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.

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.

Challenger banks apply pressure with fee cuts from American Banker – I am a big fan of the anti-overdraft features of the digital challenger banks like Chime and Varo. We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the $35 overdraft fee.

Lendable, Lending Works and Assetz Capital among fastest growing tech firms from Peer2Peer Finance News – The annual Tech Track 100 list is out of the fastest growing UK tech companies with #fintech lenders Lendable, Assetz and Lending Works making the list (they are all speaking later this month at LendIt Fintech Europe).

CFPB moves to ease fintechs’ regulatory fears from American Banker – The CFPB has issued three new policies to promote innovation, removing the threat of legal liability for fintech companies that test products benefiting consumers.

What’s Driving The Digital Banking Boom In Latin America from Crunchbase – Latin America has been one of the major growth markets for digital banking in 2019. The CEO of a LatAm digital bank explains why.

Max Levchin’s Affirm seeks capital amid surge in fintech funding from Techcrunch – The money is still flowing. Now it looks like Affirm is readying a mega round of debt and equity up to $1.5 billion. They just raised $300 million in equity in April.

Digital Banking, With Millennial, Mobile – And Governmental – Tailwinds from PYMNTS – There are several tailwinds in the digital banking space right now. It is a global movement that is seeing new digital challengers rise up to compete with the traditional banks.

Payments giant Stripe debuts a credit card in its latest step into the financing fray from Techcrunch – Last week it was small business lending, this week it is a credit card. Stripe is ramping up its financial services offerings.

California may point the way forward on payroll advances from American Banker – A law professor digs into the new earned wage access law that is making its way through the California legislature and explains why it is a viable replacement for payday loans.

Need Cash? Companies Are Considering Magazine Subscriptions and Phone Bills When Making Loans from The Wall Street Journal – Underwriting models are changing as more alternative data is becoming mainstream.

The brand values of eight of the UK’s biggest banks declined last year — potentially due to neobanks from Business Insider – The brands of eight of the largest banks in the UK — including HSBC and Barclays — declined by an average of 7% over the last year.

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.

Kabbage acquires Radius Intelligence, the marketing tech firm with a database of 20M small businesses from TechCrunch – Interesting acquisition announced by Kabbage this week. They are acquiring business data and analytics platform Radius who have data on 20 million US businesses.

Some Companies Offer a New Benefit: Payroll Advances and Loans from The Wall Street Journal – Employer based financing is really starting to gain momentum. I expect it will become a standard benefit for most companies within 3-5 years. Here the WSJ lays out the rationale along with examples of companies offering this today.

Can Apple Or Amazon Become Full Stack Banks? from Forbes – The latest from Ron Shevlin is an interesting perspective on the banking industry and whether or not Apple and Amazon can become “full stack banks”.

Conference of State Bank Supervisors Denied Again as DC Federal Court Shoots Down Attempt to Challenge OCC Fintech Charter from Crowdfund Insider – Defeat number two for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors as a judge dismissed their most recent lawsuit against the OCC over the fintech charter.

Our fintech partnership with Barclays: Status Update from LinkedIn – The CEO of MarketInvoice gives an update on their groundbreaking partnership with Barclays. They have funded £20m in invoices and are ramping up.

Chime now has 5 million customers and introduces overdraft alternative from Techcrunch – The US challenger banks keep growing. Chime has now reached 5 million customers in the US after crossing 3 million customers just six months ago. This makes the company one of the fastest growing digital banks in the world.

SMALL BUSINESS LENDING: ROB FROHWEIN AND KATHRYN PETRALIA OF KABBAGE from Barefoot Innovation Group – Great to see the podcast that Jo Ann Barefoot recorded at LendIt earlier this year with the co-founders of Kabbage is finally out. A must listen.

Stripe, the world’s most valuable private fintech company, is getting into lending from CNBC – This was always going to happen. Stripe is joining rivals Square and PayPal in launching a small business lending operation for its own customers.

