News Comments
- Today’s main news: Alibaba acquires 33% stake in Ant Financial. MPL issuance grew by 100% year-over-year in Q4 2017. RateSetter prepares investors for IFISA launch. Bitbond launches alt investment fund with 1741 Fund Management.
- Today’s main analysis: An empirical analysis of Groundfloor’s loan vintages. International P2P lending volumes for January 2018.
- Today’s thought-provoking articles: The effect of Groundfloor’s origination growth on quality. European alternative finance expanded by 41% in 2016. India’s road to SME financing. Indonesia’s fatwa on sharia-based lending.
United States
- Marketplace lending grew by 100% Y-o-Y in Q4 2017. AT: “According to PeerIQ’s securitization tracker.”
- Groundfloor analyzes its own origination growth effects on quality. AT: “A very interesting analysis, but I’d be interested in what third parties say.”
- Juniper Square raises $6M.
- Overstock intros robo-advice platform tZERO Advisors. AT: “TZERO is a blockchain-based platform. Are there any blockchain-based robos yet?”
- States pick up on payday lending rules where CFPB loses ground.
- PayPal CIO joins Elevate’s BOD.
- Chase targets millennials for Zelle with social media.
- What House subcommittee says about fintech and lending.
- EquityBuild launches hybrid capital fund website.
- An easy way to boost your monthly income.
- Square allows bitcoin trading.
- LendingPoint names new CFO.
United Kingdom
- RateSetter prepares investors for IFISA launch.
- Innovative Isas take off.
- Folk2Folk launches local lending movement.
- Novae GC joins Wonga.
- Goji celebrates first year of lending bond.
- The Business Funding Show.
China
- Alibaba buys 33% stake in Ant Financial. AT: “Already one of the big players in the global lending scene, I wonder what this will do to boost Ant Financial’s prowess internationally.”
- MYbank uses its own technology.
European Union
- Bitbond, with 1741 Fund Management, launches alternative investment fund.
- European alt finance expanded by 41% in 2016.
- Bob Diamond joins Corrado Passera acquisition vehicle board.
- SPAXS looking at 5 banks to buy.
- Ireland hosts tech startups of former Googlers, Facebook peeps.
International
- January P2P lending volumes. AT: “Big gains from Bitbond, Lending Works, and Lenndy, big declines at Ablrate, Proplend, and ThinCats.”
- SoftBank to get a seat on Moven’s board as JV targets Asian banks.
- nCino gets injection fro Salesforce.
- Several unnamed countries investigate Coincheck.
India
- India’s SME financing road.
- A push for blockchain, cyber technology.
- What Faircent, MobiKwik think about the budget.
- P2P lending players to benefit from 10% long-term capital gains tax.
Asia
Africa
News Summary
- United States
- PeerIQ 4Q17 securitization tracker shows growth of marketplace lending industry (Bankless Times), Rated: AAA
- THE EFFECT OF ORIGINATION GROWTH ON QUALITY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOAN VINTAGES (Groundfloor), Rated: AAA
- Juniper Square raises $ 6M for its real estate investment platform (TechCrunch), Rated: A
- Overstock Introduces Robo-Advising Investment Platform tZERO Advisors (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
- States mull loosening of laws in response to CFPB payday rule (American Banker), Rated: A
- Bradley Strock, PayPal CIO, Joins Elevate’s Board of Directors (BusinessWire), Rated: A
- Chase is using memes and GIFs to bring millennials to QuickPay (Tearsheet), Rated: A
- Subcommittee hearing looks at challenges, opportunities with fintech (Financial Regulation News), Rated: A
- EquityBuild Launches New Website Showcasing Their New Revolutionary Hybrid Capital Fund (PR Web), Rated: A
- How to boost your monthly income: The easy way (Augusta Free Press), Rated: A
- Square shares climb after the payments company launches bitcoin trading for most users (CNBC), Rated: B
- LendingPoint Names Antonio Martino as New Chief Financial Officer (BusinessWire), Rated: B
- United Kingdom
- RateSetter starts preparing investors for IFISA launch (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
- Innovative Isas finally take off (MoneyWeek), Rated: A
