News Comments
- Today’s main news: LendingClub restructures SME lending. Funding Circle lowers return projections. RateSetter receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise. SoFi could get $500M funding from Qatar.
- Today’s main analysis: How personal loans impact credit scores a year into repayment.
- Today’s thought-provoking articles: Employer payday loans and continuous billing using today’s technology. Interview with Deserve’s Kalpesh Kapadia. Fertility insurance and employment (AN EXCELLENT READ). Top 10 hottest fintechs in 2019.
United States
- LendingClub shuts down SME lending arm. This restructuring partners the platform with Funding Circle and Opportunity Fund. An interesting arrangement.
- How personal loans impact debt, credit scores a year into repayment. Another interesting study from LendingTree.
- How to get an early paycheck. The audience here is clearly employees, but it’s an interesting read for lenders too. It mentions several employers using technology to pay employees by the day, and there’s an interesting segment on continuous billing at utility companies. Some interesting insights into using technology to deliver innovative services that 20th century technology was limited by.
- An interview with Deserve’s Kalpesh Kapadia. A Tearsheet podcast interview. Deserve wants to be the credit card of choice for young people.
- Would you take a job for the fertility insurance. A lot of women would. This is an excellent story with a lot of insight into fertility lending programs and employer insurance plans.
- Resolve introduces automated net payment terms for ecommerce.
- The pros and cons of online auto loans.
- Solving the $1.5 trillion student debt problem.
- dv01 launches credit risk transfer market surveillance offering.
- Why the post office should offer lending and financial services.
- Equifax acquires PayNet.
- Marketplace lending update #5: Colorado’s long arm of the law.
- Berman Tabacco secures win for victims of Plain Green online lending scheme.
- 2nd Circuit says tribal officers not immune in payday loan suit.
- White Oak Global Advisors completes $30 million loan for Danimer Scientific Holdings.
- Upgrade named top place to work in San Francisco.
United Kingdom
- Funding Circle lowers return projections.
- RateSetter receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
- Tandem to double headcount.
- Consumer P2P loans weigh on P2PGI fund returns.
European Union
- Societe Generale issues $112 million bond on Ethereum. This is big news. As more companies use blockchains for lending and issuing bonds such as this, it moves the technology closer to mainstream adoption.
- N26 opens tech hub in Vienna.
- Marqeta signs up three new customers in Europe. One is POS lender Aplazame.
- CoinLoan plans initial exchange offering, looking for partners.
International
- SoFi is in talks with Qatar for $500 million in funding. SoFi is making major moves to become the most trusted alternative finance company in the world.
- Top 10 hottest fintech startups. America still leads in funding rounds, but Asia is not far behind. This list includes big names like Raisin and SoFi. And interesting inclusion is Lending Express.
- Oaknorth is planning to enter the U.S. market.
- BlockFi pays interest on $53 million of crypto deposits. Crypto lending keeps growing. It’s going to be a major force before we know it.
- BlockFi client base rises 50% in one month.
- Digital lending is making endroads into traditional lending.
- ConsenSys Labs has put up bounties for P2P lending, decentralized credit.
India
- ZestMoney raises $20 million.
- Money Loji app lends to salaried professionals within five minutes.
- Blockfi launches in India.
Other
- China: How leverage turns market corrections into crashes. An interview with professor Kelly Shue on shadow banking and other stock market movements.
- Asia: Nuo Network becomes Asias biggest crypto lender with $2 million in reserves.
- MENA: Banks use fintech to make up for lost time on financial inclusion.
- Canada: Toronto is ninth of top 15 fintech markets in North America.
- Brazil: FinanZero raises $11 million USD in Series B round.
- China: P2P lending is seen as part of economic threat.
- Iraq: Financial inclusion drive boosted by homegrown fintech.
- Indonesia: Why Ping An OneConnect chose Indonesia for expansion.
- Asia: YouHodler adds Dash for crypto lending.
