Forbes reports on the next wave of personal finance apps; discusses pairing, partnering and mergers among companies, helping to allow companies to offer life solutions; highlights market partnership cases including deals led by Acorns, Revolut and Starling Bank; also notes some of the key aspects in marketing personal finance apps to millennials. Source
Invesco Perpetual has sold GBP9.6 million ($12.45 million) worth of shares in the Ranger Direct Lending Fund, reducing its stake to 27.9%; the GBP243 million ($315 million) Fund has been struggling in 2017; it primarily invests across the private debt landscape with a focus on private direct lenders; however its losses have been related to its exposure to troubled lending platform Argon Credit which it had invested in indirectly through the Princeton Alternative Fund; in February 2017 it reported a significant impairment charge for the investment and its value has been decreasing. Source
Source reports on robo advice services at Vanguard; the firm's Personal Advice Services is a hybrid robo advice offering with $83 billion in assets under management; it is anticipated that it will be the first digital platform to cross $100 billion; firm is adding certified financial planners to its call centers for clients in Scottsdale, Arizona and Charlotte, North Carolina as an enhanced hybrid offering. Source
There has been some consolidation recently with personal financial management apps; Capital One's Level Money, Prosper Daily and SoFi's Zenbanx have all been shut down; even with recent consolidation these apps and others have begun to have an affect on how banks view this industry; banks are now beginning to implement and focus on these features in their offerings to consumers; "Those standalone apps have done a lot for legacy financial firms; they've shown them how to provide creative and innovative ways to help customers be more financially successful," Wells Fargo's Ben Soccorsy, head of digital payments product management, told Tearsheet; while some of the startups in the space have now faded. the digital consumer experience has changed for the better. Source
LendingRobot shares returns for the second quarter; aggregated return for the LendingRobot series was 2.7% year to date; there are currently four risk-based funds in the series ranging from short term conservative to long term aggressive; loans included in the funds are from Lending Club, Prosper, Funding Circle and Lending Home; the series funds are available to accredited investors for investment. Source
San Francisco real estate investment platform Income& has been selected as one of 24 startups to participate in the sixth Plug and Play Fintech Accelerator; the Plug and Play Fintech Accelerator is a 12-week accelerator program that provides for access to Plug and Play's extensive network of leading banks and financial institutions; the Plug and Play Fintech accelerator will support the development of Income&'s Prime-Rated Individual Mortgage-Backed Obligation (PRIMO™) product which is broadening fixed income investment alternatives by providing a product that allows investors to invest in portions of secured mortgage loans. Source
German fintech Deposit Solutions has acquired Savedo; Savedo is also a startup in the fintech space and the two firms offer similar services; Deposit Solutions provides a deposit marketplace for savers allowing them to move funds among 15 European banks in order to achieve the highest rate of return; Savedo will help Deposit Solutions expand its offering by adding 13 new banking partners and integrating 18,000 new customers. Source
Old Mutual has been decreasing its position in the Fund throughout the year and has now reduced it even further; in March 2017 Old Mutual reduced its stake to below 6% and following its most recent move its stake is now less than 4.99%; according to AltFi, the VPC Specialty Lending Fund is the second largest online lending and alternative credit fund with approximately GBP351 million ($456 million); the Fund has been experiencing losses in recent months and the managers have been enacting a share buyback strategy while also shifting its positioning to greater allocation in balance sheet investments. Source
The Ranger Direct Lending Fund announced its second quarter 2017 dividend; the Fund has decreased its dividend to 24.26 pence per ordinary share; the lower dividend was a result of ongoing issues with investment in the Princeton Alternative Income Fund which had exposure to troubled lending platform Argon Credit; the Fund's returns have also been lower over the past few months and it has increased its cash holdings. Source
Acorns has partnered with personal financial management app Clarity Money; Acorns now has two million investment accounts with users investing spare change into customized investments; Clarity Money launched in 2016 and is an app for personal finance advice and expense and savings management; users of both platforms benefit from the partnership with Clarity Money customers able to use Acorns' automated investing features and Acorns' investors able to sync their Acorns investment account to their Clarity Money dashboard. Source