U.S. Fintech Happy Money Secures $70 Million Through Series D Funding Round Led by CMFG Ventures from Crowdfund Insider – The big rounds keep coming, this one from established consumer lender Happy Money (formerly known as Payoff).

Caliber Home Loans Begins Lending on Provenance Blockchain Platform (press release) – Mike Cagney’s Figure signs up their first outside lender to user their blockchain platform.

In China, P2P Insiders Say Regulatory Shortcomings Have Choked Industry from the New York Times – The Chinese p2p lending industry is a mess and in this article it explains why.

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 CEO of a $600 million startup blasted Silicon Valley’s culture of delaying IPOs, likening it to a college victory lap paid for by VCs from Business Insider – Interesting comments from Vishal Garg, founder of Better.com, on why he thinks successful companies should go public sooner.

Why Is Uber Hiring So Many Fintech People? from Forbes – In his latest column Ron Shevlin riffs on why Uber might need 100+ fintech people for its NYC office.

Early Access to Earned Wages vs. Payday Lending from Bloomberg Tax – More on the regulatory scrutiny that the earned wage access industry is under and the importance of implementing sensible safeguards.

Fintech Unison Considers Exiting San Francisco. Will Others Follow? from Crowdfund Insider – The Bay Area has been a hotbed of fintech for many years. But for how much longer? SF-based fintech companies continue to look outside California for new offices.

Overdraft Fees Have Got to Go from Medium – Nice move from Varo announcing their No Fee Overdraft feature. I think overdrafts will eventually go the way of Blockbuster Video but it will take some time. Here Colin Walsh gives his perspective.

China’s c.bank to issue own cryptocurrency as soon as Nov from Reuters – This is a big deal. China is launching its state-backed cryptocurrency soon, possibly within 2 months, and it has anointed 7 firms as issuers.

Goldman Sachs boosts foothold in consumer credit market via P2P lenders from P2P Finance News – Interesting look at the investments Goldman Sachs has made in the lending space in Europe.

Fintech Doing ‘Good’ Can Turn Into Something Bad For Poor People from Forbes – While the fintech companies I know working in Africa are not focused on “runaway profits” the message here is worth noting. We should make sure our lending products make people better off and not get them stuck in a cycle of perpetual debt.

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.

Mortgage Lender Better.com Grows Series C Funding Round to $160M from Fortune – We start the week with the news of yet another big funding round. Mortgage innovator, Better, has closed their Series C funding round with $160 million in capital.

Silicon Valley Is Eating The Crumbs From The Banks’ Lunch from Forbes – Many people are enamored with everything Apple does. But Ron Shevlin questions some of the assumptions being made about the impact of the new Apple Card (and more) in a recent article.

LendingClub CEO On Interest Rates, Credit … And The Bank Charter Quest from PYMNTS.com – Interesting Q&A with CEO Scott Sanborn on the bank charter, interest rates, the recent changes at LendingClub and more.

Aussie wants to reinvent banking from The Australian Business Review – It is not just the European digital banks that are coming to the US. Aussie fintech startup Douugh is coming and already has a few thousand users on their US waiting list.

Praise and scorn for California’s new business loan disclosure plan from American Banker – Last year California signed SB 1235 into law requiring better disclosures for small business lenders. Now, the real work is beginning on how to implement this law and there are challenges.

The Apple Card is the start of Goldman’s transformation into a consumer powerhouse, CEO says from CNBC – Through Marcus and the Apple Card the world’s leading investment bank Goldman Sachs is transforming before our eyes into a consumer banking leader.

PayPal-backed money lender Tala raises $110M to enter India from TechCrunch – Another big funding round announced today. Congrats to Shivani Siroya and the Tala team on their $110M Series D. Bring on India. [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.

Digital challenger banks stockpile cash at record rate from Financial Times – The Financial Times discusses the new report out this week from CB insights that shows digital banking is the fastest growing segment of fintech in 2019.

The Federal Reserve Is Too Late To The Real-Time Payments Party from Forbes – Interesting observations from Ron Shevlin on FedNow, the new real time payments system announced last week by the Federal Reserve that will supposedly be ready by 2023. Basically, they should have made this announcement years ago.

