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.

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 banks warming to AI-based lending from American Banker – While many fintech lenders have been quick to adopt AI in underwriting now traditional lenders are slowly moving away from their excel models and linear regression and adopting AI.

Santander to launch online deposit platform in US from Financial Times – Following in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, Santander will be launching an online platform in the US to attract deposits as the Spanish bank seeks to lower its funding costs.

Investors Bank teams with OnDeck to offer online business loans from American Banker – A new banking partnership for OnDeck as they announce Investors Bank, a $27 billion asset bank, has signed on with their ODX platform to digitize their small business loan offerings.

A new McKinsey report says that it’s a ‘do or die moment’ for many banks from Business Insider – Really interesting report out from McKinsey says that 35% of banks are “vulnerable to the disruptive forces of technology, and the pressures of a slow-growth market environment”. It is a do or die moment for these banks.

Banking charter remains a long way off for fintechs after court ruling from American Banker – With the death of the OCC fintech charter, at least in the short term, American Banker says that fintech companies “face a murky path into the banking system”.

A Brazilian company is pushing an entire industry to become more inclusive from Quartz – The leading Brazilian digital bank, Nubank , is a groundbreaking company when it comes to diversity with women comprising 43% of their 2,000 employees and they are on their way to 50%.

CCAF: Regulation of Alternative Finance is Key to Make Sector Safe to Scale for the Masses from CrowdFund Insider – The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has partnered with the World Bank on a new report on fintech regulation. They surveyed 111 regulatory jurisdictions to produce this report.

Softbank-backed small-business lending startup Kabbage is moving into payments. Its execs explain why combining the 2 services make sense from Business Insider – We knew this was coming but today they made it official. Kabbage is launching Kabbage Payments, its first foray outside of lending.

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 in student loan refinancing, a category that Cagney basically invented at SoFi. Like the HELOCS, these loans will be originated on the Provenance blockchain.

New tech lets American Express instantly issue cards to immigrants from American Banker – We close the week with a really interesting partnership between American Express and Nova Credit (former PitchIt @ LendIt winner) for helping new immigrants obtain credit cards. This is a big deal.

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.

Revolut looks to raise $1.5bn to expand worldwide from Financial Times – Never a company to think small Revolut is looking to raise £1.5b in debt and equity and have hired JP Morgan to arrange what would be the largest round ever by a UK.

Google Shuts Out Payday Loans With App-Store Ban from The Wall Street Journal – First they banned ads, now Google is removing apps from payday lenders from its app store.

When Mission and Margins Meet, the Market Celebrates from Forbes – It was a bold move by Oportun to do an IPO. Jennifer Tescher talks about what makes them different to other fintech companies, many that have struggled as public companies.

Bank/Fintech Partnerships: The Fad Is Over from Forbes – While bank/fintech partnerships have been on the increase for several years now Ron Shevlin argues that it is not sustainable long term. He explains why and provides a new vision for the future in his latest Forbes article.

Fed Data: There’s Never Been a Better Time to Consolidate Credit Card Debt from Credible – Despite today’s declining rate environment credit card interest rates keep rising. Now, the gap between the average credit card rate and personal loan rate is at an all time high. Debt consolidation will remain compelling for some time to come.

Fintech Takes Root In America’s Farmland from Benzinga – You don’t hear much about financing for farmland when it comes to fintech innovation. FarmTogether is trying to change that. Good piece in Benzinga.

Apple and Goldman Sachs don’t report Apple Card information to credit bureaus from MarketWatch – It is unusual that Goldman Sachs is not yet reporting Apple Card payment behavior to the credit bureaus. According to MarketWatch it will begin happening “later this quarter”. [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.

Race to become UK digital banking leader hots up from Financial Times – I would argue the UK is the world’s most competitive and well developed market for digital banking. The Financial Times analyzes several metrics of the major players there to give us a good pulse of the market.

A battle royal for online deposits from American Banker – In the US, despite two interest rate cuts, the market for online deposits is white hot with large banks, community banks, credit unions and fintech companies all competing for the consumers’ money.

Exclusive: Prolific fintech investor Ron Suber joins board of startup as he seeks next big winner from San Francisco Business Times – The godfather of fintech, Ron Suber , has joined the board of Qwil . Great piece by Mark Calvey who has the scoop in San Francisco Business Times.

Max Levchin On The Future-Present Of Everywhere POS Lending from PYMNTS.com – Super interesting development from Affirm this week. They have introduced virtual card technology that allows their customers to pay with Affirm anywhere.

Fake ID fraud is declining, but small lenders are still vulnerable from American Banker – While the growth in synthetic fraud is slowing down there is still over $1 billion in outstanding balances for suspected synthetic accounts.