- Folk2Folk launches local lending movement (Bridging&Commercial), Rated: A
- Novae GC joins payday lender Wonga after company takeover (The Lawyer), Rated: A
- Goji celebrates first year of investment bond (Bridging&Commercial), Rated: B
- The Business Funding Show closes the funding knowledge gap (KCW Today), Rated: B
- China
- Alibaba nabs 33% stake in Alipay operator A (IT Brief), Rated: AAA
- Alibaba-backed online lender MYbank owes cost-savings to home-made tech (The Star), Rated: A
- European Union
- Bitbond Launches Alternative Investment Fund in Partnership with 1741 Fund Management (Finovate), Rated: AAA
- European Alternative Finance Market Expanded by 41% in 2016, P2P Consumer Lending Leads (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA
- Bob Diamond to join board of Corrado Passera acquisition vehicle (Financial Times), Rated: A
- Italy’s SPAXS shortlists five banks in acquisition hunt (Reuters), Rated: A
- Google and Facebook set off a second wave of fintech talent (Financial Times), Rated: A
- International
- International P2P Lending Volumes January 2018 (P2P-Banking), Rated: AAA
- Moven To Buy US Bank, Create Joint Venture In Japan With SBI (PYMNTS), Rated: A
- Salesforce boosts nCino global expansion plans (American Banker), Rated: A
- Several countries investigating Japanese virtual coin heist (e27), Rated: B
- India
- Jaitley extends avenue for SME financing, bad loans in the sector now on radar (Economic Times), Rated: AAA
- Indian Budget 2018: A Push for Blockchin and Cyber Tech (Bank Info Security), Rated: A
- What do Ola, ShopClues, Practo, and Paytm feel about the budget? (Yourstory), Rated: A
- Budget 2018: 10% Long Term Capital Gain tax to benefit P2P lending players (moneycontrol), Rated: B
- Asia
- Ulema council, OJK to issue fatwa on sharia-based fintech lenders (The Jakarta Post), Rated: AAA
- Africa
- Five ways to finance your dream (Standard Digital), Rated: AAA
United States
PeerIQ 4Q17 securitization tracker shows growth of marketplace lending industry (Bankless Times), Rated: AAA
Ten marketplace lending securitizations priced this quarter totaled $4.4 billion, a record for quarterly issuance, head of research Ashish Dole said. That is 100 per cent growth in issuance over the same quarter in 2016. Cumulative issuance is now $28.2 billion from 106 deals.
THE EFFECT OF ORIGINATION GROWTH ON QUALITY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOAN VINTAGES (Groundfloor), Rated: AAA
As we addressed those limitations by qualifying our offering with the SEC and raising our first round of venture capital funding in 2015, new critics emerged to say that while we might be able to lend in a local market at a small scale, we could never lend nationwide in very large numbers without compromising loan quality. In 2016, we set out to build a lending operations team (including risk management, underwriting, and asset management) with the professional expertise, policies, tools and processes to do just that. Our aim was to improve loan quality and volume simultaneously, well beyond our home market.
How have we done?
Vintages
Vintage A is composed of 88 relatively small, mostly local Atlanta-area loans originated during Groundfloor’s formative years, a period of 30 months (2.5 years).
Vintage B, by contrast, is composed of 222 loans that were originated following our addition and application of greater lending expertise. This vintage is more than 2.5X larger, and was originated over the course of 24 months (two years, a 20% shorter period of time).
Performance Measure #2: Timeliness of Repayment
For each vintage, we analyzed when loans repaid in relation to their maturity dates. Here is a comparison of the timeliness of repayment for Vintage A and Vintage B, with percentages provided to break down the share of repaid loans.
Here is a snapshot of the situation as of December 31, 2017:
Juniper Square raises $ 6M for its real estate investment platform (TechCrunch), Rated: A
Today’s funding round brings the company’s total funding to date to $8 million; the company plans to use the new influx of capital to accelerate its product development and grow its team to better service its user base.
