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.
How Amazon is shaking up financial services from American Banker – A look at all the ways Amazon is shaking up financial services.
The Story of India’s Emergence as a Leading FinTech Hub from MEDICI – There is huge growth in fintech in India right now and the numbers confirm this. According to MEDICI there were more fintech companies started in India in 2016-17 than any other country in the world.
Ex-SoFi CEO Mike Cagney’s new startup, Figure, is out of stealth from Fast Company – I have been hearing rumors about this for a couple of months now but Mike Cagney’s new venture is officially out of stealth mode now. His new company, Figure, will disrupt the home equity market.
N26 raises $160 million from Tencent and Allianz from TechCrunch – German digital banking startup n26 has raised a huge $160M Series C led by Allianz and Tencent, an interesting combo of established and new. The round will help facilitate its expansion into the UK and US this year.
Affirm embeds with Apple Pay for instore financing from Finextra – Leading online point of sale lender Affirm is set to move into brick and mortar stores. They are giving merchants two offerings: the Affirm InStore API or use Affirm’s expanded virtual card experience.
How digital banks are raising the bar for customer experience from Tearsheet – More bank customers today have high expectations of banks when it comes to customer experience. European digital banks are leading the way here.
FCA calls for global effort to speed up fintech growth from Financial Times – In the UK the FCA is leading the charge to connect global regulators to create a type of global fintech sandbox. I wholeheartedly support this initiative even though it will challenging to pull off.
Student Lender CommonBond Raises $50M To Invest In Technology, Blockchain from Forbes – Big news earlier this week from CommonBond as they closed on a huge funding round with some large banks leading the way.
OCC once wanted payday lenders to ‘stay the hell away’ from banks. No longer from American Banker – There has been nothing but good news lately on the regulatory front for payday lenders and now the OCC is making it easier for them to partner with national banks again.
7 Highlights from Innovate Finance Global Summit 2018 from Finextra – The Innovate Finance Global Summit in London this week was a well attended event with some really interesting speakers. Here are some key takeaways.
How quantum will change everything (including banking, money and security) from The Finanser – The next big tech theme that may soon be upon us is quantum computing. The inimitable Chris Skinner provides us with an excellent primer on how we should be thinking about this and the impact it could have.
Do Fintech Lenders Penetrate Areas That Are Underserved by Traditional Banks? from The Federal Reserve – New report out from The Fed this week takes a look at the impact that LendingClub loans has in underserved communities.
Are bankers underestimating Amazon? from American Banker – In interesting look at how bankers have reacted so far to encroachment of Amazon into financial services.
RBS working on secret plot to create digital challenger bank from Sky News – Yet another large bank is creating their own digital initiative to compete with the many challenger offerings.
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.
Account Liquidation- How did you get the last of your notes to sell? – An investor asks how others have been able to sell their last remaining notes.
Worst Loan of the Day Thread, Grades A – C – A popular thread where investors share notes which they feel are likely to default.
Automatic Interest Distributions – A new marketplace lending investor asks if there is a way to withdraw interest payments from notes instead of reinvesting.
