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News Roundup

This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.


Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.


Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.


To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.

News RoundupOnline LendingUSA
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YieldStreet Reports Lending of over $100mn

YieldStreet has reached $100 million in lending in less than eight quarters; the firm markets returns of 8% to 20% with a peer-to-peer lending model that offers secured loans; investment minimums begin at $5,000 and the platform has a range of investors including accredited, high net worth, family offices, registered investment advisors and institutional investors. Source

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Asia/PacNews RoundupOnline Lending
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Chinese Investor Suing Operator of Intermediary Lending Platform

Chen Wei accumulated losses of over 489,400 yuan ($71,154) from lending platform Jiedaibao, operated by Renrenxing; the Chinese platform facilitated transactions between borrowers and lenders, allowing lenders to set their own interest rates and manage their own credit lending strategies; Renrenxing managed oversight of the platform including responsibility for collections; Chen's strategy was to borrow from platform lenders at low rates and lend to borrowers at higher rates, benefiting from the difference; Chen initially reported success but then increased borrower defaults led to losses of  over 489,400 yuan ($71,154); Chen was subpoenaed by Jiedaibao for the funds he owed; Jiedaibao later dropped the case but Chen is now suing Renrenxing for the money owed from borrowers; more than 30 users have now filed court cases against Renrenxing for payments totaling over 22.5 million yuan ($3.27 million); new regulations have now been instituted to stop intermediaries from offering protection against losses.  Source

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EuropeFintechNews Roundup
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Qonto Aims to Be the Modern Business Bank in France

Qonto is a french startup building a modern business banking solution, aiming to become "The banking alternative for entrepreneurs and startups" according to its website; the company raised $1.7 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Alven Capital; Valar Ventures has also invested in digital bank N26 and TransferWise; Qonto wants to provide a wide variety of services including allowing receipt uploads to make filing taxes easier; they plan to integrate with other fintech products to transfer money and manage payments; launch is currently slated for April.  Source

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FintechNews RoundupUSA
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Cross River Bank and PeerIQ Partner

The partnership will allow community banks and other loan purchasers to access the online lending space; it will leverage the Cross River’s expertise in capital, technology and regulatory compliance with PeerIQ’s expertise in data analytics and risk management. Geoffrey Kott, head of finance and strategy at Cross River Bank stated, “PeerIQ’s risk management platform — with its leading loan-level analytics and monitoring capabilities, credit facility management toolkit, and full integration of TransUnion data — will both augment our internal capabilities and provide best-in-class loan-level monitoring tools for our clients and partners.”; Cross River Bank currently works with many big names in fintech, including more than 15 online lenders. Source

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FintechNews Roundup
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Human Elements to Robo Advice

Robo advice platforms have commoditized personal investing providing greater automation at lower price points; however AltFi reports that despite increasing innovation in the market, investors are still demanding a human element; specifically, investors are favoring hybrid advice with a survey from Accenture showing two-thirds of high income investors wanting the combined services of robots and humans; mid-scale wealth managers are well positioned to meet this demand and firms such as Charles Schwab and Betterment have already incorporated hybrid services to support customers. Source

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FintechNews RoundupUSA
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US Congress Economic Report Dedicates Section to Crypto

The 2018 Joint Economic Report included a section dedicated to cryptocurrencies and blockchain for the first time; the report provides an overview of the nation’s economic status and provides ideas for the next year; this is a big sign for the emerging market as the report is put together by members of the House and Senate; the report says blockchain can be used to help fight cybercrime and protect the nation’s economy and infrastructure; it also states that congress, regulators and the public need to better understand the new technologies. Source.

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News RoundupOnline LendingUSA
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CFPB to Investigate Tribal Lenders

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was approved to investigate the activities of Indian tribe lenders; the online lenders under investigation will be Great Plains Lending, MobiLoans and Plain Green; the lenders are providing credit to a range of borrowers outside of their Indian tribes; they are claiming sovereign immunity because of their status as Indian tribes.  Source

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FintechNews RoundupUSA
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Zelle Begins Brand Marketing Push

This past weekend p2p payments platform Zelle started a marketing push in 6 major US markets; Early Warning, Zelle’s owner, started the ads during last weekends NFL football games and has plans to further advertise during the Grammy Awards, the NBA All-Star Game and more upcoming events; while Zelle has past Venmo in volume the platform is not nearly as widely known and it isn’t entirely clear how many users they have because it is integrated with your banking app; the company also plans to do a push in print and digital ads over the coming months. Source.

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