Friday December 29 2017, Daily News Digest

United States

OnDeck Adds a BlackRock-Managed Fund to its Platform of Financing Partners (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

On December 15, 2017, OnDeck introduced the BlackRock-managed fund as the Class B lender under OnDeck’s existing asset-backed, revolving credit facility with SunTrust Bank. As a result, OnDeck increased the facility’s borrowing capacity to approximately $120 million. SunTrust Bank, the Class A lender under the facility, will act as the administrative agent for both the Class A and Class B lenders.

25 Best Small Business Articles of 2017 (OnDeck), Rated: A

Here are the 25 most read articles from our blog this year. If you missed any of them, now’s your time to catch up.

• 23. Is it Time to Finance Growth?
• 18. Barbara Corcoran On Taking Your Business To the Next Level
• 17. Your Credit Profile: Are You Smart Enough?
• 13. Have You Checked Your Business Credit Profile Lately?
• 9. Your Ultimate Guide to Small Business Financing

Which 3 trends are transforming advisor practices? (FinancialPlanning), Rated: AAA

In the face of 2017’s unprecedented opportunities and challenges, advisors have also felt the pressure of three converging forces — and their impact will be heightened in the year ahead.

It starts with the commoditization of financial advice, best exemplified by the growing use of robo advice by both financial advisors and do-it-yourself investors. Second, the downward pressure of fee compression, as consumers demand high-value and low-cost products and services. And third, the continuing consolidation that is reshaping the advisor industry, as firms join forces to achieve greater scale and gain a competitive edge.

In 2018, the impact of commoditization, fee compression and consolidation will lead to a massive shift, shaping the products you use, the portfolios you build, and the very nature of financial advice itself.

CFP Board Revamps Standards, Seeks Comments (Financial Advisor IQ), Rated: A

The CFP Board polled around 1,000 CFP professionals on its initial revision proposal and found that 96% agreed that CFPs should be required to put their clients’ best interest first, according to WealthManagement.com.

The CFP Board is seeking comment on its revised code of ethics and standards of conduct, according to a press release from the board.

5 Trends to Watch in Fintech, Wealthtech and Regtech in 2018 (Think Advisor), Rated: B

1. Regulation is just beginning.
2. Technology will continue to converge.
3. Roles will be blurred.
4. Enterprise companies will get in the game.
5. Non-industry brands join in the fun.

Here’s What Over 40% of Millennials Plan to Do With Their Tax Refund (The Motley Fool), Rated: A

Instead, over 40% of millennials have a sensible plan for a windfall that averaged $2,782 across all Americans getting refunds last year. Of course, not every filer will get that much (some even owe) but the 43% of millennials who get a refund will be using it to pay down bills they accrued over the holidays, according to a survey from tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt.

That’s actually a higher rate of using a tax refund to pay down holiday debt than the 31% of the general population polled who gave the same answer to the question “Do you tend to use your tax refund to pay off holiday debt/bills/credit cards?”

In general, you want to keep your credit utilization ratio below 30%. That means you should have more than 70% of your total allotment of credit across all cards available to use.

How Mike Praeger has put AvidXchange — and Charlotte — on fintech map (Biz Journals), Rated: A

When it comes to Charlotte’s business aspirations, homegrown automated payment company AvidXchange hits all the right notes.

SoFi Landing Page (dribbble), Rated: B

China

China moves to impose order on mobile payments boom (Financial Times), Rated: AAA

China’s central bank has tightened rules on mobile payments made by scanning a barcode, imposing restrictions that could slow the explosive growth for Alibaba’s financial services affiliate and that of its main rival, Tencent.

The regulations set daily limits on the amount consumers can spend each day using barcode-based payments. They also forbid “burning money” via subsidies to merchants, which are designed to capture market share from competitors.

China leads the world in mobile payments, most of which are executed by scanning a QR code. While some scans use a specialised point-of-sale (POS) terminal, others occur between mobile phones or when the consumer scans a decal posted near the checkout area.

International

Fintech predictions BI Intelligence got right in 2017 (Business Insider), Rated: A

As 2016 drew to a close, BI Intelligence collated its top five fintech predictions for 2017. As we enter the new year, we’re revisiting them to see how they stood the test of time. Here is what we got right about 2017:

• Insurtech will continue to ascend.
• Alternative lending will consolidate around a few big players. Just two of the UK’s largest consumer marketplace lenders, Zopa and RateSetter, held 82% of the market between them, for example. On the SMB side, the UK’s largest small business lender, Funding Circle, held 69% of the market.

