UK & US Fintech Working Group to explore regtech
Innovate Finance, the independent membership association that represents the UK’s global FinTech community, together with its strategic partner Hogan Lovells, is looking at the potentially transformative role that regulatory technology (RegTech) might play in tackling the fragmented US financial environment. The Transatlantic Policy Working Group (TPWG) – a group of FinTech, public policy, financial services and academic stakeholders – set up by Innovate Finance, and formed to help advance policies that foster responsible FinTech innovation, is seeking to publish research on the role of RegTech as a mechanism to address the increasingly complicated US financial regulatory environment. Tighter regulation can improve standards, enhance protection and engender trust and confidence amongst […]
Zopa to move into secured lending
ZOPA is looking to expand into the secured auto finance space, where it sees an opportunity to grow its borrower base. The peer-to-peer lending platform, which usually specialises in unsecured consumer loans, said it sees strong potential in the secured car finance sector as there are healthy levels of demand but typically a poor customer experience. “People are getting poor deals in that area and end up paying significantly higher annual percentage rates (APRs) than they would if they arranged their financing before going into a dealership,” said Amy Miller, Zopa’s chief marketing officer. Consumers looking to borrow money to buy a car tend to sign up to dealer-arranged loans, […]
Everything you need to know about FinTech
The term “Fintech” is an extremely broad term, as the field has exploded as of recent times. And the following infographic was meant to cover the field in a broad sense, there are many topics within Fintech that could each be discussed in much greater detail than we are able to do with the limited time and space we have available, or that you would probably have time for. In short, Fintech stands for “Financial Technology” and it speaks to technology which deals specifically with financial services & financial products. You want to talk about digital cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin & Ether… Fintech. You want to talk about the blockchains that […]
How Luxembourg could cash in on Brexit
Plenty of people have reason to bemoan Britain’s retreat from the European Union. But for others, Brexit could spell opportunity. And perhaps nowhere is that truer than in Luxembourg, with its booming financial center focused on investment funds management services and financial technology, or FinTech, as it’s sometimes called. The Brexit effect may, in fact, have already begun for the tiny Grand Duchy. In January, Japan’s Rakuten Europe Bank launched its trading activities in Luxembourg. Two Chinese banks — China Everbright Bank and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank — also have plans to set up shop in this nerve center of asset management in the EU. And in October, Britain’s […]
China primed to push advances in blockchain and 5G development
Financial services, particularly digital currency, payment processing, and market trading and settlement leading blockchain usage. Mainland China is primed to become a global leader in the implementation of blockchain, the distributed ledger technology behind cryptocurrency bitcoin, as the central government reinforces the creation of digital intelligent services in the country, according to industry experts. That development is expected to run in parallel with preparations being made by the mainland’s telecommunications industry to roll out advanced 5G mobile services by 2020. “When 5G, the Internet of Things and autonomous driving start to get more prevalent then blockchain could potentially become the underlying ledger to record transactions and maintain trust in those […]
P2P Bitcoin lender Bitbond raises $1.2 million in new funding
Peer-to-peer bitcoin loan market Bitbond has raised $1.2m in new funding. The web platform, which connects lenders and borrowers to facilitate the distribution of loans denominated in bitcoin, received the new funding largely from a group of angel investors, some of whom already have stakes in the startup. The round was led by Şekip Can Gökalp, founder of Mobilike, a Turkey-based mobile ad network formed in 2009, and that was acquired last year. Other investors include Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek, who founded ad tech startup Fyber, and Alexander Graubner-Müller, co-founder and CEO of Germany-based online lender Kreditech. According to Bitbond representative Chris Grundy, most of the funding will be […]
Silicon Valley tried to upend Banks. Now it works with them.
In 2011, Brett King was promoting his book, “Breaking Banks,” and creating a start-up that he hoped would do to the banks what Amazon did to the retail industry and Facebook did to media. “We had grand ideas of being the Facebook of banking, and being a new form of bank account,” Mr. King said recently. Six years later, his company, Moven, has opened only 60,000 of those new bank accounts. Mr. King has now transitioned to selling his software to the banks he once scorned, who use it as a component of their mobile apps. “We realized that if you want millions of users as a bank, it is […]
Plum announces partnership with Ratesetter
Plum, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Facebook chatbot which allows consumers to start saving and investing without any effort, today announces its partnership with RateSetter. Plum’s smart algorithm understands spending patterns and identifies income and bills to create a unique profile for its users. It calculates the amount to save or invest and automatically transfers it to a Plum account to put that money to work. Plum’s partnership with RateSetter means that people who are comfortable putting capital at risk can use the peer-to-peer lending platform to earn a higher rate of interest. The average return earned by RateSetter investors to date is 4.7 per cent. Victor Trokoudes, co-founder at […]
