American Banker speculates on what President-elect Donald Trump will do with the CFPB, which has enhanced consumer financial protections in recent years; Trump has not been definitive but rather generally against current levels of financial regulation; in October, the US Court of Appeals for DC found that the CFPB's director could be unilaterally replaced by the US President; the agency has until November 25 to appeal; if they should lose the appeal, the publication poses options for the incoming President of (a) pressuring current Director Cordray to resign then replacing him with someone who will drop the legal appeal, or (b) have Republican lawmakers in the next congressional session replace the single director oversight with a five-member commission and subject the CFPB to Congressional appropriations review. Source
The Economist magazine's intelligence unit (EIU) has published a report on regulatory support for financial inclusion in developing countries and it is now gaining traction with press and analysts; the report scores countries on having an inclusiveness strategy and building governmental and private sector expertise, then provides in-depth details in areas including credit markets, non-regulated lenders, payments and insurance; Colombia ties Peru this year for the most progressive country; India has shown the most improvement; Latin America and East/South Asia are leaders regionally while Africa and the Middle East remain behind; the EIU performed the research in conjunction with the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Multilateral Investment Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank. Source
UK listed marketplace lending fund, P2P Global Investments, has reported struggling performance in 2016; monthly return in September was 0.23% for a year-to-date return of 3.41%; target annual return is 6% to 8%; peripheral factors such as debt facilities and currency hedges have affected the return; the fund is now selling at a discount of 19.8%; has been steadily buying back shares to help improve the NAV and also using securitization to reduce debt costs; loan defaults and delinquencies have been higher as a result of longer maturities, however the primary factor affecting the return is the broad global diversification of the loans resulting in losses from currency hedging. Source
Finnovista is a leading market advocate for fintech in Latin America and Spain; looking ahead to 2017 the organization thinks fintech will be important in promoting financial inclusion specifically with 40% of the fintech services in Latin America focused on unbanked and underbanked consumers and businesses; Finnovista's Fermin Bueno says Latin America has the ecosystem, venture capital and government support for fintech growth and financial inclusion improvements; Bueno also predicts growth in fintech will increase competition for traditional providers with 30% of traditional industry income at risk from fintech companies. Source
