During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

What’s Visa Going To Do With Plaid? by Forbes – In his weekly Forbes column Ron Shevlin critiques the four different perspectives on the Visa/Plaid deal and what it actually means for the future of fintech.

The backstory of Goldman Sachs’ Marcus app, three years in the making by American Banker – Interesting conversation with Adam Dell, the founder of Clarity Money (now part of Marcus) on the thinking behind the new Marcus app.

FICO Changes Could Lower Your Credit Score by The Wall Street Journal – Interesting moves by FICO as reported by the Wall Street Journal today. Now, if you take out a debt consolidation loan and continue to rack up credit card debt you will be penalized. Hopefully, this will lead to better consumer choices.

What the hell happened to Mint? by Fast Company – I have been a Mint user for more than a decade (but am in the process of moving on). It still amazes me the lack of innovation from Intuit on this. Mint was, in the first decade of this century, a groundbreaking product.

The reason Even waited on rolling out automated savings by American Banker – Financial wellness fintech startup Even has added an automated savings tool to its offerings. Another great Penny Crosman piece in American Banker.

A battle is brewing over your financial data by Quartz – Plaid is not the only game in town when it comes to connect bank account data. Swedish firm Tink has just raised €90 million in a new funding round.

UK fintech Monese to exceed £1bn value with latest fundraising by The Financial Times – The UK fintech scene is about to get another unicorn with the digital bank Monese completing a large fundraising round.

SoFi dumps Visa for MasterCard as it plans to issue credit card this year by San Francisco Business Times – SoFi’s debit card is moving from Visa to Mastercard and they will be deepening their relationship with Mastercard as they launch a credit card later this year.

Central banks join forces to look at future digital currencies by Reuters – A new group has been formed to study digital currencies that includes the central banks of Britain, the euro zone, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland.

LendingClub President: FICO’s New Model Won’t Save A Credit Scoring ‘Dinosaur’ by PYMNTS.com – LendingClub’s Steve Allocca does not have very nice things to say about FICO’s new credit scoring model.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Visa to acquire Plaid, the fintech powering Venmo and other banking apps, in $5.3 billion deal by CNBC – Big news in the fintech space this afternoon. Plaid is being acquired by Visa for a reported $5.3 billion.

Alternative data is not the enemy of underwriting by American Banker – Op-ed in American Banker by the CEO of Cross River expounds on the virtue of alternative data. The data has always existed but “fintechs have simply found a way to optimize this data to better predict a consumer’s ability to make a payment”.

Quicken Bets Consumers Will Pay For its New Personal Finance App Simplifi by Forbes – Quicken is releasing a new personal finance app called Simplifi that will cost $4 a month. With so many free tools out there it will be interesting to see if this gets any traction.

Fundbox Hires First CFO as Fintech Startup Eyes Future IPO by The Wall Street Journal – After seven years small business fintech startup Fundbox is getting their first CFO. He will be getting their financial house in order so they can be ready for a potential IPO.

Nav Co-founders Step Down From C-Level Positions by deBanked – The CEO and founder of Nav, Levi King, has resigned and is becoming executive chairman, saying the company needs “a more qualified leader” to take Nav to the next level.

Former Regulator Known as ‘Crypto Dad’ to Launch Digital-Dollar Think Tank by The Wall Street Journal – Former CFTC officials are forming the Digital Dollar Foundation, a think tank that will study converting the dollar into a fully electronic currency based on blockchain. We certainly don’t want China to take the lead on digital currency.

Goldman curtailed personal lending after launching Apple card by American Banker – Interesting look behind Goldman Sachs numbers by Kevin Wack, showing that personal loan volume slowed dramatically as Goldman ramped up the Apple Card.

LendIt Fintech and The Fintech Power 50 Meetup by LendIt Fintech – I am going to be in London next week where I will be sitting down with Tom Bull of EY discussing the fintech trends that will shape the coming decade. Please join us.

