As of January 2017 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fully authorized ten peer-to-peer lenders, according to AltFi, while the remainder of the industry operates with interim approvals; AltFi speculates on some of the characteristics of the authorized and interim lenders; of the authorized firms, Folk2Folk is the largest with originations of approximately 100 million British pounds ($120.44 million); the UK's largest platforms including Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle still have not been approved; loans from these lenders are primarily unsecured; characteristics identified by AltFi as issues for the FCA include: pre-funding, collective investment, auto-investing and institutional investment. Source
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority released a report on algorithmic trading to help set boundaries around the market; the report lays out best practices and presents guidance on how firms can implement AI in trading; the FCA does voice concerns at too much automation and talks about human intervention to avoid big issues occurring; the report was written to help trading firms comply with the Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). Source.
The FCA's first deadline for Customer Duty is looming, but many businesses are still noncompliant. It could be an opportunity for growth.
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https://lendit.wistia.com/medias/zmw4ew8yhx?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640 London is the undisputed heavyweight champion of fintech, but it has found itself with a PR problem: Brexit. Will...
Worsening conditions for the public's financial health have caused the FCA to launch a consultation. The fintech sector is already way ahead.
There is more blowback in the UK over the decision by the FCA to temporarily shut down Wirecard Card Solutions...
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has told asset managers that they need to focus more on customer interests and stop the bad behavior; the rules come after a more than 2 year investigation into the sector; Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, tells the FT, “Today’s announcements are an important part of a package of measures that, combined, aim to achieve a fair, transparent, open and accountable market.”; some of the new rules include hiring independent directors, profits from moving money from one fund to another will be mostly banned and they will need to switch investors to the cheapest version of their funds. Source.
In this conversation, we have a really cool conversation on fintech, crypto assets, payments and all the things around it with Ivan Soto-Wright, the CEO and Co-founder of MoonPay.
More specifically, we discuss Liability-driven Investment (LDI), the proliferation of AI in personal finance to drive sound decision-making, innovation in finance is following the same trajectory that resulted in VOIP for the telecommunication industry, the geographical maze of crypto KYC, payment networks, and crypto payment processing.
UK marketplace lender Landbay has been granted full authorization by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); the platform primarily lends to borrowers seeking rental property mortgage loans; with the FCA authorization the Landbay platform can now seek to offer innovative finance individual savings accounts to its investors. Source
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond will announce the creation of a task force focused on cryptocurrencies; the task force will include the Treasury, the Bank of England, and Britain's financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority; the task force will help manage the risk surrounding cryptocurrencies and better understand how blockchain technology can be implemented. Source.