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. 

Google and PayPal explored OCC’s fintech charter, then walked away from American Banker – This is a bit of a moot point now with the lawsuits proceeding but it is interesting nonetheless. Google, PayPal and “dozens of other technology and fintech companies” met with the OCC during the past year to discuss the new charter.

This bank is ditching fees amid the rise of cheap checking accounts from fintech upstarts from CNBC – One bank has seen the light. Discover is dropping fees from online checking and savings account in response to customer expectations that have been changed, in part, by fintech companies.

Borrowell Closes $20 Million Series B as it Tops 1 Million Users from BetaKit – Our northern neighbors appear to be on a roll this month. Toronto-based Borrowell has closed a $20 million Series B and announced they now have more than one million users.

The 5 Keys To U.K. Digital Bank Monzo’s Success In The U.S. from Forbes – Interesting perspective from Ron Shevlin on what Monzo needs to do to be successful in the US. I think they could well struggle in part because, as Ron says, “It’s momentum and success in Europe isn’t relevant in the US”.

What The Launch Of Facebook’s Libra Means For Payments from PYMNTS.com – Details of Libra are now available and the best analysis I have read is by Karen Webster who suggests the real reason that Facebook is doing this. She also articulates a use case that I immediately thought of: micropayments. 

Led by a16z, Tally raises $50 million in Series C Funding from IBS Intelligence – Another day, another big fintech funding round. This time it is Tally out with a $50m Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz with heavy hitter Angela Strange joining the board of directors.

Dave, a fintech startup backed by Mark Cuban and Diplo, is launching a checking account that helps users build their credit score from Business Insider – With a new funding round, a new tagline and a new checking account Dave is poised to help millions more users maintain their financial health. [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. 

Two Decades of Fintech Investing with Matt Harris from Rebank – Super interesting Rebank Podcast episode with Matt Harris discussing the state of fintech today. Money quote: “No one is going to succeed in consumer fintech without lending. There is just so much of the margin in banking that comes from credit”

LendInvest completes first £259m securitisation as it looks to further take market share from big banks from AltFi – In the UK LendInvest has completed its first securitization deal. The £259m transaction received a AAA rating (for the senior tranche) for the portfolio of buy-to-let loans.

London now has more fintech unicorns than San Francisco from Yahoo Finance – London is the undisputed fintech capital in Europe and it now boasts more fintech unicorns (18) than San Francisco (15).

JPMorgan spends $11 billion on technology. But a top exec at the giant bank says some clients don’t want it to be a tech company. from Business Insider – JPMorgan Chase spends billions every year on technology but their head of digital investment banking said their clients don’t want them to become a tech company.

Peer-to-peer groups battle to survive more hostile market from Financial Times – The UK p2p lending sector is going to go through some changes with many expecting a shift away from retail investors to institutions as has happened in the US.

Student-Debt Relief for Employees from The Wall Street Journal – There is legislation pending in Congress that will provide favorable tax treatment to companies offering student loan payment help to employees. If passed this will become a standard benefit for all Fortune 500 companies and more.

UK digital bank Monzo takes first steps into U.S. market from Reuters – The British are coming! One of the leading digital banks in the UK Monzo has announced they will be launching in the US soon. [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.

Don’t sideline earned income access from American Banker – Great op-ed in American Banker on Monday by my good friend Dan Quan. I completely agree that earned income access is a game changer for struggling consumers and is destined to become a standard offering at many firms.

Santander and eBay to launch loans app in UK from Financial Times – Here is an interesting new partnership to help small business lending in the UK. Santander UK is partnering with eBay UK to offer loans to the 200,000+ small businesses that sell on eBay.

Alternative Lenders Continue to Steal Business From Banks from The Financial Brand – It is interesting that three of the largest small business lenders today are essentially tech companies: PayPal , Square and Amazon . Along with industry leaders OnDeck and Kabbage they are taking marketshare away from banks.

As £165m Lendy collapses, experts warn ‘a dozen more peer-to-peer firms will follow’ from The Telegraph – The collapse of UK p2p lending platform Lendy has caused concern for investors with some wondering if there are other platforms in danger of failing.

