Category: stREITwise
Thursday April 11 2019, Weekly News Digest
News Comments Today's main news: Lending Club loans $159M in the past week. OnDeck offers same-day funding. Kabbage secures $700M in funding. RateSetter ISA passes 200M GBP in subscriptions. Funding Circle CEO pocketed 4M GBP last year. Klarna launches global customer authentication platform. Today's main analysis: Drivers of global growth in FSB's shadow banking. (A […]
The post Thursday April 11 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.
Today's main news: Lending Club loans $159M in the past week. OnDeck offers same-day funding. Kabbage secures $700M in funding. RateSetter ISA passes 200M GBP in subscriptions. Funding Circle CEO pocketed 4M GBP last year. Klarna launches global customer authentication platform.
Today's main analysis: Drivers of global growth in FSB's shadow banking. (A MUST-READ)
Today's thought-provoking articles: Jamie Dimon's letter to shareholders. Zopa redefines money idioms. Fintech unicorns lead in London job creation. The rise and fall of P2P lending in China.
LendingClub loans $159 million the week before tax day. We can't assume all of these loans are for tax purposes, but it's interesting that so many borrowers are accepting loans at this time.
OnDeck offers same-day funding for small businesses. This ups the game significantly.
Highlights from Jamie Dimon's shareholder letter. An awesome read from PeerIQ. It looks like JPMorgan concedes that alternative lenders are a force to reckon with.
Kabbage secures $700 in funding. Congratulations!
Investor says Kabbage's secret sauce was real-time data.
Upstart raises $50 million and gets new partners.
PeerStreet lowers investment minimum to $100.
Sharestates wins top real estate platform award at LendIt Fintech USA 2019.
stREITwise acquires $32 million mixed-use facility in Indiana.
13 cities where renting is cheaper than buying a home.
BlueVine adds term loan to suite of online working capital solutions.
Aura approves 350,000th loan.
The collateral you need for a business loan at Nav.
Prime and above may drive next phase of personal loan growth.
Student debt isn't just an employee problem.
Amount announces cloud-based account verification platform.
Onfido raises $50 million for global business identity verification standard.
Forward Financing expands capital base with $90 million credit facility.
Credibly announces investment grade senior debt offering.
Mitek expands auto-capture across digital channels.
58% of lenders will use artificial intelligence in two years.
Fintech alone won't boost credit union mortgage volumes.
Groundfloor wins two fintech awards.
Pulte Mortgage, Finicity partner.
Hudson Data, LendingPoint partner on synthetic ID fraud.
Dharma goes live with crypto lending.
RateSetter ISA passes 200 million GBP in subscriptions. Congratulations! A great achievement.
Funding Circle CEO pocketed over 4 million GBP last year.
Zopa rewrites money idioms.
Fintech unicorns lead London job creation.
And looks to overtake San Francisco as fintech unicorn leader.
LendInvest gets 200 million GBP funding from HSBC.
Stepladder, for first-time home buyers, launches.
CrowdProperty surpasses 900,000 GBP on Seedrs.
Fluid talks about fish-hooking.
How debt and equity funding can accelerate business growth.
Arbuthnot Latham launches Arbuthnot Direct.
Klarna launches global customer authentication platform.
Klarna sees payments evolving from function to engagement.
Klarna helps retailers build consumer trust.
The rise and fall of P2P lending.
Shenzhen police arrest Zhang Wei.
China's crypto funds lend $60 million.
International: The drivers of FSB's shadow banking growth. A MUST-READ report from DBRS.
Middle East: The future of digitization, artificial intelligence, and fintech. Interesting Bloomberg video panel discussion.
International: Salt adds support for Dash as collateral.
Indonesia: Housing sector is major source of complaints, including P2P lending.
India: RentoMojo looking to raise $40 million.
Indonesia: Batumbu to help finance SMEs.
Need a loan for Tax Day? According to Lending Club data, you're not aloan… er, alone (Thinknum), Rated: AAA
ONDECK OFFERS SAME DAY FUNDING TO EMPOWER SMALL BUSINESS (OnDeck), Rated: AAA
Highlights from Jamie Dimon's Annual Letter (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA
Online lender Kabbage rakes in $700m funding (Verdict), Rated: AAA
Real-time data was Kabbage's secret sauce, its first investor says (American Banker), Rated: A
Upstart Raises $ 50 Million and Announces New Bank Partners (Lend Academy), Rated: A
PeerStreet Lowers Minimum Real Estate Investment to $ 100 (Think Reality), Rated: A
Sharestates Wins Top Real Estate Platform Award at LendIt Fintech USA 2019 (PR Newswire), Rated: A
The stREITwise Platform Brings Real Estate Investment to All (Realty Biz News), Rated: B
13 cities where renting is cheaper than buying a home (AOL), Rated: A
BlueVine Adds Term Loan to Suite of Online Working Capital Solutions to Fuel Small Business Growth (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A
Aura Approves 350,000th Affordable Loan (Bakersfield.com), Rated: A
What Kind of Collateral Do I Need for a Business Loan? (Nav), Rated: A
Next Wave of Personal Loan Growth May be Driven by Prime and Above Consumers (MarketWatch), Rated: A
Student Debt Isn't Just An Employee Problem — It's Also An Employer Problem (Killer Startups), Rated: A
Amount Announces Cloud-Based Account Verification Platform (Kake), Rated: A
Onfido raises $ 50M to create the Identity Verification Standard for Businesses Globally (Markets Insider), Rated: A
Forward Financing Expands Capital Base with $ 90 Million Credit Facility (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A
Credibly Announces Investment Grade Senior Debt Offering (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A
Mitek Expands Auto-Capture User Experience Across All Digital Channels with the Addition of Desktop (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A
58% of lenders will use AI in next two years (AI Foundry Email), Rated: A
Fintech alone won't be enough to boost credit union mortgage volumes (Credit Union Journal), Rated: A
GROUNDFLOOR Wins 2 FinTech Awards (Groundfloor Email), Rated: B
Pulte Mortgage and Finicity Partner to Combat the Home Loan Paper Chase (MarketWatch), Rated: B
Hudson Data and LendingPoint partner to prevent Synthetic ID fraud (Finanzen), Rated: B
Dharma crypto lending platform officially goes live (CoinGeek), Rated: B
RateSetter ISA Milestone: Passes £200 Million in Subscriptions (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA
Funding Circle boss pocketed more than £4m last year (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
Zopa rewrites outdated money idioms (The London Economic), Rated: AAA
Fintech unicorns are leading job creation in London (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
London to take San Francisco's fintech unicorn crown (The Innovation Enterprise), Rated: A
LendInvest gains £200m HSBC funding as it seeks home loan market entry (Verdict), Rated: A
Peer-to-peer scheme for first-time buyers launches (FT Advisor), Rated: A
P2P Lender CrowdProperty Surpasses £900,000 During the Final Days on Seedrs (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
Why fish-hooking is damaging our industry (Mortgage Introducer), Rated: A
HOW CAN TAKING ON DEBT AND EQUITY ACCELERATE GROWTH IN YOUR BUSINESS? (Business Leader), Rated: A
Arbuthnot Latham launches Arbuthnot Direct for those seeking long-term interest returns (Arbuthnot Email), Rated: B
The rise and fall of P2P lending in China (Finextra), Rated: AAA
Shenzhen police arrest Zhang Wei, calling China Create Capital a 'mafia-like gang' (SCMP), Rated: A
$ 60 Million and Rising: China's Crypto Funds Try Lending to Beat Bear Market (CoinDesk), Rated: A
Klarna launches global customer authentication platform (Klarna), Rated: AAA
Klarna Sees Payments as Evolving From Function to Engagement (WWD), Rated: A
This New Tool Is Helping Retailers Build Consumer Trust During Online Checkouts (Footwear News), Rated: B
Drivers of Global Growth in FSB's Shadow Banking (DBRS Email), Rated: AAA
Crypto Lending Platform Salt Adds Support for Dash as Collateral (Crypto-Economy), Rated: A
RentoMojo in talks to raise $ 40 million from GMO, others (livemint), Rated: A
Housing sector remains major source of complaints: BPKN (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A
Batumbu to help finance SMEs (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A
The Future of Digitization, AI and FinTech in the Middle East Region (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA
As seen in data from Lending Club ($NYSE:LC), there is a cyclical spike in the number of loans, as well as the money needed by those needing loans, right around the end of tax season. While this finding may seem pretty clear without any data, it essentially confirms an adage in the lending industry.
RIght now, there was only $21.5 million loaned out to lendees from April 8 to today. This past week, there was about $159 million worth of all sorts of loans — personal, mortgage, etc. — loaned out by the platform.
Lending Club Total Principal Loaned (Weekly)
OnDeck today announced that it will offer to fund and debit customer bank accounts with Same Day ACH transfers, eliminating a decades long pain point for small business owners accustomed to the traditional ACH transfer process, which can take multiple days and lacks certainty on when the transactions will hit bank accounts.
Same Day ACH transfers from OnDeck provide qualified OnDeck Term Loan and Line of Credit customers with funds up to the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) cap of $25,000 by 5:00 pm local time on the same business day the customer books or makes a draw on their line of credit.* Qualified customers are also debited via the same day ACH service, providing them additional predictability in transaction clearing times and offering better clarity around day-to-day cash flow management.