Overstock Introduces Robo-Advising Investment Platform tZERO Advisors (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) has introduced a digitally-driven investment platform (aka robo-advising), presented by tZERO Advisors. The service is accessible to investors through the online retailer’s FinanceHub. For a monthly fee of $9.95, investors can either select from a group of pre-established Adaptive Dynamic Portfolios matched to their investment profiles, or create a customized blend of these portfolios.
States mull loosening of laws in response to CFPB payday rule (American Banker), Rated: A
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s payday loan rule was supposed to reduce the number of Americans who get mired in debt they can’t afford.
But in an ironic twist, the 4-month-old rule is being used in state legislatures to justify the creation of a new category of loans that would be even costlier for many borrowers.
One such bill in Florida has zipped through three legislative committees in recent weeks. The Indiana House of Representatives voted to pass a similar measure Wednesday.
Bradley Strock, PayPal CIO, Joins Elevate’s Board of Directors (BusinessWire), Rated: A
Elevate Credit, Inc. (“Elevate”), a leading tech-enabled provider of innovative and responsible online credit solutions for non-prime consumers, today announced that Bradley Strock has joined its Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Mr. Strock joined PayPal in 2011 and since 2014 has been its Chief Information Officer.
Chase is using memes and GIFs to bring millennials to QuickPay (Tearsheet), Rated: A
JPMorgan is focusing its Zelle efforts on millennials, despite the platform outwardly claiming it’s not targeting that age group.
Chase will soon roll out an animated GIF campaign on social media as the second part of its Quick Pay with Zelle campaign.
With Chase QuickPay with Zelle, they can set recurring payments so you never wait for rent again. The best part? It’s already in your Chase Mobile app. href="https://t.co/tQyDUm75Hf">pic.twitter.com/tQyDUm75Hf
In 2017 Chase saw a nearly 50 percent increase in p-to-p transactions — which includes all transactions before and after it joined the Zelle network — and a 15 percent increase in enrollments.
On Monday Zelle reported it transacted $75 billion across its member banks in 2017. Venmo processed $30 billion in the same period.
Subcommittee hearing looks at challenges, opportunities with fintech (Financial Regulation News), Rated: A
The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit convened this week to discuss opportunities and challenges in the financial technology, or fintech, market.
“Fintech lenders present an opportunity to expand credit access and quality. Although such lenders should be subject to appropriate regulation, the regulation must work with the fundamental economic reality of the market,” said Brian Knight, director of the program on financial regulation and senior research fellow at Mercatus Center, George Mason University. “Ensuring that regulations do not burden fintech lenders more heavily than their bank competitors are burdened and that the validity of their loans is not in doubt are important steps toward helping realize the promises of innovation.”
EquityBuild Launches New Website Showcasing Their New Revolutionary Hybrid Capital Fund (PR Web), Rated: A
EquityBuild announces the launch of their completely new website and newest investment product EquityBuild Fund.This site is dedicated to the company’s new revolutionary hybrid capital fund only available on their platform.
How to boost your monthly income: The easy way (Augusta Free Press), Rated: A
Safe investments are a real thing, and there cannot be a more secure way of investing in interest rates at a lending club. However, the alternative for which you must search is a peer-to-peer lending platform, where investors finance loans and then get interest rates as high as 10% on a yearly basis. For instance, you could start with an initial deposit of $2,500, as the starting investment rate is 25%.
Cryptocurrency passive income is a thing – And you should try it
- Decred – Decred is a self-funded crypto platform, where investors have a share of the platform’s currency even at the very beginning.
- AKR – is a mining platform which offers each investor, even at the beginning of their journey a “delegated proof of work”. It works literally all around the clock and you virtually have to put NO EFFORTS.
- NEO – another passive crypto income for those searching to round a bit their monthly income. The network works on “Gas” – this is the name of this small cryptocurrency.
Square shares climb after the payments company launches bitcoin trading for most users (CNBC), Rated: B
Nearly all users of Square‘s Cash payments app can now buy and sell bitcoin on the platform, CEO Jack Dorsey announced Wednesday.
