Socure has added $13 million from a funding round led by Flint Capital; Socure provides software as a service solutions that increase customer acceptance and reduce uncaught fraud; according to Flint Capital Partner Sergey Gribov, "The company supplements market deficiencies in which current identity verification solutions fall short, including millennials, who largely avoid the use of credit, or abroad, where credit systems don't exist at all." Source
After an initial $50 million investment in Personal Capital, IGM Financial has invested an additional $25 million in the company; the $25 million was contingent on an assets under management goal which they have now surpassed; the company has added $1.5 billion under management in the last year bringing their total to $3.4 billion; this amounts to 80% growth; valuation of the company is approximately $500 million. Source
K-Bank has gained authorization to open South Korea's first online bank; firm is an affiliate of Alibaba-owned Ant Financial; Kakao Bank is also involved in the final approval process to open the country's second online bank. Source
Consumer and small business credit scoring platform, Nav, will now offer its small and medium-sized enterprise customers loans and financing services by Bank of America; Nav uses its MatchFactor algorithm to help show borrowers their chances of approval and have thus far helped to facilitate funding to over 160,000 companies; Nav CEO and Co-Founder Levi King said, "We are proud to partner with Bank of America, giving business owners even more ways to access the financing they need." Source
Leading UK consumer organization, Which?, has published new research showing in the last two years 1,045 branches have closed; HSBC has closed 27% of branches, Lloyds has closed 14% and Co-operative Bank has closed 53% of branches; the banks have said the rise of digital banking has moved their customers away from in person branches; while the move to digital banking is continuing, research by Bain also shows that 40% of global customers would consider a new bank if their branch was closed. Source
The Hong Kong-listed company is, according to one banker at HSBC, the answer to Facebook, WhatsApp, Spotify, Kindle and ApplePay, but all under one roof; based in Shenzhen, considered the Silicon Valley of China, they employ 3,000 people where over half are focused on research and development; they also have a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio; they are one of the top three companies in China and have successfully expanded worldwide with apps like WeChat. Source
Business Insider Intelligence has released a report covering all aspects of the fintech market; says annual financing globally for fintech reached $15 billion in August which is likely to surpass the total of $19 billion financed in 2015; Chinese fintech investments and insurtech have been catalysts for growth in 2016; robo advisors and blockchain are also two of the market's rapidly growing, emerging technologies. Source
The SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016 (HR3784) was signed into law; the law will add a new office within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for small business advocacy; the small business advocacy office will oversee and support regulation and investment activities for small businesses and small business investors; the new law will also establish a small business capital formation advisory committee that will advise the SEC on small business market activity. Source
Asia fintech specialist Henri Arslanian from PricewaterhouseCoopers provides insight on Asia's fintech market; innovation and rapid adoption are factors that have helped China to be a global leader in fintech; support from Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent continue to be drivers of infrastructure growth; in Asia, demonetization and the India Stack project, which includes biometric data for consumers, are also increasingly helping the region's fintech growth; regtech is also an increasingly important trend across the region. Source
Spanish bank CEO Carlos Torres Vila of BBVA spoke at the IESE 12th Banking Industry Meeting yesterday and explained how banks will need to adapt to stay competitive; BBVA has acquired cloud computing, invested in digital banks, built out artificial intelligence and improved their mobile banking experience in recent years; these changes are meant to address customer needs and position the bank for the future; he also believes banks need to adapt management structures to be more modular, which will also bring more innovative talent and facilitate better communication. Source