Immigrants face challenges when it comes to accessing credit when they come to the US; while in their home country they may have established a solid credit history, they now have to start from scratch; several fintech companies tackling this problem include Nova Credit, CreditStacks and Petal. Source
President Trump’s pick to head the FDIC, Jelena McWilliams, has spoken favorably about ILC charters in the past; ILC charters exist in a handful of states, most notably Utah who has seen a spike in inquires about applications; charters can allow fintech companies to bypass state by state licensing; ILC charters are an controversial way for fintech companies to act like banks and with the national charter proposed by the OCC in limbo more companies might look to take this route. Source.
Budgeting app Moven is planning to buy a small bank so they can become a more direct competitor in the banking space; the company’s new partner, SBI Holdings, is investing in Moven to create two entities MovenBank and Moven Enterprise; “We’ll do a digital direct challenger bank without having to run branches,” Moven CEO Brett King said to TearSheet. “That was really the thing we were waiting to see if we could solve because we’re just not interested in doing branch banking.”; the company will look continue allowing banks to leverage their technology with Moven Enterprise then use MovenBank to be a true digital bank alternative. Source.
Codispoti is a JPMorgan executive who helped create the Chase Sapphire Reserve card; in this Business Insider Q&A she talks about her perspective on millennials, a new bank branch Chase is launching and the learnings from her time creating the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Source
Cambridge Bancorp in Massachusetts formed an innovation group in 2016 and is now positioned to compete against bigger banks; head of the innovation Group Scott Chamberlin tells American Banker, “We spent a couple years proving … we could win business externally and, more importantly, internally from a credit standpoint. We’ve proven that out. This is year we start to add scale.”; the bank is looking to be an alternative to the likes of Silicon Valley Bank and Square 1; they see a differentiating characteristic being their local reputation and that they are in it for the long haul. Source.
The CEO and Founder of Better Mortgage tells us how his company is revolutionizing the home buying process. Source
There are four companies that the government contracts to process student loan payments; two firms, Nelnet and Great Lakes Educational Loan Services inc. are now merging; this will result in one company handling over 40% of student loan payments; according to this MarketWatch article, processors play an important role in whether a student pays down debt or defaults. Source
Writing a piece for Crowdfund Insider BankMobile’s Co-Founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer Luvleen Sidhu talks through the current banking makeover; new technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain are becoming more prevalent; competition in the digital banking space is beginning to increase as banks look to close branches and move more focus online; banks are currently upgrading their cybersecurity defenses in the wake of the recent Equifax breach; these changes and more are happening now as banks better understand their customers and look to become more efficient. Source.
SoFi said it missed their internal 4th quarter earnings projections due to lower than expected loan performance, increased hiring costs and expenses related to management changes according to the WSJ; the company also said they expect the loan performance trend to continue into 2018 as the look to refine their credit model; the company is also looking to improve fraud prevention, automate loan processing and get better at collections. Source.
BlockFi offers loans to those who own cryptocurrencies; the company is currently in a beta launch and is lending in 35 states; ConsenSys Ventures, Kenetic Capital, PJC, SoFi, Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary participated in the round. Source