News Summary
- United States
- LendingClub shuts down SME lending arm (Banking Tech), Rated: AAA
- How Personal Loans Impact Debt and Credit Scores a Year Into Repayment (LendingTree), Rated: AAA
- How To Get Your Paycheck Early (Forbes), Rated: AAA
- Deserve’s Kalpesh Kapadia: ‘We promise the best credit card for our customer’s profile and life stage’ (Tearsheet), Rated: AAA
- Resolve Accelerates Shift to B2B eCommerce with Automated Net Payment Terms (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A
- Online Auto Loans: The Pros and Cons (U.S. News), Rated: A
- It’s Not Easy Solving For $ 1.5 Trillion In Student Debt (PYMNTS), Rated: A
- Would You Take a Job Just for the Fertility Insurance? (Glamour), Rated: AAA
- dv01 Launches Credit Risk Transfer Market Surveillance Offering (dv01 Email), Rated: A
- Let’s give post offices another job (The Student Life), Rated: A
- Equifax acquires PayNet to help expand access to capital for small and mid-sized businesses (PR Newswire), Rated: A
- Marketplace Lending Update #5: The Very Long Arm of Colorado Law (The National Law Review), Rated: A
- Berman Tabacco Announces Major Win for Victims of Plain Green Online Lending Scheme (BusinessWire), Rated: A
- 2nd Circ. Says Tribal Officers Not Immune In Payday Loan Suit (Law360), Rated: B
- White Oak Global Advisors Completes $ 30M Loan for Danimer Scientific Holdings (AP News), Rated: B
- Online Lender Upgrade Recognized as Top Place to Work in San Francisco (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B
- United Kingdom
- Funding Circle lowers return projections (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
- Peer to Peer Lender RateSetter Receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA
- Challenger bank Tandem to double headcount as CEO warns of Brexit brain drain (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A
- Consumer P2P loans weigh on P2PGI fund returns (P2P Finance News), Rated: A
- China
- How Leverage Turns Market Corrections into Crashes (Yale Insights), Rated: AAA
- Trade war with US could lead to economic ‘cold war’ for China, Beijing researchers say (SCMP), Rated: A
- European Union
- French Lender Societe Generale Issues $ 112 Million Bond on Ethereum (CoinDesk), Rated: AAA
- N26 opens tech hub in Vienna with a focus on security (TechCrunch), Rated: A
- API card platform Marqeta signs up three customers in Europe (Verdict), Rated: B
- CoinLoan Plans IEO and Seeks Partners (Digital Journal), Rated: B
- International
- SoFi Is in Talks With Qatar for $ 500 Million Funding Round (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA
- These are the top 10 hottest fintech startups and companies in the world (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
- U.K. fintech now has war chest to push stateside (American Banker), Rated: A
- BlockFi Is Now Paying Interest on $ 53 Million of Crypto Deposits (CoinDesk), Rated: A
- No crypto winter for BlockFi as client base reaches 50% (CoinGeek), Rated: B
- Funds at your disposal: Digital lending making inroads into traditional lending (Finextra), Rated: A
- Microsoft Will Pay You To Develop… Ethereum? (CryptoBriefing), Rated: B
- India
- Indian lendtech ZestMoney raises $ 20m (Banking Tech), Rated: AAA
- ‘Money Loji’ launches App that offers loans to salaried professionals within 5 Minutes (Business Standard), Rated: A
- Blockfi Launches High-Interest Crypto Lending Program in India (Bitcoin.com), Rated: A
- Asia
- Nuo Network Crypto Lending Platform Becomes Asia’s Biggest with $ 2 Million in Reserves (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: AAA
- Why China’s Ping An OneConnect picks Indonesia for expansion (The Asset), Rated: A
- MENA
- Banks use fintech to make up for lost time on financial inclusion (Financial Times), Rated: AAA
- Iraq’s financial inclusion drive boosted by homegrown fintech (Financial Times), Rated: A
- YouHodler Cryptocurrency Lending Platform Adds Dash (Dash News), Rated: A
- Canada
- 7 ways emerging fintech hubs are taking on the giants (PaymentsSource), Rated: AAA
- Latin America
- Brazilian Credit Marketplace FinanZero raises USD 11 Million in Series B Round (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: AAA
United States
LendingClub shuts down SME lending arm (Banking Tech), Rated: AAA
US peer-to-peer lending pioneer Lending Club has closed the doors on its in-house small business lending operation, reports Julie Muhn at Finovate.
