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.
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.