Chinese regulators have mandated that P2P lenders work with custody banks for depository services; Ping An Bank has announced a third party depository service and provides details in a document titled, "Measures for Third Party Depository of P2P Online Lending Platforms"; the document provides access criteria for lenders and the bank appears to be setting the industry standard for P2P custody services. Source
Shanghai Securities News reported on market statistics and a continued commitment by Chinese authorities this week to manage fraudulent financing activities in the country; 5,197 new criminal cases were reported in 2016 involving 251.1 billion yuan ($36.5 billion); Yang Yuzhu, a Chinese regulatory director involved with a meeting of regulators, says, "The cases severely destroyed the order of financial markets."; in 2016 China approved the arrest of over 9,000 people on suspicion of illegal solicitation of public deposits and it prosecuted over 14,000; regulators plan to continue with enforcement action; they are also considering prohibiting organizations and individuals from publishing investment-related advertisements and are requesting provincial governments to closely examine potential illegal funding activities from May to July. Source
Hong Kong has approved 4 more digital banking licenses for Tencent, Alibaba, Xiaomi and Ping An; the approvals are sure...
Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, spoke about regtech at the Fintech Australia Summit; the treasurer discussed a regtech collision occurring in fintech where both crowdfunding firms and traditional banks are benefiting from increased technological innovation around regulation; likely that the marketplace lending ecosystem could see expansion in regulatory technology innovation. Source
The Hong Kong-listed company is, according to one banker at HSBC, the answer to Facebook, WhatsApp, Spotify, Kindle and ApplePay, but all under one roof; based in Shenzhen, considered the Silicon Valley of China, they employ 3,000 people where over half are focused on research and development; they also have a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio; they are one of the top three companies in China and have successfully expanded worldwide with apps like WeChat. Source
New Zealand-based marketplace lender Harmoney has announced the launch of its services in Australia; the firm has opened an office in Brisbane and plans to begin with $200 million in capital to lend; the firm has also signed agreements for institutional funding for the next three years; rates will start at 8.99% and the firm will offer loans from $5,000 (USD$3,829) to $35,000 (USD$26,801). Source
Hexindai sees credit market opportunity in China worth 10 trillion RMB ($1.46 trillion); provides insight on the market in their featured blog post; with high net worth clients primarily served by traditional channels the firm is targeting the country's underserved population; says new and evolving technologies will be a factor helping emerging service platforms like P2P online lending gain market share. Sponsored Blog Post
K-Bank has gained authorization to open South Korea's first online bank; firm is an affiliate of Alibaba-owned Ant Financial; Kakao Bank is also involved in the final approval process to open the country's second online bank. Source
Online lending platform, Capital Float, received the Fintech Startup of the Year award at the India Fintech Awards 2016, demonstrating its kirana loan app which it says gives instant approval with no paperwork; the award provides Capital Float with INR 500,000 along with many event partner benefits; within the industry the company has also been focusing on the country's demonetization which has been helping business growth for fintech firms. Source
At Lang Di Fintech (LendIt's Chinese event), Peter Renton, the founder of Lend Academy, conducted an interview with ZhongAn Insurance CEO Jeffrey Chen; they talked about how the biggest insurtech company uses big data and artificial intelligence to measure risk, the scale of ZhongAn's business, regulatory issues and the future of the company; the article provides five key takeaways from the interview. Source