A report from Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions, titled "Education: Back to Basics" says student loan default and delinquency rates are down from 14.7% in 2013 yet still high at approximately 11% which is comparable to peak mortgage crisis delinquency rates of 11.5%; report also provides additional comparisons of the current state of the student loan market to the mortgage market crisis; notes that the student loan market overall is $1.41 trillion compared to $8.6 trillion for mortgages, making high student loan defaults less significant than a mortgage market crisis. Source
Startup incubator Science is launching a blockchain incubation program, Science Blockchain, and will raise an ICO targeting $50 million to $100 million; the ICO will be SEC compliant as only accredited US investors will be able to participate; Mike Jones, founder and CEO of Science, tells the Wall Street Journal, "We believe that using an ICO as a vehicle and methodology for raising capital is the right way do it, it allows us to practice what you preach."; whether or not investors will make more money using this method of capital raising remains to be seen but the momentum in the blockchain space continues. Source
LPL has increased their technology spending from $38 million in 2011 to $77 million in 2016; tech executives from the firm say that when it comes to wealth management, innovation firms, like Acorns, are better concepts for inspiration than for instance Betterment; company believes that micro transactions for savings are an important part of the younger generation's experience and the company is taking a generational approach to products to offer a customized product for each type of client; LPL is launching their new robot advice platform, Guided Wealth, this month. Source
Provides details on announcements from both companies and compares the offerings; PolicyGenius has entered the rental insurance market, launching its rental insurance product this week; also this week Lemonade announced expansion of its rental and homeowners insurance to New Jersey. Source
Marketplace lending loan servicer First Associates has announced the opening of a new operations center; the operations center is located in Baja California, Mexico with capacity for 1,000 seats; in comments regarding the announcement, First Associates CEO David Johnson said: "We couldn’t be more excited about our new Baja facility. We are able to deliver the same outstanding quality and service as our San Diego operations center, offer an economically advantageous option to our clients and provide significant opportunities in a developing business community that is an important part of the greater San Diego/Tijuana metro area." Source
Hu Liang, former director at State Street Bank and Trust's Emerging Technologies Center, tells CoinDesk he is building "the first large-scale institutional infrastructure specifically targeted towards crypto assets"; the company will be an infrastructure platform to provide software and hardware to connect with institutional order and execution management systems; he is looking to eliminate large buyers of cryptocurrencies having to create on the fly technology solutions to make their orders; Liang tells CoinDesk, "I am building a traditional financial services application that can serve the needs of anybody looking to be involved in crypto assets, whether that's holding it for the long term, whether that's trading it for the short term, whether that's transforming it or using it for a rail for something else." Source
Discusses the political and legal context for development of the agency's initiatives; outlines the Project KISS and LabCFTC initiatives which were announced in May 2017; provides an overview of the objectives involved and includes details on Guidepoint and CFTC 2.0 which are important aspects of LabCFTC. Source
Fundrise is promoting investment in its Fundrise Starter Portfolio; minimum investment is $500 with a 9.25% annual dividend yield and no advisory fees; the Fundrise Starter Portfolio includes investment in the Fundrise Income eREIT and Growth eREIT. Source
Fintech and adtech startup Fluid announced a strategic partnership with Nomad Credit, a financial marketplace for international students in the US; the partnership looks to offer better credit options to this underserved market; together the companies will deliver better financial literacy, credit building tools and more cost effective financial products; Timothy Li, CEO of Fluid, said, "I am very pleased to work with the leadership at Nomad Credit to deliver financial products and credit education to over 1,000,000 international students studying here in America." Source
The Federal Reserve released a report on its initiative to provide real time payments by 2020; the report was created by a task force of over 300 industry contributors; the report, titled, "The U.S. Path to Faster Payments: A Call to Action" outlines payment processing proposals, the task force's vision and goals for the initiative; details on the payments initiative can also be found at FasterPaymentsTaskForce.org. Source