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2018 Was a Breakout Year for Banking/Fintech M&A

Led by rallying financial stocks, favorable policy developments and rising interest rates, 2018 was a big year for banking M&A

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While M&A activity in the banking sector for 2017 was relatively subdued, a Deloitte study released at the end of that year suggested that 2018 had the potential to be a big year for banking M&A activity. That suggestion wound up being an accurate one. Led by the rallying of financial stocks that helped stabilize and boost the value of companies’ capital war chests, more favorable policy developments that helped ease regulatory constraints, rising interest rates and the tax reform bill’s boost to bottom lines, banking M&A made numerous headlines throughout the year.

Many large financial firms that had been sitting on the sidelines since the financial crisis, spent 2018 actively exploring and completing some major fintech acquisitions or investments as the continued rise in technology innovation played a major role in this increased activity as well.

For fintechs, 2018 got off to a fast start and that early momentum was felt throughout the year. Two massive deals dominated the headlines as the $12.9 billion acquisition of WorldPay by Vantiv and PayPal’s acquisition of Swedish fintech firm iZettle for $2.2 billion most certainly set the stage for a big year.

The total number of retail banking deals globally was numbered at 287 through the first three quarters of 2018 according to White & Case M&A Explorer, which was broadly in line with previous years. However, these transactions were worth a combined $76.2 billion – a 25% increase over the first three quarters of 2017. [Read more…]

2018: The Year that Banks and Fintech Started to Figure Things Out

We look back on all of the significant bank and fintech partnerships struck in 2018.

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[Editor’s note: Please meet our newest contributor to Lend Academy. Mike McEnaney joined the LendIt content team late last year and this is his first feature article on Lend Academy.]

We were one year too late. At Lend Academy we predicted that 2017 would be the year of the bank/fintech partnership but it wasn’t until this year that we really started to see serious momentum. 2018 was a big year for bank/fintech partnerships and despite the fact some naysayers have claimed these partnerships are “doomed to fail”, the list of winners appeared to be much longer than the list of losers.

There was a powerful synergy being built between banks and fintech companies in 2018 that has the potential to lift the entire financial sector. While it may be true that banks can’t partner themselves into digital relevancy, their survival may well rest on these fintech collaborations and making sure they are structured with a win-win vision.

Banks win by gaining the ability to provide a far better customer experience, reducing their costs, increasing loan originations in various asset classes, providing more loans with no additional staff and ultimately increasing revenue. The win for fintech comes in the form of access to the loyal customer base banks possess, tapping into the deep financial services experience of banks and gaining greater familiarity with the regulatory environment.

As we begin 2019, the fintech/bank partnership landscape is also beginning to show some ROI as these collaborations are indeed increasing both top-lines and bottom-lines. Even financial institutions that once scoffed at the notion of these partnerships are now getting on board, and research shows that fintech will be an increasingly important part of their long-term strategic plans.

While the focus from bank execs may have initially been on navigating the fintech disruption, the focus now is far more centered on the positive impact a fintech partnership can have. A core need for banks today in this new era of finance is to engage their increasingly digitally focused customer base in new ways.

The road ahead for fintech/bank partnerships will be all about the melding of fintech’s agility and their ability to solve customer problems in innovative ways with the trust and reliability banks have built over their long and successful history.

There were dozens of bank/fintech partnerships formed in 2018, here is a list of just some of the more interesting ones from the US and UK:

HSBC & Avant

HSBC Holdings teamed up with Avant Inc., a closely held online lender, to offer unsecured loans to new and existing customers in the US.

PNC & OnDeck

PNC Financial Services Group’s PNC Bank will use technology from digital lender OnDeck Capital to extend loans to small businesses online.

Tandem Bank & Stripe

UK digital bank Tandem partnered with Stripe to power their new “Auto Savings” feature (created as a way to lower the barriers for Tandem app users who want to save for a rainy day.

JPMorgan & Plaid

JPMorgan partnered with Plaid in an effort to give its customers better control over their personal data.

Citigroup & Thinknum

Citigroup partnership with data startup Thinknum provides clients with alternative data sets; the data includes social media traffic, job postings, price and availability of products and more.