Banks that shun risky borrowers offer rosy view of U.S. consumer by American Banker – While it is proving to be a good business decision for banks to go after mainly prime consumers, I find it disappointing. At least fintech companies serve almost the entire credit spectrum.

The New Banking Lexicon For The 2020s by Bloomberg Quint – A look at the terms, with explanations, that will dominate banking this decade.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

The Rise of the Invisible Bank by American Banker – We kicked the week off with a super interesting feature by Penny Crosman on how banking is going to become invisible as it becomes embedded in other daily activities.

Fintech users just can’t get enough of traditional banks by Financial Times – Most people, myself included, use their fintech bank account as a secondary account. A new comprehensive UK study shows the extent to which this is happening.

Moats In Banking Are Dead: Build Bridges And Tunnels For A Competitive Advantage by Forbes – Another great piece by Ron Shevlin on whether or not banks enjoy a competitive moat. I have said they do but only because of regulations and switching costs. Fintechs don’t have moats either and maybe the whole idea of moats is outdated now.

7 Innovative Startups to Watch in 2020 by Inc. – Interesting that two of the seven startups Inc says are ones to watch in 2020 are fintech companies. Congrats to Better.com and Petal for making this exclusive list.

Can Regulators Catch Up To Tech Changes? by American Banker – Financial regulators do not have an easy job. As fintech brings a rapid pace of change that includes completely new business models it is tough for regulators to keep up. Great feature in American Banker on this issue.

The open banking movement is inspiring consumers to ask who owns their banking data by CNBC – Excellent piece (including video interview with CEO Zach Perret ) on how Plaid has become the de facto standard for fintech companies to connect bank account data.

Will regulators ever find common ground on CRA reform? by American Banker – The Fed and the OCC/FDIC have competing proposals on reforms to the Community Reinvestment Act.

LendInvest founder moves into chairman role by P2P Finance News – I am not sure what to make of this but the CEO and Co-founder of leading UK property lending platform, LendInvest, is stepping down and moving to the Chairman role.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Venmo Glitch Opens Window on War Between Banks, Fintech Firms by The Wall Street Journal – This disagreement between Plaid and PNC Bank over Venmo access due to so-called security concerns is something to keep an eye on.

Squashing the Market with Bill Ullman from Apple Podcasts – I thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with Bill Ullman in New York recently to record this latest edition of his podcast, talking fintech trends and more.

The Winners And Losers In Fintech In 2019 by Forbes – In his Forbes column Ryan Shevlin shares who he believes were the winners and losers in fintech in 2019. A couple of surprises on this list.

‘Out of the shadows’: Use of alternative data in lending gains ground by American Banker – One the big themes for the next decade will be the widespread use of alternative data by all lenders. It has been given a boost recently by regulators cautious encouragement of its use.

SEC Proposes Giving More Investors Access to Private Markets by The Wall Street Journal – Finally the SEC is starting to make some movements in overhauling the definition of an accredited investor.

Green Dot CEO, a prepaid card pioneer, to step down Dec. 31 by American Banker – Steve Streit founded one of the early fintech pioneers Green Dot Bank and after 20 years he has decided to call it a day.

The New Payday Lender Looks a Lot Like the Old Payday Lender by The Atlantic – I think the author in this article has some misguided opinions around earned wage access (it is not payday lending) but this is clearly an argument that is not going away. So the industry will need to address these objections.

The Real Story Behind The PNC-Venmo Clash by Forbes – The PNC/Plaid/Venmo disagreement is not really about data security at all, it is about a big bank supporting Zelle over Venmo.

State of Credit 2019: Rounding Out the Decade by Experian – The annual state of credit report from Experian has some really interesting nuggets of information on credit trends with the American consumer.

OCC files appeal in fintech charter case by American Banker – No surprise here but the saga of the OCC Fintech Charter is far from over. The OCC is appealing the decision that they do not have authority to create such a charter.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Citibank CEO Warns Traditional Banks at Risk of Becoming ‘Dumb Utilities’ by The Financial Brand – There has been plenty of speculation around Citi’s new partnership with Google. Here are some comments from CEO Michael Corbat that gives at least some perspective on the partnership.