Fintech start-ups are vying for partnership deals with the likes of Apple and Facebook from CNBC – At Money2020 in Amsterdam today much of the talk was about big tech companies with some fintech leaders already discussing potential partnerships.

Biz2Credit Raises $52M In Funding To Expand from PYMNTS.com – The big funding rounds keep coming in 2019. Now, it is Biz2Credit ‘s turn. They have closed a $52M Series B led by WestBridge Capital to ramp up their new Biz2X banking as a service offering.

ING pushes for open banking with SME financing platform and Yolt expansion from Fintech Futures – One of the most digitally-focused big banks in Europe is ING. They are now expanding their Yolt personal finance app to France and Italy and bringing Funding Options to The Netherlands. [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. 

Where Are We in the Credit Cycle? PeerIQ’s Consumer Credit Digest from PeerIQ – The PeerIQ newsletter is out with the latest news of the day and they also review earnings transcripts and comments from bank execs to assess their take on where we are in the credit cycle.

A Goldman Sachs rival pulled out of the Apple Card deal on fears it will be a money loser from CNBC – Interesting new details are being revealed about the upcoming Apple Card and which banks were in the running to win the business before Goldman Sachs became the partner bank.

Digital upstart tries to crack Mexico’s rigid banking market from Financial Times – The most important (and successful) new digital bank in Latin American is Brazil’s fintech unicorn Nubank . They are now setting their sights on Mexico.

This fintech drove billions in deposits to EU banks. Can it work here? from American Banker – If you haven’t heard of Raisin yet you will soon. The German fintech leader has garnered a huge amount of deposits in Europe (€13b) and they are launching in the US soon.

Lending start-up SoFi closes $500 million funding round, led by Qatar from CNBC – It is now official. SoFi has closed a $500 million funding round led by the Qatar Investment Authority, valuing the company at $4.3b which is roughly the same valuation as their last round two years ago.

Silicon Valley fintech Plaid pushes into UK market from Financial Times – Another US fintech leader is expanding to the UK. Plaid already has two customers and has integrated eight of the largest banks there.

The digital banking revolution is here. So why are so few people putting their salaries into app-only bank accounts? from Moneywise – In the UK the digital banking revolution seems to be in full swing but only 12% have fully switched to a digital only bank.

Less than 1 year after launching its corporate card for startups, Brex eyes $2B valuation from TechCrunch – Two year old credit card startup Brex is in the process of raising yet another funding round that will likely see their valuation top $2b.

Are banks still necessary? The view from China in 4 charts from Tearsheet – Quick primer on the Chinese fintech market and why it leads the world.

$4.3 billion startup SoFi plans to buy the naming rights to Los Angeles’ new NFL stadium for $400 million from Business Insider – Fintech might get its first football stadium as SoFi considers buying to right to the new Rams NFL stadium.

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. 

‘We were willing to shock historical norms’: Otting on OCC’s makeover from American Banker – In a wide ranging interview in American Banker the Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting, talks about the changes he has brought to the OCC and his vision for the future.

‘They Were Conned’: How Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers from The New York Times – There is more to the story about the collapse of taxi medallion prices in NYC than just the entry of Uber and Lyft. Reckless lending, loose regulation and artificially inflated prices played a big part as well. Fascinating two part story in The New York Times.

Credit quality declines at big US business lenders from Financial Times – According to the Financial Times non-performing loans at the 10 largest commercial lenders rose 20% in the first quarter reversing a steady improvement since 2016.

Monzo hits 2m customers, adding 1m in eight months from AltFi – The fastest growing bank in the UK is now Monzo where they just crossed 2 million customers, 8 months after reaching 1 million.

Goldman Sachs-backed Marqeta rides payments wave to a $2 billion valuation from CNBC – So, the rumors were true. Marqeta has closed a $260 million funding round that values the company at $2 billion.

Fintech Raisin Finally Crosses the Atlantic to Enter the Massive US Savings Market from Crowdfund Insider – Another European fintech leader is coming to the US. German savings platform Raisin has announced they have hired a US CEO and will be expanding here in the near future.

