Fifth Third Bank will fund loans on the platform and also receive platform borrower referrals; in December 2016, Fifth Third Bank participated in a $16.5 million Series B funding round supporting ApplePie Capital; the ApplePie Capital lending platform was established in January 2015 and specializes in loans to franchise businesses across the United States; it has partnered with over 60 franchise brands and financed over $100 million for franchise businesses. Source
State regulators are reacting to the proposed federal charter that would grant nationwide licensing to fintech companies; states are beginning to plan for initiatives that would make state chartering more compelling for fintechs while also protecting standards built for banks in the state; states believe harmonizing the regulatory requirements is necessary; New England states are currently working in collaboration on licensing and overall state regulators are envisioning a passporting environment where states collaborating on requirements can institute approvals with lower costs. Source
The company recently held a conference call with investors to discuss options with a company called Jazco reportedly offering to take over the remaining deals on the site; the company was reportedly issued a subpoena by the SEC at some point regarding operational questions; in early 2016 a law firm attempted to restructure the firm but the company continued to face challenges; eventually the CEO William Skelley left the company at which point a consultant stepped in; no deals have been originated since late 2016. Source
In speaking to CoinDesk, AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant said he is looking to fund a blockchain alternative to Twitter; he explained that the prize will be awarded to anyone who can build a Twitter alternative and where people can monetize the contributions; this is part of a program that will help developers who are looking to build applications on the Blockstack platform; Naval tells CoinDesk, "I am indeed helping the Blockstack team and will be donating a small prize for a decentralized microblogging service." Source
Personal Capital is a free app that allows individuals to track their financial life by connecting accounts including bank accounts, credit cards and investment accounts; the app is now tracking $4.9 billion and according to their CEO, Jay Shah, their customer base is increasingly affluent; the company upsells their app users on financial advice and is providing a dedicated financial advisor if users have over $200,000 of investable assets; Shah answers several questions in an interview with Business Insider including their pitch to users, who their paying users are, why he thinks users will pay for the service and where the company is headed. Source
Amber Baldet was ranked 31 and is working with the JPMorgan team to develop blockchain solution Quorum; others in fintech include Vitalik Buterin the creator of ethereum, Brian Armstrong from Coinbase, and Ernie Garcia, Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston from Carvana. Source
iPayment, Inc. has created a new business unit, iPayment Capital, to offer merchant cash advances; the new business unit will utilize the firm's 137,000 SMB customers for merchant cash advance lending; the service will add to payment processing and point of sale services currently offered by iPayment, Inc. Source
An article from Bloomberg highlights bank investments in fintech companies; the article cites a report from Opimas noting that both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase are investing in companies that aim to disrupt banking; Goldman Sachs has invested in 15 fintech companies focusing on capital markets; JP Morgan Chase has invested in nine; the report states that banks and other companies will invest $1.7 billion in approximately 44 deals this year; this comes at a time when venture capitalists are shying away from the market. Source
In an interview with CNBC last week, former PayPal COO and serial entrepreneur David Sacks talks about how cryptocurrencies are fulfilling the original PayPal vision; he explains: "A payment is just a credit to one account and a debit to another. That's a database entry. We believed that, if we could get enough people to participate, money would never need to leave the system. PayPal could become the database of money."; he talks about blockchain technology helping to build web 3.0 and a new wave of innovation; the interview also touched on how the current environment shows some of the same signs of the dot com era, the two ways digital assets are a threat to traditional venture capital and some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead. Source
Bank of America has struck a partnership with Samsung to start a pilot program that will allow Bank of America customers to login using a picture of their eye; the program will start with a group of 1,500 Samsung and Bank of America employees who will test the authentication for six months; according to a past report by American Banker, about half of Bank of America customers login to the mobile app using their fingerprint and the other half login with a username and password; according to Finovate, Samsung debuted this iris scanning technology at their Unpacked event in March and they claim it to be more secure than fingerprint scans. Source