News Comments
- Today’s news: LendInvest made £3.12 million and revenue of £15 million for the year to March 2015 and is hiring 100 people.
- And today’s analysis: charts are back in the news, showing bad news for Wall Street revenue trends, and a new initiative from Orchard of publishing weekly industry charts which I think are too frequent.
United States
- Orchard publishing weekly charts of interest rates and unsecured personal volumes. I personally think it is too granular and it will show noise more than actual data.
- Great data showing how fixed income and in fact nearly all revenue centers for Wall Street Banks are contracting fast. 2 very interesting charts. Lending Club may not destroy the banks, they may do it themselves after all. In all cases this puts a lot of pressure on companies with 10s of billions of dollars in revenue to re-invent themselves.
- Hence, per the above, Goldman Sachs purchasing Honest Dollar. A short article how an entrepreneur built and sold a company in 1 year with amazing traction.
- And to pile up on the banking sector issues: a report showing how fintech firms win the digital consumer battle vs other financial institutions.
- Insight in a CEO’s psychology, Klarna’s CEO. A quick read for all CEOs that will make you feel a little better I hope.
- And for pop-fintech writing: we are keeping count, Yirendai is at 8 lawsuits. A number that doesn’t really matter except for the law firms and attorneys involved.
United Kingdom
- This morning perhaps most interesting article: LendInvest made £3.12 million and revenue of £15 million for the year to March 2015. And is planning to go from 115 employees to about 215. Extremely impressive.
News Summary
- News Comments
- United States
- Orchard online lending snapshot, (Orchard Platform), Rated: A
- A definitive breakdown of the sorry state of Wall Street, (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
- William Hurley on Honest Dollar’s sale to Goldman Sachs, (Tech Crunch), Rated: AAA
- Why Fintech Firms Are Winning the Battle for Digital Consumers,(The Financial Brand), Rated: AAA
- Klarna’s CEO thinks he was a “really bad CEO” last year, but says that’s actually a good thing, (Business Insider), Rated: A
- Pile On: Yirendai Now Has Eight Lawsuits Against Them, ( Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B
- United Kingdom
- LendInvest looks to hire 100 in expansion plan, (Financial News), Rated: AAA
United States
Orchard online lending snapshot, (Orchard Platform), Rated: A
Source: Orchard Platform
Source: Orchard Platform
Source: Orchard Platform
A definitive breakdown of the sorry state of Wall Street, (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
From fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) to equities to traditional investment banking, revenues dropped sharply. Let’s take a look:
Source : Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
William Hurley on Honest Dollar’s sale to Goldman Sachs, (Tech Crunch), Rated: AAA
Entrepreneurs have traditionally shied away from fintech unlike Whurley — born William Hurley — who once exited a TEDx talkon a mind-controlled skateboard powered by an XBox Kinect.
His latest startup, Honest Dollar, bucked the trend in fintech after it “won” South by Southwest this year by announcing its acquisition by Goldman Sachs.
Despite regulatory headwinds and plenty of competition, Honest Dollar carved out a niche in financial services by servicing the nearly 16 million self-employed people in the “gig economy” who lack access to a retirement plan or 401k.
Acquired by Goldman Sachs only one year after its launch, Honest Dollar gained early traction with corporate customers who used the service as both a retention tool and a gap-fill for contractors who wanted access to retirement benefits that are traditionally reserved for full-time employees. Today, Honest Dollar counts Lyft among its clients.
“Added to Goldman Sachs,” Whurley said, “the combination would be unstoppable.”
Why Fintech Firms Are Winning the Battle for Digital Consumers,(The Financial Brand), Rated: AAA
Despite wanting to improve the digital consumer experience, research finds that the banking industry still can’t fully support key stages of the digital customer journey.
The 75-page Digital Banking Report, ‘State of the Digital Customer Journey,’ shows evidence that banks and credit unions of all sizes and not prepared to combat the increasing encroachment by fintech start-ups that focus on making every stage of the customer journey easy, seamless and contextual. In fact, there are some segments of the industry that are falling significantly behind consumer expectations.
The key takeaways from the report include:
- The vast majority of financial institutions can’t open a new account entirely online or on a mobile device.
- Only 16% of financial organizations provide a tablet assist account opening option in a branch.
- Branch based ID verification and/or signatures/supporting documentation are required at the majority of organizations.
- Multichannel digital account opening (save and resume) is not supported at most financial institutions.
- New account opening abandonment rates are high for institutions that offer online or mobile account opening.
- Only 55% of banks and credit unions have a “structured” onboarding process.
- Only 22% of financial institutions onboard new customers with the “optimal” amount of communication.
- Only 30% of banks and credit unions market products within the mobile banking app.
- Community banks are falling behind both larger banks and credit unions in digitizing the customer journey.
Klarna’s CEO thinks he was a “really bad CEO” last year, but says that’s actually a good thing, (Business Insider), Rated: A
At the fika with Sebastian Siemiatkowski at Stockholm Tech Festival, the 34-year-old CEO co-founder of Klarna was asked how he could cope with staying 12 years at the same company.
“There has been one really major shift for us. When Klarna started we were very very focused on the merchants. Over time we realized that that was wrong. We realized that the user is the customer and we’ve got to build a great product for the customer.”
“Since then the customer satisfaction has skyrocketed, with some really simplistic measures.”
Siemiatkowski stresses that at the end of the day its ‘boring’ things like customer service and the fundamental product that is the basis of success.
“After 12 years the only thing I really care about is building a great product,” he says in retrospect. “We don’t need to reimagine everything all the time.”
Pile On: Yirendai Now Has Eight Lawsuits Against Them, ( Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B
At the most recent count, China-based peer to peer lender Yirendai (
China News reported that Yirendai “rejected the complaints as without merit and the company intends to defend its interest.” It is hard to decipher how Yirendai can be faulted for the actions of a sovereign government.
United Kingdom
LendInvest looks to hire 100 in expansion plan, (Financial News), Rated: AAA
The threat of Brexit has failed to dent the plans of LendInvest, the UK online property lender that is looking to double in size.
LendInvest posted a profit of £3.12 million and revenue of £15 million for the year to March 2015, according to the firm’s latest accounts. The UK firm includes as its backers venture capital firmAtomico, run by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, and Beijing Kunlun, a Chinese technology company.
The firm has grown from 30 employees in early 2015 to around 115. LendInvest also recently hired Stephan Wilcke as a senior adviser. Wilcke was the chief of HM Treasury’s Asset Protection Agency up until 2011.
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