HNA Capital is a private Chinese company gaining market attention in recent weeks for its acquisition of Anthony Scaramucci's Skybridge Capital and interest in acquiring more asset management businesses including Old Mutual's asset management division; the company has been acquiring assets now worth $145 billion with revenue of $45 billion annually; HNA Capital sees a market opportunity for asset management businesses with market volatility expected during the Trump administration and more investors shifting to actively managed strategies. Source
Several reports have recently pointed to China as the world's leading country for fintech innovation and adoption; in the first nine months of 2016 over 50% of global fintech investments went to China and the country is reporting the world's four largest fintech unicorns; overall, China has a number of unique factors fueling its fintech growth; some of the main factors include regulatory initiatives and tech savvy underserved consumers and SMEs driving demand; the country is also reporting corporate banks with higher comparative ROEs and greater willingness to invest in digital; additionally, the country's top e-commerce businesses, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, are also significantly influencing fintech growth with growing businesses and investments in payments as well as new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence; P2P lending is one of fintech's dominant categories with China leading Asia-Pacific market development and reporting 99% of P2P transaction volume, a total value of $101.7 billion in 2015 and over 4,000 P2P lenders. Source
Global financial transfers were more than $20tn in 2019 and are expected to hit $30tn by 2022, yet 60 percent...
The new partnership aims to increase access to financial services for individuals and small businesses; according to a Chinese press release translated by TechNode, the "credit factory" (in Chinese) model is a business model mainly used for credit certification of small and micro-sized enterprises as well as individuals; loans lent to such groups are small, but are lent at high frequency; the adoption of the "credit factory" mode, thanks to its high efficiency and economies of scale in handling petty loans, can help big financial firms gain some ground lost to the country's mushrooming small loan companies in the microfinance market; an upgrade to the traditional "credit factory", Dianrong-Quark Credit Factory utilizes such fintech means as big data, anti-fraud management systems and decision engine; it can help lenders reduce manual operations, save costs and cut operational risks through its powerful quantitative system when they handle credit certification for individuals or small and micro-sized businesses. Source
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) had meetings with various bitcoin exchanges this week including BTCC, OKCoin and Huobi; along with the meetings two press releases were issued; according to a translation from Coindesk, the document reads, "Bitcoin is not a currency and shouldn't be viewed as such. Those who invest in bitcoin should accordingly be aware of the risks it poses and protect their investment"; officials also reminded exchanges about complying with local state laws and other regulations. Source
Dianrong announced the hiring of former Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley banker Yawen Cui as the new CFO; now former CFO Xuxia Kuang has been named chief operating officer; Dianrong CEO Soul Htite praised Mr. Cui: "His extensive experience managing initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and financial reporting will also help Dianrong explore opportunities within the capital markets. We are thrilled to welcome Yawen to our executive leadership team."; Long Hsiang Loh, the previous COO, will remain on the executive leadership team and a new role will be announced soon. Source
Indian digital lender Capital Float is reportedly beginning a fundraising deal that would result in Rs 300 crore ($47 million) of new capital; the round is being led by Ribbit Capital and the firm is expecting a valuation of approximately Rs 1,300 crore ($203 million) following the deal; Capital Float plans to expand its lending portfolio to consumer lending and will also seek to finance kirana stores. Source
The regulator says, "digital tokens in Singapore will be regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) if the digital tokens constitute products regulated under the Securities and Futures Act"; if digital tokens fall under the definition of securities in the Securities and Futures Act then issuers are required to register a prospectus with MAS and other requirements may also apply to associated parties; overall the statement from the MAS increases the level of compliance needed for an initial coin offering. Source
Ping An Technology and SparkLabs Group will team up to form Ping An Fintech Accelerator; the program will encourage companies to apply from around the world and the first batch will target 10 companies; CEO of Ping An Technology, Ericson Chan, said to Crowdfund Insider, “We are excited to partner with SparkLabs to collaborate with FinTech companies from around the globe. Ping An Technology is the incubator of new technologies for Ping An Group. This accelerator forms a critical part of our incubation ecosystem.” Source.
China's internet giant Sina has established a $500 million fund (Online Finance Fund) to invest in Chinese fintech companies that sell wealth management products and insurance services; the fund will cooperate with startups as well as established financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, Sina CEO Cao Guofeng says. Source (Chinese)