BMO Harris & AutoGravity

BMO Harris Bank is making car buying more simple and transparent for consumers by partnering with the auto-focused fintech AutoGravity. AutoGravity partners with banks to give car buyers direct control over how they finance or lease their cars while connecting them to a nationwide network of trusted car dealerships.

American Express & GreenSky

The two companies partnered to bring innovative point-of-sale lending technology to more merchants, enabling them to offer frictionless payment options to customers.

HSBC UK & Consents.online

HSBC UK is set to capitalize on the opportunities presented by Open Banking after agreeing to a partnership with consents.online, an Account Information Service Provider (AISP).

Starling Bank & UK Post Office

While this is not a bank/fintech partnership it was notable nonetheless because it was the first such deal in the UK with a digital bank. The Starling Bank partnership with the Post Office partnership will allow Starling consumer and business account customers to deposit and withdraw cash through the Post Office’s 11,500 branches nationwide.

Radius Bank & Mantl

The two companies combined to launch a new digital account opening platform, that allows  consumers to enjoy a frictionless account opening experience, reducing the time it takes to open an account to less than 4 minutes from any device

Goldman Sachs & Cadre

The two companies formed a strategic partnership to allow Goldman’s clients to invest in a broad-based portfolio of U.S. income producing commercial real estate assets.

BankMobile & Upstart

Bank Mobile “Powered by Upstart” is a SaaS lending platform that provides a complete solution — including borrower acquisition, underwriting, verification, and servicing — and requires zero upfront capital investment in technology.

KeyBank & Bolstr

This partnership enables KeyBank’s small business clients to streamline the process of applying for credit. And in turn, the Bolstr platform (a digital lending and SaaS platform) will enable KeyBank to digitally accept and process loan applications significantly faster and at a lower cost.

TD Bank with Flybits, Kasisto and Moven

TD Bank has seen their mobile app become number one in Canada for the finance category on iOS and Android; the bank has utilized fintech partnerships with Flybits, Kasisto and Moven to a build a new age banking experience

Blue Ridge Bank/Pioneer Bank & SoFi

The two community banks made the decision in 2018 to buy SoFi loans using Promontory Interfinancial Network’s service.

Fifth Third Bank & Commonbond

The pair partnered to help provide solutions to those customers with student debt, consolidating multiple private and federal loans into one easy payment.

Barclays and MarketInvoice

This was probably the most significant partnership announced in the UK last year. This multifaceted partnerships was formed to improve the way small and medium sized businesses in the UK manage cash flow and accelerate growth.

While 2017 may have fanned the bank/fintech partnership flames, the fire truly got going in 2018, particularly in the latter half of the year. Every bank in the country is now looking at how they are engaging digitally with their customers and what they can learn from fintech platforms. The momentum is not going to stop any time soon – leaving us all very much looking forward to what’s in store for 2019.

Fintech Predictions for 2019

My annual predictions for fintech and marketplace lending and a review of last year

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Happy New Year everyone. As I do every year at this time I make a few predictions for the year ahead as well as review my previous year’s predictions. I like this process because it gets me to focus on the hot trends that will shape the year ahead and also to review what I missed at this time last year.

Review of my 2018 Predictions

First, let’s review my predictions I made at the beginning of last year. While the fintech industry had a great year in 2018 my predictions fell short in many cases.

