The Brazilian Central Bank has proposed allowing fintech companies to lend money without taking deposits; the bank is set to hold public hearings for the next two and a half months on the proposed rules; according to Central Bank Director Otávio Damaso the rules do not need congressional approval; the Brazilian fintech industry has grown sixfold in the past few years and now the regulators are looking to make the country more fintech friendly; banks will also be able to create their own fintech arms when the new rules take effect. Source
Singapore based fintech company Trade Finance Market (TFM) recently launched their Invoice Check solution to cut down on trade finance fraud; the new blockchain based registry will help stop invoices from being paid more than once; they built the solution in the past year on the ethereum blockchain and it uses smart contracts; "Our system is in public beta and provides a manual method of entering invoices and having them checked against a blockchain-hosted database. This data is stored on the blockchain and funders are alerted if there is a potential risk of double financing," Raj Uttamchandani, the company's executive director, tells Global Trade Review. Source
Pymnts.com talks with OnDeck executives and reports on alternative lending volumes; online small business lender OnDeck has loaned more than $7 billion to merchants since 2007; OnDeck Chief Revenue Officer Andrea Gellert and Vice President of Marketing and Communications Jim Larkin provide insights on the lending market and OnDeck's lending processes; discuss OnDeck's partnership with JPMorgan and how collaboration is benefiting small and medium size business. Source
PitchIt winner Nova Credit presents their company's solution to build what they call the Nova Credit Passport; a cross border credit reporting agency that connects to leading credit bureaus through a single API; PitchIt 2017 was a competition for fintech startups, in exclusive partnership with global venture capital fund 500 Startups, the world leader in investing in and mentoring early-stage fintech startups. Source
The platform currently works with approximately 1,000 brokers; source reports it is focusing its efforts on brokers using the platform regularly with a new master broker system for inactive intermediaries; Funding Circle is requiring brokers to make at least one introduction to the platform per quarter. Source
Regional remittance firm UAE Exchange partners with Ripple to facilitate instant international money transfers; UAE Exchange serves 31 countries and has over 800 offices in the Middle East region; Ripple uses their Ripple Consensus Ledger to link international firms and facilitate real-time money transfers; CryptoCoinsNews reports that UAE Exchange Group CEO Promoth Manghat stated to Arabian Business, "UAE Exchange has been investing significantly in blockchain technology, we are in the process of tying up a deal with distributed ledger startup Ripple, for real-time cross border payments."; this is the second regional financial firm to enlist Ripple, National Bank of Abu Dhabi partnered with Ripple in February. Source
Personal financial management (PFM) apps have had a bad few months with Prosper shutting down Prosper Daily and Capital One closing Level Money; but banks in general are still looking for ways to provide customers with their financial health; a research report by Celent in July points out that while apps are closing, banks are beginning to integrate some of the features from PFM apps; instead of sending customers to a third party app they offer the features within their own app or website as part of the everyday customer experience; Cesar Richardson, vice president for Strands America, tells American Banker: "There's no separate path. It's inside your day-to-day banking." Source
The partnership will focus on Money360 providing pre-arranged financing options for eligible commercial properties listed for auction on the Ten-X platform; financing options on these properties will be transparently disclosed on the platform and Money360 will work with buyers to complete the underwriting, processing and closing of the loan; the partnership expands deal flow of commercial properties for Money360, which utilizes technology to enable commercial real estate loan transactions from $1 million to $20 million. Source
PayPal founder Peter Thiel, and his fund Valar Ventures, led a $10 million seed round in German insurtech startup Coya; other investors in the round include e.ventures and La Famiglia; Dr. Peter Hagen, one of the founders of Coya, tells Business Insider, "This investment will allow Coya to further extend our team and build up an exceptional product for our customers."; the company is planning to build a digital insurance provider and is in the process of trying to get full authorization from German regulators; founders of Coya include two former Kreditech employees and ex-CEO of Vienna Insurance Group. Source
UK-based Redwood Bank has launched digital banking services after obtaining a banking license for business in the UK; Redwood Bank is the first bank with a 100% cloud-based infrastructure and will offer SME mortgages for business owners and professional landlords as well as a 35-day business savings account; Redwood Bank is wholly-owned by Redwood Financial Partners Ltd. which is controlled primarily by Warrington Borough Council with a 33% ownership stake; the newly launched bank is covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects customers' eligible deposits of up to a total of GBP85,000 ($109,846). Source