TransferWise now valued at $3.5B following a new $292M secondary round from TechCrunch – There is a new king of European fintech. TransferWise is now the most valuable fintech company in Europe after their latest $292m secondary round valued the company at $3.5b.

Small-business fintech launches lending platform for banks from American Banker – After implementations at two bank clients Biz2Credit is releasing a banking as a service product to all banks featuring loan management, servicing and risk analytics.

Plaid gives digital banks and fintech a new tool to bypass traditional finance from CNBC – For some time now Plaid has been connecting fintech platforms to banks. Now, they will allow these platforms to connect to each other, potentially bypassing traditional banks.

Once dismissive of fintechs, traditional lenders now feeling their bite from American Banker – In 2010 fintech lenders represented 1% of all personal loans, in 2018 that number was close to 40% and growing.

Facebook to Roll Out ‘GlobalCoin’ Cryptocurrency in 2020: Report from CoinDesk – More details are emerging about Facebook’s new digital currency that they intend to trial in the first quarter of 2020.

Backing For UK Fintech Soars But Investors May Be Becoming More Cautious from Forbes – A new report says that investment in fintech in the UK totaled £4.5 billion between 2015 and 2018 but can this pace continue amid so much uncertainty?

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.

No Branch, No Problem. Citigroup Bets Big on Digital Banking. from The Wall Street Journal – We start out the week with an interesting piece on Citi in the WSJ . Their bet on digital is paying off with $1B in new digital deposits in Q1, more than all of 2018.

Fintech executive sworn in as California’s top financial regulator from American Banker – The California Department of Business Oversight has a new commissioner and it is someone with an intimate knowledge of fintech, having just been general counsel of Affirm for the past several years.

Some Small Businesses See Big Benefits in Online Financing from The Wall Street Journal – The latest Federal Reserve small business credit survey shows an increasing percentage of loans going to online lending platforms and while many like the convenience and speed some rue the high cost.

Credit Card Loan Performance; PeerIQ’s Modeling Archive from PeerIQ – This week’s PeerIQ newsletter analyzes the metrics from the largest credit card issuers and determined that delinquencies have picked up from their lows but remain significantly below their peaks.

Payday Lenders Drum Up Customer Support to Ease Regulations from The Wall Street Journal – The payday lending industry is soliciting customers to write comments to the CFPB demonstrating support but many of the comments are remarkably similar…

PeerStreet Reports Accelerating Growth as the Real Estate Platform Tops $2 Billion in Property Lending from Crowdfund Insider – Real estate platform PeerStreet continues to grow. Interesting interview with co-founder Brett Crosby.

UK becomes world’s top fintech hub as startups rake in £4.5bn from City A.M. – This is why we have LendIt Fintech Europe in London every year. It is not just the top fintech hub in Europe it is the world leader. [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 Needs To Stop Tinkering At The Edges Of Big Data from Forbes – In an interesting column in Forbes the CEO of ZestFinance says that lenders need to go all in on machine learning, it is no good having more data for underwriting and then using it ineffectively.

Don’t overhaul CRA just for the sake of it from American Banker – There has been much talk about reforming the Community Reinvestment Act but in this American Banker op-ed the author argues that maybe just a few tweaks are necessary.

Brexit delays Goldman’s Marcus launch in Germany from Financial Times – Last year Goldman Sachs said they were going to launch Marcus in Germany in 2019 but given the Brexit delay they have now decided there is no hurry to setup a new deposit base in the EU.

Citi wants to bring credit card perks like miles to bank accounts from American Banker – Interesting move from Citi looking to bring perks to bank accounts as they try to grow their deposit base.

OakNorth launches mortgages for entrepreneurs from Tearsheet – Being an entrepreneur often means it is difficult to get a mortgage. UK fintech leader OakNorth is looking to change that with their new mortgage offering.

Brazil fintech Nubank opens Mexico office as it seeks Latam expansion from Reuters – Brazilian digital bank Nubank is one of the top challenger banks in Latin America with 8.5 million customers and they are now expanding into Mexico.

SoFi launches gig-focused ETF from TechCrunch – SoFi continues to ramp up their investment offerings. This week they have launched a new ETF focused on the gig economy. [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.

