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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
On Finovate.com
Around the web
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
On Finovate.com
Around the web
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
A look at the trending topics of the past two weeks, co-authored by Finovate’s research analysts David Penn and Julie Schicktanz.
Venmo competition heats up
We’ve lately noticed more P2P payment app competitors trickle in. They have Braintree-owned Venmo’s (FD2016; F2013) millennial-focused social components stamped all over them:
New mobile payments methods are everywhere (and that’s not a good thing)
Last week, CVS joined a group of other retailers, banks, technology providers and payment services companies to launch its own mobile wallet. With the launch, the pharmacy intends to streamline the use of its rewards points with point-of-sale (POS) payments, but what it may actually be doing is adding yet another wet log to the slow-burning, mobile POS-payments fire.
The issue lies in part with low consumer interest and adoption; it’s still faster to swipe (or insert) your credit card than to take out and unlock your phone, open an app, and try to convince the cashier it is a legitimate way to pay. Also at fault is the large, fragmented number of suppliers. We’ve lost count, but here’s a partial list:
Other news in the payments space
A big deal in ATMs gets a second look
Diebold (F2014) finalized its merger with German ATM maker Wincor Nixdorf last week, a deal that combined two of the largest three ATM companies. The deal closed for $1.8 billion and makes Diebold Nixdorf the world’s largest ATM company, claiming a third of the worldwide market.
Days after unveiling the newly formed entity, the ATM giant is facing an “in-depth merger investigation” from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority. The agency said that it is concerned the deal will reduce the number of companies supplying ATMs in the U.K. The companies have until April 26, 2017, to “offer undertaking to address competition concerns.”
This further highlights the opportunity for disruption in the ATM space, a realm where companies such as Liqpay (F2013) have showed off solutions that allow cardholders to use their smartphones for a contact-less way to withdraw cash from ATMs.
Making Sense of Student Loan Debt—notwithstanding Bernie Sanders’ promises of free college tuition for all, the challenge of student loan debt isn’t going away anytime soon. Unfortunately, a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) suggests that loan servicers are a part of the problem, at least when it comes to income-driven repayment plans.
As reported in PYMNTS.com, much of the problem is bureaucratic, with “delays and rejections” that can expose student borrowers to greater interest, penalties, or even lost eligibility. “Student Loan servicers continue to fall short when it comes to helping borrowers address $1.3 trillion in student debt,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. “It’s time servicers focus more effectively on processing applications for income-driven repayment plans properly.”
And the CPFB is focused on more than just the student loan servicers. Wells Fargo was slapped with a $3.6 million fine this week for “illegal fees … and [depriving] others of critical information needed to effectively manage their student loan accounts,” according to Cordray. Wells Fargo said that it has already made changes to the processes criticized by the CPFB in its consent order.
It’s impossible to read about student loan debt in the headlines and not think of Student Loan Genius (F2016), which made its Finovate debut this spring. The company empowers employers to help millennial workers in particular pay off their student loan debts faster. This not only helps reduce what is often an onerous debt load (especially relative to the income of the average recent college graduate), but also enables young workers to start saving better.
Make Room for Dev—Google (FD2016 ; F2011) is the latest major technology company dedicating major square footage to support collaboration between “local and international developers and startups.” Writing in the Google Developers Blog, Global Lead Roy Glasberg revealed that more than 14,000 square feet at 301 Howard Street would be the home of a variety of dev-friendly events ranging from Google Developer Group meetings to Tech Talks. The new facility will also host Google’s equity-free, three-month accelerator for emerging market startups, LaunchPad Accelerator.
Earlier this summer, IBM (F2016) announced the opening of its developer space, Bluemix Garage, in New York City. The New York garage, IBM’s sixth, will be hosted by developer networking and education organization, Galvanize. In the U.K., Allied London announced a new fintech co-work space called “The Vault” that will occupy 20,000 square feet in Manchester’s business neighborhood. Meanwhile in Germany, ING-DiBa announced its sponsorship of the latest fintech hub in Frankfurt.
Meanwhile in Asia, PayPal (FD2014; F2012) announced this week the opening of an innovation lab in Singapore, its first such lab outside the U.S. The lab joins PayPal’s other Indo-Asia Pacific innovation lab in Chennai, India, and will be focused on improving productivity among SMEs in the food and beverage industry. We also learned this week that the Monetary Authority of Singapore is setting up a fintech innovation lab, Looking Glass @ MAS1 in that country.
