The British High Court ruled on Thursday that Parliament must give its approval for Brexit, creating uncertainty on whether or not the UK will leave the European Union; plans for exiting the EU were to begin in March; the government now has appealed the High Court's decision to the Supreme Court which will consider the appeal in December; if the ruling is upheld speculators believe Parliament would continue with the same sentiment that its voters reported in June. Source
Development finance P2P lender Bricks Finance has received Financial Conduct Authority authorization; firm is not planning to launch an innovative finance individual savings account; will instead focus on expanding partnerships with brokers; also announced a new Bricks Bond product for wealth managers and their clients; firm has been lending since May 2015 with loans of more than £5 million ($6.22 million). Source
British Business Bank (BBB) is a government-owned entity designed to support small businesses in the UK through a fund with 1 billion British pounds ($1.27 billion); it currently has 85 million British pounds ($108 million) invested in the P2P lending industry; the Financial Conduct Authority's release of an update on the crowdfunding market last week noting a number of factors for further investigation has caused taxpayers to question the large allocation to the P2P lending sector; specifically John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, has said, "This is extremely concerning and taxpayers will want to know how this can be good use of their money."; according to a Freedom of Information request reported on by Business Insider, the allocations from BBB include 60 million British pounds ($76 million) invested with Funding Circle, 15 million British pounds ($19 million) invested with MarketInvoice and 10 million British pounds ($13 million) invested with RateSetter. Source
Almost a third of venture capital investment in the UK was done by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and since the Brexit decision was made this funding source has been turned off; while the British government has attempted to fill the void they have fallen short; "The pullback of the EIF puts the UK at a structural disadvantage compared to other European countries," Fred Destin, a London-based venture capitalist tells Politico; the EIF accounted for $2.7 billion worth of investment into 144 companies from 2011 to 2015 in the UK; the EIF has said they are just doing more diligence on the companies from the UK but the reality is that they have completely pulled back; the British Business Bank has announced plans to offer over $450 million in investments but venture capitalists have said they are unsure if the government can afford to do this in the long term. Source
Businessagent.com is seeking to raise between 200,000 British pounds and 750,000 British pounds through a fundraising campaign on Angels Den; the platform currently aggregates and facilitates equity crowdfunding and debt financing; the firm plans to use the funds to improve user data, expand its broker and sales team, build new relationships and develop a secondary market; on December 8 the firm received investment from Malcolm Burne, who will support the firm's plans for a secondary market; Burne is an expert in secondary market trading for private investments. Source
Property crowdfunding platform Brickowner has completed its first investment for a real estate property in Abbeygate, Chester; their second listing will offer investment in a new housing development; the platform is open to all investors and requires a minimum investment of 100 British pounds ($124.46); it seeks to offer low-risk alternative investments with targeted returns of 8%. Source
One of the most hotly debated topics of the two-day Innovate Finance (IFGS) conference was whether Britain still has a place on the world stage.
Media site Bridging & Commercial filed a freedom of information request into the British Business Bank's investments in P2P platforms; since 2014 the British Business Bank has invested 135 million British pounds ($168 million); commitments are made via the Business Finance Partnership Tranche (BFP) and the Investment Programme (IP); the details are outlined in the above chart. Source
The $20 million round was co-led by HSBC and Goldman Sachs; Bud is a financial network, capitalizing on open banking...
As two new banking applications come to market this week, the question that comes to mind is can all of these startups survive and disrupt the banks?; there are questions surrounding business models and how each company intends to make money in a market that is becoming more crowded each day; each of these new startups has different challenges that lie ahead, some will need to be approved for a banking license and others will need to understand the regulatory framework behind PSD2. Source