In a letter to investors, Prosper has announced they are releasing their seventh generation credit model (PMI7) around December 20, 2016; Prosper also announced they are changing their credit bureau from Experian to TransUnion; according to Prosper, "Using TransUnion will allow us to leverage trended historical data on borrowers and make better underwriting decisions within the new credit model."; Prosper's rating system on loans from AA-HR will remain the same.
In an interview with RIABiz Personal Capital Founder Bill Harris talks about the outlook for his firm, the growth they have seen and some of the challenges with growing their brand; they do not consider themselves a robo advisor, they are more complicated and detailed with call centers and multiple strategies; they currently have $4.9 billion in assets under management which is more than five times the $1 billion in assets under management they had in January 2015; Jay Shah, CEO of Personal Capital, tells RIABiz, "Our rapid growth reaffirms that we are solving a major pain point for consumers by giving them conflict-free advice and full transparency and insight into their financial lives."; they are not as cheap as Betterment or Vanguard yet they are gaining market share and their average account is $380,000; the company has received over $200 million in venture funding with the most recent round of $40 million closing yesterday; the interview also goes through the pains of building their brand and the different strategies they offer to clients. Source
JPMorgan Chase, American Express and HSBC said they are leading a $40mn round into Menlo Security; banks are usually a lot more secretive about security investments but they see a wider industry potential in using isolation technology; the technology can better defend against phishing attacks which account for most breaches as employees click on a fake link that then causes malware to infect the computer; when a user clicks on a link they open a browser that really is a one time instance in the cloud and prevents malware from downloading onto a computer; while some big banks have started using the technology more there has not been a significant rush yet. Source.
Bank of America’s AI powered digital assistant Erica has now reached more than 7 million users with over 50 million...
US Bank saw a 104 percent increase in Zelle transactions the past four months and a 50 percent increase in customer enrollment in the peer to peer payment offering; this is another success story for Zelle as they have seen significant usage in their product with $33.6bn in volume versus $14.8bn by Venmo; Zelle is integrated with over 40 banks and has reached over 85 millions users. Source.
Buy now pay later services are becoming one of the biggest benefactors during the current crisis; consumers have turned to...
PayPal’s CFO John Rainey said 11 percent of the company’s 60 million customer inquires could be automated; the types of...
Lenders are facing some extraordinary times right now as they try to prepare for the months ahead; underwriting risk has...
A new survey from Deloitte and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center shows that financial firms spend an...
DecisionHawk seeks to provide a service for advising and educating small businesses on market financing options; the firm is led by entrepreneurs experienced in business owner consulting; they have released DecisionHawk, a software solution offering problem solving, education and collaboration; driven by big data analytics DecisionHawk can be used for a range of business decisions including: debt capital financing, equity capital financing, business insurance and business referrals. Source