Fintech P2Binvestor has Financed Over $1 Billion in Lending: A Discussion with Founder Krista Morgan from Crowdfund Insider – Q&A with Krista Morgan, the CEO of P2Binvestor on crossing $1 billion in originations, partnering with banks, her experience as a female fintech founder, their expectations for the rest of the year and more.

Fintech Debt Investors Follow Equity Dollars Into Latin America from Forbes – Latin America is hot in fintech right now. There have been some big equity deals done recently and now the debt investors are coming.

It’s Time For Regulators To Expand Opportunities For Smaller Investors from Forbes – Good piece by Brew Johnson of PeerStreet on the need for the accredited investor rule to be changed. This is long overdue.

Funding Circle Surpasses $10 Billion Lent to Small Businesses Globally (press release) from BusinessWire – Big milestone for Funding Circle announced today. They have crossed $10 billion in total loans issued globally.

Monzo launches loans, but they’re not the cheapest from AltFi – I have been waiting for the UK digital banks to embrace lending. Today, we learned that Monzo has launched a consumer lending operation (in house) with loans up to £15,000. [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.

Online lenders make case for cash-flow data while acknowledging pitfalls from American Banker – On the heels of the FinRegLab report users of cash flow data in underwriting give their perspective.

LendingClub: America Does Not Need Another Credit Card, Apple Card Spells Disaster for Consumers from Crowdfund Insider – Unsurprisingly LendingClub is not a fan of the new Apple Card by Goldman Sachs.

Swedish fintech Klarna valued at $5.5 billion in funding round from Reuters – The title of most valuable private fintech company in Europe keeps changing. Just this year it has been OakNorth, N26, Transferwise and now Klarna has taken over the title with a $460m round that values the firm at $5.5b.

An update on credit access and the Bureau’s first No-Action Letter from the CFPB – The CFPB provides an update on the use of alternative data in underwriting and the No Action Letter issued to Upstart in 2017.

What business does a crowdfunding fintech have with banks? from American Banker – Interesting Q&A with Krista Morgan of P2Binvestor about raising capital and bank partnerships.

Thiel-Backed Valar Leads Finance Round for Crypto Startup from Bloomberg – Crypto lender BlockFi just raised $18m in a Series A from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures as they look to expand their product mix. Congrats to Zac Prince and team on the funding round.

Blend’s CFO explains how the buzzy mortgage startup overshot its own expectations with a $130 million Series E — and the metrics that made investors salivate from Business Insider – A deep dive into the recent funding round by digital mortgage leader Blend with comments from the CFO. [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.

Fintech decacorn Nubank raises $400M led by TCV from TechCrunch – The most valuable digital bank (outside of China) is not in the U.S. or Europe, it is in Brazil. Nubank just closed a $400 million round led by TCV that values the company at more than $10 billion.

Iwoca doubles lending, turns first annual profit from AltFi – UK small business lender iwoca almost doubled loan originations in 2018 to £325 million while at the same time earning their first profit.

What’s next for OnDeck after breakup with JPMorgan? from American Banker – Monday was not a great day for OnDeck as investors sold the stock when it announced the loss of Chase as a client. American Banker looks at the aftermath and what is next for the company.

Elevate Credit CEO Resigns as Q2 Revenue Misses, Guidance Cut from Crowdfund Insider – The CEO of Elevate, Ken Rees, has resigned as the company releases a tepid second quarter earnings report.

Fintechs invited to enter £2m affordable credit challenge from Peer2Peer Finance News – I like this new £2m challenge in the UK to fintech companies to come up with better ways of providing affordable credit to consumers.

Inside the U.S. launch of Visa’s fintech Fast Track program from Tearsheet – Visa has launched their fintech Fast Track program to help startups get going. Tearsheet talks with Visa’s global head of fintech about this new program.

Europe’s startup banks are coming to America. Can they succeed? from CNN – Interesting look at the prospects of the European digital banks opening up in the US this year. [Read more…]