The service will not be available for customers in New York state, Georgia, Wyoming and Hawaii, according to Square’s website.
LendingPoint Names Antonio Martino as New Chief Financial Officer (BusinessWire), Rated: B
LendingPoint, the online balance sheet lender and provider of the LoanHero point of sale financing platform, today announced that Antonio Martino has joined the company as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Martino is a financial industry leader with more than 25 years of experience spanning 10 countries. Most recently he was Director, Citi Corporate Treasury, where he had global oversight roles within the asset liability management and balance sheet management processes for Citibank, N.A. Previously, Martino served as CFO of Citibank in Turkey and across Central Europe, with roles in Istanbul and Budapest, Hungary. In addition, Martino was Finance Director of Citibank Poland’s consumer banking division in Poland and Vice President of Finance within Citibank credit card business in Canada. Martino started his career in public accounting with Ernst & Young.
United Kingdom
RateSetter starts preparing investors for IFISA launch (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
RATESETTER has begun emailing existing investors to get them ready for the launch of its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) this month.
The peer-to-peer lender sent messages to its customers on Thursday revealing that the IFISA would be made available to investors in the order they opened accounts.
Innovative Isas finally take off (MoneyWeek), Rated: A
The new innovative finance individual savings accounts (IF Isas) raised just £17m in the 2016-2017 tax year, their first year of operation, but the figure for 2017-2018 looks set to be a lot higher, says HM Revenue & Customs. IF Isas enable savers to use their annual Isa allowance to invest through peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, which match investors looking for income with borrowers who need a loan.
In all, more than 30 platforms now offer the product, and providers report high demand – so much so that the market’s potential size in 2017/2018 may be limited only by the platforms’ ability to source enough borrowers who want to take out loans from investors wanting to lend.
Folk2Folk launches local lending movement (Bridging&Commercial), Rated: A
The local lending movement has been created by the peer-to-peer lending platform to build and sustain socially and financially successful rural communities.
Folk2Folk intends to incorporate this ethos into its behaviour and activity.
The movement involves the participation and support of the platform’s lenders and borrowers, legal and accountancy partners, local authorities, MPs, chambers of commerce, local enterprise partnerships, surveyors, land agents, local cooperatives, leisure and tourism platforms, interest groups, community associations, charities, business groups and banks.
Novae GC joins payday lender Wonga after company takeover (The Lawyer), Rated: A
Payday loan company Wonga has hired a new general counsel following the departure of Bill Flynn after nearly three years.
Goji celebrates first year of investment bond (Bridging&Commercial), Rated: B
The Business Funding Show closes the funding knowledge gap (KCW Today), Rated: B
The only funding exhibition in the UK and EU is returning to London for its third year. The Business Funding Show will be held on 22nd February 2018 at East Wintergarden and will connect entrepreneurs to top funders and service providers through conference talks, an exhibitor showcase, and one-to-one investment clinics.
BFS aims to bring awareness to entrepreneurs about alternative funding options, from crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending to business angels and venture capital. The event saw a 33% increase in attendance in 2017, a figure the organisers aim to surpass this year.
China
Alibaba nabs 33% stake in Alipay operator A (IT Brief), Rated: AAA
With Alipay and Alipay Wallet under its umbrella, the company also runs 4 other major businesses: Yu’e Bao, Zhao Cai Bao, Ant Credit, and MYbank, a cloud based online lender the company was in the middle of establishing at the time of the name change.
Now, Alibaba Group Holdings has announced it will strengthen its strategic relationship with Ant Financial by acquiring a 33% equity stake in the company. The parties have agreed to certain amendments to their 2014 transaction agreements to facilitate the transaction.
Under the terms of the amended agreements, Alibaba will acquire newly-issued equity from Ant Financial in exchange for certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial.
Alibaba-backed online lender MYbank owes cost-savings to home-made tech (The Star), Rated: A
MYbank, a Chinese online lender that is an offshoot of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, has built its business on doing things cheaply.
