RateSetter poaches new man for risk team from PayPal after chief risk officer’s departure
Peer-to-peer lending platform RateSetter has appointed a new head of risk analytics and retail credit, just weeks after the surprise departure of the platform’s chief risk officer. Michael Hoare is joining RateSetter from PayPal UK where he was chief credit risk officer. In the absence of a chief risk officer at RateSetter, Hoare and the risk team will report to RateSetter’s risk committee, chaired by former HSBC executive Jim Gunner. Hoare’s appointment follows news earlier this month that chief risk officer Cyrille Salle de Chou has left the peer-to-peer lender after just six months. He joined RateSetter from Lloyds in June but left to become chief risk officer of HSBC’s […]
Startup wealth manager Scalable Capital has attracted €100 million in just 10 months
Scalable Capital, a so-called “robo advisor” online wealth manager, has passed over €100 million (£83.8 million) in assets less than a year after launching. The startup, which launched in Germany 10 months ago and Britain 4 months ago, announced the milestone in a press release on Wednesday. Scalable’s total assets are growing at a rate of between €3 million (£2.4 million) and €5 million (£4.1 million) each week and the company claims this makes it one of the fastest growing digital investment managers in Europe. Business Insider reported in September that it was attracting around €4 million in deposits each week. Adam French, cofounder of Scalable Capital and CEO of […]
Peer-to-peer platform Folk2Folk gets authorised by the regulator
Folk2Folk has become the largest fully authorised peer-to-peer platform in Britain. The company announced on Wednesday that the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has given it full operating permissions, allowing it to offer the Innovative Finance ISA and giving it a stamp of approval that it can market to customers. Cornwall-based Folk2Folk lets people lend money to local projects and business in their area and has lent over £125 million ($157.5 million) across its platform since launch in 2013. It is different to other crowdfunding platforms in that it has a network of shops around the countries where businesses and lenders can talk to staff about lending on the […]
Banks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing competition for business from a whole host of new players, primarily from ‘FinTechs’. Growth of marketplace lending In the case of online lenders, this trend began in the UK in the mid-2000s when Zopa, the world’s first digital and now Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (now called marketplace) provider, launched, quickly followed by the likes of Prosper, Lending Club, and OnDeck in the US. Eleven years on, Zopa has lent around 1.8 billion pounds to more than 150,000 borrowers funded by 63,000 investors of whom 53,000 […]
The Pulse of Fintech
‘ The Pulse of Fintech ’ is a quarterly report created by KPMG along with KPMG Enterprise’s Global Network for Innovative Startups and CB Insights (the ‘go to’ name for insights related to venture capital investment) which launched on August 17th, 2016. The series analyses the latest global trends in venture capital investment data on the fintech sector. Given the significant interest in fintech globally, and its ongoing evolution in terms of market drivers, technologies and potential use-cases, KPMG and CB Insights are partnering to bring you the pulse on fintech investment globally. Each quarter, we’ll highlight key fintech deals, issues and challenges around the world, in addition to key […]
Fintech Kyckr scales back raising
Fintech business Kyckr has scaled back the size of its proposed initial public offering and increased the size of the free float to bankroll its global expansion plans. After initially proposing to raise between $6 million and $8m by floating on the ASX in June, Kyckr slowed down the listing process and will now raise a maximum of $6m and offer 35 per cent of the company to new external investors. “We have purposely slowed it down because we didn’t want to fall into a listing amid all the noise of the June-July period. There will be more clear air in the August period,’’ said managing director David Cassidy. “Time […]
Fintech investment surges in Q1 but does that mean the Kodak moment nears for banks?
There was a resurgence of activity in the financial technology (fintech) universe in the first quarter of the year after signs of potential rapid deflation at the end of 2015. According to KPMG’s latest The Pulse of Fintech report, the March quarter saw funding to the fintech sector rebound with total investment in fintech companies hitting US$5.7 billion. Globally, Venture Capital-backed fintech companies drew $US4.9 billion in funding, rising from just $US1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015. The report identified larger deals, concentrated in Asia, played a major role in the rebound with 13 $US50 million+ rounds to VC-backed fintech companies, a slight rise from 10 such deals in […]
UK fund to back ThinCats Australia
ThinCats Australia has announced that UK-based alternative finance fund ESF Capital will acquire a 30 per cent stake in the peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending platform. ESF Capital will also provide $10 million in funding for loans on the platform in the first year, joining another 300 lenders on ThinCats’ panel. ThinCats Australia CEO Sunil Aranha said the injection of capital and funding by ESF will provide a significant boost to the platform as well as the many SMEs seeking loans. “The injection of capital by ESF will allow us to ramp up our operations and technology platform, lift our market presence and hire more staff to tap into the largely […]