Nubank is leading the fintech gold rush in Latin America by Quartz – The most valuable digital bank on the planet (outside of China) is Nubank . Great piece in Quartz on how the Brazilian bank has become so big, so quickly.

What Fintech Bubble? How To Find The Good Fintech Investments by Forbes – As Ron Shevlin points out, there has been a lot of babble about a fintech bubble. But there are still huge opportunities for disruption if you know where to look.

BankThink Libra: The opening act of a modern regulatory drama by American Banker – Great op-ed in American Banker by Daniel Gorfine & Kabir Kumar on what Libra means, “Libra serves as a global wake-up call to market participants and policymakers alike that new technology-driven models will challenge existing regulatory frameworks”.

Figure’s Mike Cagney On How Blockchain Is Reinventing Lending by PYMNTS – As Mike Cagney points out in this PYMNTS article with the Provenance blockchain Figure’s soup to nuts securitization technology realizes 133 bps of benefit as well as being quicker and more transparent than the traditional system.

Ondot Brings Apple Card Functionality To Banks And Credit Unions By Forbes – The Apple Card experience may be coming to a bank or credit union near you. Ondot Systems is already working with credit unions to bring a cutting edge app-based user experience for credit and debit cards.

The Path to Solving the Student Debt Crisis Starts With a Small Step by Morning Consult – The CEO of SoFi, Anthony Noto, penned this op-ed in Morning Consult in support of the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, a bipartisan bill that will help deal with the student loan crisis. I agree employers need to be part of the solution here.

Upstart to help banks pay off customers’ credit card bills from American Banker – Upstart will allow debt consolidation loans funded by their bank partners to now be paid off directly to the credit card company.

FinnoSummit Miami – Fintech is Booming in Latin America by Crowdfund Insider – In Crowdfund Inside a review of the Latin American fintech market including some highlights from last week’s FINNOSUMMIT Miami by LendIt Fintech.

Fintech startup Qwil raises $24.4 million in equity and $200 million in debt by Reuters – Another promising fintech startup receives a solid round of funding. Qwil has closed a $24 million equity round and $200 million in debt capital to help it provide capital to freelancers and small businesses.

CRA cheat sheet: New regime would look very different from American Banker – Details of the new CRA proposal are out, released at the FDIC board meeting this week.

Brex, the start-up that lends to other start-ups, taps $200 million line from Credit Suisse from CNBC – One of the hottest US fintech companies is Brex and they continue to raise capital from some of the biggest traditional financial institutions.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Robinhood pulls bank charter application as fintechs face hurdles to disrupting financial system from CNBC – Robinhood is no longer looking to become a federally insured bank but says this dis not reflect a change in the company’s road map.

The 5 Debates That Will Shape Fintech In The 2020s from Forbes – In his regular weekly column Ron Shevlin peers into his crystal ball to give us the big issues that will face fintech in the coming decade.

Citi Ventures MD Ramneek Gupta: “Fintech will soon become a native component of how companies operate” from Crowdfund Insider – Another prominent venture capitalist has come out saying embedded finance is the way of the future.

FDIC’s McWilliams ‘inclined’ to join OCC on CRA but still has concerns from American Banker – We keep getting closer to CRA reform with FDIC chairman Jelena McWilliams saying this week she is inclined to join the OCC in this effort.

Fintech Zopa raises £140m just in time for banking licence from Yahoo Finance UK – Zopa needed to raise £130m by Tuesday for their new digital bank. It came down to the wire but they raised £140m in a significantly down round.

Bad Credit? Regulators Back Ways for Risky Borrowers to Get Loans from The Wall Street Journal – In a joint statement the five US banking regulators have acknowledged that using data outside a traditional credit report could expand the access and affordability of credit for certain borrowers.