US payrolls rose by 196 k in March and the unemployment rate remained at 3.8%.
Highlights from Jamie Dimon's Letter to Shareholders
Jamie Dimon published his annual letter to shareholders. We look at some highlights below:
The banking system, and JPM in particular, is over-capitalized – Under the Fed's most extreme stress-testing scenario, where 35 of the largest American banks bear extreme losses (as if each were the worst bank in the system), the combined losses are about 6% of the total loss absorbing resources of those 35 banks.
Source: JPM, PeerIQ
PM is investing billions in technology to compete – the cloud, AI, ML and digital banking
JPM customers can now open a bank account online in under 5 minutes and can reduce their mortgage closing times to 3 weeks.
The bank now has 49 Mn active digital customers, including 33 Mn active mobile customers
JPM is looking at fintechs in the US and in China as not just opportunities but also looming competition.
Online lender Kabbage rakes in 0m funding (Verdict), Rated: AAA
Kabbage, an online lender for small businesses, has fetched $700m in asset-backed securitisation (ABS) funding.
With the securitisation, the company's debt funding increases to $940m.
The firm started life as a small, scrappy fintech startup in Atlanta in 2008, but has grown rapidly. It made $2 billion worth of loans in 2018 and more than $600 million in the first quarter of 2019. It also recently agreed to provide financing at the point of sale on Alibaba.com as part of a program called Pay Later.
One of the big announcements on day one of LendIt Fintech USA 2019 is from consumer lender Upstart. They have announced a $50 million equity raise as well as three new partners for their "Powered by Upstart" banking as a service program. Oh, and they are getting into credit cards.
The burgeoning peer-to-peer lending platform PeerStreet has unveiled product updates that enable investments of only $100.
The company recently announced it's lowered the minimum investment to $100 for "small balance reinvestments" when using its automated investing product. The upgrade also expands the investment types available for automated investing to include cash offer loans and 30-day notes, which offer shorter terms than typical bridge loan investment options, the company said.
Sharestates, a marketplace lending platform that connects real estate developers with investors, was crowned Top Real Estate Platform at LendIt Fintech USA2019 in San Francisco, California on April 9, 2019. The Top Real Estate Platform award is based on performance, volume, growth, product diversity, and responsiveness to stakeholders.
Now operating in 46 states, Sharestates offers diversified asset classes including residential, multi-family, mixed-use, commercial properties, and land acquisitions.
Since launching in 2015, Sharestates has closed on over $1.7 billion in total loan volume and returned over $675 million in principal to investors. Average annualized returns have exceeded 10% every year. As a result of its strong performance and valued relationships, 82% of Sharestates loan volume has come from repeat borrowers and 81% of its investors are repeat investors.
The company has just announced a new acquisition to its investment portfolio, a $32 million mixed-use building in Carmel, Indiana, one of the most affluent suburbs of Indianapolis. The 140,000-square foot Allied Solutions Building, already around 87 percent leased, stands poised to increase dramatically in value thanks to its location in the heart of downtown Carmel in the heart of a busy mixed-use development surrounded by restaurants, coffee shops, fast-casual dining, service-oriented retail, and the locally renownedSun King distillery and food hall right next door.
Americans' homeownership rate is 64.8%, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
Following are the 13 metros where renting is cheaper by more than $150 a month, beginning with cities with a smaller advantage for renters.
BlueVine, which provides small- and medium-sized businesses with access to fast and simple online financing, announced that it is making term loan financing available for business owners through its suite of online financing solutions. The BlueVine Term Loan provides small- and medium-sized business owners with fast and simple access to financing to grow their businesses through BlueVine's advanced online platform. More than 59 percent of businesses are looking for funds to grow their business, according to the 2017 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey Report on Employer Firms. With a BlueVine Term Loan, business owners can quickly pursue larger projects and investments to bring their businesses to new heights.
Aura, a mission-driven financial technology company that offers affordable loans to hard-working families, this week approved its 350,000 th loan.
Since its launch in 2014, Aura has provided more than $437 million in credit-building loans to borrowers at approximately 1,200 partner locations using technology that enables local businesses to administer loan applications. Currently, Aura's average loan size is around $1,600.
In total, Aura has raised over $403 million in social bonds across 21 bond issuances. The most recent issuance was in March for $50 million.
Before you can qualify for a commercial loan, you'll need to prove that doing business with your company is a good risk. This means you'll need to pass successfully through a lender's qualification process.
The prime and above risk tiers have become a greater focus for lenders in recent years. Nearly two-thirds of unsecured personal loan balances originated in the first three quarters of 2018 were lent to prime and above consumers. FinTechs drove this shift as originations for prime and above grew to 62% in 2018, up from 52% in 2013. While still less conservative than banks, FinTechs' overall risk profile for originations now aligns tightly with credit unions. At the end of 2018, FinTechs held the majority share of personal loan balances with 39%, while banks and credit unions followed with 28% and 21%, respectively.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported in its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for the fourth quarter of 2018 that outstanding student loan debt increased to $1.46 trillion, which is $15 billion more than the previous quarter. It also reported that student loan debt rose by $79 billion in 2018.
The student debt load isn't just impacting the individual students who enter the workforce, hoping they can find a job that enables them to make those monthly payments. I's also slowing economic growth. A January 2019 Federal Reserve paper noted that young adults report their student loan debt is the reason they're unable to buy a home. The same report also cited other research concluding that 20 percent of the decline in homeownership among young adults relates to student loan debt that's been rising since 2005.
Amount today announced AmountVerify, a cloud-based platform for risk management across financial products. AmountVerify marks the first time industry leading fintech provider Avant is making a component of its cutting edge online lending platform available to financial service companies as a standalone product through Amount.
Onfido, the global identity verification provider, today announced it has raised $50M in funding, bringing the total investment in the company to over $100M. The round was led by SBI Investment and Salesforce Ventures, with support from M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures), FinVC and others, including existing investors.
Forward Financing has closed on a $90 million credit facility, consisting of a $60 million senior revolving credit facility and a $30 million junior term loan. AloStar Capital Finance ("AloStar"), a division of Cadence Bank, N.A., served as the Agent on the senior facility.
Today, Credibly announces the next phase in its balance sheet growth strategy with a $10 million Investment Grade-rated senior debt offering. The transaction closed on March 28, 2019.
Mitek today announced it has upgraded its desktop browser experience to support auto-capture so customers can rapidly verify the identity of applicants across all digital channels: desktop browsers, mobile web and native applications.
According to Javelin Research, today only one third of users (34 percent) still complete the entire account opening process on their desktop.
MiSnap delivers a superior auto-capture experience for desktop and across mobile devices through:
Guided commands: Real-time commands such as where to place a document in relation to the camera or detection of glare on the ID document are some of the conditions evaluated in order to help the user capture an optimal image, which improves image acceptance rates and reduces capture retries.
Advanced image analysis: Once MiSnap has achieved an optimal capture of the ID document, the software then further analyzes the image and makes the necessary adjustments in order to process all images consistently and accurately.
Modern architecture: Because MiSnap uses WebAssembly, it can perform at native speeds and is easy to integrate into customers' web-based apps and requires minimal footprint.
Fannie Mae recently put out a
Nearly two-thirds of lenders are familiar with AI
But, only 27% are using it in their businesses now, and…
Only half of that group are currently using it with customers (the rest are doing trials)
However, looking ahead two years – 58% of lenders expect to use AI/ML in their mortgage business.
Of the rest:
22% predict they'll be investigating AI
19% foresee being in a "wait and see" mode
These data points show us that "prime time" is coming soon for AI/ML in mortgages.
How can credit unions, especially small institutions, compete with Quicken Loans' Rocket Mortgage "Push button, get mortgage" campaign?
They can't – and, sources said, they shouldn't try.
GROUNDFLOOR was named Best Crowdfunding Platform by the
Pulte Mortgage announced today it is partnering with Finicity — a leading provider of real-time financial data access and insights, to provide its borrowers with a faster, simpler and more secure way to navigate the home financing process.
Hudson Data and LendingPoint announced that they are partnering to create an industry solution to prevent synthetic identity fraud using powerful graph machine learning.
Dharma Labs completed a Series A funding round earlier this year to support its cryptocurrency lending platform project. The San Francisco-based company raised $7 million from companies such as Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures and others and, if there was any concern about the platform not going live, those concerns are now extinguished. Dharma announced this past Monday in a Medium post that the platform is now live.
UK-based peer-to-peer lender RateSetter recently announced its ISA has now passed the milestone of attracting £200 million in subscriptions.
"Investors have enjoyed an average annualised return of 4.5%, tax-free of course, since the RateSetter ISA launched in February 2018. The average RateSetter ISA balance stands at £11,000."
FUNDING Circle founder Samir Desai (pictured) earned more than £4m last year, having cashed in some of his shares at the time of the peer-to-peer lender's stock market flotation.
Desai took home a salary of £210,000 last year, according to Funding Circle's annual report, a four per cent increase from his salary of £202,000 in 2017.
The majority of his total remuneration of £4.081m came from cashing in share options.
Each future-looking idiom challenges the status quo. For example, according to Zopa, the 'signing for the bill' gesture will be redundant soon. Instead, when people have finished their meal, people will be more likely to signal facial or iris recognition to the waiter. Jonesy gives his take and takes it one step further by illustrating a customer displaying his eyeball to request the bill.