Opportunity Fund, a non-profit small business lender; Funding Circle, one of the largest alternative small business lending platforms in the US; and Lending Club have teamed up to offer Lending Club’s small business clients’ access to credit. Businesses can now borrow up to $300,000 for rates as low as 5%.
How Personal Loans Impact Debt and Credit Scores a Year Into Repayment (LendingTree), Rated: AAA
Key findings
- One year after taking on a personal loan, 52% of borrowers owed less overall on credit cards and personal loans. These borrowers’ balances — the sum credit card and personal loan balances — fell $811 on average.
- Among baby boomers who took out personal loans, 56% lowered their overall balances after their first year of repayment, compared with 52% of Generation X and 48% of millennials.
- Boomers also lowered their balances by much larger amounts, owing an average $2,048 less after a year. Balance reductions of younger borrowers were more modest: Generation X lowered their overall balance by $338, and millennials reduced their overall balance $250.
- A year into repaying a personal loan, credit scores declined slightly for all age groups. Boomers’ credit scores declined the least, with the median falling just 1 point from 669 to 668. The median score of Generation X personal loan borrowers fell 7 points, from 659 to 652. Millennial credit scores fell 10 points, dropping from 661 to 651.
- Credit utilization rates — the ratio of the sum of credit card balances to the sum of credit card limits — show a similar trajectory. One month after taking a personal loan, the median utilization rate fell from 35% to 26%. But after the first month, utilization increased. The median utilization rate one year after taking a loan increases to 44%.
How To Get Your Paycheck Early (Forbes), Rated: AAA
Speaking of Walmart, the retailer has partnerships with two fintech startups–Even Responsible Finance and PayActiv–that enable its US workers get part of their salary paid before payday.
Employees can get up to eight drawdowns (called Instapays) on their salary ahead of scheduled payouts. The first eight drawdowns are free to the employees, and then in subsequent use, fees are levied across a personal finance app available through Even.
Continuous Billing
There’s no reason why billers can’t provide continuous information about what a customer owes, in real time, online or through mobile apps.
Deserve’s Kalpesh Kapadia: ‘We promise the best credit card for our customer’s profile and life stage’ (Tearsheet), Rated: AAA
The financial system has always struggled with young people. Because the system uses credit history, young people were frequently excluded from credit products because they’re new to the system. If you’re an immigrant or foreign student studying in the US, it’s way worse. Kalpesh Kapadia set out to change a system that was skewed against young people. He’s the co- founder and CEO of Deserve, which offers credit cards to college students at 2500 universities in the US.
To do this, he’s created an analytics-based lending platform that’s also branching out into powering credit cards as a service. We talk about how Deserve is able to underwrite credit-thin files and why he thinks his firm is at an advantage when it comes to competing against Marcus’s credit products and Apple’s new credit card.
Resolve Accelerates Shift to B2B eCommerce with Automated Net Payment Terms (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A
According to Forrester Research, business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce is poised to reach over $1.8 trillion by 2023. To help power this explosive growth, Resolve today announced that it has formally spun out of Affirm to launch an automated payments platform offering extended net terms. Early customers using Resolve’s payment automation technology have realized significant increases in B2B sales, growth in order size, and faster sales cycles.
Online Auto Loans: The Pros and Cons (U.S. News), Rated: A
Things are different now. Almost every financial institution has an online presence, and most offer information about car loans on their site. Most also provide an opportunity to apply for financing online, with a growing number able to take car buyers through the entire auto loan process without ever having to visit a bank or credit union branch.
It’s Not Easy Solving For $ 1.5 Trillion In Student Debt (PYMNTS), Rated: A
There is $1.5 trillion worth of student loan debt outstanding in the U.S. and it is creating problems.
