Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Ant Group’s Chinese IPO could be among the biggest in history from CNN – The world’s largest fintech company, Ant Group (formerly Ant Financial), filed papers for an IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong this week and it could become the largest IPO in history.
Mike Cagney launches blockchain for loan trading. Will banks go for it? from American Banker – Figure launched its blockchain-based marketplace for buying and selling loans to provide more transparency, lower costs, proof of loan performance, easier audits and provenance to loan buyers.
SEC Gives More Investors Access to Private Equity, Hedge Funds from The Wall Street Journal – The definition of an accredited investor was changed this week for the first time since the 1980s. It is a good first step but I would have liked to have seen broader changes.
New blank-check company from Bancorp founder lays groundwork for a fintech deal from CNBC – Ryan Gilbert, general partner of Propel Venture Partners (part of BBVA) has team up with the founder of The Bancorp to form a new SPAC.
Afterpay doubles profit, pushing share prices to record high from Yahoo Finance AU – Afterpay reported full year financial results in Australia through June 30 with A$11.2 billion in revenue from just Australia and New Zealand sales up 52% from the previous year.
City First-Broadway merger would create largest US Black-led bank from Banking Dive – City First Bank, based in Washington D.C. and Broadway Federal Bank, based in Los Angeles, (both CDFIs) have announced they will merge to create the nation’s largest black-led bank with $1 billion in assets.
Banks aren’t as stupid as enterprise AI and fintech entrepreneurs think from TechCrunch – While banks have certainly made mistakes as the tech revolution has hit finance, they have domain expertise and that is some that is often underestimated by technology companies.
Klarna, Europe’s $5.5 billion fintech, sees losses rise sevenfold in the first half from CNBC – Swedish buy-now-pay-later giant, Klarna, released their earning for the first half of the year with a large increase in losses.
ConsenSys acquires JPMorgan blockchain platform Quorum from Banking Dive – Blockchain technology firm ConsenSys has acquired the blockchain platform Quorum that was built in-house by JPMorgan Chase and has rebranded it ConsenSys Quorum.
The U.S. Needs Banking-As-A-Public-Service from Forbes – Good piece by Nik Milanovic. I learned details of the old Postal Savings System I didn’t know. I agree we should be doing a better job for the 55 million underbanked and some kind of government option may be the answer.
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.