American Banker profiles OceanFirst Financial which has closed 33 branches but still managed to retain 94% of their customers in...
Since launching BankMobile as a digital only bank in 2015 Customers Bancorp has seen the venture have some success but not yet reach profitability; after a deal with Flagship Community Bank for BankMobile fell through they are now looking to spin the business off; American Banker interviewed Luvleen Sidhu, BankMobiles’ President, about the spinoff deal and the future of the firm; topics discussed include why they chose a spinoff strategy, the future of the leadership, profitability and potential future ventures. Source.
Customers Bancorp which has $11.5 billion in assets is working with OakNorth to help monitor their loan portfolio; OakNorth will...
A new study by JD Power shows that most people, even digital first millennial customers, prefer to open bank accounts...
A new report by the Council of Economic Advisers said cyberattacks cost the U.S. between $56bn and $109bn in 2016; the council's report represents between 0.31% and 0.58% of the 2016 U.S. gross domestic product being at risk; the financial sector had the biggest number of attacks seeing about 471 breaches in 2016; the report made an ominous statement on detecting threats saying, “Due to common vulnerabilities, instances of security breaches occur across firms and in patterns that are difficult to anticipate.” Source.
Only 8 percent of cybersecurity heads at U.S. financial firms report directly to the CEO; a survey done by the Financial Services Information Sharing & Analysis Center showed the lack of access for cyber heads and pointed to other vulnerabilities; one of the biggest areas for improvement of defenses is better employee training as people can click the wrong link and open systems up; most firms, 54 percent, compile quarterly security reports while 18 percent do bi-annual reports and 16 percent do annual reports. Source.
As bigger breaches occur startups focusing on cybersecurity have seen investment double in the last year; globally there was $7.6bn invested in cybersecurity startups this past year after seeing $3.8bn in 2016; global spending on cybersecurity was estimated to be over $80bn in 2017 as companies look to protect their data and company systems from evolving threats. Source.
DailyPay launched a reloadable prepaid card powered by Visa and Bancorp Bank for on-demand paycheck spending.
Dan Loeb of Third Point is the latest hedge fund to invest in marketplace lending; the hedge fund manager has reported a 10% allocation to marketplace loans and says that he will be reducing his investment in structured credit and specifically residential mortgage backed securities to allocate to the fixed income alternative; Loeb says he is working with marketplace lenders on securitized portfolios and is excited about the investment opportunities available in the marketplace lending market; the firm also has a venture capital business, Third Point Ventures, which is invested in SoFi, Upstart and Swift Capital. Source
PayPal’s CEO Dan Schulman has written an article in the Wall Street Journal; he believes that while technology generally has improved the lives of many, the potential of applying technology to expanding financial services is still unrealized; most people manage their money the same way they did years ago and fees paid by Americans still total $170 billion every year; Schulman believes that collaboration is key to achieving universal financial health. Source