Swiss-based UBS announced a year ago its work on a virtual currency—Utility Settlement Coin—to facilitate faster transaction settlement. This week, UBS announced it has joined forces with Deutsche Bank, Santander, BNY Mellon, and ICAP to convince central banks to agree to a commercial launch by 2018. Competition for this digital currency include Citigroup’s Citicoin, Goldman Sachs’ SETLcoin, and a similar, yet-unnamed, offering from JPMorgan.
A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 8 2016. Register today.
Fiserv delivers deep expertise and innovative solutions to help financial institutions move beyond traditional banking and provide consumers with a complete and seamless banking experience.
Features:
Why it’s great
By utilizing proven mobile banking and payments technologies from Fiserv, financial institutions can deliver a rich and compelling banking and lending experience across digital and physical channels.
Presenters
Andrew Barnett, Principal Digital Banking and Payments Consultant
Barnett is experienced in innovation development and a recognized thought leader responsible for implementing prototypes and showcasing them throughout the globe.
LinkedIn
Elizabeth Santorelly, Innovation Manager
Santorelly leads the Innovations team in developing the strategy, technology and user experience that generate value and support for financial institutions.
LinkedIn
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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka’s next core-account-processing platform and front-end teller system will come from Fiserv.
The bank, the product of a merger between subsidiaries MBSL Savings Bank and MCSL Financial Services, said its selection of Fiserv’s Signature core-accounting processing and Teller front-end teller systems was based on its need for “stability, flexibility, and scalability,” according to Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka CEO T. Mutugala. He said that the growth of the bank’s network and customer base meant seeking solutions that would also make it more affordable to run multiple systems, and added that Fiserv’s technology had already been “proven locally in Sri Lanka” as well as around the world.
Live in more than 40 countries, Signature helps mid-tier and larger banks serve enterprise clients as a multilingual, multicurrency core-accounting processing platform. Teller is a full-featured, branch-tellering and transaction-processing solution that provides tools to automate daily operations and give management the visibility and controls necessary to remain compliant and operate safely within a global context.
Fiserv has made a major impact in the Asia Pacific region, with clients in 13 countries within an area including Australia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Nevertheless, the news from Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka arrived as Fiserv also announced two new credit-union clients back in the United States. Badlands FCU ($27 million in assets) in Glendive, Montana, and Danville City Employees FCU ($25 million in assets) both have elected to deploy Fiserv’s integrated OnCU core-account-processing solutions suite.
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv demonstrated its Mobiliti Enterprise solution at FinovateSpring 2016. With more than 13,000 customers and 21,000 associates around the world, Fiserv was named a Fortune magazine World’s Most Admired Company for the third year in a row in 2015, the same year the company was recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Employers.
Interested in fintech in Asia? Join us as Finovate returns to the APAC for FinovateAsia 2016 on 8 November 2016. Whether you have new fintech innovations to show or are looking for the key technology to take your solution to the next level, FinovateAsia is a great way to make your splash in the Asian fintech scene.
On Finovate.com
Around the web
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
On Finovate.com
Around the web
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
A look at the trending topics of the past two weeks.
If unanimously positive perceptions are the hallmark of a bubble, then rest assured that the alt-lending market has moved past that stage. For every headline-grabbing C-level departure at Lending Club (F09)—CEO Renaud Laplanche stepping down in June, CFO Carrie Dolan announcing her resignation in August—there are successes: Prosper (F09) revealed its plan to sell $5 billion in loans to a group of private investors over the next two years; small business lender OnDeck (F12) surpassed earnings expectations despite its second consecutive quarterly loss and reported year-over-year quarterly revenue gains, as well as a year-over-year increase in loans under management of 47%.
So if there’s no bubble in the alt-lending part of the fintech universe, should we fear a bust? Diverging fortunes among these companies is a good sign. The more the fates of alternative lenders are linked to the decisions of individual corporate leaders, their business plans, and their customers rather than investing trends among venture capitalists (or hedge funds in the case of alt lenders gone public), the better. Looking at the P2P lending market in the U.K., LendInvest CEO Christian Faes told Business Insider, “Over the next few years, the businesses that can prove they can make a profit will be the ones [still] around in another ten years, making a lasting impact on finance.” In other words, just like any other business.
For Lending Club, the challenge is diversifying away from “fickle funding sources.” In addition to Prosper’s $5 billion move, Social Finance went so far as to launch a hedge fund, the $15 million SoFi Credit Opportunities Fund, to purchase its loans as well as those of its competitors.
Fintech Advances in Asia
While investors have been bullish on the tech scene in Asia for some time, a slew of new reports appeared this month. TechCrunch recently reported that in 2015 and the first half of 2016, fintech accounted for 21% of all VC funding in Southeast Asia. In a recent blog post, Trulioo (F15) said that fintech startups in Asia garnered $4.5 billion in 2015, triple what European fintech firms received during the same period. Recent developments include:
It’s no coincidence that Finovate is returning to Asia now to bring the innovators together in one place. Join us November 8, 2017, in Hong Kong for FinovateAsia 2016 as we showcase the latest and greatest.
Blockchain Developer, UNICEF Wants YOU!
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund is looking for a developer interested in using blockchain technology to help “solve the problems of the developing world.” Interested parties can find out more about the position here. And if the combination of blockchain and the developing world sounds familiar, it may be because you’re thinking of recent Finovate Best of Show winner BanQu (F16) which has developed a blockchain-based identity platform that promotes financial inclusion and empowerment among the underbanked, including refugee populations.
Hello, It’s Me: Voice Auth Comes to Barclays
Barclays adds instant voice authentication for all 12 million retail customers, ending 30 years of maneuvering through tedious telephone prompts and redundant authentication questions. – Bank Innovations
Everbank’s Awesome Exit
1990s digital banking pioneer Everbank exits for $2.5 billion in sale to TIAA. After PayPal (F12), this is the most successful fintech company to come out of the original 1990s dot-com era. – PYMNTS.com
Mastercard on the Move
Early Warning’s clearXchange saw some growth as of late. Mastercard, which announced this week that its Mastercard Send U.S. debit cardholders can send and receive money through the clearXchange network. Fiserv (F16) will also become a distribution partner for clearXchange, leveraging the partnership to provide a turnkey solution for banks.
Speaking of Mastercard, the company is looking at the newly announced partnership between PayPal and Visa (FD14), with an eye toward striking a similar deal. Finextra talked with Mastercard CEO Singh Banga who said it will be “important for Mastercard to provide something in addition to what Visa’s offered” as Mastercard “doesn’t have as much to offer PayPal” as Visa did because it has fewer consumers.
Azimo Goes Social
London-based Azimo (F13) took a step toward facilitating P2P payments by launching money transfers via Facebook Messenger. Interestingly, the transfer is initiated within the Azimo app (via Facebook integration) and completed in Facebook Messenger.
Insurance for Everything
Insurance startup investors are betting big that the smartphone platform allows a new breed of insurance products to flourish, so-called insurance on demand. The classic example is an alert when arriving at the airport asking if you would like to buy travel insurance. But the bigger market automobile/motorcycle policies are offering coverage only when you are using the vehicle. Our Insurance for Everything example of the week? On-demand insurance for your drone courtesy of Verifly. – Techcrunch
Also keeping our eyes on …
Parentheticals after a company name refer to the year of their most recent Finovate or FinDEVr conference appearance (F = Finovate, FD = FinDEVr).
Financial services technology company Fiserv and Early Warning have partnered this week. Fiserv will leverage the partnership to provide a turnkey solution for banks to implement Early Warning’s P2P payment solution, clearXchange.
clearXchange was created in 2011 by Bank of America, Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo and was acquired by Early Warning in January. Fiserv will market the real-time P2P solution, helping Early Warning to reach 6,000 banks and credit unions, including the 40 largest U.S. financial institutions. clearXchange will be available through its NOW Network, which connects financial institutions, billers, small businesses and consumers to facilitate the exchange of money and information in real time.
Early Warning’s CEO Paul Finch says, “Our mission is to enable all banks and credit unions to offer a broad range of real-time payment solutions to their customers,” and adds, “Our relationship with Fiserv will expand our ability to deliver Early Warning’s trusted and secure payments solutions through financial institutions of all sizes nationwide.”
Fiserv is one of the newest distribution partners for the service, along with Mastercard, which announced this week that its Mastercard Send U.S. debit cardholders can send and receive money through the clearXchange network.
It’s unclear what effect this will have on Fiserv’s existing P2P payment service, Popmoney, which it began offering after acquiring Popmoney creator CashEdge in 2011. For now, the Atlanta-based company made it clear it will offer both services.
Fiserv last presented at FinovateSpring 2016 where it debuted its mobile account opening solution targeted toward millennials.
On Finovate.com
Around the web
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.