The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond will announce the creation of a task force focused on cryptocurrencies; the task force will include the Treasury, the Bank of England, and Britain's financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority; the task force will help manage the risk surrounding cryptocurrencies and better understand how blockchain technology can be implemented. Source.
The UK first created a regulatory sandbox in 2016; the Financial Conduct Authority is now seeking feedback on whether it should expand their sandbox globally; fintechs would benefit by having the ability to test in other countries and regulators could work together on some of the issues related to companies seeking to operate across borders; the FCA stated, "The overall approach would be to better understand and solve common regulatory problems, as well as being more helpful to firms who have aspirations to grow at scale in multiple markets." Source
According to research from the Financial Conduct Authority, two-thirds of outstanding lending as of November 2016 was to consumers with credit scores in the top 30%; this shows little difference from two years prior as unsecured consumer lending grew at double-digit rates in 2016 and 2017; however data showed that borrowers are staying in debt longer. Source
In an interview with P2P Finance News, Christine Farnish talks about their relationship with the Financial Conduct Authority, the recent departures of LendInvest and RateSetter from the group and updates to membership criteria; Farnish teased that there will be major changes to the way the P2PFA operates coming in November. Source
The company is estimating a full year loss and its CEO has resigned; it is also being investigated by the FCA and cutting its dividend; the surprise estimates and regulatory investigation are key factors influencing the stock market losses; the company serves 2.4 million customers through a door to door lending process with a focus on the underbanked. Source
Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition, said he would like to see a collaboration of global regulators to encourage fintech growth; this would be in the style of a global sandbox and would be quite the undertaking but as Mr. Wollard stated, they are up for it; this would allow companies to better understand the regulatory limits and help to stop global issues like money laundering. Source.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority released a report on algorithmic trading to help set boundaries around the market; the report lays out best practices and presents guidance on how firms can implement AI in trading; the FCA does voice concerns at too much automation and talks about human intervention to avoid big issues occurring; the report was written to help trading firms comply with the Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). Source.
RateSetter was the last of the “big three” p2p lenders to be authorized after a two year wait; both Zopa and Funding Circle were authorized in May, 2017; RateSetter will now be able to launch their Innovative Finance ISA; Founder and CEO Rhydian Lewis stated, “Authorisation has been a long but positive journey during which we have learnt a lot, improved our infrastructure and implemented important changes, notably making the business more transparent. Transparency is vital to our business because our customers need to understand what we do to appreciate the risk of lending on RateSetter.” Source
Assetz Capital is a large P2P lender in the UK and now has authorization from the FCA; the company has lent more than GBP316 million ($410 million) to businesses and is now working on the final stages of its Innovative Finance ISA which it expects will be available in Q4 2017; Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, stated: "Our cautious approach of employing a world-class credit underwriting team and taking realisable security on loans is essential for our investors' peace of mind. Our focus remains to ensure the growth and security of our lenders' investments, as well as the success of our borrowers' businesses. Our team has done fantastically well to deliver such success to all of our stakeholders over the last few years and yet there is also so much more to achieve ahead of this milestone and we are all excited about the continuing journey." Source
UK online marketplace lender ThinCats is the latest P2P platform to receive full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); the firm is a secured business lender and says it has a number of developments in progress including the launch of an IFISA; in comments regarding the authorization, John Mould, CEO of ThinCats, said: "We are delighted to have been granted FCA authorization, proving the dedication of our team and processes. We are very happy that more and more alternative finance providers are now being authorized, as it ultimately proves that the industry deserves the trust and confidence of investors, advisors and SME borrowers alike." Source