Source: The London Economic
In 2018, there was a 61% increase in fintech job creation within London from the previous year, per a new report by Robert Walters, making it the fastest growing sector for vacancies in the city.
The UK houses 25% of all fintech unicorns and their growth plans call for more talent. There are 29 fintech unicorns worldwide, seven of which are based in the UK, making the UK second only to San Francisco, which is home to nine.
Over 30% of jobs in the UK's fintech industry are for IT-related roles, compared with 24% in 2017. And fintech unicorns' hiring for IT professionals increased 74% year-over-year (YoY).
However, the report has predicted that London could take the lead as early as this year, as the city receives 39% of European fintech venture capital funding, with the runner-up, Berlin, taking just 21% of the total investment.
With 50% against a global average of 33%, the UK also enjoys the highest rate of consumer fintech adoption of any Western country, only beaten by India and China, the report found.
LendInvest, which operates an online marketplace for mortgages, has received an investment of £200m ($261m) from HSBC UK to support its foray into the regulated home loan sector.
Start-up company Stepladder is promoting a new way for first-time buyers to save for a house deposit.
As part of the project Stepladder matches savers with other members who have similar goals, which effectively creates a 'circle' of members who pay a fixed amount each month.
For example, Stepladder would bring together 10 people who wanted to save £10,000 each. For 10 months, the 10 people pay in £1,000 to the group pot, leaving the group pot at £10,000 every month and this £10,000 gets awarded to a member on a monthly basis.
According to Stepladder, 87 per cent of members get their deposits faster this way than saving alone and are three times more likely to reach their savings goal.
Peer-to-peer property lender CrowdProperty is set to close its equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs with more than £900,000 in funding from over 500 investors. The campaign, which launched last month, quickly topped the minimum target of £600,000 for a 3.68% equity stake in the platform. The online lending platform has a pre-money valuation of £15.7 million.
Fluid Bond offers a 6% fixed interest rate to investors with the option for their investments to be held in an IFISA wrapper, the Fluid ISA. Their investments are ultimately used to provide asset-backed bridging loans to businesses in need of short-term capital, via Fluid Trust. The fact that the ultimate loans are asset backed does not guarantee a return for bond holders.
But what are the trends that business owners and commercial teams – operating companies between £1m and £50m – should know about? To help, BLM has spoken to the leading operators in this space.
Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited ("Arbuthnot Latham") is pleased to announce the launch of its new platform under the trading name of Arbuthnot Direct. Arbuthnot Direct offers fixed term deposits online, targeting retail customers who are seeking interest returns on their money over the longer term. The platform held a successful soft launch in February 2019 and has already met with a positive reception.
It is worth mentioning that the size of China's P2P industry is larger than that of the rest of the world combined, with outstanding loans of US$217.96BN.
China's online P2P lending industry grew rapidly between 2011 to 2015, with the number of P2P lenders growing from 50 to nearly 3,500 respectively.
Trouble started brewing in China back in 2016, when statistics released by the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission showed that about 40% of P2P lending platforms were in fact Ponzi schemes.
This triggered the shutdown of P2P lending platforms; over 900 closed by the end of 2016. For 2018, only 1,021 providers remained in place.
Source: Bloomberg News
China Create Capital Limited, the investment holding company headed by the 46-year-old Heilongjiang native is a "mafia-style gang" involved in illegal fundraising, harassment, blackmail, illegal detention of people and the possession of firearms, the Shenzhen police said in a notice. The whereabouts of Zhang, who was arrested with 43 other executives of China Create, could not be ascertained.
The arrests are the latest in the Chinese government's crackdown on crime and corruption in the country's financial system and capital markets, where 1,129 "mafia-like" syndicates were broken up across 10 provinces last year, with 4.94 billion yuan (US$737 million) of assets seized, according to the police. A number of Chinese oligarchs including Anbang Group's
former chairman Wu Xiaohui
, CEFC Group's founder Ye Jianming and financier Xiao Jianhua had fallen from grace since 2017.
These new crypto lenders include such notable names as Bixin Capital, FBG Capital and DGroup, founded by Dong Zhao, who made a name by operating one of the longest-running over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks in China. Along with a startup called Babelbank, these investors have originated a combined $60 million worth of loans over the last five months, denominated in cryptocurrencies or, in one firm's case, Chinese yuan.
Klarna today announced the launch of its global authentication platform — an aggregator with multiple global and local authentication solutions. The platform allows multinational businesses, including merchants and other banks, to provide a simple, secure and personalised customer authentication experience irrespective of market, through a one-time integration.
Klarna's Hannah Bravo says customers chose brands based on payment options.
The Klarna platform enables businesses to choose from a range of global and local authentication methods so that they can find one that works best for their customer. Whether using SMS verification or emailed one-time passwords, brands and retailers can verify their customers' identities with minimal interruption to the consumer's shopping journey.
DBRS sees significant risks stemming from continued growth in shadow banking globally. Assets are now at $52 trillion globally, up from $30 trillion in 2010, according to the FSB. The U.S. has the largest concentration with 29% of global shadow banking assets. But, this is down from 48% in 2010, as other regions are growing faster.
Summary highlights of the commentary include:
Shadow banking is still growing. This narrow, but rapidly growing, subset of nonbanks had assets of $52 trillion in 2017, up 75% from $30 trillion in 2010.
Since 2010, assets of nonbanks are also growing, up 61% to $185 trillion. That is 49% of the $378 trillion in total global assets in all financial institutions at the end of 2017, up significantly from 44% in 2010.
The key driver of this growth in nonbank assets is the expansion of OFIs. These OFIs are defined as all financial institutions that are NOT central banks, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, public financial institutions, or financial auxiliaries. Assets at these OFIs grew 71% since 2010 to a record $117 trillion in 2017, or just over 30% of assets in financial institutions globally.
By far, the largest segment of shadow banking globally is collective investment vehicles, which are subject to runs. These include fixed income funds, mixed funds, MMFs and hedge funds. Since 2010, this segment has grown by 130% to $36.7 trillion in assets. By contrast, growth in other segments has been less than $1 trillion, or even negative.
Cryptocurrency lending platform Salt will now be allowing its users to collateralize their Dash holdings including their Masternode staking coins to access loan facilities.
For RentoMojo, the latest fundraise comes almost two years after it raised $10 million in July 2017 from Bain Capital, Accel and Chiratae Ventures. Renauld Laplanche, chief executive of US-based Lending Club, also took part in his personal capacity.
The BPKN received 154 complaints in the first quarter, most originating from the housing sector. BPKN communications and education coordinator Arief Safari said the agency had received 129 complaints on the housing sector in the first quarter, followed by six complaints on online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, three on banking and the remainder on various sectors, including travel and e-commerce.
PT Berdayakan Usaha Indonesia has announced that it aims to help small and medium enterprises (SME) access financial capital through a partnership program with its digital platform Batumbu.
Author Allen TaylorPosted on April 11, 2019 Categories Amount, Arbuthnot, Arbuthnot Direct, Artificial Intelligence, Aura, Batumbo, BlueVine, business lending, China Create Capital Limited, credibly, CrowdProperty, crypto lending, crypto lending china, Daily News Digest, DBRS, debt funding, Dharma, equity funding, Events, Featured, Finicity, fintech, Fluid, Forward Financing, Funding Circle, Groundfloor, Hudson Data, identity verification, Indonesia p2p, jamie dimon, kabbage, Klarna, Lending Club, LendingPoint, LendInvest, LendIt Fintech USA, Middle East, Mitek, Nav, ondeck, Onfido, p2p china, p2p lending, PeerStreet, personal loans, prime, RateSetter, real estate crowdfunding, RentoMojo, Salt, Shadow Banking, Sharestates, SME financing, Stepladder, stREITwise, Student Loans, Unicorns, Upstart, Zopa
Thursday November 29 2018, Daily News Digest
News Comments Today's main news: MPOWER Financing raises $110M. Funding Circle, BBB partner on SME lending. Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans. Yirendai misses earnings estimates by .17 EPS. RateSetter aiming to be Australia's biggest consumer loans provider. Revolut greenlighted to expand into Singapore, Japan. Today's main analysis: Is UK headed for credit card crisis? Today's thought-provoking articles: 37.4% of purchase […]
Today's main news: MPOWER Financing raises $110M. Funding Circle, BBB partner on SME lending. Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans. Yirendai misses earnings estimates by .17 EPS. RateSetter aiming to be Australia's biggest consumer loans provider. Revolut greenlighted to expand into Singapore, Japan.
Today's main analysis: Is UK headed for credit card crisis?
Today's thought-provoking articles: 37.4% of purchase borrowers received mortgage rates under 5% last week. Technologies, trends changing the credit industry. Fintech execs speak out on Europe's employee ownership rules. Zero-fee, no-interest lending in decentralized credit networks.
MPOWER Financing raises $110 million. Congratulations.
37.4% purchase borrowers received mortgage rates below 5% last week. Another interesting LendingTree study.
5 technologies, trends changing the credit industry. Cool infographic. Two of the trends are online lending and peer-to-peer lending.
Intuit Consumer Group discusses LendingClub, Wealthfront partnerships.
Marketplace loan performance monitor as of August 2018. From PeerIQ.
Lendio still a great place to work.
4 major fintech trends in self-directed IRA industry.