  1. Five top 25 banks will launch their own online lending platforms
    I would say I was almost spot on with this one. In the last year we have seen new platforms from a number of large banks: PNC Bank (small business loans – powered by OnDeck), HSBC (personal loans – powered by Avant), US Bank (small dollar personal loans built in-house), American Express (point of sale loans with GreenSky). Barclays also launched personal loans this year but this was officially announced late in 2017 so I can’t really include it.
  2. Two new pieces of legislation will be passed that will benefit the industry
    While we did not get the long awaited for Madden fix bill in 2018 despite bipartisan support or the IRS modernization bill it was left to the states to take the lead on legislation. Arizona became the first state in the country to pass a bill creating a regulatory fintech sandbox. Then California signed into law SB 1235 which requires consumer-like disclosures on small business loans and merchant cash advances. But I was really thinking federal legislation when I made that prediction so I will give myself a fail on this one.
  3. One of the top five (non-bank) online lending platforms will be acquired
    I thought this one was going to come true as there were some rumors during the year but we ended 2018 with no major online lending platform being acquired. Another fail.
  4. A major lending platform will get hit with a cyber attack
    I am happy to be wrong on this one. The industry suffered no major cyber attack.
  5. The tech giants consolidate their positions in online lending
    So, Amazon was probably the most talked about company in fintech this year but despite that no major news broke about new inroads into fintech from the tech behemoth. Square launched consumer lending with a big splash and filed paperwork to open its own bank. PayPal continues to expand its loan book and has raised its lending limit to $500,000. As this recent CNBC article says Square and PayPal are leveraging data to expand their lending operation while Amazon is still lurking.
  6. 2018 is the year of product line expansion
    The tone was set by Rob Frohwein, CEO of Kabbage, who said on the LendIt stage last April that monoline online lenders would go the way of the dinosaur. New products were announced by a large number of online lenders from Prosper (HELOCs), OnDeck (equipment finance), SoFi (SoFi Money), Kabbage (payments), MoneyLion (checking account), Upgrade (line of credit), Square Capital (personal loans) just to name a few. It was a breakout year for new products.
  7. Messaging apps start to get integrated into online lending
    This was my long shot prediction and it did not come to pass. While p2p payments are being incorporated into messaging apps we are not seeing loans yet, at least not in the US.

If I tally up my predictions here I probably scored about 3.5 out of 7, barely a passing grade. I will see if I can do better in 2019.

My 2019 Fintech Predictions

  1. Three companies will be approved for the OCC Fintech Charter
    Despite lawsuits from the states the OCC is pushing ahead with their new fintech charter. I expect several (I am going with three) new companies will apply for the charter and be approved.
  2. Three new fintech hybrid “bank” accounts will be launched paying more than 2%
    SoFi Money launched with significant fanfare in mid 2018. This is a hybrid checking/savings account and pays 2% interest (as of today). I expect we will see three new fintech entrants here in this space paying more than 2%. Despite the travails of Robinhood’s offering I think this will mark the beginning of the end of bank checking accounts that pay no interest and charge monthly fees.
  3. The tokenization of lending will begin
    Tokenization has become a bit of a buzzword in the blockchain space as everything from art, diamonds, stocks and real estate is being tokenized. But in the securitization space we have not even really begun yet. With the launch of Figure and the work being done by Global Debt Registry this is about to change. I am sticking with the number three as I think we will see three end to end securitization deals completed on the blockchain in 2019.
  4. Employer-based lending becomes a thing
    There is more awareness than ever about the importance of employee financial wellness. And in a tight labor market companies are always looking for ways they can offer new benefits to employees. We have had employer-based loan offerings enabled by companies like Kashable, HoneyBee and TrueConnect for some time but they have yet to gain wide traction. I think 2019 will be a breakout year for employer-based lending with dozens of Fortune 500 companies offering it as a benefit.
  5. Explainable AI hits center stage
    Artificial intelligence continues to be a hot topic in so many areas of finance and particularly in underwriting. We had the No Action Letter granted to Upstart in late 2017 which gained a great deal of attention. Now, many lenders, both online and traditional banks, are clamoring to incorporate AI into their underwriting with the big challenge being it needs to be explainable to consumers as well as regulators. Many lenders (more than 10) will have this in production by the end of 2019.
  6. Results-based lending takes off in student loans
    The student loan industry is moving towards a crisis. Student loan defaults are remaining well above 10% and have the highest delinquency rates of all the major loan categories. Something needs to be done and I think we will see a move towards results-based lending for student loans in 2019, This will mean many universities will adopt student loan programs based on the ROI of their degrees. This will be difficult to quantify but expect to read more about results-based student lending in 2019.
  7. The new major buzz word in finance will be quantum computing
    The idea of quantum computing has been around since the 1980s but it is only quite recently that the concept has come to finance. With the explosion in data sources in recent years finance now needs more computing power than ever to understand and make sense of this data. Serious research has already been conducted in this area and while I don’t expect a lot of practical use cases we will see quantum computing embraced as a concept throughout finance in 2019.

Now, there are many other trends that I have left out of this list but this is what I am thinking will be big in 2019. Let me know what you think. Happy to hear your feedback in the comments.

