Alkami’s white label technology has helped to provide mobile banking apps for credit unions and banks; they just raised a $70mn series D round led by General Atlantic, with participation from MissionOG, S3 Ventures and Argonaut Private Equity; the company has a SaaS model where they charge banks on the number of users per month; they plan to use the new infusion of capital to grow their sales and invest in innovation. Source.
Petal uses information beyond credit scores like earnings, spending and savings to identify people who are a good fit for a credit card; users can then use the Petal card to build their credit history; the company raised $13 million led by Valar Ventures. Source
Investors across the US will now be able to invest in real estate loans originated by Groundfloor with as little as $10. Source
Federal Reserve Board data shows that consumer debt reached all-time highs in November; the previous highs were in April 2008 when consumer debt totaled $1.021 trillion; according to the CFPB, “Most origination metrics we observe are near pre-recession levels. This is true across credit score tiers for both general purpose and private label cards. Approval rates have climbed for all credit score tiers since post-recession lows, even as application volumes have stabilized.” Source
TD Bank surveyed 340 corporate treasurers and found that innovative technology is top of their mind for the coming years; 31 percent see automatics processes, 23 percent see blockchain and 15 percent see AI or robotics as the top disruptive technologies; while most respondents were keeping a close eye on technology there was 29 percent who said they would wait and see; seeing the results points to the fact that traditional finance professionals are starting to focus on technology changes, though not ready to fully jump in. Source.
Lend Academy discusses the changes to the home equity line of credit tax interest deduction with the new tax law and how it may affect unsecured lenders. Source
Low wage workers have always had a difficult set of expensive options when they try to cash their paychecks; bank accounts are costly because they cannot maintain certain balances and check cashing shops are not exactly cheap; WiseWage, a North Carolina based non profit is looking to offer another option; the company has struck partnerships with Regions Bank and Varo Money, among others, to offer a lower cost direct deposit; the prepaid cards have set fees which can be waived if enough is loaded each month; the program is meant as a test to see if they can enlist those who have dropped out of the financial system because of a lack of options. Source.
In PeerIQ’s Weekly Industry Update they cover job growth numbers, the Fed’s planned rate rises and more fintech related stories that ended 2017; OneMain Financial received backing from Apollo Global Management and Värde Partners; GreenSky and MoneyLion completed fundraising’s; new regulation news coming out of Indiana that would cap the personal loan interest rates. Source.
In a Medium post, Lou Kerner, Partner at CryptoOracle.io shares why they are co-hosting the BlockFin Summit and what attendees can expect from the upcoming event in April; in addition to keynotes and panels, there will be a Vision Stage which will include TED-style presentations. Source
After a number of high profile breaches in 2017 lenders are looking to better protect themselves against evolving threats; writing a column in Bankless Times Tom Donlea of WhitePages Pro looks at some key things online lenders can do to better protect themselves; lenders can start moving away from using social security numbers as a personal identifier, AI and machine learning will play a bigger role, more lenders will begin to bring fraud fighting in house and blockchain will become more widely adopted. Source.