The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released a discussion paper on blockchain that looked to better understand the new technology and how it can be used in financial services; key takeaways from the paper include the ability to cut costs and remove certain back office operations to streamline processes and increase the speed of reconciliation; while there are many potential benefits, the FCA still wants to ensure the risks don't outweigh the benefits; the FCA is also looking at how they might regulate blockchain, they typically regulate the application of technology but to ensure what they are calling "sensible development" they might consider regulating the actual ledger technology. Source
Switzerland’s top market watchdog has called for regulators to take more and proper action on Wednesday to protect cryptocurrency traders from the risks involved in the sphere.
Transact365, a UK-headquartered payments platform supporting merchants across the world, has recorded 300% YoY growth.
P2P lenders in the UK will be required to give information to investors on loan performance; the new measure is expected to be announced this year with implementation not likely until mid-2018; both information on delinquent loans and due diligence were included in the FCA's interim consultation paper; the latest review by the FCA is the second in two years. Source
Remittance fintech Remitly has announced it has raised $85 million in equity at a $1.5 billion valuation, an up round...
The arrangement with QuickBooks sees iwocaPay become the UK's first B2B BNPL solution for cloud accounting software.
London-based fintech upstart SumUp has raised €590M that brings the total raised to €1.5B and an enterprise value of €8B.
Netherlands invoice finance startup Finturi has closed $2.2 million in funding to help companies secure loans against invoices using blockchain and...
Marketplace lending data analytics provider AltFi Data has partnered with Lendix and will incorporate the lender's data on its analytics platform; AltFi Data is a leading performance data provider for the marketplace lending industry providing a single methodology for calculating platform performance across all lenders; its data reporting includes a range of attributes and data points including net returns, benchmark comparisons, originations, lending rates and charge-off rates. Source
P2P Global Investments' shares fell 20.7% on the London Stock Exchange in 2016; the fund's portfolio manager Simon Champ provides some insight on the fund's performance; the underlying assets reported a lower than expected 4.1% return due to increased delinquencies from loans at the midpoint of their duration; hedging costs have also been a factor with approximately 60% of US loans in the portfolio; as the investable market expands the fund is likely to increase its investment in European loans to help diversify away from currency risks. Source