A Guide to What’s Happening in the Fintech Revolution from Bloomberg – In Bloomberg Julie Verhage gives an update on what is hot in fintech today and where the action is taking place. [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.

JPMorgan donates $25M to get fintech in hands of underbanked from American Banker – Congrats to Jennifer Tescher and the Financial Health Network team on this latest $25M commitment from JP Morgan.

Tech forecast to destroy more than 200,000 US bank jobs from Financial Times – Bank employment has been stagnant for many years but a new report from Wells Fargo says US banks will cut 200,000 jobs in the next decade.

International P2P Lending Volumes September 2019 from P2P-Banking – The monthly p2p lending loan volumes are out for September with 11 platforms now doing more than €10 million a month.

Founded By Bankers For Bankers, North Carolina-based Fintech Startup nCino Raises $80M from Crunchbase – Spun out of Live Oak Bank in 2012 nCino is a thriving fintech company that has just closed another funding round of $80 million.

The Seven-Year Auto Loan: America’s Middle Class Can’t Afford Its Cars from The Wall Street Journal – Auto loans keep getting longer, a third of loans for new vehicles taken in the first half of 2019 had terms of longer than six years. Fascinating piece in The Wall Street Journal.

Brex wants to replace startup bank accounts with Brex Cash from TechCrunch – After taking on credit cards for startups Brex have announced they are now tackling bank accounts with the launch of Brex Cash.

Credit Karma Is Launching a Savings Account. But as the Fed Cuts Interest Rates, ‘High Yield’ Is Relative from Fortune – Now it is Credit Karma that is joining the growing number of fintech companies offering a savings product. It will pay 2.03% and offer FDIC protection of up to $5 million.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Says No Interest in Creating Cryptocurrency Similar to Facebook, No Plans on Becoming a Bank from Crowdfund Insider – Apple’s CEO recently spoke with a French publication about their plans around financial services.

PayPal withdraws from Facebook’s libra cryptocurrency from CNBC – The rumors were true; Facebook’s Libra project receives a major setback as PayPal quits the consortium.

11 Years: The Rise of UK Fintech from 11:FS (video) – Fascinating one-hour documentary on the history of UK fintech.

Regulators need new approach to innovation from American Banker – Op-ed by the head of the FDIC, Jelena McWilliams, on what her agency is doing to foster innovation and a call for people to join her on this journey.

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.

Wall Street banks are upping bets on their potential fintech competitors from CNBC – So far this year big U.S. banks have participated in more than two dozen equity deals in fintech startups. CNBC looks into the strategy behind this.

Fintech company Plaid discloses investments from Visa, Mastercard from Reuters – Today Plaid is disclosing that two of its investors in its $250m Series C funding round in December were none other than Visa and Mastercard.

Maturing Fintech Firms Use Enhanced Data To Threaten Legacy Banks from The Financial Brand – Leading fintech firms PayPal and Stripe continue to use data as a competitive advantage.

The Warning Signs Ahead For Chime from Forbes – It seems that Ron Shevlin thinks that fintech companies like Chime are overhyped. Exaggerated customer numbers, dubious claims of being a real banking alternative and limited pathways to profitability are some of the reasons he cites.

Introducing Vouch, a new kind of insurance company, by founders for founders from LinkedIn – If you have been wondering what Sam Hodges has been up to since leaving Funding Circle you have your answer now. His new venture, Vouch Insurance, is about rethinking business insurance for fast growth companies.

Why fintech rollouts are magnets for fraud from American Banker – Some good points to think about for all fast growth fintech companies. As growth ramps up so do the fraud attempts. We all need to be ready.

Outdated rules are holding back financial innovation from Financial Times – Interesting op-ed in the Financial Times by Vikram Pandit who is basically calling for a complete do over of financial regulation for a digital future.

Challenger banks insist they’re equal to the task of lending from American Banker – When it comes to lending digital challenger banks MoneyLion and Varo are not fazed by where we are on the credit cycle. But they do realize the importance of prudent underwriting.

Credit card start-up Petal raises $300 million debt round from Jefferies from CNBC – Credit card fintech startup Petal has received $300 million in debt funding from Jefferies as they start to scale.

The derailment of California’s payroll advance law from American Banker – The new bill in California to create the first regulatory framework for earned wage access has stalled after it had passed the California senate by unanimous vote.

CircleUp Raises $200 Million To Woo Consumer Retail Startups With A VC Alternative: Loans from Forbes – The capital provider for consumer brands, CircleUp, has secured more than $200 million to back startups from investors including Michigan’s state pension fund and Pacific Life.

Digital lending apps are coming under scrutiny in East Africa for predatory practices from Quartz – While I think the fintech companies mentioned here do more good than harm it is helpful to know both sides of the story.