The bank says it can deliver loans to borrowers across China at lightning speeds for up to 1,000 times less than it would cost brick-and-mortar banks to do so.
MYbank employs about 300 people, half of whom are technicians.
As a result, the cost of approving a small business loan can be as little as 2 yuan (RM1.24), compared to at least 2,000 yuan (RM1,239) at a traditional bank, according to data provided by the bank. MYbank has built its technological infrastructure with Chinese-made technology, avoiding more expensive products from companies like IBM Corp, Oracle Corp and Dell EMC, which form the network backbone for much of China’s finance sector, Huang said.
MYbank is one of a handful of Chinese lenders – along with Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeBank – that are founded completely with private investment. Since mid-2015, MYbank has served more than 7 million small business owners, Huang said. The bank is seeking to expand its network to include China’s 70 million to 100 million small businesses under-served by traditional financial institutions.
The bank’s net interest margin – around 3% to 5% – is higher than those for China’s major banks, which target large state companies, Huang said.
European Union
Bitbond Launches Alternative Investment Fund in Partnership with 1741 Fund Management (Finovate), Rated: AAA
Peer-to-peer small business financing platform Bitbond has entered into a partnership with 1741 Fund Management to launch an alternative investment fund.
European Alternative Finance Market Expanded by 41% in 2016, P2P Consumer Lending Leads (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA
The European online alternative finance market grew by 41 per cent to 7.7 billion euros in 2016, according to the 3rd annual European Alternative Finance Industry Benchmarking Report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. The report entitled “Expanding Horizons” indicates that online alternative finance showed growth in new areas across Europe.
For country-specific numbers, click here.
Among other findings of the report:
• Institutionalization grew considerably from 2015 to 2016, with 45 per cent of peer-to-peer consumer lending and 29 per cent of peer-to-peer business lending funded by institutions such as banks, pension funds and asset management firms.
• Online alternative finance for business continued to grow, providing 1.14 billion euros to more than 14,000 businesses throughout Europe. Debt models including peer-to-peer business lending accounted for 67 per cent of business finance, while equity models accounted for 27 per cent.
• Estonia ranked first for alternative finance volume per capita for the second year in a row, at 63 euros, followed by Monaco (51 euros) and Georgia (28 euros).
• Countries in which platforms believe that existing regulations are adequate are more likely to show higher levels of alternative finance per capita and a larger share of business funding.
• While overall perceptions of regulatory adequacy are divided, the greatest discontent concerns laws governing equity-based crowdfunding
• Two types of risk are of greatest concern to European alternative finance platforms: a potential collapse of a well-known platform due to malpractice, and fraud involving one or more high-profile transactions.
Bob Diamond to join board of Corrado Passera acquisition vehicle (Financial Times), Rated: A
Bob Diamond plans to join the board of a €600m acquisition vehicle chaired by Corrado Passera, which listed on Thursday, bringing together two of Europe’s best known ex-bankers to buy an Italian lender to small businesses.
After the cash shell’s initial public offering on Thursday, Mr Passera told reporters in Milan that it had shortlisted five small Italian lenders and would complete the acquisition of one of them for up to €60m — allowing it to become a bank.
The plan is to turn the small bank into an online lender to small businesses and a merchant bank, which will buy non-performing loans from other banks and parcel them up before selling them on to institutional investors.
Italy’s SPAXS shortlists five banks in acquisition hunt (Reuters), Rated: A
Saddled with one quarter of Europe’s nearly $1 trillion debt pile, which has rattled investor confidence in them, Italian banks have become more selective in their lending and compete to lend to low-risk firms, squeezing profit margins, while many small businesses find it hard to access funds.
Shares in SPAXS, which will use up to 10 percent of the amount raised in the IPO for the acquisition, were 4.04 percent higher at 1038 GMT on their market debut on the alternative investment segment of the Milan bourse.
Google and Facebook set off a second wave of fintech talent (Financial Times), Rated: A
One cloud on the horizon, however, is Brexit. The UK’s departure from the EU could make it harder for Irish fintechs to scale up quickly through expansion into the neighbouring British market, which many of them use as an early testing ground.
