Stash is fresh off a $37mn series D that will see the company double in size and expand into other banking products; the company helps customers invest on behalf of their kids; the typical Stash customer is 29 and makes $50k a year, they help them get more control of their financial lives and invest; “We offer education for these users to help them build the right financial habits from day one, and that doesn’t just stop at investing,” said founder and president Ed Robinson to TearSheet. “Our mission is to help our users throughout their whole financial lives.” Source.
The Community Home Lenders Association and the Community Mortgage Lenders of America sent a joint letter to the CFPB asking for more clarity around surprise audits; the companies cite exemptions for small banks but they don’t have the same type of exemption for small nonbanks; they believe if the state regulator in which they operate requests a formal action then an audit can go ahead but surprise audits should not be permitted. Source.
Citi and PNC striking a deal with HighRadius is the latest example of banks forming partnerships to improve commercial payments; HighRadius has already done partnerships with Bank of America, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Starbucks; HighRadius uses artificial intelligence to help automate some of the slower more paper driven processes in commercial payments. Source.
Americans continue to build up consumer debt; in the fourth quarter of 2017 consumer debt (excluding home loans) rose 5.5% from the prior year to $3.82 trillion; this a record since the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began tracking in 1999; non-housing debt was around 29% of overall debt, another record; some aren’t worried just yet with delinquencies coming off of record lows; The WSJ provides more data points on consumer debt, including various perspectives on the American consumer. Source
The Protecting Consumers’ Access to Credit Act of 2017 was passed by the US House of Representatives. Source
Amazon Lending first launched in 2011 and now is partnering with Bank of America Merrill Lynch according to sources; Amazon invites sellers to the program which provides loans between $1000 and $750,000; in June, 2017 Amazon announced it had lent $1 billion over the previous 12 months; recent reports show that Amazon has slowed growth of the product in 2017 to better understand credit risks. Source
The LendIt team has combed through hundreds of applications to determine the finalists in 21 categories. Source
The CEO and Founder of FS Card talks about the challenges of creating a new credit card company for the underserved. Source
The partnership will allow community banks and other loan purchasers to access the online lending space; it will leverage the Cross River’s expertise in capital, technology and regulatory compliance with PeerIQ’s expertise in data analytics and risk management. Geoffrey Kott, head of finance and strategy at Cross River Bank stated, “PeerIQ’s risk management platform — with its leading loan-level analytics and monitoring capabilities, credit facility management toolkit, and full integration of TransUnion data — will both augment our internal capabilities and provide best-in-class loan-level monitoring tools for our clients and partners.”; Cross River Bank currently works with many big names in fintech, including more than 15 online lenders. Source
Mastercard has launched their in house content studio to help broaden the institution’s brand; the idea is to make themselves look as if they are a tech company; they have hired a content team and have already started making Storylabs in series; the move is part of a wider trend in financial services as companies like JPMorgan Chase, WealthSImple and Acorns have all been producing content; they also recently started a podcast named “Fortune Favors the Bold” by journalist Ashley Ford. Source.