There's never been a better time to find a bad credit mortgage.
stREITwise launches Invest for a Cause.
2018's top commercial property takeaways.
Small banks join forces on fintech.
Stocks hold onto gains.
Online lender settles with FTC.
Velocity Commercial Capital chooses SS&C.
Guaranteed Rate expands into Hawaii.
BFS Capital appoints new CEO.
Funding Circle, BBB partner on SME lending.
Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans.
Is UK headed for a credit card crisis? 74% of retail consumers are likely to revolve credit. Same as in Norway, however, Norway has fewer mass affluents likely to revolve credit. Mass affluents are more likely than retail consumers to revolve credit in France, the only European nation where that is true. Across the board, retail consumers are likely to revolve credit in Europe. This spells a golden opportunity for POS lenders like Affirm and Klarna.
Britain's creative industries break 100 billion GBP barrier.
Revolut gets greenlight to expand into Japan, Singapore.
Oriente anounces $105 million funding for SE Asia.
Tapping into the digital economy.
P2P lending transactions total Rp 13.8 trillion in first three quarters.
Who's afraid of P2P lending?
Bukalapak to enter P2P lending.
China: Yirendai misses earnings estimates by .17 EPS.
Australia: RateSetter aims to be largest consumer loans provider.
International: Zero-fee, no-interest loans in decentralized credit networks.
Europe: Fintechs speak out on employee ownership rules.
India: Aadhaar verification suspension to hit small fintech lenders hard.
China: Senmiao Technology acquires 60% in auto financial leasing company.
Netherlands: October launches.
China: Strategic stimulus for Chinese stocks.
Europe: Solactive launches Sharing Economy Index.
MPOWER Financing raises USD110 million in latest funding round (Private Equity Wire) Rated: AAA
37.4% of Purchase Borrowers Received Mortgage Rates Under 5% Last Week (LendingTree), Rated: AAA
5 Technologies And Trends Changing The Credit Industry (ValueWalk), Rated: AAA
The Future of Fintech Video Series: Intuit Consumer Group (ATM Marketplace), Rated: A
MPL Loan Performance Monitor (as of August 2018) (PeerIQ), Rated: A
Lendio Recognized as a Great Place to Work for Third Consecutive Year (Lendio), Rated: A
Four Major Fintech Trends In The Self-Directed IRA Industry (Forbes), Rated: A
There has never been a better time to find a bad credit mortgage (Mortgage Introducer), Rated: A
stREITwise Launches Invest for a Cause (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A
2018's Top Takeaways (Commercial Property Executive), Rated: A
Small Banks Join Forces To Bring Fintech To Customers (Forbes), Rated: A
Stocks Hold Onto Gains Ahead of Powell Speech (Nasdaq) Rated: A
Online Lender Settles With FTC Over Refinancing Misrepresentations (Manatt), Rated: A
Velocity Commercial Capital Chooses SS&C for its Finance Transformation (SS&C), Rated: A
Guaranteed Rate Expands Its Footprint in Hawaii (GlobeNewswire), Rated: B
BFS Capital Appoints Mark Ruddock as Chief Executive Officer (Citizen Tribune), Rated: B
Funding Circle and BBB announce £150m SME lending partnership (Bridging & Commercial), Rated: AAA
Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans to boost investor returns (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
The UK could be headed for a credit card crisis (GlobalData Email), Rated: AAA
Britain's creative industries break the £100 billion barrier (Gov.UK), Rated: A
Yirendai (YRD) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $ 0.17 EPS (Fairfield Current), Rated: AAA
Senmiao Technology (AIHS) Acquires 60% Equity Interest in Chinese Automobile Financial Leasing (StreetInsider), Rated: AAA
Beyond The Sugar Rush: Strategic Stimulus For Chinese Stocks (Seeking Alpha), Rated: A
'Inconsistent and punitive' employee ownership rules are damaging Europe's start-ups, say tech bosses (Telegraph), Rated: AAA
Online Lender October Officially Launches in the Netherlands (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
Solactive Launches New Sharing Economy Index (Mondo Visione), Rated: B
Zero Fees and Interest-free Loans in Decentralized Credit Networks (NewsBTC), Rated: AAA
RateSetter putting pieces in place to be Australia's biggest consumer loans provider (Finder), Rated: AAA
Suspension of Aadhaar verification to hit lending of small fintech players (The Hindu Business Line), Rated: AAA
Fintech firm Revolut gets green light to expand to Japan and Singapore (CNBC), Rated: AAA
Online lending platform Oriente announces $105m initial funding for Southeast Asia (kr-Asia), Rated: A
Tapping into digital economy (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A
P2P lending transactions total Rp 13.8 trillion in first three quarters (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A
Who's afraid of peer-to-peer lending? (Bangkok Post), Rated: A
Bukalapak eyes investment products, P2P lending to cash in on fintech opportunity (Deal Street Asia), Rated: B
MPOWER Financing, a fintech company providing educational loans to high-potential international and DACA students, has completed its largest funding round to-date with USD110 million in new financing for students enrolling in major US universities.
This latest round, led by Gray Matters Capital and Community Investment Management (CIM), will be used to support new product growth and technology enhancements as well as to finance MPOWER Financing's expanding student loan portfolio.
"We co-created a unique type of debt with Community Investment Management's leadership team. This USD100 million is just the beginning of MPOWER's Capital Markets roadmap," says Mike Davis, MPOWER Financing Chief Investment Officer and co-founder.
For 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 37.4% of purchase borrowers received offers under 5%, up from 29.4% the prior week. A year ago, 98.1% of purchase offers were under 5%.
Across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications on LendingTree, the most common interest rate was 4.875%, offered to 21.3% of borrowers.
27.9% of 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance borrowers received offers under 5%, up from 20.1% the prior week. A year ago, 98.1% of refinance offers were under 5%.
Across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance applications, the most common interest rate was 5.00%, offered to 22.3% of borrowers.
New tools and advancements in the credit industry are transforming the way consumers borrow cash. Before, loan options were limited to government entities (Pag-IBIG and SSS), banks, credit cards, cash advance from credit cards, and loan sharks. These financial institutions (apart from loan sharks) are heavily regulated, but with a roster of new methods offered today, loaning has become more accessible and borrower-friendly.
Intuit Consumer Group's Varun Krishna gives some background on the company's latest partnerships with Lending club and Wealthfront. This interview is part of a video series, "The Future of Fintech," produced by Mobile Payments Today and powered by Galileo Processing.
Highlights from the August 2018 MPL Loan Performance Monitor :
Our MPL Loan Performance Monitor tracks the delinquency rates, cumulative losses, cumulative prepays and transition matrices using public marketplace lending data that comprises unsecured consumer loans originated by Marketplace Lenders.
Delinquencies on the 2017 vintage in the first 18 months are lower than those on the 2015 and 2016 vintages with lenders having tightened underwriting standards.
Cumulative loss rates on the 2017 vintage are lower than those on the 2015 and 2016 vintages. Cumulative losses on the 2015-2017 vintages are outpacing those on earlier vintages.
Cumulative prepayments have picked up, with the 2017 vintage paying significantly faster than all prior vintages.
Lendio was certified for the third consecutive year as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work. Lendio earned this credential based on extensive ratings provided by its employees in anonymous surveys. A summary of these ratings can be found at
Fintech has helped significantly increase the number of investment options available to self-directed IRA investments. From online crowdfunding platforms to peer-to-peer lending portals, as well as cryptocurrency and digital asset exchanges, new financial technology has helped self-directed IRA investors gain access to new and exciting investment opportunities in an efficient and secure investment environment.
Research conducted by the Online Mortgage Adviser website has discovered that up to 70% of potential mortgage applicants fail to approach lenders or other service providers because they mistakenly believe that their personal circumstances or financial histories will preclude them from being considered.
The study, which was based upon a survey of over 2,000 people nationwide, found that almost 50% of respondents believed that a low credit score, or evidence of previous issues, would automatically disqualify their application. 33% and 15% (respectively) felt that a zero-hour contract or payday loan would prevent them from achieving a mortgage loan.
stREITwise, an investment vehicle that makes commercial real estate investments accessible to everyone, is announcing the second annual Invest for a Cause holiday campaign. Through December 31st, their executive team will personally make a donation equal to 2% of any new investment to a non-profit of the investor's choice.
But perhaps the biggest catchphrase of 2018 represents the rapidly evolving technologies that are benefiting—and some even say revolutionizing—the commercial real estate industry. So-called "proptech" includes a range of building performance solutions, along with financial benefits like the developing blockchain process protections and growth of the still fledging real estate crowdfunding business. (Our most recent discussions include our Mission: Success profile of MetaProp's founders and the CFO Corner column "3 Ways to Leverage Fintech.")
The move is driven in part by a desire to innovate and part survival. It comes as millennials are bypassing branches and traditional banking services for the fintech offerings at an increasing rate. Take Quicken Loans, the Detroit-based lender that operates Rocket Mortgage it's completely digital platform, for one glaring example.
Counterstrike: The market looks like it might rise into the G-20 meeting that begins on Friday, so Jeremy thought this was a good time to pick up a couple names. Firstly, the editor added a 6% allocation in online marketplace Lending Tree (TREE), which has been halved from its 2018 highs. But it could be poised for a sharp move higher as a strong quarterly report has exposed its oversold position.