Equipment Financing Market to Get Boost From OnDeck

The small business online lending leader will offer equipment finance loans in 2019

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Hoping to transform the traditionally slow-moving, opaque, and complicated process of the equipment financing market, online small business lender OnDeck has announced it will enter the market for small ticket ($250,000 and under) loans in this category. OnDeck will offer loans online of up to $100,000 to U.S. small businesses beginning in 2019.

Here is what CEO and Chairman, Noah Breslow said in the press release:

With more than a decade of success and over $10 billion funded to small businesses online, we believe OnDeck’s technology is primed to revolutionize how small businesses finance their equipment needs. We expect OnDeck equipment finance loans to quickly become a vital source of online financing for small business owners seeking simple, transparent equipment financing they can understand and utilize.

OnDeck’s decision to add only the third lending product in its history is based on a successful pilot program begun last summer and resulting data indicating that the equipment financing market is vulnerable to disruption. According to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, 68% of all capital purchases in the United States are financed, with small-ticket (under $250,000) equipment finance loans and leases representing $35 billion in originations in 2017. Applying for and receiving the majority of those small ticket loans remains a cumbersome, time consuming and paper-based process. That is a similar scenario to the market for small business loans that OnDeck first began disrupting in 2008.

In 2019, OnDeck will begin making its own equipment finance loans, ranging from $5,000 up to $100,000, with terms ranging from 24 to 60 months, secured by new and used equipment. OnDeck plans to offer only equipment finance loans, rather than leases.

OnDeck also announced the appointment of Mark Erickson as Vice President of Equipment Finance. Erickson is a veteran of the equipment finance market, previously serving in executive roles in sales, operations, syndications, and risk at Key Equipment Finance, Inc., a unit of Key Corp. He was also the managing director of the firm’s Australia and New Zealand subsidiary from 2000 to 2004. He had this to say about his new position:

I look forward to working with the team to leverage OnDeck’s online originations and underwriting technology to deliver speed and convenience for small business owners seeking equipment finance loans. With speed, service and transparency, we are poised to transform this market to the benefit of small businesses.

Two Fintechs Make TIME Inaugural Genius List

Oportun and CommonBond are among the distinguished companies making the list.

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Last week TIME released their “TIME’s Genius List” for 2018, which includes 50 businesses inventing the future. This is the first annual list for the media company which came up with the list through a nomination process through editors and correspondents followed by evaluation of originality, influence, success and ambition.

Making the list are major companies spanning every industry such as Amazon, Apple, Netflix, SpaceX, Spotify among many other recognizable names. CommonBond and Oportun were the only two fintech companies that made the cut.

Oportun is a mission based lender working to further inclusion in financial services and CommonBond is working to help solve the student loan crisis. To be recognized by a company as reputable as TIME speaks volumes for these companies given the competitive nature of financial services. Congratulations to both for making the list, they are in pretty impressive company.

Reports Share Insights from Leaders in European Fintech Scene

LendIt has produced three reports which shine light on three major markets in Europe: France, Germany and the Nordics

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This November we will host our fifth installment of LendIt Fintech Europe in London. Although London is most often referenced as the fintech hub of Europe, the reality is that there are interesting things happening across Europe. To highlight the trends outside of the UK, the LendIt team has produced three reports which share perspectives from fintech companies who operate in these regions. Below is a summary of each with accompanying links to download the free reports.

The Nordics

What many people don’t realize is that Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden together make up the 10th largest economy in the world. In 2017, fintech received the highest percentage of investments in the region. The Nordics are home to well known fintech companies iZettle and Klarna but there are many other names getting traction. In this report we share perspectives from Brocc, C Finance, Copenhagen Fintech, Fellow Finance, Finopti, Flex Funding, Lendify, Monner, Tieto and Tink.

Download the Nordic Report to learn more

Germany

The German market received $650 million in fintech investments in 2015. However, the market is lacking in late stage funding for fintech companies. This is partially related to the fact that Germany doesn’t have one fintech center. Rather, Berlin is where many of the regulators and startups are based, but Frankfurt is where the investors and banks reside. Those who shared their perspective also noted that regulation is a main challenge in the market as the regulator, BaFin, treats fintech companies the same way as other financial service providers. BaFin does however provide some guidelines to support fintech companies. In this report you can read other perspectives from representatives of aixigo, Bitbond, creditshelf, Deposit Solutions, Exporo, FinLab, Funding Circle Germany, KREDU, Raisin, Spotcap, Startuprad.io, and Varengold Bank.