Australia

Demand for peer-to-peer lending booms (AustralianBroker), Rated: AAA

Australia’s peer-to-peer lending industry nearly doubled its loan originations this past financial year writing $300m in loans, according to a recent ASIC report.

More than 18,500 consumers and 201 businesses borrowed $300m in the 2016-17 FY, compared with $156m in 2015-16. More than 7,760 investors provided financing to the platforms.

The average interest rate charged for these loans was 10.5%. The majority of businesses (77%) were charged an interest rate of between 12-15.99% and the majority of consumers (55%) were charged between 8-11.99%.

India

P2P lending in India: Is it truly delivering a disruptive new asset-class? (Economic Times), Rated: AAA

When we started the P2P business, it was all about reaching out to borrowers who have been untapped by the formal sources of finance. I will get to that in my next point, but during our journey we have realized it was not only about the borrowers, but also about lenders. It was not easy to draw lenders to the model, but once they realized the potential, it was clear to them that P2P was a good alternate source of investment.

The P2P industry and us included have painstakingly worked to safeguard the lender’s interest, use technology to help lenders take the most informed lending decision and strengthen every process of the P2P value chain. From having bank-grade security to having the best credit verification technologies, P2P in the country has relentlessly worked to make the sector better.

Borrowers
When it comes to borrowers, the impact has been more straightforward. P2P has enabled a whole new section of individuals to seek credit. What is interesting is that a large percentage of our loans today, more than 50% is business loans for small and medium businesses.

Top 7 Fintech Predictions for 2018 (Economic Times), Rated: AAA

UPI 2.0 – UPI has grown 400X in volume since November last year, proving to be a huge success in terms of consumer adoption. Several entities like banks, fintech players have built their own UPI solutions, contributing to this tremendous growth.

UPI 2.0 with its two features – biometric authentication and E-mandates aim to transform the way payments are made today.

E-Mandates – E-Mandates replace the physical mandate system of ECS (Electronic Clearing System), transforming the entire system of direct debit payments. Setting up and managing e-Mandates is fast, convenient and completely digital, reducing the payment processing time by nearly 80%.

BharatQR – BharatQR can prove to be a boon for offline businesses and small merchants, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities to adopt digital payments easily.

Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Lending

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in Payments – The trend to use artificial intelligence and machine learning in payments is fast growing. Some of the application areas of these technologies we can envisage in the near future are chatbots, voice-based payments and advanced fraud detection mechanisms.

Blockchain – The technology can be used across several areas like digital currency exchange, cross-border payments, money transfers and smart contracts among many others.

Startup Watchlist: 9 Fintech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018 (Inc42), Rated: AAA

In India, the need for technological disruption in the banking sector is all the more acute, given that over 19% of the country’s population still remains unbanked.

Forecasted to cross $2.4 Bn by 2020, as per a report by KPMG India and NASSCOM, India is currently home to more than 500 fintech startups, whose collective aim is to attain financial inclusion.

The Explosive Growth Of Indian Fintech Sector

Home to more than 462 Mn Internet users, the number of mobile users in India is expected to reach 1 Bn by the year 2020. In fact, it has the greatest market potential in the entire world, as determined by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) in its latest edition of Digital Evolution Index 2017.

Post the ban on INR 500 and INR 1,000 notes, India witnessed an acute dearth of cash, which in turn caused Internet-enabled cashless transactions to sky-rocket. As reported by Inc42, digital transactions increased 22% almost immediately after the ban came into effect.

In less than 24 hours after the embargo was announced by PM Narendra Modi-led government, Paytm saw an overwhelming 435% increase in overall traffic. Other digital wallets like PayU India witnessed a staggering 80% jump in transactions, while FreeCharge claimed that the average wallet balance on its platform increased 12 times. MobiKwik meanwhile reported an over 40% increase in app downloads within less than 18 hours of the announcement.

Faircent

Till date, lenders on the platform have committed to lend over $4.8 Mn (INR 31 Cr), while borrowers have sought up to $3.5 Mn (INR 23 Cr) in loans. At present, Faircent claims to receive over 225K loan requests per month, with most of them being used for funding businesses, family events, appliance purchases, debt consolidation, among others.

Kissht

Conceived in 2015, Mumbai-based Kissht is a fintech startup that provides instant credit to consumers for making purchases at digital points of sale (both offline and online). Through its app, users can buy various items including mobiles, laptops, jewellery, and electronics by opting for flexible EMIs even without a credit card.