Issuing a warning to other lenders, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a deal with an online lender over charges the company violated the FTC Act by making false statements about student loan refinancing.
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:SSNC), a global provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, today announced that Velocity Commercial Capital, LLC ('Velocity') has signed a multi-year agreement with SS&C Primatics' EVOLV platform. EVOLV will help Velocity transform their financial operations and capitalize on growth opportunities in a controlled environment. Velocity, a direct portfolio lender, provides investment property loans for residential 1-4, multi-family, mixed-use and small balance commercial properties.
Guaranteed Rate, Inc. ("Guaranteed Rate"), one of the largest independent retail mortgage companies in the United States, today announced that it will acquire certain assets of Honolulu HomeLoans (HHL) and Hawaii Lending Alliance (HLA), growing its existing Guaranteed Rate presence in the Hawaii market and adding an experienced team of mortgage professionals.
BFS Capital announced today the appointment of Mark Ruddock as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. He will also join the company's Board of Directors.
The British Business Bank (BBB) has committed to lend up to £150m to UK small businesses through Funding Circle.
The transaction has been made under the bank's ENABLE Funding programme and is expected to support the growth of over 2,000 UK companies.
The new facility will provide senior financing to a transaction with the Funding Circle SME Income Fund Limited, the publicly traded fund that lends exclusively through Funding Circle.
ZOPA has sold a batch of defaulted loans to a debt collection agency, which it says will enable a faster and higher recovery for investors.
The peer-to-peer consumer lender informed its investors last week about the debt sale. It said that it has received upfront payment for the loans in question and will pass on the proceeds to investors within the next couple of weeks.
Almost three quarters of retail consumers in the UK (those with liquid assets between £0 and £3,918) do not pay off their credit card balances in full each month, says
The UK's roaring creative industries made a record contribution to the economy in 2017, smashing through the £100 billion mark.
Its value of the creative industries to the UK is up from £94.8 billion in 2016 to £101.5 billion, and has grown at nearly twice the rate of the economy since 2010, according to figures published today by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).
It continues to perform highly and over the last two months British tech firms Monzo, Farfetch and Funding Circle have surpassed the $1 billion mark, meaning they are now so-called 'unicorns'.
Yirendai (NYSE:YRD) announced its earnings results on Monday, November 12th. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.17), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $163.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.48 million. Yirendai had a return on equity of 40.40% and a net margin of 18.56%. The company's revenue was down 28.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS.
Source: Fairfield Current
Senmiao Technology Limited (NASDAQ: AIHS), an online lending platform in China connecting investors with individual and small-to-medium-sized enterprise borrowers and creditors, today announced that it entered into an Investment and Equity Transfer Agreement (the "Agreement") to acquire a 60% equity interest in Hunan Ruixi Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. ("Ruixi"), a Chinese licensed financial leasing company focusing on the auto industry with registered capital of $10 million. In exchange for the 60% equity interest in Ruixi from its three existing shareholders, Senmiao has agreed to contribute $6 million in registered capital to Ruixi. The acquisition closed on November 22, 2018.
Private companies and even individuals have taken full advantage of loose credit conditions. Rising corporate bond defaults and nonperforming loans, as well as the recent collapse of hundreds of peer-to-peer lending platforms, suggest that at least in some cases, the money came too easily. Concerned global equities investors are already applying a substantial discount to Chinese stocks because of debt issues.
A group of thirty European tech start-ups have warned that the European Union's "inconsistent and often punitive rules" employee ownership rules are hindering their businesses.
The entrepreneurs, which include the founders and chief executives of iZettle, TransferWise and Delivery Hero, stated that laws across the continent make it costly for employers to give out stock options to employees.
The warning to EU policymakers, in an open letter, comes as research by venture capitalists Index Ventures finds that employees own only 10 per cent of late-stage start-ups in Europe, because of limitations brought about by regulations. However in the US it is 20 per cent.
Online lender October (formerly Lendix) has launched in the Netherlands. Alongside this expansion, the Paris based October is providing SME financing in France, Spain, and Italy.
According to a note from October, SMEs may apply for loans ranging from €30,000 and up to €3.5 million.
Solactive is pleased to announce the launch of the Solactive Sharing Economy Index. It tracks companies active in the Sharing Economy, and other modern economies such as on-demand and subscription.
Formerly being attributed to open-source communities, the umbrella term "Sharing Economy", nowadays reflects various economic activities such as peer-to-peer sharing of goods and services.
Money lending is the core principle of any functioning economy. Decentralized credit networks which have recently seen a rapid increase in popularity promise easy and global access to credit and loans for businesses and the public by immediately connecting borrowers and lenders on the platform. Users of IOU credit networks can even take advantage of interest-free loans and zero fees.
When RateSetter started operations in Australia four years ago, the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry was in its infancy and its risk-based, investor-funded loan was seen as an alternative. But a lot can happen in four years. Today, major banks such as CommBank, HSBC and Citi use risk-based pricing, once only the domain of P2P lenders, while the formerly "alternative" RateSetter funded over $25 million in consumer loans this month.
Foggo said the lender has been "determined" to focus on specific products. One of its new ones is a renewable energy loan which it launched two and a half years ago.
Fintech players, especially online lenders in the personal and consumer loans segment, are likely to face slowdown in business following the Supreme Court order that prevents private companies from seeking Aadhaar data for e-KYC and e-signatures.
British mobile bank Revolut has obtained licenses to operate in Japan and Singapore as it readies an expansion into Asia.
The London-based financial technology firm said Thursday that it had acquired a remittance license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and full authorization from Japan's Financial Services Agency.
It said Thursday that it intends to launch its platform in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in the first quarter of 2019, and is looking to select Singapore to host its APAC headquarters.
Online lending platform Oriente announces 5m initial funding for Southeast Asia (kr-Asia), Rated: A
Hong Kong-based online lender Oriente today announced a US$105 million initial round of financing to scale its business across Southeast Asia. The fintech startup already runs lending platforms in the Philippines and Indonesia and will launch in Vietnam soon.
According to the latest survey by Google and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Indonesia's digital economy is projected to triple to US$100 billion by 2025 from $27 billion this year, given the mushrooming of the country's online marketplaces. The projection is not an exaggeration as indicated by the huge transaction values at a recent online shopping festival, dubbed a warm-up for the National Online Shopping Day in mid-December.
According to Financial Services Authority (OJK) data, transactions through peer to peer (P2P) lending totaled Rp 13.8 trillion (US$951 million) in the first three quarters of 2018, with the non-performing loan (NPL) rate recorded at 1.2 percent.
P2P lending transactions in 2018 have increased drastically compared to the last two years, with the OJK recording Rp 284 billion in transactions in December 2016 and Rp 2.56 trillion in December 2017.
The recent announcement by the Bank of Thailand on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending rules represents a significant paradigm shift. If all goes to plan, by early next year Thailand will be among the few Asian countries, most notably China and Indonesia, to legalise this match-making platform between lenders and borrowers.
Indonesia's online marketplace unicorn Bukalapak is planning to cast a wider net in the country's booming fintech market. The company is looking at launching new investment products and enter new verticles such as P2P lending and remittances, co-founder and president Muhamad Fajrin Rasyid told this portal.
Author Allen TaylorPosted on November 29, 2018 Categories Aadhaar, bad credit mortgage, Banks, BFS Capital, Bukalapak, commercial real estate, consumer loans, Credit, Credit Cards, Daily News Digest, decentralized credit networks, decentralized lending, defaults, Delivery Hero, Events, Featured, fintech, Funding Circle, Guaranteed Rate, Indonesia p2p, Intuit Consumer Group, iZettle, lawsuits, lendingclub, LendingTree, Lendio, marketplace lending, mortgage lending, MPOWER Financing, October, online lenders, Online Lending, Oriente, p2p lending, p2p thailand, PeerIQ, proptech, RateSetter, real estate crowdfunding, Revolut, Senmiao Technology, SME lending, Solactive, stREITwise, TransferWise, Velocity Commercial Capital, Wealthfront, Yirendai, Zopa
Tuesday September 14 2017, Daily News Digest
News Comments Today's main news: Equifax CEO vows to make changes in USA Today op-ed. dv01 closes Series A with big name investors. SmartBiz Loans surpasses $500M in SBA loan funding. stREITwise rolls out first REIT, focused on institutional-quality office buildings. Klarna completes BillPay acquisition. Wish Finance intros SME lending on blockchain in Singapore. Today's main analysis: What millennials would give […]
Today's main news: Equifax CEO vows to make changes in USA Today op-ed. dv01 closes Series A with big name investors. SmartBiz Loans surpasses $500M in SBA loan funding. stREITwise rolls out first REIT, focused on institutional-quality office buildings. Klarna completes BillPay acquisition. Wish Finance intros SME lending on blockchain in Singapore.
Today's main analysis: What millennials would give up to get out of paying student loans.
Today's thought-provoking articles: Exposing Silicon Valley's dark side. UK inflation rate jumps more than expected.
Equifax CEO pens op-ed to say credit agency will make changes. AT: "Equifax must brace itself for a hard road to recovery ahead. Data breaches happen. They don't have to happen, but they do. Unfortunately."
dv01 closes $5.5M Series A round led by OCA Ventures. AT: "Congratulations. Other investors include CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund and Ribbit Capital."
