Bank lending is once again off to a slow start in 2018, but signs show the slowdown will only be temporary; the recent tax cuts could help to spur more borrowing; interest rate rises on the other hand could hurt companies looking to potentially borrow; as the economy keeps trending positively banks should see lending pick up in the coming months. Source.
The recent funding of Greenlight Financial Technology is part of a recent trend that has financial services firms as of all sizes focusing on education; according to the Center for Financial Services Innovation 57 percent of Americans are financially unhealthy; one of the biggest issues financial education has had is that it’s hard to define; companies have been trying to offer different types of education through online courses and other tools that help customers to better understand their full financial situation; fintech companies are not the only one’s offering such services, big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have recently added focused products and tools to help customers. Source.
BOA filed a lengthy regulatory filing this week; in it they mention the risks of cryptocurrencies to their business; the bank wrote: “The widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services as we grow and develop our internet banking and mobile banking channel strategies in addition to remote connectivity solutions.”; they also discussed the regulatory consequences of cryptocurrencies which could limit the ability for the bank to track movement of funds. Source
Customers using Zelle within their banking app have fallen prey to a scam where they send money for tickets but never receive the ticket; since the transaction is instantly done the scammer then closes their account and by the time the bank fully settles the payment the money is gone; banks in the Zelle network, and Zelle itself, have said do not send money to anyone unless you know and trust them; when money is lost customers are asking who should be responsible for replace the funds, should the bank refund them or Zelle; the relationship between the banks and Zelle is not entirely clear from the user perspective, with more frauds occurring customers are starting to ask more questions. Source.
Peter Renton, Founder of Lend Academy and Co-Founder of LendIt shares his latest quarterly investment results; Renton earned an overall 5.01% return for the 2017 calendar year with his investments in LendingClub, Prosper, P2Binvestor, Peerstreet, Streetshares, AlphaFlow, Money360 and YieldStreet. Source
SunTrust Bank, Ally Ventures and Amazon Alexa Fund teamed up with others to raise $16mn for Greenlight Financial Technology; Greenlight makes smart debit cards for kids and college students to spend more wisely; The company also offers a mobile app complete with parental controls so parents can teach their kids how to spend; this is a further jump into financial services for Amazon as it looks to enter the space through the partnership model. Source
TD Bank has run into a number of issues since updating their online banking and mobile app experiences; customers have had issues accessing their accounts, transferring funds and paying bills; the issues point to a problem among banks as they try to figure out how long new product releases should be tested before releasing to market; the bank has tried to ease customer complaints by responding on social media but that has only made problems worse; with the amount of competition for customers increasing in banking the traditional players will need to better prepare the beta testing phase. Source.
The pilot occurs after a successful proof of concept in September with BNP, Commerzbank and ING; they hope to expand later this year with more banks, credit insurers and enterprise planning and logistics providers; they are looking to address risk mitigation, payables finance and receivables finance; “The technology ran fast and smoothly and the positive results showed us we are on the right track and ready to take the next step by entering into a pilot," said Ivar Wiersma, head of innovation at ING Wholesale Banking, to CoinDesk. Source.
Salt Lending has written a blog post sharing the immense amount of interest in their blockchain backed loans; since launching on December 28th, 2017 they have issued $23 million in loans yet there is still demand of over $1.3 billion; the company is working on scaling and automating processes, but is focusing on addressing existing demand before adding new members. Source
Users in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Hampshire will now have access to trade bitcoin and ethereum commission free; Robinhood plans to open to most states by the middle of 2018; over 4 million people have signed up for accounts with Robinhood. Source