Last month, Kissht raised $10 Mn (INR 67 Cr) in a round led by Chinese investment conglomerate, Fosun International.

Simpl

Launched in 2015, Simpl is an online payment instrument that allows customers to make purchases and settle payments online.

As claimed by the company’s spokesperson, Simpl boasts a customer retention of around 85% overall, which is growing at 50% monthly.

Here’s how 2017 has been a roller coaster ride for Indian startups (Economic Times), Rated: A

SoftBank to invest in India through its mega, technology focused $100 billion Vision Fund

Around 50 employees of Paytm sold shares worth about Rs 100 crore to both internal and external buyers

Flipkart raises $1.4 billion in funding from Tencent, Ebay and Microsoft

Paytm raises $1.4 billion from SoftBank; Sees valuation jump to $8 billion

Snapdeal sells its digital payments platform to Axis Bank, the country’s third-largest private sector lender, for Rs 390 crore.

SoftBank pumps $2.5 billion into Flipkart, making it the biggest private investment in the country’s consumer technology sector.

The RBI identifi es peer to peer lending startups under a separate category of non banking fi nance companies and frames rules of operation. Also opens window for applications under NBFC-P2P category

6 amazing ways personal finance changed in 2017 (Financial Express), Rated: A

1. Social credit scores
2. Digital Payments
3. eKYC and Aadhaar
4. P2P lending
5. Algorithmic-driven personal finance management
6. Bitcoin and Blockchain

How to get paperless personal loans? (SRJ News), Rated: B

Among several other activities and banking transactions, personal loans too can be availed online. From applying for a loan to getting it sanctioned, the entire process can be carried out from the comfort of your laptop or desktop. Gone are the days of running around for paperwork and visiting bank branches. The whole process is completely digital;thus, paperless online personal loans are nothing but everyone’s saviour.

Benefits of online personal loans

• No physical documents are required
You just need to upload all the identity proofs along with your bank statement online, to get your loan approved.
• Quick disbursement route
If you submit all the required details, along with the application and other statements, your loan can be disbursed as quickly as within 24 hours.
• A complete online process
You don’t need to constantly visit banks and wait for days to get your loan approved.
• No collateral required
You only need to share your information and documents to get the loan approved, for anonline personal loan these days no security or collateral is required.
• Flexible tenure options
You get comfortable EMI option on your loan tenure, starting from 12 to 36 months.

Asia

First International Peer-To-Peer Lending Platform Taps Into Vietnamese Market (Fintech News), Rated: AAA

Singapore based consumer finance group Silkway Ventures has expanded its operations to Southeast Asian region by opening a subsidiary in Vietnam. The group announced today that it has launched its online peer-to-peer lending platform Moneybank.vn. Over the next five years the company plans to expand its footprint to other neighboring Asian markets to tap into a potential underbanked consumer base, estimated to be 500 million people.

Vietnam is the first international foray in the digital consumer lending space for Silkway Ventures. The country has a population of over 90 million people, where demand for consumer finance services is rising rapidly and a large percentage of the population is virtually unbanked. At the same time the rate of Internet and smartphone penetration is already significant. The digital consumer finance model offers greater customer coverage at a significantly lower cost compared to traditional banking channels. The move by Silkway Ventures into the Vietnam consumer finance market offers a welcoming Segway for fintech companies to access the market and drive further development in this sector.

MENA

Largest fintech hub to open in Bahrain (Zawya), Rated: A

A facility opening in Bahrain next February will be the largest dedicated fintech hub in the Middle East and Africa, according to its developer and manager.

Bahrain FinTech Bay, operated by Singapore-based fintech incubator Fintech Consortium, will be a 10,000 sqft facility which will include a variety of shared infrastructure, such as co-working spaces, the consortium’s Bahrain chairman Missan Al Maskati told the GDN in an exclusive interview.

Canada

CIBC poll shows that Canadians’ top financial priority is paying down debt (The Georgia Straight), Rated: AAA

Once again, a large number of debt-soaked Canadians have told a pollster that they’re going to put repaying creditors at the top of their financial to-do list in the coming year.

It’s the eighth consecutive year that this has been the Number 1 financial priority of those surveyed for CIBC by the Angus Reid Institute.

Canada’s household debt to disposable income reached a record of 171.1 percent in the third quarter of this year.

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