SmartBiz Loans surpasses $500M in SBA loans funded. AT: "Congratulations. This is a great milestone."
Millennials would rather give up voting in the next two elections than pay student loans. AT: "No one really wants to pay off a loan. We'd rather get free money and get on with our lives. But where this gets interesting is that millennials would rather get out of paying off their debt than to influence an election that could have far greater consequences to their lives for as long as it takes to pay off the debt. The question for lenders is, How can you capitalize on this sentiment?"
Working to expose Silicon Valley's dark side. AT: "If you can get past the self-reverential tone, this piece is important to understanding how journalism works. Often, the best (or worst) stories come from tips because someone recognizes that a particular topic is of interest to the journalist. This should encourage lending firm leaders to be on their best behavior."
There's a new REIT in town. AT: "We've gone past crowdfunding websites offering REITs to crowdfunding websites specializing in REITs. A nice development."
Goldman banks on lending to grow. AT: "A great explanation as to why Goldman Sachs has shifted its focus to lending."
Lenda expands into more states.
Pave rolls out new decentralized Global Credit Profile. AT: "Everyone in the industry recognizes that lack of access to credit is a big problem globally. Pave's new online platform promises to put a dent in that. We'll see how this develops."
DigiFi launches next-generation Digital Loan Origination System.
Two innovators showcasing their work at Finovate.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency says he's not ready for fintech charter applications.
Samsung working with banks on retail pop-ups. AT: "I'm not sure how this is going to solve the problem for people who don't want to visit bank branches. Mobile banking does not mean drive up to my street corner."
How fintech is reshaping the small loan market.
Digital advice platform for retirees launches.
Philadelphia Fed to hold conference on blockchain impact on regulatory policy.
Erik A. Falk joins Star Mountain Capital as senior advisory board member.
UK inflation rate jumps more than expected.
Chapters Financial to offer AI chatbot.
FCA warns investors about ICOs.
10 tips for new P2P lending investors. AT: "These are very good, and helpful, tips."
Klarna completes acquisition of BillPay.
Visa owns almost 1 percent of Klarna.
Goldmint focuses on intersection between gold, pawnshops, and P2P lending.
Interview with ETHLend CEO.
Crowdfunding: A new form of real estate investing in Estonia.
Starling, Zopa CEOs to speak at LendIt Europe.
How banks are driving API-first strategies.
OpenTap aims to lend 100cr by Dec. 2018.
Wish Finance intros blockchain-based SME lending.
Trade finance gap narrows with minimal fintech impact.
SixCap responds to complaints about investing strategy game.
Equifax CEO: 'We will make changes' (USA Today), Rated: AAA
dv01 Closes $ 5.5M Series A Led by OCA Ventures (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA
SmartBiz Loans Surpasses $ 500 Million in Funded SBA Loans (BusinessWire), Rated: AAA
Survey Reveals What Millennials Would Rather Deal With Than Paying Student Loans (Credible), Rated: AAA
Working to Expose Silicon Valley's Dark Side (Again) (The New York Times), Rated: AAA
stREITwise Announces Regulation A+ Offering to Lead New Era of Real Estate Crowdfunding (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA
Goldman Banks on Lending to Grow (WSJ), Rated: A
Lenda to expand in more states, invest in software platform (Mortgage Professional America), Rated: A
New Pave's Decentralized Global Credit Profile (GCP) Unlocks Access to Credit for Millions of Americans (BusinessWire), Rated: A
DigiFi Announces Launch of Next-Generation Digital Loan Origination System (PR Newswire), Rated: A
Meet two fintech innovators showcasing their work at Finovate (Biz Journals), Rated: A
U.S. banking regulator not ready for fintech charter applications (Reuters), Rated: A
Samsung is working with banks to roll out retail pop-ups (Tearsheet), Rated: A
How Fintech Is Reshaping the Small Loan Market (GuruFocus), Rated: A
Fintech entrepreneur launches digital advice platform for retirees (Smartbrief), Rated: B
Federal Reserve Bank Of Philadelphia To Hold Conference On Blockchain's Impact On Regulatory Policy (ETHNews), Rated: B
Erik A. Falk Joins Star Mountain Capital as Senior Advisory Board Member (BusinessWire), Rated: B
UK Inflation Rate Jumps More Than Expected in August (Kirklin News), Rated: AAA
Chapters Financial to enter AI arena with chatbot technology (FT Adviser), Rated: A
UK regulator sounds alarm over initial coin offerings (Financial Times), Rated: A
10 Tips for New P2P Lending Investors – How to start (P2P-Banking), Rated: A
Klarna Announces Completion of Acquisition of BillPay (Klarna), Rated: AAA
VISA reportedly owns almost one percent of Klarna (Business Insider), Rated: A
Goldmint Is Unlocking Liquidity in Gold to Allow P2P Lending (Cointtelegraph), Rated: A
Interview with Stanislav Kulechov: 14 Facts About ETHLend (Coinspeaker), Rated: A
A new Form of Real Estate Investment for Estonia: Crowdfunding (PropertyShowrooms), Rated: A
Starling and Zopa CEOs to speak at LendIt Europe (Specialist Banking), Rated: B
How Banks Are Driving API-First Strategies (PYMNTS), Rated: A
OpenTap aims to lend ₹100 cr. by Dec. 2018 (The Hindu), Rated: A
Wish Finance Introduces Blockchain-Based Lending for SMEs, Schedules ICO (Crowdfunding), Rated: AAA
Trade finance gap narrows amid minimal fintech impact (Global Trade Review), Rated: A
Fintech firm SixCap responds to complaints about its investing strategy game (CNBC), Rated: A
Last Thursday evening we announced a cybersecurity breach potentially impacting 143 million U.S. consumers. It was a painful announcement because of the concern and frustration this incident has created for so many consumers. We apologize to everyone affected. This is the most humbling moment in our 118-year history.
Equifax Security first discovered the intrusion on July 29. Understandably, many people are questioning why it took six weeks to report the incident to the public. Shortly after discovering the intrusion, we engaged a leading cybersecurity firm to conduct an investigation.
At the time, we thought the intrusion was limited. The team, working with Equifax Security personnel, devoted thousands of hours during the following weeks to investigate.
dv01, the data management, reporting, and analytics platform that offers institutional investors transparency and insight into lending markets, today announced a $5.5M Series A round, led by OCA Ventures. Ribbit Capital, Illuminate Financial, and CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund also participated in the round, joining existing dv01 investors Leucadia National Corporation and Pivot Investment Partners.
OCA advisor Jack Lavin has joined dv01's board, and will work alongside existing board members from Jefferies LLC, a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation, and Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd., a private investment vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management LLC.
SmartBiz Loans, the first SBA loan marketplace and bank-enabling technology platform, today announced that it has surpassed half a billion dollars in funded SBA loans. This milestone comes on the back of other recent successes for SmartBiz, including the addition of a fifth bank to its software platform and ranking as the number one facilitator of traditional SBA 7(a) loans under $350,000 for the 2016 fiscal year, over Wells Fargo and other major banks according to SBA lending data released in November, reflecting its 2016 fiscal year.
The company's first-of-its-kind software platform automates a bank's underwriting to cut time and costs by up to 90 percent for processing SBA loans under $350,000. By automating the underwriting process, the platform helps banks get low-cost capital into the hands of small business owners in a matter of weeks instead of months. This is vitally important to any busy, small business owner who needs capital.
The $500 million in funded SBA loans reflects not only continued growth for SmartBiz, but also for the entire market of bank-originated, small-sized business loans. Post-2008, banks reduced the number of smaller business loans they made because they couldn't process them efficiently enough to make a profit.
The number of people with student loan debt is staggering. According to the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Education, 42.3 million Americans are paying back $1.33 trillion in federal student loan debt. Lenders are collecting payments on another $64 billion in private student loans. A survey of borrowers by the Federal Reserve puts the median student loan debt balance at $17,000, with monthly payments of $222. Student loan debt can be suffocating for those who are struggling to make payments each month.
A staggering 49.8% of all respondents said they would give up their right to vote in the next two presidential elections in order to have their debt forgiven
Ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft don't seem to matter to millennials quite as much as some of the other options in the survey. According to the results, 43.6% were willing to give up these services forever in exchange for debt forgiveness
Interestingly, 42.4% of respondents would also give up traveling outside of the country for 5 years, while only 27.0% said they would be willing to move in with their parents for 5 years
Millennials seem to value texting more than the other options – only 13.2% reported being willing to give up texting and any mobile messaging equivalent for the next year in exchange for having their debt forgiven
Only 8.2% of respondents chose to select none of the above and said they would rather keep paying off their student debt
What are millennials willing to deal with to have their student loan debt forgiven?
Even before the ink was dry on an article Nathaniel wrote last year about an online lending start-up, Social Finance, and its unusual success — headlined "SoFi, an Online Lender, Is Looking for a Relationship" — he began hearing from people who painted a very different picture of what life looked like inside the company.
But in the intervening months, tales of sexual harassment and wrongdoing in Silicon Valley took center stage, in part because of Katie's own reporting, which exposed a dark side to an industry known for growth, wealth and fantastic employee perks. Companies like Zenefits, Theranos and Uber made it clear that many venture capitalists and the companies they funded were incentivized to focus on growth at any cost, with good governance and corporate culture getting short shrift.