A good example of this is Plynk, a payment and messaging app aimed at young people, which was co-founded by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley in 2015, a year after Mr Dowd left Facebook. Based in the Camden Street area, Plynk last year raised €25m from investors led by Swiss Privée.
Another start-up that aims to build a global presence from its Irish base is TransferMate, which has handled more than $10bn of cross-border payments for businesses since it set up in 2010. Last year it raised €30m from Allied Irish Banks, with plans to offer the fintech’s software to all the bank’s clients.
By the end of this year, TransferMate expects to derive as much as half its revenue coming from clients in the US, where it has been approved by all 50 states. A third of its revenue is expected to come from European clients and a fifth from the rest of the world.
The most successful product of Ireland’s fintech scene is actually based in San Francisco. Stripe, which provides payment services to businesses, was founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, who have become paper billionaires thanks to its rapid growth.
Stripe has its European headquarters in Ireland, where it employs about 10 per cent of its 1,000 global staff. Iain McDougall, the company’s head of UK and Ireland, says the country’s fintech growth is being driven by “a second wave of talent in Ireland, spawned by the massive investment of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon in Silicon Docks”. A former Google employee himself, Mr McDougall says: “We’re starting to see some of that talent come through, not just college graduates with a couple of years experience . . . there’s now significant depth to it.”
International
International P2P Lending Volumes January 2018 (P2P-Banking), Rated: AAA
This month I added Linked Finance.
Zopa crossed the milestone of 3 billion GBP originated since launch.
Moven To Buy US Bank, Create Joint Venture In Japan With SBI (PYMNTS), Rated: A
According to a report in the American Banker, SBI will receive one seat on Moven’s six-member board and the companies will create a joint venture in Japan.
Of the funding the company will receive from SBI Group, some will go toward the joint venture to sell customized Moven software for Asian banks.
Salesforce boosts nCino global expansion plans (American Banker), Rated: A
NCino, a vendor of cloud-based banking technology, announced a new round of funding led by Salesforce Ventures to help fund its global expansion strategy.
The funding round led by Salesforce Ventures, the corporate investment group of Salesforce, also featured participation from another existing nCino shareholder. The amount of investment was not disclosed.
Several countries investigating Japanese virtual coin heist (e27), Rated: B
Takao Asayama, who is a member of the Singapore-based NEM Foundation that is behind the cryptocurrency, told reporters in Tokyo that it is working with exchanges to block the hackers from cashing out the stolen cryptocurrency. He did not name the countries involved in investigations.
India
Jaitley extends avenue for SME financing, bad loans in the sector now on radar (Economic Times), Rated: AAA
As bank credit to micro, small and medium enterprises shrink, the government has decided to get innovative by getting Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) and the burgeoning fintech industry to play a larger role in financing. However, NPAs in the MSME sector would also now undergo greater scrutiny.
“Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) stepped up financing of MSMEs after demonetization. NBFCs can be a very powerful vehicle for delivering loans under MUDRA. Refinancing policy and eligibility criteria set by MUDRA will be reviewed for better refinancing of NBFCs,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget for 2018-19.
If we look at the NBFC segment first, it specialises in catering to sector specific financial needs covering retail; consumer and vehicle loans; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and micro finance among others.
Tech play
Jaitly also laid out a roadmap to use data generated by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to enhance credit availability to the SME sector.
At end-March 2017, there were 11,522 NBFCs registered with the Reserve Bank, a number that is only bound to increase with fintech sectors like P2P being clubbed in the segment. The Economic Survey has revealed that the amount of credit or loans disbursed by banks amounted to Rs 26,041 billion as on November 2017, but 82.6% of this was cornered by large enterprises.
For millions of SMEs in the country, banks only lent out 17.4 % of the total credit.
Indian Budget 2018: A Push for Blockchin and Cyber Tech (Bank Info Security), Rated: A
In a move to push adoption and development of new technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and the internet of things, the finance minister announced allocation of Rs 3,073 crore for the Department of Science and Technology.