Download the German report to learn more

France

The French market is experiencing significant growth in fintech although off of a smaller base than other geographies. €240m was invested in French fintechs in all of 2017, but funding in Q1 2018 alone was €140m. Several respondents noted President Macron’s aspiration to make France a tech hub with the creation of a €10bn fintech startup fund. Respondents noted that regulation could move faster and there are also challenges around user awareness and adoption in the country. ClubFunding, Credit.fr, Early Metrics, Euratechnologies, Financement Participatif France, Finexkap, Hiive, Invyo, Kramer Levin, Lendix and MIPISE all participated in our French fintech report.

Download the French report to learn more

Get the Best Price on LendIt Fintech Europe

As always Lend Academy readers receive special pricing on our events. Enter the code LENDACADEMYVIP at checkout to receive 15% off your ticket.

Our next price break ends this Friday, October 5. You can save £200 by registering today. We hope to see you in London on November 19th and 20th.

Register for LendIt Fintech Europe 2018

Goldman Sachs Shares Their Vision for the Future of the Marcus Platform

At the recent Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference Goldman Sachs President David Solomon provides some insight into the future direction of Marcus

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I write a lot here on Lend Academy about Marcus by Goldman Sachs. The reason I do so is because they are such a great example of what is possible when a well funded incumbent gets serious about fintech. Now, Goldman is an unusual case in that they have been around for about 150 years as an investment bank but they have only been a commercial bank since 2008. So, they have the big advantage of having a globally trusted brand but no legacy technology infrastructure or processes when it comes to consumer banking.

Anyway, last week at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference we learned a little more about what Goldman has planned for Marcus. This is an annual event run by AllianceBernstein that goes back decades and it attracts CEOs from some of the largest companies in the world as they share plans for the company’s growth. David Solomon, the President of Goldman Sachs, and the handpicked future CEO to Lloyd Blankfein, gave the presentation.

You can listen to the full presentation here where you can also download the PDF of his slide deck. While the bulk of the presentation was on the many other Goldman Sachs initiatives towards the end he spent some time discussing Marcus. We learned that Goldman has contributed a significant amount of capital already to Marcus:

Since we started working on Marcus, we’re very pleased with our progress and have invested, through capital spend and operating losses, $600 million, including reserves. That’s up $100 million from $500 million, including reserves, at the end of 2017. It’s important to note that we’ve done this out of our operating earnings while, at the same point in 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, delivering strong returns to our shareholders.

In the slide deck there was just one slide on Marcus (slide 14) but it did reveal some interesting plans for the first time. I have reproduced the slide below (click to view it at full size):

[Read more…]

Is Personal Service in Fintech Getting Lost Amid the Digital Mindset?

Many consumers love the convenience of digital communication but still seek live human interaction

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[Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mark Lusky of Mark Lusky Communications, a writing and marketing communications firm, operating since 1982. He specializes in ghostwriting expert advice articles, blogposts and other bylined content for clients, along with writing e-books, whitepapers, case studies, websites, opinion pieces and other communiques—incorporating marketing skills and perspectives acquired as a regional marketing director for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He will be attending LendIt in San Francisco this April.]

Amid up-and-coming fintech company trends toward cost-saving models that depend heavily on automated digital systems, the human touch is getting lost in the shuffle. In some cases, this doesn’t pose a problem. Many millennials and other younger groups prefer transacting business without any human intervention. Make it online, quick and done—and they’re happy.

If they have a problem, communicating via email, checking out forums, or consulting a canned knowledgebase are acceptable because they lack the need or desire for personal contact.

However, there’s a substantial segment of the consumers that not only wants, but demands, human service—particularly when it comes to customer support. Many people want to consult a live human being for help versus being relegated to digital resources.

If you feel that your borrowers are okay with the digital-only ways, so be it. But, how do you know? If you’re surveying existing customers, it’s likely that most of them are somewhat satisfied, or they wouldn’t be customers. How about prospects? What are their expectations? You may be leaving a huge amount of money on the table—without any easy way to discover or remedy it.