We are already getting more emails and phone calls that point to where the story might go from here — both with SoFi and the issue of bad behavior in Silicon Valley more broadly. These issues aren't going away anytime soon.
stREITwise is introducing a new way to invest in real estate online commission-free by allowing direct investment on its website. Today they announced a Regulation A+ initial public offering for their first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) – 1st stREIT Office – which seeks to provide a diversified portfolio of institutional-quality office buildings with a revolutionary low-cost structure. Because it's filed as a Regulation A+ offering, 1st stREIT Office will allow accredited and non-accredited investors alike the opportunity to participate.
This announcement comes shortly after 1st stREIT Office successfully raised over $20 million in a private offering to acquire the Panera Bread HQ Property in St. Louis, MO. At 99% occupancy in three separate buildings, the Panera Bread HQ Property includes over 290,000 square feet of Class "A" office space that is leased to many large tenants, including Panera Bread (World HQ), New Balance (Regional HQ), Wells Fargo, Edward Jones, Nationwide Insurance, and others.
With the Panera Bread HQ Property acquisition, 1st stREIT Office has been able to make 10% annualized dividend distributions to its existing investors. The company seeks to acquire more high-quality, stabilized office buildings in undervalued markets across the United States.
While Non-Traded REITs typically charge upfront fees of 10-15%1, stREITwise caps its upfront fee at just 3% by cutting out the middleman, eliminating financial advisor commissions, and passing the savings on to investors.
The New York firm said Tuesday that loans to wealthy clients, companies and consumers would contribute almost half the $5 billion in revenue growth it is projecting by 2020.
Harvey Schwartz, a top lieutenant to Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, on Tuesday said persistently low volatility in financial markets meant that the third quarter would be a "challenging" one in terms of trading. J.P. Morgan Chase JPM 0.29% & Co. CEO James Dimon and executives at Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. projected trading declines of between 15% and 20% for the quarter.
Goldman on Tuesday laid out a detailed plan to grow revenue, which has remained flat since the financial crisis. Its target of $5 billion in new revenue by 2020 hinges on businesses that have been footnotes for most of the firm's 147-year history: lending, asset management and tending to the mundane needs of corporate clients and money managers.
Lending to wealthy clients, companies and consumers could add $2 billion of new revenue over the next three years, said Mr. Schwartz at a global financial-services conference hosted by Barclays PLC.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Online lender Lenda has announced plans to expand its reach to more states along with increased investment in its software platform, which offers a complete refinancing or mortgage origination transaction online.
Pave, Inc announces an initial coin offering ("ICO"), scheduled for mid-October to fund Pave's Global Credit Profile project, which could provide a ground-breaking solution to the problems associated with credit reporting worldwide. Based on its deep knowledge of lending to individuals with limited credit history ("thin files"), Pave's GCP will give consumers and credit institutions access to richer and more accurate personal financial data than traditional credit bureaus provide, while significantly improving data security. GCP has the potential to unlock access to credit for millions of people — such as millennials and immigrants — who are marginalized by the current financial system.
While the centralized systems of companies such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion continue to perform a valuable service by acting as a reliable source of information for third parties, they are plagued with systemic problems including a lack of transparency and control over personal data, vulnerability to fraud and data theft and unnecessary administrative costs. Using blockchain and related technologies, Pave's GCP will decentralize the storage and ownership of an individual's financial data by placing the user in control. The GCP thereby removes the reliance on a singular record keeper making security breaches infinitely less likely.
DigiFi, an enterprise financial technology company, announced today the launch of its cloud-based digital loan origination system ("LOS") for banks, credit unions and consumer finance companies. DigiFi's next-generation LOS enables the automated online delivery of multiple consumer lending products through a single platform, driving better customer experiences and lower operating costs.
DigiFi's proprietary technology was built over three years to digitize the consumer lending process, offering consumers immediate feedback and funding from any device at any time. The platform supports multiple products including Personal Loans, Credit Cards, Personal Line of Credit, and Student Loan Refinancing, and DigiFi is adding additional products, including Home Equity, Auto and Mortgages.
The platform is highly configurable, empowering banks, credit unions and consumer finance companies to utilize their own risk models, documents and procedures.
Two entrepreneurs who jumped up on the stage Tuesday were Lisa Shields and Ellison Anne Williams.
Shields, a longtime purveyor of payment technology, is the founder and former CEO of Vancouver-based Hyperwallet Systems Inc. After handing the reigns of that company over to Brent Warrington in 2015, she went on to launch Fi.Span, a provider of cloud-based platforms for commercial banks.
In the second half of the podcast, data mining expert Ellison Anne Williams also addressed the predominantly male demographic of her field. The effect it has on her approach is next to none, she said.
As the CEO and founder of data securitization startup Enveil, Williams brings more than a decade of experience in large scale analytics, information security and privacy.
The U.S. banking regulator, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, said on Wednesday that he is not ready to accept applications from financial technology companies seeking a special purpose federal charter.
His comments underscore the broader difficulties faced by regulators globally as they attempt to keep up with dramatic changes in banking industry brought about by the increasing use of digital technologies which threaten to undermine traditional financial services businesses.
Banks may soon be experimenting with a new way to engage with customers: retail pop-ups.
Samsung's head of sales for financial services, Reginald Jones, told Tearsheet that the company is in talks with its financial services customers about rolling out retail pop-ups "sooner than in a year."
Those could be in a variety of formats, he said: a bus promoting a certain bank that drives a number of customers to an NFL game; a university campus presence where banks look to attract customers as they become of banking age; a shopping center that normally just has ATMs where banks could roll up for a weekend service to attract these potential new customers. Samsung, the consumer electronics giant, provides the devices that change how bank employees conduct business — to better influence the customer outcome.
Samsung has been working with bank branches for the last five years, incorporating its display screens into retail spaces as they take old signage and posters and move them to digital platforms. In some branches, greeters and bankers are also using Samsung tablets, he said.
Fintech companies around the world have moved swiftly to fill the gap left by mainstream lending institutions due to constraints related to interest rates and profit margins. Big lenders in the market are under constant pressure to increase profit margins, which limits the size of their addressable market, especially when trying to woo small and medium-sized business borrowers. Their interest rates are often high as they seek to remain competitive in the larger spectrum of the financial services industry.
One of the largest beneficiaries is LendingClub Corp. (NYSE:LC), which has seen its revenue increase 1,278% in under five years, from just over $37 million to over $500 million as of June 30 on a trailing 12-month basis.
Brazilian-based fintech companies are paying investors about 22% returns per year while borrowers are charged interest rates from as low as 1.7% to as high as 6.3% per month based on their credit profiles.
Matt Fellowes has launched United Income, an automated retirement-planning tool for retirees.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia announced that it will hold a FinTech seminar in conjunction with the Journal of Economics and Business on September 28-29, 2017, focused on consumers, banking, and regulatory policy.
Aptly named FinTech: The Impact on Consumers, Banking, and Regulatory Policy, the conference will feature keynote speeches and research from industry experts on consumer protection; roles of alternative information; FinTech lending; blockchain-based currencies; machine learning and artificial intelligence; the new FinTech landscape; and marketplace lending and crowdfunding. The conference will also focus on the disruptive factors of blockchain technology and to what measure they continue to shape regulatory policies.
Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a specialized investment manager focused exclusively on the large and underserved U.S. lower middle-market, is pleased to announce that industry veteran Erik A. Falk has joined the firm as a strategic personal investor and Senior Advisor.
Mr. Falk is a senior executive focused on strategic initiatives at Magnetar, a $13+ billion alternative asset management firm. Until early 2017, Mr. Falk oversaw the private funds as a Head of Private Credit within KKR's (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.) $35 billion credit business and served on the Private Credit Investment Committee, the Leveraged Credit Investment Committee and the Portfolio Management Committee. He also oversaw KKR's investment in Star Mountain. Before joining KKR in 2008, Mr. Falk spent eight years at Deutsche Bank where he held several roles including founding the Special Situations Group and Co-Heading the Global Securitized Products Group. Mr. Falk began his career in the Asset-Backed Securitizations group at Credit Suisse First Boston where he knew Star Mountain's Chairman, Brian Finn, whose prior roles include Co-President of Credit Suisse First Boston and Head of Credit Suisse Alternatives (with approximately $100 billion in AUM at the time).
The UK's annual inflation rate climbed to a higher-than-expected 2.9% in August, matching a four-year high reached in May, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday, two days ahead of a key meeting by members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.
The consumer prices Index (CPI) climbed from 2.6% in July, the ONS said on Tuesday. The August reading matched the highest since April 2012 and beat the 2.8% average forecast by economists polled by investing.com.
The annual core inflation rate, which strips out volatile food and fuel costs, also jumped to 2.7% from 2.4% in July, topping the 2.5% expectation by economists in an investing.com survey.
Advisory firms need to do more to attract the next generation of clients or risk selling themselves short, financial adviser Keith Churchouse has said.
His firm Chapters Financial is developing a chatbot platform for its online advice business Saidso.
The chatbot will be aimed at the generation of clients who are more comfortable with changing and emerging technology. They are usually 45 years old or younger; the typical age group of customers who already use the Saidso website, which has been operational for the past two years.
The UK City watchdog has warned investors of the "high risk, speculative" nature of initial coin offerings as their popularity booms, becoming the latest global regulator to sound the alarm.
