Korea's Financial Services Commission just issued a guideline that limits most individual investors from committing more than 10 million won ($8,750) to P2P investments in a year; those individuals who have earnings over 100 million won ($87,500) can still commit up to 40 million won to P2P; Korean P2P platforms are complaining that investments in any equity project or loan portfolio tend to be skewed to a few individuals who invest more than 10 million won (60% of investors fall into this category on average across platforms there), therefore the new regulation will drive up funding costs; regulators say this over-concentration of funds from few investors is precisely the trend they hope to curtail. Source
B2B FinPAL, Ethis Kapital, FundedByMe Malaysia, ManagePay Services, Modalku Ventures and Peoplender have now been registered with the Securities Commission of Malaysia and plan to begin business in 2017; Malaysia is the first of the ASEAN countries to register P2P lending companies. Source
Faircent has released a market report on P2P lending in India; report says Faircent, India's largest P2P lender, had funding of over Rs 1 crore ($150,000) in August 2016 and has been growing originations at a 15% to 20% monthly rate; report also provides insight on the platform's borrowers; in India, P2P platforms continue to await guidelines from the government which are expected to help improve business efficiency. Source
SmartCompany is a leading Australian news site about entrepreneurship; their annual Smart50 awards for the 50 fastest-growing small businesses include several fintech companies; small business online lenders Prospa and GetCapital came in first and second this year; their revenues were AUS$22 million and AUS$4.5 million respectively; also on the list are foreign exchange/money transfer company TorX at number five and traditional asset financier Positive Lending Solutions at number six. Source
Consumer point of sale lender, Finomena, owns India’s most downloaded fintech app and they hope to continue gaining customers in this emerging market; led by Riddhi Mittal, formerly of Microsoft, and Abhishek Garg, a private equity investor, the company has exploded serving millennials who have little or no credit; they focus on extending credit for electronics, laptops, smartphones and furniture, which they view as good and productive categories for loans; the company has also pioneered flexible monthly installments in India and are looking to raise a Series A round soon. Source
At the Fintech Australia Collab/Collide 2016 event, Australia's Treasurer, Scott Morrison, cited an "enormous untapped potential" for data usage within the country's fintech industry; said the government was supportive of open aggregated financial data standards that would improve digital banking and finance solutions for consumers. Source
As covered on LendIt News earlier, Malaysia's Securities Commission recently announced licenses for six P2P lending sites; one such site, EthisKapital, claims to be the first licensed platform anywhere that also adheres to Shari'ah law; Islamic Shari'ah law interpreted literally prohibits the payment of any interest on loans based on the term "riba" however modern interpretations allow for modest interest rates and/or the use of a fixed transaction fee rather than accruing interest; EthisKapital's CEO also has co-founded the Islamic Fintech Alliance. Source
Hong Kong Fintech Week began with an announcement from SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator of eight finalists; the companies provide a range of services including solutions for wealth management, regulatory technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and blockchain; the eight companies will participate in a 12-week program which includes access to SuperChargers corporate partners and mentors. Source
In a move that seems quite surprising, Citibank Australia has stopped taking notes and coins at their branches; data shows that less than 4% of their customers used cash at the branches and so to keep up with digital headwinds the bank has decided to go cashless; there has been a trend in Sweden and Iceland of cashless banks, but there has not been any worldwide trend in that direction; the bank will still keep ATMs going and teller services will also remain intact. Source
The Prime Minister of India has announced a ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in India in an effort to fight corruption; P2P platform i2iFunding says the ban will help P2P lenders by reducing cash-based lending in the country and requiring citizens to utilize digital finance solutions; earlier in 2016 the Reserve Bank of India said it would be issuing guidelines for P2P lenders; i2iFunding says the focus on cash-based corruption will now be the central bank's focus; in October, leading P2P lenders formed the Alternate Finance and P2P Lenders Association; founding members Monexo, Lend-Box, LoanMeet, i-lend and Faircent have been the most active. Source