Admittedly the plan is quite a bit more complex than that, as detailed by Sen. Warren in a Medium post that went live yesterday (April 22). In broad strokes, for students from families with less than $100,000 a year in annual income, $50,000 in student loan forgiveness would be available. The post also calls for “substantial debt cancellation for every person with household income between $100,000 and $250,000.” The Warren plan also calls for the elimination of tuition at all two-year and four-year public institutions of higher learning, and would create a fund of at least $50 billion specifically for historically black colleges and universities. Federals subsidies for for-profit colleges would be banned.
Would You Take a Job Just for the Fertility Insurance? (Glamour), Rated: AAA
The cost, however, put it out of reach. A single round of IVF rings in at about
dv01 Launches Credit Risk Transfer Market Surveillance Offering (dv01 Email), Rated: A
dv01 today announces the launch of its Credit Risk Transfer (CRT) Market Surveillance offering, which will be showcased on April 25 at the 4th Annual Credit Risk Transfer Symposium in New York.
dv01’s latest offering adds $1.8 trillion of Freddie Mac (STACR) and Fannie Mae (CAS) CRT securitizations to dv01’s modern web-based data analytics platform, furthering their goal of bringing greater transparency to capital markets. Building on the success of dv01’s Market Surveillance offering for consumer loans (launched in 2017), the CRT offering will allow investors to analyze historical performance of CRT deals both individually or as combined deals, perform whole market analysis, and run cash flow scenarios.
Let’s give post offices another job (The Student Life), Rated: A
As of 2017, approximately 6.5% of households in the U.S., totaling more than eight million, don’t have an account open at an insured bank, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. An additional 24.2 million households utilize non-traditional financial services that often make them vulnerable to usurious lending rates.
Americans utilizing alternative forms of credit spend nearly 10% of their salaries on fees alone. For a family making the average salary of $25,500 in 2012, those fees average out to $2,412.
The USPS has 59% of its locations in zip codes that have one or fewer banks, according to a 2011 government report. This could help people to overcome a geographic boundary.
Equifax acquires PayNet to help expand access to capital for small and mid-sized businesses (PR Newswire), Rated: A
Equifax Inc., a global data, analytics and technology company has acquired PayNet, a company that provides commercial credit risk underwriting and management solutions to online and alternative finance lenders, and commercial finance and leasing companies in the U.S. and Canadian markets.
Marketplace Lending Update #5: The Very Long Arm of Colorado Law (The National Law Review), Rated: A
Recently a state court in Colorado ruled that securitization trusts that acquire marketplace lender loans originated to Colorado consumers are subject to Colorado jurisdiction. The court’s ruling derailed the attempt by the securitization trusts to escape the ongoing battle between the State of Colorado and marketplace lenders over rates and fees that can be charged to Colorado residents.
Berman Tabacco Announces Major Win for Victims of Plain Green Online Lending Scheme (BusinessWire), Rated: A
In a long-awaited opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today ruled that borrowers who took out loans from the Native American-affiliated online lender Plain Green can proceed with their nationwide RICO class action in Vermont federal court. The Second Circuit affirmed a May 2016 ruling by District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford and comes nearly two years after oral argument on Defendants’ appeals. Berman Tabacco and Gravel & Shea PC are Lead Counsel in the case, Gingras, et al. v. Rosette, et al., No. 5:15-cv-00101-gwc (D. Vt.).
2nd Circ. Says Tribal Officers Not Immune In Payday Loan Suit (Law360), Rated: B
The Second Circuit on Wednesday rejected a bid by officers of tribe-owned lending company Plain Green LLC to escape a suit claiming they charged exorbitant interest rates on so-called payday loans,…
White Oak Global Advisors Completes $ 30M Loan for Danimer Scientific Holdings (AP News), Rated: B
White Oak Global Advisors, LLC (“White Oak”) today announced it acted as sole lender and administrative agent to provide a $30 million senior credit facility to Danimer Scientific Holdings, LLC (“Danimer”), a manufacturer of specialty compostable and biodegradable plastics. This transaction expands on White Oak’s ESG-lending platform, which aims to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) that are developing solutions to help address environmental and social issues around the world.