What Went Wrong at Chime? How Rapid Growth Became Its Own Challenge At One ‘Challenger’ Bank from Fortune – A look into what was behind the October outage at Chime that left millions of people unable to use their Chime debit card.

Start-up Robinhood tops 10 million accounts even as industry follows in free-trading footsteps from CNBC – Robinhood is becoming a force in stock trading as they cross the 10 million account mark.

Figure scores $1.2B valuation for Mike Cagney from Pitchbook – Mike Cagney keeps demonstrating that his fundraising abilities are second to none. Figure is now a unicorn after announcing a $103 million Series C this week.

Digital Bank Chime Now Has A Valuation Of $5.8 Billion from Forbes – This is a big deal, literally. Chime has closed a $500m funding round that values the fintech leader at $5.8 billion up from $1.5 billion in March.

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Every Tech Company Wants to Be a Bank—Someday, At Least from Wired – Much has been written about how and why big tech will make moves into financial services. This piece in Wired is one of the best I have read.

OCC proposes ‘Madden fix’ to let loans keep original rates when transferred from S&P Global – There has been movement on the “Madden Fix” with the OCC proposing a rule change to clarify the valid-when-made doctrine so when a bank sells or assigns a loan the interest rate remains permissible after the loan changes hands.

BlueVine raises $102.5M more for banking services that target small businesses from TechCrunch – The large funding rounds keep coming. Leading small business fintech platform Bluevine Capital has closed $102 million in new funding.

BankThink Congress can work around court’s nixing of OCC fintech charter from American Banker – Excellent op-ed by Tom Curry, the former head of the OCC, on why we need a fintech charter and how we can get there given the recent ruling against it.

Stash has issued more than 5 million Stock Back rewards since launching its program from Tearsheet – I am a big fan of anything that will get people saving and investing. So kudos to Stash on their innovative Stock Back program and reaching 5 million rewards.

Fintech: The Fourth Platform – Part One from Forbes –  Very interesting column from Matt Harris in Forbes proposing the idea that fintech is becoming the fourth layer of the technology stack.

Vouch raises $45M led by YC Continuity for business insurance that targets startups from TechCrunch – Impressive what Sam Hodges is doing in his second fintech startup. Just two months after launch, Vouch Insurance has closed a $45 million Series B.

[Read more…]

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Goldman Sachs will reevaluate Apple Card credit limits after bias allegations by CNBC – While Goldman Sachs denied any gender bias in their underwriting they will be reevaluating Apple Card credit limits on a case by case basis.

Bias probe or not, the Apple Card is setting a new standard for banks by American Banker – Despite the controversy around the Apple Card right now as Penny Crosman reports they are raising the bar for user experience that will impact all card issuers.

What Should Banks Do With Their Branches? by Forbes – What to do with bank branches is the question of our time. While Ron Shevlin provides no definitive answer he does get to the root of the question. And shares some creative ideas.

Federal lawmakers aim to reduce payday loan rates from 400% interest to 36% by CNBC – There is new legislation in Congress that would cap interest rates nationally at 36%. While I dislike predatory lenders intensely, I am not a fan of a blanket cap like this.

Next in Google’s Quest for Consumer Dominance: Banking by The Wall Street Journal – It is the talk of the fintech industry this week. Yes, Google is getting into banking by partnering with Citi on a new checking account. That is about all we know right now but there are still hundreds of article expounding on this.

How Mark Zuckerberg plans to make money with Facebook Pay by Quartz – Another tech giant had big news in the past 24 hours. Facebook is getting into payments with a unified payment offering across its family apps. John Detrixhe looks into the how and why of Facebook Pay.

Toast Launches Toast Capital To Help Restaurants Secure Loans by Crunchbase – We are starting to see the “verticalization” of fintech as restaurants now have their own lender. Toast has started Toast Capital to provide loans up to $250K to their restaurant customers.

[Read more…]

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Uber’s Fintech Strategy: A Conversation With Peter Hazlehurst, Head Of Uber Money by Forbes – The move by Uber into fintech with Uber Money is super interesting. In his latest Forbes column Ron Shevlin talks with Peter Hazlehurst, Head of Uber Money, to discuss this new initiative.