Meanwhile, the finance minister’ pledge to encourage use of blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that supports cryptocurrencies, in payment systems has earned him accolades from some security practitioners.
“Blockchain can be effectively used to process banking transactions. I see blockchain-enabled wallets and blockchain-enabled cards as next big thing in the payment systems,” Jyoti says. “Blockchain can provide an extra layer of cybersecurity to the payment systems, which could have led to this decision.”
Why Blockchain?
Blockchain has been popular among the banking industry in India. In fact, banks in India have formed a “bank chain,” an association of more than 20 banks where they discuss some typical use cases of blockchain.
Sapan Gupta, national practice head – banking and finance, at the law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, notes: “Capitalizing on the blockchain technology could open new ways of securing peer-to-peer lending transactions, boosting trade finance, fintech and information repository sectors. Segregating the use of blockchain from crypto-currencies reflects the government’s intention to use the technology in a gradual and safe manner.”
What do Ola, ShopClues, Practo, and Paytm feel about the budget? (Yourstory), Rated: A
Rajat Gandhi, Founder & CEO, Faircent.com
“The finance minister’s budget speech reflects the government’s intent to increase the credit access for the MSME sector and women entrepreneurs under MUDRA scheme. P2P lending is using technology and new-age data, and diligently working towards taking organised credit to the non and under-banked segments of the Indian economy. This is an opportunity for the government to directly invest or co-fund through registered P2P Lending Platforms and ensure credit access for MSMEs, New-To-Credit as well as female entrepreneurs. P2P lending is an asset class ensuring flow of investments from those with surplus to those in need. Hence it’s important that the lenders are supported through tax incentives. We look forward to working with the government towards the common goal of financial inclusion.”
Bipin Preet Singh, Co-founder, MobiKwik
“A reformist budget for startups and digital India. The government’s impetus on digitising the rural hinterlands, focus on smart cities, and commitment to blockchain technology will encourage the promotion of digital payments across the country, thereby making India truly digital. Further, disallowing cash payments beyond Rs 10,000 by trusts and institutions will boost digital payments. I commend the government’s decision to reduce corporate tax to 25 percent and improve the ease of doing business by providing a unique ID for every company on lines of Aadhaar. These initiatives will benefit startups and MSMEs immensely and lay a strong foundation for a progressive India. However, the government should consider regulating cryptocurrencies than curbing their use entirely.”
Budget 2018: 10% Long Term Capital Gain tax to benefit P2P lending players (moneycontrol), Rated: B
Imposing 10% long-term capital gain tax on equity investments may create some level playing field for the P2P lending industry. So far, the favourable tax treatment on long-term gains on equity investments made them a preferred choice for the investors. Now, those who are ready to take higher risk for earning better returns may also think of investing in P2P lending projects which have a better risk profile as compared to equity-oriented investments.
Ulema council, OJK to issue fatwa on sharia-based fintech lenders (The Jakarta Post), Rated: AAA
The Indonesia Ulema Council’s (MUI) sharia division and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) are preparing a fatwa to serve as a legal basis for the operation of sharia-based financial technology (fintech) lending institutions.
“Many non-Muslims are also interested in sharia-based fintech financing. So it has a very large potential market,” Adiwarman said as reported by kontan.co.id.
Since a trial run in November 2017, Investree has disbursed Rp 2.7 billion (US$189,000) in sharia-based financing.
Africa
Five ways to finance your dream (Standard Digital), Rated: AAA
It found that in 2015, Kenya and South Africa raised $16.7 million (Sh1.7 billion) and $15 million (Sh1.5 billion), respectively, in financing from various online channels. However, unlike in South Africa, most of the money raised using these alternative financing platforms in Kenya came from foreigners.
Overall, a total of $62.2 million (Sh6.4 billion) was raised across Africa, with more than 75 per cent of this money going towards funding start-ups and SMEs.
- Equity-based crowdfunding
- Peer-to-peer business lending
- Debt-based securities
- Donation-based crowdfunding
- Reward-based crowdfunding
Authors: