Thursday December 7 2018, Daily News Digest

United States

Fed Raises Rates; Sector Analysis; Loan Performance (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

In regulatory news, Square will refile its Industrial Loan Charter application with the FDIC.

Credit card master trust data showed that net charge-offs dropped by 8 bps YoY, decreasing for the second month in a row.

Affirm – Launch pitch at Phocuswright 2018 (PhocusWire), Rated: A

We have identified a $377 billion addressable U.S. online travel market. Millennials, the largest consumer group in the U.S., are shifting their spending from products to experiences.

We’ve also found that 55% of people are avoiding credit cards at checkout when paying for travel. 67% are looking for options to pay over time.

5 Business Trends That Will Continue to Rise in 2019 (Entrepreneur), Rated: A

1. Consumers will demand more control over their data.

2. Alternative lending will continue to grow.

Given that around 80 percent of small business loan applications are rejected, startup founders are increasingly looking to nontraditional financiers for capital.

Since 2006, P2P lending has skyrocketed by 110 percent per year.

United Kingdom

Wonga collapse clears decks for US payday loan firms in UK market (The Guardian), Rated: AAA

Chicago-based Enova, which also operates Pounds to Pocket and On Stride, saw UK revenue jump 20% to $36.6m (£29m). Texas-headquartered Elevate Credit operates in the UK under the Sunny loans brand, and saw its own UK revenue jump 23% to $32m, as new customer loans for Sunny rose 45% to $26,671.

Curo, which is behind WageDayAdvance, saw UK revenue jump 27.1% to $13.5m, while underlying earnings nearly halved from $8.1m to $4.2m. It was helped by a “high percentage of new customers”.

Collapse of ethical lenders stokes fears over access to credit (Financial Times), Rated: A

Ethical lenders that have been touted as alternatives to high-cost firms such as Wonga and BrightHouse are going out of business at the fastest rate in years, fuelling concerns that less well-off customers are in danger of losing access to credit.

The figures mark the worst year since at least 2010, as the sector battles against rising regulatory and technology costs.

Eight UK Credit Unions Went Out Of Business In 2018 (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Eight credit unions closed in 2018, and they affected an estimated 14,000 people with a collective £25 million in savings. Even some of the more successful CUs have had to curtail lending. Credit unions cap rates at 3 percent a month.

Despite initial reports of the feature’s disappearance, Hefeng Online Lending was still available until 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Previously, all products were labeled as being “sold out” after it was removed from the app’s main page. It has subsequently been completely removed.

China

JD launches P2P online lending products (en.ce.cn), Rated: AAA

E-commerce giant JD.com has become the first Chinese tech tycoon to launch peer-to-peer online lending products, CHNFUND.com reported on Sunday.

“Hefeng online lending” or literally “Hefeng Wangdai”, a platform providing information service on P2P online lending under JD.com, sold out all the products within seconds after it started operation on Sunday.

JD Finance removes second P2P lending feature from its app (Technode), Rated: A

JD Finance has removed its second peer-to-peer (P2P) lending feature from its app after it had been online for less than 10 days, highlighting difficulties in China’s P2P loans sector.

Chinese P2P Lender Hexindai Announces Funding Sources Partnership With Kunming Aotous (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Hexindai (NASDAQ: HX) announced on Wednesday it has formed a funding sources partnership with Kunming Aotou Economic Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (Kunming Aotou). 

Hexindai reported that through this agreement it will assess borrowers that are using its risk management and credit assessment capabilities before referring them to Kunming Aotou which will facilitate the loans through a trust fund. 

Internet finance in a state of flux with regulators stepping in to bring some stability and direction (Global Times), Rated: AAA

Recently, the Beijing-based Chang An Property Casualty Insurance Co was reported to have compensated nearly 2 billion yuan ($290 million) for its joint business with a number of domestic peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platforms, according to a report of the Time Weekly.

The Lengjing reported that so far 220 P2P platforms had submitted their self-investigation reports to the government.

European Union

Google Gets EU eMoney License (PYMNTS), Rated: AAA

Google Payment Lithuania, a unit of Alphabet’s Google, was granted an electronic money institution license by The Board of the Bank of Lithuania.

The Lithuanian FinTech initiative now covers more than 100 licensed companies, with most of them involved in payments, electronic money and peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding.

International

Peer-to-peer lending looks for fresh start as interest wanes (Financial Times), Rated: AAA

But even P2P Global Investments, the first investment fund dedicated to the sector when it launched in 2014, admits the initial “frenzy” of interest has died down.

It is considering changing its name because it no longer accurately reflects the fund’s interests.

Mike Bristow, chief executive of property lender CrowdProperty, suggested that some companies have tried to take advantage of the hype around peer-to-peer without making effective business plans.

Top ten banking tech case studies in 2018 (Fintech Futures), Rated: A

Micro-lending: Mynt
Philippine fintech, Mynt, talks about the business case and technology behind its current micro-lending efforts and where it is planning to head with other financial services, leveraging the customers and data of its majority shareholder, the country’s largest Telco.

Robocash – fintech crossing the borders
In 2017, peer-to-peer (P2P) platform Robocash started its operations in the European Union (EU). Since then, it attracted more than €4 million

Live Oak Bank and Finxact – riding the second wave
The US, in particular, is in urgent need of new core offerings to support next generation digital banking.

Home Credit – to its credit
In an exclusive tour of Home Credit’s (HC) operations in Prague, we met seven staff members and learned about its retail challenger Air Bank, P2P lender Zonky and Home Credit Venture Capital (HCVC).

Mobile banking: RBC – farewell friction
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has been proactive with its digitisation strategy.

Australia

Mums and Dads turn to commercial real estate as resi slows in Australia (The Investor), Rated: A

They are also navigating their way around banks’ lending restrictions through peer-to-peer lending, further boosting their investment prospects.

India

Various fees charged by P2P platforms (India Times), Rated: A

Every loan involves a cost. From the time of signing up to delay in repaying the loan, here’s a list of charges a borrower needs to pay while taking a loan from a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform.

Asia

UMG GROUP LAUNCHES VENTURE CAPITAL FACILITY IN INDONESIA (Digital News Asia), Rated: A

UMG Idealab has started its venture journey in Indonesia with 11 portfolios to date.

UMG Idealab  is looking for startups in IoT, Big Data, Voice Recognition (VR), and Artificial Intelligent (AI). He aims to invest in 20 startups next year.

Central bank warns of P2P lending (Vietnam News), Rated: B

The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) has warned local people and firms to consider carefully and be cautious before taking part in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending as there are many potential risks related to the service.

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