Online Lender Upgrade Recognized as Top Place to Work in San Francisco (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B
Online Lender Upgrade, a Fintech serving the consumer credit market, has been named a “Best Place to Work in the Bay Area’”by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Upgrade is the creation of CEO Renaud Laplanche, the founder of publicly traded marketplace lending platform LendingClub. This is the second time Upgrade has been recognized as a nice place to work in the notoriously work focused bay area.
United Kingdom
Funding Circle lowers return projections (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA
FUNDING Circle has revised down its annual return projections in the face of a weaker environment for consumer credit.
The peer-to-peer business lender now predicts investors in its Balanced portfolio will achieve a return of 4.5 to 6.5 per cent a year.
Investors in its Conservative portfolio, meanwhile, could achieve 4.3 to 4.7 per cent a year.
Peer to Peer Lender RateSetter Receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA
Peer-to-peer investment platform RateSetter has been recognized with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for excellence in innovation.
Challenger bank Tandem to double headcount as CEO warns of Brexit brain drain (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A
Tandem Bank said on Tuesday it had moved into a new 16,000 square foot office in London as part of plans to double headcount this year to 230 and grow to 300 people by the end of 2020.
“Last year we hit 500,000 customers when we had an expectation for 150,000,” Knox told Yahoo Finance UK.
Consumer P2P loans weigh on P2PGI fund returns (P2P Finance News), Rated: A
P2P Global Investments (P2PGI) has warned that its legacy peer-to-peer lending portfolio continues to be more volatile than expected despite posting an improved net asset value (NAV) return for 2018.
P2PGI – the world’s first P2P-focused investment trust – revealed in its annual report that its NAV for 2018 was 5.2 per cent, up from three per cent in 2017.
China
How Leverage Turns Market Corrections into Crashes (Yale Insights), Rated: AAA
Q: Is shadow borrowing unique to China?
It’s difficult to study the phenomenon very precisely. We do observe shadow lending in various forms growing throughout the world, including in the U.S., and, if left unregulated, this type of lending could mean that household and financial institution leverage keeps rising in a way that is both unregulated and undocumented.
Because the Chinese government believed that the shadow sector was partly responsible for the crash, it seized the data from some shadow lending platforms and allowed us to analyze it.
Q: Who’s providing the financing in these situations?
The exact sources of financing are not well known. Some of it could be other stock investors that have put up their own holdings as collateral and borrowed against it and then lend out the proceeds on the shadow market. It could also be peer-to-peer lending platforms. It’s also believed that some of the financial institutions and brokerage firms within China may have also lent out within the shadow sector.
Trade war with US could lead to economic ‘cold war’ for China, Beijing researchers say (SCMP), Rated: A
The tit-for-tat tariff war with the US and the broad hostility is seen as a major risk endangering China’s “economic security”, along with a property bubble, local debt, unemployment and online financing including peer-to-peer lending, according to the latest edition of China’s Economic Security Outlook.
European Union
French Lender Societe Generale Issues $ 112 Million Bond on Ethereum (CoinDesk), Rated: AAA
French financial services giant Societe Generale Group has issued about $112 million worth of bonds in the form of a security token on the public ethereum blockchain.
Announced today, a subsidiary called Societe Generale SFH used the OFH token (obligations de financement de l’habitat, or home financing obligations) to represent 100 million euros of covered bonds, a type of security that is backed by specific assets but remains on the issuer’s balance sheet.
The bond has a five-year maturity with a 12-month extension period, Moody’s said.
N26 opens tech hub in Vienna with a focus on security (TechCrunch), Rated: A
Fintech startup N26 is opening an office, its fourth, in Vienna. Eventually, the company plans to hire 300 software engineers, product managers and IT specialists.
API card platform Marqeta signs up three customers in Europe (Verdict), Rated: B
The platform has been signed up by French digital bank Morning, Swiss digital bank Yapeal, and Spanish POS lender Aplazame.
CoinLoan Plans IEO and Seeks Partners (Digital Journal), Rated: B
CoinLoan crypto-backed lending platform declares its intention to launch an Initial Exchange Offering and invites discussion with major crypto exchanges interested in the listing.