Mark Carney vows to reinvent Bank of England for ‘fourth industrial revolution’ from Yahoo Finance UK – At the start of UK fintech week the Governor of the Bank of England said that they need to reinvent the central bank to make it fit for the “new economy” of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

College Students Abandon Student Loans, Offer Share Of Their Future Income Instead from deBanked – So far this year I have read more articles on income share agreements than ever before. Maybe the idea is finally getting traction. Certainly something needs to be done about the student loan crisis.

Exclusive: Digital banks have won over half of Brits, but women are being left behind from AltFi – Interesting survey out this week from AltFi showing the gender gap in fintech when it comes to brand awareness of the leading players.

Revolut says it’s cleaning up its act. Evidence suggests otherwise from Wired – Even though Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky has said his company is different today than it was 12-18 months ago the negative press keeps coming.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond: “The UK is the perfect location for Fintech to thrive, even as we leave the European Union” from Crowdfund Insider – I am in the UK this week for their fintech week and was at Innovate Finance yesterday to hear the chancellor’s support for the industry. Good summary from Crowdfund Insider. Would love to have similar support from the highest levels of government in the US.

How will UK FinTech fare in the future? from Chris Skinner’s Blog – Here is a good summary of a panel chaired by Chris Skinner on the future of UK fintech at Innovate Finance.

Inside Varo Money’s three-year quest for a bank charter from American Banker – Interesting look inside the long process of Varo’s bank charter application.

International P2P Lending Volumes April 2019 from P2P-Banking – The international p2p lending origination numbers for April are out with many platforms seeing good traction.

Apple Card doesn’t ‘reinvent the wheel,’ but it does cut friction from PaymentsSource – What is really new and different about the new Apple Card from Goldman Sachs.

Facebook Building Cryptocurrency-Based Payments System from The Wall Street Journal – This is the most innovative fintech initiative yet from the FAANG companies and could change the world of payments.

Fintechs want to become nationwide lenders, but they just hit a major roadblock from MarketWatch – In the worst news of the week for fintech a federal judge rules that the NYDFS lawsuit against the OCC on the fintech charter can proceed.

Unicorn Challenger Bank Chime CEO Chris Britt Chats Up Speedy Deposits from Crowdfund Insider – Chime CEO Chris Britt was on CNBC this week talking up how Chime customers get their payday two days earlier than anyone else.

From the Lend Academy Forum

The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.

STRATA Public Unsecured Notes balance not equal LC balance – An investor shares an issue related to closing out a LendingClub IRA.

LC Bot Performance Info – A forum member shares information about a bot they run that is purchasing loans on LendingClub’s secondary market.

Cash Parking – A popular thread on where the best places are to park cash.

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.

Lenders without border walls from American Banker – New immigrants are one of the most underserved populations when it comes to credit. Several new fintech companies are working hard to change this. Good analysis from Penny Crosman.

Raising Money in the Crypto World Has Gotten a Lot Harder from The Wall Street Journal – Year over year the ICO market was down over 98% in the first quarter, a staggering decrease that prompted the first line in this WSJ article “The ICO market is dead”.

Peter Thiel and Li Ka-shing Have a Banking App for America’s Generation Z from Bloomberg – One of the European digital banks intending to launch in the US this year is N26. See the rapid growth they have experienced in this interesting piece in Bloomberg.

Industry hits back as FCA warns on IFISA risk from Peer2Peer Finance News – Yesterday in the UK the FCA issued a warning to investors on the Innovative Finance ISA and today the fintech industry hit back.

Revolut whistleblower had concerns over CEO conduct and compliance from the BBC – Also in the UK more bad news for Revolut. The BBC has learned a whistleblower had gone to the FCA in 2016 with concerns on compliance and the conduct of the CEO.

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Brendan Ross, Direct Lending Investments, and Others from deBanked – A class action lawsuit has been filed against Brendan Ross, Direct Lending Investments and others who may have been involved in the alleged fraud.

LendingClub’s Computers No Worse at Lending Than Humans, Study Finds from TheStreet – A new report out by the Philadelphia Fed compares the underwriting at LendingClub to that of the largest banks. [Read more…]