43 percent of borrowers applied for a mortgage digitally, up from 28 percent last year but satisfaction scores were down according to J.D. Power; Craig Martin, director of the mortgage practice at J.D. Power, said in a press release, "A critical element of satisfaction is setting expectations, and this tends to be a weakness of technology.”; Customers also rated non bank lenders higher than their banking counterparts as borrowers look to new lenders who provide a more seamless experience. Source.
From the LendIt Fintech Jobs Board: The Financial Crime department at leading digital bank Revolut is looking for a Senior...
American Banker profiles Instant Financial which was founded in 2015; the company aims to shorten the time frame to when employees get paid; using the app employees can unlock portions of their paychecks which can provide an alternative to payday loans; they recently partnered with Sutton Bank in Ohio for their US expansion. Source
Facebook has re-released plans for Libra which are scaled back from their original vision after getting significant pushback from global...
Silicon Valley startup accelerator 500 Startups partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Huobi to incubate blockchain projects; Edith Yeung, a partner at 500 Startups, said to CoinDesk, in partnering with Huobi Labs, "Our teams will learn so much especially around the ins and outs of how a digital exchange works."; the companies will help startups to develop business plans, create and refine marketing strategies, fundraise and develop white papers. Source.
Investing startup M1 Finance decided in December that charging 25 to 40 basis points was not working, so it decided to allow users to use their platform for free; since shifting to the free model the company has seen more than $1mn a day come onto the platform; rival robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront think the move is an act of desperation, though both companies offer or have offered some version free services; CEO of M1 Brian Barnes tells Business Insider, “M1 is very limiting from a trading perspective but it is a phenomenal tool for building a portfolio for the investments you want." Source.
FICO CEO Will Lansing said some banks are confusing customers by using a different score which he has dubbed Fako; VantageScore, the company behind the alternative scores, says their scoring is used by thousands of lenders for credit decisions and FICO is upset over competition; FICO is the most widely used credit scoring method as trillions worth of loans have been extended using FICO; JP Morgan Chase and Capital One both use VantageScore to help customers stay alerted about their credit health and not necessarily to underwrite loans. Source.
In part two of AltFi’s interview with Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden she discussed how the bank is thriving through...
OnDeck released its fourth quarter and full year earnings before the market's open on Thursday; the firm reported a net loss of $67.0 million for 2016 compared to a net profit of $10.3 million in 2015; originations were $2.4 billion in 2016 compared to $1.9 billion in 2015; revenue for the year increased to $264.8 million from $195.1 million; loan loss provisions were a factor contributing to the net loss with provisions increasing to $149.96 million in 2016 from $74.86 million in 2015. Sources
MoneyLion’s new feature is called Grow Your Stack; will help customers see a visual representation of their account balance as ‘cash’ over the real world; the feature will leverage iOS 11’s ARKit technology; Tim Hong, Chief Marketing Officer at MoneyLion stated, “If I write that you spent $350 on coffee as text, versus if I show you that in terms of a [visual] stack, you may be more likely to change your habits,” he said. “Not everyone learns in the traditional way.” Source