Conflicting Reports, Views Abound

[Read more…]

NepFin Launches to Become a Force in Middle Market Business Lending

The new lender, run by former Funding Circle execs, will offer loans between $5 million and $60 million

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It was back in 2013 when I first met Albert Periu. He was a partner at a startup small business lender called Endurance Lending (we wrote about them here). That company was bought by Funding Circle later that year and became Funding Circle USA with Albert running capital markets. I have gotten to know him quite well over his years at Funding Circle and I was very curious when I heard at the end of 2016 that he had moved on from Funding Circle to start his own venture.

I reached out to him at the time and he was somewhat coy about his intentions. It was not until last month when I visited his office in San Francisco that I finally found out the full extent of what he was doing with his new venture called Neptune Financial or NepFin.

The Middle Market Needs Disrupting

Whereas Funding Circle focuses on small businesses needing loans of up to $500,000, NepFin will be covering a completely different segment of the business lending market, what is called the lower middle-market. Specifically those companies with revenue of $10 million to $100 million looking to borrow between $5 million and $60 million. I was surprised to learn that this was a somewhat underserved market.

I would have thought companies of such size would have plenty of options to borrow money. But because of Basil III (increased capital requirements), Dodd-Frank (additional compliance costs) and bank lending rules these medium-size companies are underserved. I thought banks would have provided a lot of the funding for these companies and that is true to some extent. But often they will not lend the full amount these businesses require.

Enter NepFin. They don’t have the same capital requirements as banks and they have a little more flexibility on their loan terms. And Albert can apply all the learnings from Funding Circle to this different but related market segment.

[Read more…]

Yahoo Finance Launches New Savings App

Yahoo Finance's new app called Tanda has a unique approach to helping consumers save money.

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There are plenty of financial apps on the market today spanning all aspects of personal financial management. There are apps focused on savings, spending, investing, net worth tracking and some of them provide a mixture of these functions. Last week our interest was piqued when Yahoo Finance announced an app called Tanda. Most people wouldn’t consider Yahoo a company on the leading edge of technology and as far as I know their only other businesses in consumer finance would be media through content on finance.yahoo.com.

Tanda is a much different concept than what we’ve seen as far as personal finance apps in the US. It allows users to create or join a group of five or nine to save money together. Each person puts money into a communal pot over time and then can choose when they withdraw the money. The first two people to withdraw money pay a small fee and the last person to withdraw the money receives a small bonus. It is a similar to what is called a ROSCA or a Rotating Credit and Savings Association. ROSCAs are most often used by immigrant groups in the developed world or developing economies.

This type of forced savings makes a lot of sense where people don’t have access to traditional banking. With Yahoo’s app there is an element of trust as Yahoo doesn’t hold any capital and is not a bank. Through the app they are simply an intermediary. Users build up trust scores that allow them to participate in larger pools of money. Yahoo will make money through fees and is hoping to build a large mobile community around the new product.

I decided to check out the app myself and was able to login using my Yahoo email account I created over 13 years ago. There were several open savings circles which I included below. Many savings circles provided a purpose for the pool, such as saving for electronics or travel. Others were for general saving, including one for an emergency fund. One pool had me saving $250 by contributing $62.50 every two weeks. If I was the first person to choose a payout, I’d receive 8% less. If I was the second person to I’d receive 7% less. This means I’d receive $230, or $20 less for being the first one out of the pool. The last person to receive a payout receives a 2% reward ($5).

 

Conclusion

It is hard to say whether Tanda will become the next viral app. ROSCAs have been a successful way for people to save money, but moving the concept to an app creates some challenges. Yahoo has created something unique and it is going to be interesting to see how users respond. At a time when many Americans struggle to save, I am in favor of any app that helps people save money.

ABOUT LENDIT FINTECH NEWS

LendIt Fintech News, Powered by Lend Academy, has been bringing you all the news and information about fintech and online lending since 2010 when it was founded by Peter Renton. We not only have the industry’s most active news site, but also the largest investor forum and the first and most popular podcast.

We are a team of fintech enthusiasts who have been covering the industry for many years. With a deep knowledge of online lending, digital banking, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more our team covers the daily news and writes in-depth editorials.

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