The Reserve Bank of India will begin regulating p2p lending firms; the government of India released a notification on Wednesday; the platforms will be treated as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs); article shares the suggested regulatory framework from a paper released in 2016. Source
UK digital Bank Starling Bank is seeking to raise $54mn in a new funding round for international expansion; the capital will help the bank to move into other European markets and continue development of the technology; the bank recently acquired a passport via Ireland to allow them to access the European markets since Brexit is on the horizon. Source.
The WSJ reports that the hack actually occurred in March instead of May; the breach wasn’t discovered until July 29th and it was announced to the public on September 7th. Source
Article shares the participants in the major consortia and networks; discusses the advantages to blockchain technology in banking and what banks need to keep in mind when looking at implementing the technology. Source
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has released its second report on the Asia Pacific region. Alternative finance volume totaled $245.28 billion in 2016, up from $103.31 billion in 2015; China continues to be a main driver for growth but other geographies continue to grow albeit off of smaller bases; further details about the region are outlined in the report. Source
Chinese regulators have been cracking down on bitcoin recently but traders have found a workaround; traders can use the messaging app WeChat to buy and sell coins; users are not sure how long this will last as the government is keen to shut down as much as they can; traders do believe they can stay ahead of the government by moving from app to app. Source.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering additional capital buffers to banks looking to incorporate fintech; the regulator says adding fintech to the bank will increase the potential for a volatile client base and the untested products will need a lot of capital; this is part of the recent draft licensing guidelines released by the ECB. Source.
The Finanser shares which banks are leading in digital and which ones are falling behind; an article in Financial News recently found that 92 of the world’s top 100 banks still rely on IBM mainframes; banks spend a majority amount of money on maintaining legacy technology, which are often written in programming languages like COBOL. Source
Martin Kissinger, the founder of Lendable is just 28 years old; he has built Lendable into a successful business that has lent £80 mn to 20,000 borrowers; the company had a growth rate of 430% in the last year and provides funds to borrowers in as little as two hours; article profiles Kissinger’s past work experience and more about Lendable. Source