The Financial Conduct Authority warned that ICOs are mostly unregulated and potentially fraudulent, while investors may be provided with "unbalanced, incomplete or misleading" documents by the ICO issuer.
Even if an ICO is not fraudulent, the regulator said, investors still had "a good chance" of losing their entire investment.
Advantages of platforms with a track record – I prefer platforms that have a track record and have operated at least 1 or two years.
Loan term and loan types – There are three main types: consumer loans, SME loans and property secured loans. SME loans has further subtypes like invoice financing. It can be a good idea to diversify over different loan types and different platforms.
Diversification – Diversification can be achieved faster on platforms with very many comparable consumer loans, and will take longer on property platforms which launch only few large property loans.
Autoinvest – Before you use the autoinvest I suggest to spend the first days/weeks making manual investments on the primary market to get a better understanding of the loans on offer.
Secondary market – Before you use the secondary market, I suggest you first spend some time investing on the primary market to deepen your understanding of how the platform works.
Cash drag – Investors only earn interest on money invested into loans. Cash deposited, but not (yet) invested will earn no interest.
Unsecured vs. secured loans – Consumer loans listed on platforms are mostly unsecured (exception some car loans). SME loans offer no or or some type of asset as security and property loans typically offer a first or second charge on the property as security. Usually it is preferable to lend with some kind of security offered.
Recovery process – A certain percentage of loans will default. This is normal in p2plending and nothing to worry about as long as this percentage stays in a healthy relationship to the interest offered for the risk.
Tax – If the country you live in does not allow you to offset default losses against interest income earned, it may be a good idea to invest into loans with lower interest rates, but also lower default rates, to achieve higher returns after tax than with a more risky strategy.
Final tip – Start slow. P2P lending has somewhat of a learning curve.
Klarna Bank AB (publ) today announces that the acquisition of German online payments company BillPay has been completed. This will strengthen Klarna's position as one of the leading e-commerce payment providers in Europe and further accelerate its growth in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
However, it wasn't clear how much money had been invested. Now Swedish tech site Di Digital has revealed that Visa took part in Klarna's $75 million euro acquisition of Billpay, a German competitor, in February.
Out of the $57 million euro share emission that went to financing the deal, Visa paid roughly a third, or $22 million.
GoldMint is a comprehensive P2P solution that allows businesses like pawnshops to raise credit.
Recently, a Time article revealed that 28 percent of college educated millennials between the ages of 23-55 have accessed short-term lending from pawnshops and payday loan providers in the last five years.
Dmitry has had an eye on the pawnshop segment since 2015, when he noticed that while the pawnshop business was immensely profitable, it was void of technological progress. He worked with a team of four people in 2016 to address the four main issues that faced the pawnshop businesses:
realization of unclaimed pledges
wired payments
funding of pawnshops (lending)
the introduction of unified standards (consolidation)
GoldMint is holding an initial coin offering (ICO) in less than a week's time starting Sept. 20, 2017. They have published a detailed whitepaper which lays the details of their crowdsale.
4. How did you start building ETHLend?
We started by developing the Smart Contract. It was ideal to begin with the token escrow contract, which allows the collateral to be held securely in the Smart Contract until the borrower repays the loan. If the borrower does not repay, the lender can claim the tokens and realize any losses. We made many interesting findings during the development and wrote the white paper after Alpha DApp. We believe this is a big advantage for us since practice does not always follow theory. Also, delivering an Alpha for the Ethereum main-net is important proof-of-concept wise.
7. Do you think the system will be more popular among individuals or companies?
Hard to tell since at the moment individuals are more keen on using cryptocurrencies. ETHLend has received a lot of interest from miners who want to expand their mining facilities or purchase more rigs. There are also growing tendencies for companies to use blockchain technology. We have received inquiries about pledging some of the ICO tokens for financing pre-sale marketing efforts. What I would like to see is that merchants who use cryptocurrencies would adopt ETHLend for financing and increasing their business.
8. What is the difference between the type of crediting ETHLend offers and the scheme "have sold the possessed currency-have bought ETH for raised money".
Good point. Since our main financing instrument is pledging digital tokens, it provides opportunity to receive ETH when one does not want to sell digital tokens. Such might be the case when one has a token portfolio, investment funds like TaaS or ICONOMI. Funds or individuals could easily keep the possession of the token positions and still get more liquidity for growing their portfolio. On the other hand, a blockchain startup might keep more tokens at their possession when pledging the token before an ICO for a loan and repaying the loan after an ICO. A strategy like that leaves more tokens for the startup to recruit more talent.
11. How much time do you think you need to launch the project in case you obtain sufficient financing?
ETHLend has an extensive roadmap that stretches to the late 2019. At the moment we are still developing the ETHLend DApp. However, we need further resources to comply with the features set in the roadmap. We are also looking to add more developers and financial experts to the team. The basic collateral based lending is available on ETHLend but there are lot of functions that require more time to develop, such as being able to borrow Bitcoin or to use the price feed for the collateral value. We aim to have a fully sophisticated DApp by the end of 2019.
14. The last tricky question: is lending good or bad?
Lending is an instrument that should be used in the correct circumstances and for the correct funding goals. Lending could be compared to other products – when consumed wrongly, they might be bad and vice versa.
Igors Puntuss, co-founder of Bulkestate.com, explained that as wages rose rapidly and with it "population welfare", meaning disposable income and savings, people living in Baltic countries began to look for safe and profitable ways to invest their spare cash. But banks are not able to provide smaller investors with attractive interest rates on deposits and, as the market of real estate crowdfunding is far from maturing, there are opportunities to be had.
He added that high reliability does not equate to low profit, when it comes to real estate crowdfunding. The website offers an annual interest rate of 14% at a low threshold for those who are risk adverse, and the minimum investment required is just 50.00 euros at Bulkestate.com.
Anne Boden of Starling Bank and Zopa's Jaidev Janardana will be speaking at LendIt Europe, which brings together fintech experts from across the continent.
The conference takes place on 9-10th October at the InterContinental London – the O2, where more than 120 speakers will take to the stage with experts from banking, lending, technology and regulation.
Anne will be speaking on LendIt's keynote panel, which will look at the digitalisation of finance and how customer expectations are changing.
The latest edition of the PYMNTS.com B2B API Tracker™, a FI.SPAN collaboration, examines how APIs are helping both banks and smaller businesses address their fears and embark on new ventures in new markets.
Recent research indicates merchant anxiety over non-payments is widespread. According to a study by Payoneer, 75 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have backed away from global trade over concerns of not getting paid for their services.
OpenTap, a fintech firm that enables peer-to-peer lending for middle and low income borrowers, aims to facilitate ₹100 crore in short term loans by the end of 2018.
The Chennai-based fintech firm provides alternate financial services to blue-collared workers, which is two times of net salary. As on date, it has provided credit worth ₹3 crore to 1,200 borrowers.
Wish Finance, based in Singapore, has announced the launch of its blockchain-based lending platform for small and medium businesses. The company has reportedly issued 100+ loans in 2017 during a soft launch with every loan successfully repaid and 0% default rate. Wish Finance plans to keep its entire portfolio on the public blockchain, anonymized, so investors can audit its performance at any given time.
Wish Finance is offering merchant cash advances and business loans with interest rates based on the company's real cash flow, not assets. Wish Finance said it has direct access to POS terminals infrastructure to see real time financial transactions, which it combines with the local market data for scoring. Wish says it issues a loan in 24 hours, and then deducts a few percents of the merchant customer's' payments to automatically repay the loan. In this way, repayments are made seamless and effortless for SMEs. Each loan is said to be insured from customer's bankruptcy.
The global trade finance gap has fallen from US$1.6tn to US$1.5tn, but the impact of fintech has been minimal to date.
But despite the industry's zeal for digitisation, just 20% of firms reporting have used digital finance platforms. In line with global trends, peer-to-peer lending is the most-used fintech model (23%).
74% of rejected trade finance transactions are for SME and midcap applicants, with 29% of these being rejected over KYC concerns. Last year's survey showed that 56% of SME trade finance proposals are rejected, compared with 10% of multinationals.
Singapore-based financial technology company Six Capital Groupresponded Thursday to complaints from users who say they're unable to cash out from the firm's web-based strategy game.
The game, called Tagg Switch, works similarly to how trading currencies works: Players purchase one of six types of so-called "Nodes" that represent a different currency — either the U.S. dollar, Singapore dollar, British pound, euro, yen or the Australian dollar.
But a report from Singapore's The Straits Times last week said users have complained online about facing problems cashing out of the game. However, the report added that there weren't yet any complaints registered with the Consumers Association of Singapore, a consumer protection group.
Author Allen TaylorPosted on September 14, 2017 Categories Artificial Intelligence, Banking, Banks, BillPay, Blockchain, Chapters Financial, credit bureaus, Daily News Digest, DigiFi, DV01, Enveil, Equifax, ETHLend, FCA, Featured, Fi.Span, finovate, fintech, Goldman Sachs, Goldmint, Hyperwallet, ICO, Klarna, Lenda, Millennials, News, OCC Fintech Charter, OpenTap, p2p lending, Pave, Podcast, real estate investing, Regulation, REITs, robo-advisor, SBA loans, SixCap, SmartBiz Loans, SME lending, SoFi, Star Mountain Capital, Starling, stREITwise, Student Loans, trade finance, Visa, Wish Finance, Zopa