Business Insider sat with Coinbase’s Dan Romero who recently took on the role of general manager and vice president of the company in January; the interview covered the company’s plans for growth on the engineering and product sides; he said the company is looking to become for cryptocurrency what Google has become for search; the interview also talks through the recent SegWit upgrade, where Coinbase is headed in the next few years and how they compare to their biggest competitors. Source.
Deutsche Bank examined whether bitcoin is improving in a recent note they sent to clients last week; a few factors have played into fees staying low, less demand with people looking to transfer their bitcoin and the SegWit upgrade to the bitcoin network; while only 14 percent of transactions occur through the SegWit update the tech is helping to improve the network; transaction volumes moving lower are the bigger reason for the drop in fees according to Mosaic.io co-founder Garrick Hileman. Source.
The Godfather of Fintech shares his thoughts on what rewirement means, what fintech needs today, where it is going and what excites him about the future. Source
Digital only banking startups are finding it hard to scale as their offerings are similar to incumbent banks but with some better tech; with the amount of companies starting to increase these banks should think of focusing on a particular niche to get greater traction says Satya Patel, a partner at VC firm Homebrew; customer acquisition costs and a viable revenue model are two of the biggest barriers for companies; online lenders like SoFi have started to offer banking services on top of lending as a means to offer customers more products after providing an initial service. Source.
Pagaya is an asset manager based in New York; they announced that they have received $75 million in debt financing from Citi; the funds will be used for its Opportunity Fund to invest in loans by online lenders such as Prosper and LendingClub; the company uses machine learning to determine loans worthy of investment. Source
The emerging blockchain industry is starting to look like the rest of the tech industry, predominantly male; it is estimated that only 4 to 6 percent of blockchain investors are women; there are a number of women who are looking to change this culture and have started forming clubs and conferences to attract more women to the space; “We have an opportunity to rebuild the financial systems,” entrepreneur Brit Morin said to the NY Times. “Women want to be part of that.”; there has been numerous incidents at industry events and from ICO marketing campaigns that have been discouraging to say the least for blockchain women enthusiasts; with the industry still in its infancy there is plenty of time to build a more inclusive culture for all those interested in the potential of blockchain technology. Source.
Bank of America is the second big bank, following JPMorgan Chase, to announce a big expansion of branches; the bank plans to open more than 500 branches over the next 4 years and hire over 5,400 people; they also said they will redesign more than 1,500 branches with new technologies and layouts; the focus of the plan is to establish more branches in mid sized markets that are typically dominated by regional banks. Source.
Varo Money has ramped up their marketing campaign to position themselves as a better option than the banks; the fintech company is not going directly at the banks in their ads as some other fintechs have done, they are instead highlighting their own offering; their ads can be seen on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest; they are also focusing on their customers overall financial lives, empowering their users to understand what they make and how they can spend wisely. Source.
Anthony Noto was interviewed on his first day at SoFi; Noto shared that before he makes any changes at SoFi he wants to understand how various leaders are thinking about opportunities and risks; he also touched on corporate culture and strategic focuses in the interview; when asked about a potential IPO Noto said, “We don’t have any specific timetable or commitment to do that, but it something that we think could be possible down the road.”; American Banker also reported that SoFi’s wealth management business has $44.7 million of assets under management across 10,000 accounts. Source
Online lending has been maturing the last few years with more companies reaching scale and some beginning to be profitable; banks have diversified their partnerships with online lenders and in some cases have launched their own online brands; one of the big shifts in the last few years is that banks and fintech companies are not seeing each other as enemies anymore, they can and do exist together through a number of different means. Source.