Thomas Curry spent most of his speech at LendIt USA refuting arguments against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) fintech charter and the agency's authority for establishing the charter however controversial factors affecting the charter's implementation were the primary topic for discussion on a LendIt USA panel; while panelists generally agreed that more regulatory clarity is needed for financial innovation overall, panelists were divided on the need for a fintech charter to regulate fintech firms; panelists reported that fintech chartering could potentially promote partnerships with banks through more standardized regulation however it seems the fintech charter is far from ready to match the broad ranging fintech variants for which it's trying to target. Source
The company says it is recommitting to being a technology company and refocusing on product development; the recommitment will cause less of a focus on customer growth which it has been emphasizing following its new relationship with partner bank Compass; it plans to return to its original mission of being a technology company focused on product development for its customers; the company already offers a number of innovative tech solutions including a checking account product that allows customers to itemize savings for specific goals; the new focus has resulted in the termination of five executives and a 10% reduction in staff. Source
LendingPoint plans to expand its online balance sheet lending services nationwide with support from a new partnership with FinWise Bank; LendingPoint currently offers loans in 26 states with nationwide expansion now planned for the first half of 2017; the firm uses a proprietary credit model that seeks to provide loans for fair credit consumers with credit scores ranging from 600 to 700; LendingPoint has funded more than $185 million in loans; its loans range from $3,000 to $20,000, with terms from 24 to 48 months. Source
Wealthsimple is a Canadian firm backed by Montreal-based Power Financial and they are looking to launch their robo advisory solution to US clients soon; in accordance with US securities law, Wealthsimple received approval to operate as an investment advisor by the SEC in October 2016; there is no account minimums for their product and the first $10,000 invested will be fee free, anything above $10,000 will be subject to a management fee of 0.5%. Source
First Trust has filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a pooled fund that will include marketplace lending securities under the name First Trust Marketplace Lending Partners, L.P.; minimum investment in the fund is $50,000; firm offers a range of investment funds including many funds with an income focused investment strategy. Source
Financial inclusion is a factor considered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in all of its banking charters; American Banker discusses how the fintech charter's financial inclusion provisions compare to the Community Reinvestment Act requirements for banks; the new fintech charter would require fintechs to detail how they plan to promote financial inclusion with accountability from the OCC for those goals and more direct OCC enforcement actions for fintech companies. Source
Global fraud prevention and identity verification startup Emailage raised $10 million in growth funding; the round included Anthos Capital, with participation from Radian Capital, Wipro Ventures, Mucker Capital and Tallwave Capital; they are looking to increase existing partnerships and accelerate growth in North America, Europe and Latin America markets; the company provides real-time risk intelligence by leveraging the email address as a unique global identifier. Source
Marketplace lending loan servicer First Associates has announced the opening of a new operations center; the operations center is located in Baja California, Mexico with capacity for 1,000 seats; in comments regarding the announcement, First Associates CEO David Johnson said: "We couldn’t be more excited about our new Baja facility. We are able to deliver the same outstanding quality and service as our San Diego operations center, offer an economically advantageous option to our clients and provide significant opportunities in a developing business community that is an important part of the greater San Diego/Tijuana metro area." Source
The accelerator is being launched by the founder of venture capital firm Boldstart Ventures, Ed Sim, and is the first accelerator dedicated to the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain; Sim tells CoinDesk: "We feel like there's a tremendous amount of corporates working and using Hyperledger Fabric, but there aren't as many startups working in that area. We'd like to bridge the gap."; the program, will last eight weeks helping companies to build with the open-source code and they will receive an undisclosed amount to help them along the way. Source
Fitch Ratings has upgraded its ratings for the Citi Held for Asset Issuance 2016-PM1 (CHAI 2016-PM1) portfolio which includes loans originated from the Prosper platform; the ratings agency upgraded the Class A, B and C tranches; it attributes the upgrades to growth in hard credit enhancement available to the notes. Source