The latest fintech IPO is likely to be GreenSky which focuses on point of sale finance. Source
Bo Brustkern, the CEO of LendIt Fintech and Co-Founder of NSR Invest shares his thoughts on the future of financial services. Source
2018 has not been kind to the digital currency as it is down 50 percent against the dollar and the first quarter is the second worst on record; regulation, a clampdown in Asia hurting volume and the big price run up in late 2017 have all hurt Bitcoin; the prevailing thought about making fast cash has gone away as the price has dropped; the price today stand just below $7,000, down from a high of $20,000. Source.
The company securitized $2.6 billion in Q1 2018, representing a 35% increase over the prior year period; three transactions took place, two student loan deals and one consumer loan deal; medical residency loans were included for the first time in SoFi 2018-B Notes; SoFi is a top-ten ABS sponsor, coming in at seventh. Source
A recent report by Bain & Company just shares how successful Amazon could be if it were to enter banking; according to the report: "We could imagine Amazon's banking services growing to more than 70 million U.S. consumer relationships over the next five years or so — the same as Wells Fargo, the third-largest bank in the US. Although many retail bankers and observers have pegged the nimble fintech start-ups as the likely disrupters, it has become clear that established technology firms pose a bigger threat.”; the CNBC article shares several of the advantages Amazon would have in banking, products they could expand into and some of the talks that are already taking place with banks. Source
Walmart has expanded their money transfer service to over 200 countries and all their U.S. locations; the expansion is through a partnership with Moneygram; Walmart’s move comes after recent news of Amazon expanding their financial services options for customers; “Money transfer services are like bread at the restaurant for Walmart; it’s negligible revenue for them,” said Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer at GBH Insights tells TearSheet. “The broader strategy is to build up that product arsenal on the consumer side — every Walmart customer globally is an Amazon customer that could be taken away.” Source.
We’ve seen Goldman Sachs enter a variety of consumer banking verticals over the last few years; now the bank has hired a senior JPMorgan Chase engineer to build cash management tools, deposit accounts as well as other products for big companies; commercial banking could bring even more deposits into the business and also help boost revenue; they will compete with other big names such as JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Source
Mambu has launched a digital marketplace to offer cloud based apps, products and tools for banking; the company will allow for integrations to be done locally or globally; Ben Goldin, Mambu’s head of product and technology, tells Banking Technology, “the marketplace provides an opportunity to present their offerings to institutions and influencers with the Mambu engine powering a composable architecture”; current partners include Onfido, Form3, nCino, Avoka and Experian. Source.
PeerStreet’s Series B round was led by World Innovation Lab with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Thomvest, Colchis Capital, Felicis Ventures, Solon Mack and Navitas Capital; PeerStreet is a marketplace for fix and flip loans; the company said funds will be used to expand to new types of loans and that the company may also be adding more international investors. Source
According to a new report by CB Insights the most recent 5 quarters show that big investments in fintech companies from banks has slowed down; banks are instead beginning to develop and update core technology in house; Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and others have all developed and released their own digital investing and advising services; service provides like Diebold are offering the banks a chance to move all infrastructure online so they can focus on customer facing tools; banks are still working through transformation as almost all have now realized if they do not upgrade legacy tech they will be left behind. Source.