International
SoFi Is in Talks With Qatar for $ 500 Million Funding Round (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA
Fintech startup Social Finance Inc. is in the final stages of closing a funding round from the Qatar Investment Authority and others, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The new round, which could close as soon as this week, is said to value the startup at an amount similar to the $4.3 billion valuation of its 2017 funding round, led by Silver Lake. Two of the people said that in order to achieve the same valuation, investors were asking for more protections should the company raise money or sell itself for a lower price tag in the future. The terms of the deal have not been finalized and could still change, the people said. All of the people asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
These are the top 10 hottest fintech startups and companies in the world (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
Fintech industry funding has already reached new highs globally in 2018, with overall funding hitting $32.6 billion at the end of Q3.
Brex
What it does: Brex is a US-based corporate credit card provider, which initially focused on serving startups.
Raisin
Why it’s hot in 2019: Raisin became a fintech unicorn after raising $114 million in January, and has since then formed partnerships with Commerzbank and ClearScore. Additionally, the startup partnered with Starling Bank in 2018 to launch bank accounts in the UK
SoFi
Why it’s hot in 2019: While the company previously focused on loans, including student loans, in 2019 it has made some significant moves into the wealth management space, and launched both free ETFs and an investment product, dubbed SoFi Invest. As it becomes a more rounded financial product, SoFi will be worth watching in the next few years.
Lending Express
What it does: Lending Express is a US-based lending platform, which focuses on SMBs, and helps them gain access to more funding by providing them with advice.
Volt Bank
Why it’s hot in 2019: In January, Volt became Australia’s first fully licensed neobank. The challenger bank will first offer a suite of retail banking products, as well as budgeting and account aggregation tools, and plans to enter the SMB banking sector in 2020.
U.K. fintech now has war chest to push stateside (American Banker), Rated: A
Fresh off a $100 million funding round last year, the British startup OakNorth is preparing to license its business lending technology to U.S. banks and beyond.
The 3-year-old small-business lender is entering the U.S. at a time when fintechs and banks have stepped up their digital business lending efforts. Though OakNorth has not announced any official partnerships in the U.S., CEO Rishi Khosla said there’s appetite for what the firm is offering.
BlockFi Is Now Paying Interest on $ 53 Million of Crypto Deposits (CoinDesk), Rated: A
Crypto lending startup BlockFi has gathered another $18 million of bitcoin and ether deposits since last month, bringing its total interest-earning accounts to $53 million.
The company also lowered its minimum balance to earn interest on bitcoin from 1 BTC to 0.5 BTC and expanded its operations to India, meaning its service is now available globally, except for territories sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and E.U.
No crypto winter for BlockFi as client base reaches 50% (CoinGeek), Rated: B
Crypto lending startup BlockFi has been growing, and now claimed that it has grown its client base by 50% in just one month.
Funds at your disposal: Digital lending making inroads into traditional lending (Finextra), Rated: A
The penetration of the internet of things and devices such as smartphones has brought in many advancements. This has made economic activities available at the touch of a button. Among the various sectors, the digital world has evolved the way traditional banking processes are being carried out. A growing number of businesses and individuals are filling applications online for taking loans rather than getting into the lengthy lending process.
Microsoft Will Pay You To Develop… Ethereum? (CryptoBriefing), Rated: B
“[ConsenSys Labs] has put up a few bounties in the vein of rethinking the lending market, and thinking about a peer-to-peer lending and a decentralized credit score system,” explains ConsenSys’ Operations Lead Vivek Singh. Instead of relying on centralized credit agencies, such a system—if successful—could allow borrowers to leverage their social connections into a sort of decentralized credit score.
India
Indian lendtech ZestMoney raises $ 20m (Banking Tech), Rated: AAA
ZestMoney, a start-up that helps consumers with no credit history get loans to buy online, has raised a $20 million Series B.