How Goldman Sachs plans to boost its reput`ation with online bank Marcus by Yahoo Finance – We know that Marcus has received great feedback from its customers and even won a JD Power Award. This is expected to help boost the Goldman Sachs brand as well according to a company executive.

BankThink CFPB can do better by fintechs than a ‘policy tool’ by American Banker – Former head of Project Catalyst at the CFPB, Dan Quan, talks about what the organization has learned about fair lending risk in AI underwriting models and how that knowledge can be used in service of the fintech industry going forward.

Here’s the pitch deck that fintech dv01 used to nab $15 million from the likes of George Soros and Pivot Investment Partners. The startup’s founder called it the easiest round he’s ever raised. by Business Insider – The CEO of dv01 inc, Perry Rahbar, talks about his experience raising their $15 million Series B earlier this year and includes a link to the deck that he used with George Soros and Pivot Investment Partners.

Ron Suber Shares Perspective on Fintech: “Creating a successful digital bank is like golf and bridge – harder than it looks” by Crowdfund Insider – Q&A with the godfather of fintech, Ron Suber, on fintech investing, Prosper, LendingClub, Qwil, Marcus, Figure, Libra and more.

Dawn Of The Neobank: The Fintechs Trying To Kill The Corner Bank by Forbes – In depth piece in Forbes on the future of digital banking featuring MoneyLion, Dave, Chime, Betterment and Fifth Third.

Apple Card users received $10 billion in credit from Goldman Sachs by Business Insider – In its first month the Apple Card had $736 million in balances and approximately $10 billion in total credit lines. [Read more…]

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Home lending fintech expands into student loan refis from American Banker – This news is not much of a surprise. Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, is expanding into student loan refinancing, a category that Cagney basically invented at SoFi. Like the HELOCS, these loans will be originated on the Provenance blockchain.

Uber announces deeper push into financial services with Uber Money from CNBC – Now we know why Uber has been hiring so many finance people. They announced the launch of Uber Money, a new initiative that includes a digital wallet and enhanced credit and debit cards.

Real Estate Fintech PeerStreet Raises $60 Million In Series C Funding from Forbes – Congrats to Brew Johnson, Brett Crosby and the Peer Street team on their $60m Series C led by none other than Colchis Capital. They also announced $4.25b in institutional capital commitments.

BlueVine Adds Checking Accounts, Cards For Small Firms from PYMNTS – Small business lender BlueVine is getting into business banking with a new checking account. It pays 1% interest on balances over $1,000, includes a debit card, payments capability and an online dashboard.

Walmart and Green Dot to jointly establish a new fintech accelerator, Tailfin Labs from Tech Crunch – It seems that everyone has an accelerator these days. Now, we have Walmart jumping into the fray with their TailFin accelerator in collaboration with Green Dot Bank.

China Goes Full Bore on Blockchain, Bans Content Critical of the Controversial Tech from CrowdFund Insider – This is a little bit crazy if true. We all heard about China’s full throated endorsement of blockchain last week. Now, it seems that China is banning critical articles of blockchain technology.

Shopify Capital Originated $141M Of Loans And MCAs In Q3, Says It’s a Meaningful Part Of The Shopify Business from deBanked –  I find it really interesting that more tech companies are growing their lending operations. In just three years Shopify has built a sizable lending business, doing $141M of loans in Q3.

Digit’s latest feature tackles student loan debt from American Banker – Digit has long been known for its automated savings tools and now they are adding student loan repayment into the mix.

Behind Credit Karma’s savings account launch with Jagjit Chawla from Tearsheet – Interesting interview with Credit Karma’s head of tax and savings about their innovative new savings product.

Mobile investments give banks a small-business trust bump from American Banker – When it comes to mobile there is a lot of focus at banks on their consumer offerings. But small businesses also are seeing better mobile engagement from their banks.