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
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
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
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
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
WSFS Financial, which is the parent company of WSFS Bank, announced a Private Student Lending Solutions offering; the new offering will expand their current consumer business and they believe this will help bridge the gap created in the student lending space; WSFS is partnering with leading technology provider LendKey to leverage their application, disbursement and servicing of the loans; Rick Wright, WSFS executive vice president and chief retail banking officer, said, "We want to be that valued resource that customers turn to when they start the difficult process of figuring out how to fund college." Source
Join LendIt for a webinar about blockchain technology and how it can streamline operations for wealth managers and insurance back office operations; register here for the August 14 webinar at 2:00 PM EST; presenters include Jayant Khadilkar, global head of analytics and technology at Tiger Risk, and Ryan Rugg, business development at R3. Source
SoFi reported record earnings and loan volume in the second quarter with revenue of $134 million, adjusted EBITDA of $61.6 million and loan volume of $3.1 billion; in earnings comments, SoFi's CEO, Mike Cagney, was more optimistic about a public offering, mentioning it as a part of a long term plan involved with the search for a new CFO; Cagney also discussed options for offering banking products and said he was optimistic about the approval of the company's application for an industrial loan charter. Source
Goldman Sachs has been offering more products to a wider range of consumers; this started with the acquisition of the online deposit platform of GE Capital; the firm is competing aggressively on their deposit rates to grow this base; in 2016 they launched Marcus, their online lending platform, and now have a new lending product called GS Select; product offers loans backed by investment portfolios for individuals that have a Fidelity financial adviser. Source
Event follows Ethereal Summit hosted by ConsenSys earlier this year; will include panels, live music, discussions and workshops about blockchain; the event will focus on making blockchain technology easier to understand and is being marketed as a culture focused event rather than a technical one; Cointelegraph provides a list of featured speakers. Source