pulled back on unsecured consumer loans; in 2006 they ceased originations only to come back in 2009. Source
Challenger banks, including Virgin Money, TSB and Metro Bank, are seeing a market that is becoming more crowded by the day and profit margins in lending areas are being trimmed; mortgage rates coming down and customer acquisition costs going up are two of the main reasons for these worries; pricing in consumer credit has also forced some of these banks to pull out of that segment all together as competition has become too much; the newest space entrants, like Atom, Monzo and Starling, are only adding to the heated environment; Richard Iferenta from KPMG explains to the Financial Times, "The challenge is, if you want to build a bank, how do you get sufficient scale, attract a big customer base, and make a lot of money."; one group who is particularly benefiting is the consumer, they are seeing prices come down and new innovative products hit the market that are helping them to better understand their finances. Source
