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.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.