CreditEase was China's first P2P lender, founded in 2006; since its founding the firm has been expanding its services to wealth management and robo advice; Ning Tang, CreditEase founder and CEO, provides his insight on the business and the online lending industry in an interview; highlights how the company plans to expand its business lines through partnerships while also managing regulatory controls. Source
Japanese bank Nomura has taken a 22 percent stake in AI startup Aim2 to apply the technology to financial markets;...
Cryptocurrency platform Omega One was this year's PitchIt @ Lang Di winner; the company operates an automated trade execution platform with trading services for traders, investors and institutions seeking to trade globally across the world's crypto exchanges; in comments on Omega One, LendIt Co-Founder Jason Jones said, "Omega One opens the market to the next wave of capital from institutional investors by providing much needed transparency and liquidity."; among the prize winnings for the firm include a RMB1 million ($150,148) investment from JadeValue, co-working space for six months and two tickets to LendIt USA 2018. Source
China-based, QuantGroup, has raised $73 million in a Series C funding round led by Sunshine Insurance Group Corporation, Fosun Capital, Guosen Hongsheng Investment Co., Ltd. and other undisclosed investors; QuantGroup is an online financial services platform offering credit products; it evolved from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and is led by Zhou Hao with experience at Morgan Stanley, Capital One and Barclays. Source
Fifteen employees of Jinxing Investment are on trial in Shanghai for fraudulent lending of 1.5 billion yuan (US$220 million); the employees are charged with illegally raising funds and taking investments from the public that were not used for their intended use; Ji Jianhua, the company's chief financial officer, told the court that the investments were fake and that funds were directed to personal or related accounts of president Wang Mian; the company shut down in June 2016 and Wang Mian escaped and has not been found. Source
Crowdfund Insider provides a roundup of news occurring in China's alternative finance market; the China Banking Regulatory Commission has released more details on its guidance for online lending partnerships with custody banks; also noteworthy is the potential initial public offering in the US by China Rapid Finance. Source
According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal and bitcoin have been used for funding Islamic terrorist attacks in Indonesia; the virtual payments were reported to be more difficult to track; the Indonesian Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center says terrorism financing cases have increased in the country from 12 in 2015 to 25 in 2016. Source
K-Bank has gained authorization to open South Korea's first online bank; firm is an affiliate of Alibaba-owned Ant Financial; Kakao Bank is also involved in the final approval process to open the country's second online bank. Source
OpenTap has begun to offer marketplace loans in India targeting low to middle income consumers; company seeks to meet the market demand for borrowers who are creditworthy yet don't qualify for traditional loans; estimates the target market for low to middle income consumers at 12,000; loans will be available for up to Rs 50,000 ($730); average loan size has been approximately Rs 25,000 ($365). Source
China represents 18.5% of the total world population and its business commerce has been growing rapidly; it also reports the four largest fintech unicorn valuations, Ant Financial, Lufax, JD Finance and Qufenqi; Matt Burton from Orchard Platform reports on these statistics and more in a recent blog post also highlighting the emphasis on mobile payments and technology services for the underbanked and unbanked; while China's fintech sector has shown exponential growth, the government is now increasing its focus on financial protection which is expected to improve the quality of fintech businesses; in the blog post, Burton also provides a list of companies he is watching by region in Asia. Source