Crowdfunding platform, Abundance, has launched the UK's first innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs) for investors in crowd bonds; the investment offering follows an announcement from the UK Treasury that it will extend qualified investments in UK IFISAs to crowd bonds; platform offers bond investments from renewable energy companies; the company is able to offer the IFISAs because of its status as an investment-based crowdfunding platform. Source
Earlier this week, the UK launched its bank referral scheme to help extend credit to small businesses not funded by nine of the UK's largest banks; it seems that UK banks outside of the UK consortium are also increasing their efforts to provide alternative options for business borrowers; this week NatWest announced it has added iwoca to its alternative lending panel, Capital Connections. Source
A new UK bank referral scheme began this week with a focus on nine of the region's largest banks; Lend Academy provides more details in their article; the referral scheme will require banks to refer small businesses to alternative lenders if they are denied credit; creates more opportunities for banks to partner with alternative lenders and also significantly expands credit access for businesses. Source
HSBC has moved 3000 members of its staff into a new building and are viewing this digital group differently than their core suit-and-tie employees; the bank believes separating them out will better help to fuel new innovative ideas; HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver said, "To survive for 150 years we've had to evolve. Most of the risk we've dealt with is political. Actually what's happening in the digital space is there is a threat, particularly to retail banking... in payments, in wealth management." Source
Stress testing from Funding Circle has reported its loan platform would still provide investors with a net return of 6.4% given a worst case market scenario; while effects from Brexit continue to be debated, market skeptics are not as optimistic as the UK platforms; they foresee stagflation in the UK characterized by higher unemployment and slowing GDP growth; they are also concerned about a lack of skin in the game which has prompted parliament member, Chris Philp, to request from the Financial Conduct Authority that a portion of each firm's loans include balance sheet capital; while marketplace lending executives are against this approach, policy makers are considering it. Source
The Bank of England kept its central bank borrowing rate at 0.25% and decided to continue with its $86 billion asset purchase program; while no changes were made to monetary policy, the BOE changed its guidance; with an increased focus on inflation in the region, the BOE said it would be prepared to raise rates in order to keep inflation at its 2% target rate. Source
Facebook's data and privacy rules have slowed business development plans for insurtech firm, Admiral; many fintech firms have sought to use social media profiles in crowdfunding with little success for various reasons; insurtech firm, Admiral, will now be forced to end its plans to use Facebook social media posts and likes for consideration in auto insurance underwriting; Facebook says use of the information is a violation of its data privacy rules. Source
This week a new referral scheme, that has been in the works for two years, launched in the UK. It was...
Sub-prime lender Elevate, while still awaiting the right time to go public, has expanded their product line by offering customers a line of credit for up to $3,500 called Elastic; Republic Bank is the issuer of the credit line and according to Elevate's CEO, Ken Rees, there are other institutions showing interest; Rees explains further, "Banks are terrible at lending outside of their branch footprint and they are not good at customer acquisition. We provide products and a set of underwriting tools that fits for non-prime customers." Source
Bondora has reported that it will not be opening an office in London due to post-Brexit effects; instead it will open a new office in Germany; Bondora CEO, Partel Tomberg, says he is uncertain about European market access in London; Bondora CFO says German regulators including Bafin are increasingly opening up to supporting innovation in the financial sector. Source