After several unsuccessful attempts at the creation of a bitcoin ETF, SEC...
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
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Denmark based Saxo Bank announced a partnership with Microsoft to host the bank’s entire technology stack on the Microsoft Azure cloud; the bank said the partnership will allow them to ensure scalability, flexibility and security in the digital infrastructure; Kim Fournais, the bank’s founder and CEO, tells Banking Technology “Saxo Bank was a fintech long before the term was created, and it is a natural step for us to also pioneer cloud-based solutions in financial services.” Source.
Startups like Propy, ShelterZoom and RealBlocks have begun letting people buy and sell real estate using the blockchain; Eric Piscini, principal, banking and technology consulting at Deloitte tells American Banker, “Maybe banks will be leaner because they won’t need to have as many people as they used to, to manage those processes.”; using blockchain technology can help to make the entire process of buying or selling real estate more efficient; banks will need to focus on other value added services outside of just lending and servicing; the power of blockchain technology is beginning to be felt all across the financial landscape. Source.
First Trust has filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a pooled fund that will include marketplace lending securities under the name First Trust Marketplace Lending Partners, L.P.; minimum investment in the fund is $50,000; firm offers a range of investment funds including many funds with an income focused investment strategy. Source
Swedish startup Klarna has acquired BillPay in a transaction that's expected to strengthen its payments business throughout Europe; the estimated price is approximately 60 million British pounds ($75 million) and Klarna was last valued at $2.25 billion in 2015; both Klarna and BillPay have been closely compared to PayPal; with the new acquisition the majority of Klarna's business will now be focused in Germany; Klarna has been focusing on business in Germany, acquiring Cookies in October 2016 and Sofort in 2013, both German companies; the acquisition of BillPay will help increase cross-border payment transactions; according to Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, "Germany is one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world, and we are delighted to have strengthened our position here with this acquisition." Source
John Battelle, founder of Newco, talks with SoFi's Mike Cagney about the firm and its business growth; Cagney talks about the firm's customer commitment and the support customers receive over traditional banks; also reports on the verticals it has expanded to since starting the business with student loans; additionally Cagney provides some metrics on the business including that the company has $1 billion in equity on its balance sheet, $6 billion of lending capacity, $9.5 billion in loans for 2017 and estimates $18 to $20 billion in loan originations for 2018. Source
Manatt shares that the FTC has finalized their deal with SoFi who...
Goldman Sachs has been busy acquiring companies to boost its consumer facing business; they now have expertise across consumer lending, small business lending and real estate; Lend Academy shares their latest acquisitions, including the acquisition of Final, a credit card startup; it seems as though credit cards was the missing piece and it's possible Goldman Sachs will enter the credit card business. Source
From the LendIt Fintech Jobs Board: Leading tech-enabled asset manager, Pagaya Investments,...
Wunder Capital is a crowdfunded investment firm focused on solar energy projects; it manages solar energy funds, provides customized financing and offers loans; its 2016 report says it has originated $87 million in financing across 310 deals with zero write offs; its solar energy funds include the Wunder Term Fund with a projected 2016 annual return of 8.5%, the Wunder Income Fund with a projected 2016 annual return of 6% and the Wunder Bridge Fund with a projected 2016 annual return of 11%. Source