‘Money Loji’ launches App that offers loans to salaried professionals within 5 Minutes (Business Standard), Rated: A
Money Loji, a modern money ending platform, has launched its App, which offers quickest and the most secure loans to salaried professionals for an immediate requirement with flexible repayment options starting from 7 days to a maximum of 90 days. They follow a unique three-step process – application, approval, disbursement which is carried out within 3-4 minutes. The eligibility criterion is a minimum in-hand salary of Rs 20,000/month and a minimum age of 23 years. The application requires the users to upload an identity proof, an address proof, last 3 months bank statement alongside the salary slips.
Blockfi Launches High-Interest Crypto Lending Program in India (Bitcoin.com), Rated: A
New Jersey-based crypto startup Blockfi announced Tuesday that it has expanded service to users in India. Its flagship Blockfi Interest Account (BIA) for BTC and ETH is now available in 65 countries.
Asia
Nuo Network Crypto Lending Platform Becomes Asia’s Biggest with $ 2 Million in Reserves (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: AAA
ConsenSys ventures backed Nuo.Network, which is a non-custodial lending platform recently made it to the top 5, dollar Defi (Decentralized Finance) projects and it presently the largest lending platform based in Asia. In the past month, the value of loans given has doubled, this is partly due to the growth of DAI reserves, which is now about 500,000 USD and the surge in Maker stability fees.
Why China’s Ping An OneConnect picks Indonesia for expansion (The Asset), Rated: A
The archipelago is viewed as an ideal market to benefit from the services offered by the enterprise. According to the Ping An Group, Indonesia, at around US$27 billion in 2018, is the largest and fastest-growing internet economy in Southeast Asia.
MENA
Banks use fintech to make up for lost time on financial inclusion (Financial Times), Rated: AAA
It fell to a mobile phone company more than a decade ago to financially empower tens of millions of Africans who found themselves passed over by the traditional banking sector. Now, some 12 years after Vodafone co-founded M-Pesa, the mobile payments venture that took east Africa by storm, banks are upping their game to improve financial inclusion rates across Africa and the Middle East, as technology widens their ability to deliver banking services at lower costs.
In east Africa, the Catalyst Fund has backed Sokowatch, a three-year-old Kenya-based fintech that enables small retailers to order goods from suppliers registered on the mobile-focused platform and receive same-day deliveries. It also offers access to credit. The platform has already expanded into Tanzania and Rwanda.
In the Middle East, Citigroup has given $5m to a microloans fund in Jordan that helps give women access to credit. The financial support will help provide loans to around 10,000 additional women.
Iraq’s financial inclusion drive boosted by homegrown fintech (Financial Times), Rated: A
Around 7m Iraqis are now receiving welfare benefits or public sector salaries electronically, as the government replaces cumbersome cash dispersals with biometric debit cards that can be used at ATMs and in shops.
Only 23 per cent of Iraqis aged 15 and over held an account with a financial institution in 2017, according to the World Bank — although that figure has doubled since 2011.
YouHodler Cryptocurrency Lending Platform Adds Dash (Dash News), Rated: A
Users will now be able to borrow in EUR, USD, or Stablecoin against their Dash as well as use the site to covert Dash to any crypto or fiat on the platform and withdraw to their crypto or fiat wallet. If a user enters their credit/debit card on the platform then they can “convert DASH to fiat and instantly withdraw that amount onto their personal cards, adding a unique “real world” utility for crypto”.
Canada
7 ways emerging fintech hubs are taking on the giants (PaymentsSource), Rated: AAA
Toronto is another significant fintech force in North America, and the leading fintech zone in Canada, because of the high concentration of financial organizations and technology development in Ontario. Last year Toronto accounted for CA$221 million (US$165 million) in total fintech investments across 25 deals, according to a recent report from Toronto Financial International (TFI).
Latin America
Brazilian Credit Marketplace FinanZero raises USD 11 Million in Series B Round (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: AAA
FinanZero, a Brazilian fintech that operates as a consumer loan broker, received a new round of investment, raising USD 11 millionfrom Atlant Fonder, Dunross & Co and Vostok Emerging Finance, among other investors.
Authors:
The post Thursday April 25 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.