Alternative finance

282 articles tagged with this keyword

/startups

Discerning the impact of Covid-19 on fintech firms and their role in financial inclusion

While the fintech industry is still evolving, the evidence so far indicates that it has a key role to play in financial inclusion, according to Ana Fiorella Carvajal, lead financial sector expert at World Bank. This role comprises not just the provision of basic services, such as payments mechanisms, but more recently also the provision of financing to consumers and SMEs.

/retail

Metro Bank acquires P2P lender RateSetter

Metro Bank is to buy distressed P2P lender RateSetter for a bargain basement initial price of £2.5 million.

/payments

US mint facing coin shortage

The debate about phasing out hard currency in favour of digital alternatives could be set to intensify with news that the US Mint is facing a shortage of coins due to the pandemic.

/startups

Revolut nets £63m from share sale

Digital banking app Revolut has netted £63m ($80m) from US private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners in its latest funding round.

/wholesale

Selina Finance raises £12 million to expand into consumer market

Selina Finance, a London-based alternative lender which provides credit to business borrowers by unlocking the value tied up in their property, has secured £12 million in equity funding and £30 in debt lines.

/regulation

SoFi applies for bank charter

Online lender SoFi has applied for a national bank charter with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

/payments

Ping An and JPMorgan to join $60 million round in Taulia

Ping An and JPMorgan are to join a $60 million financing round in supply chain finance outfit Taulia, according to the Wall Street Journal.

/startups

Wagestream raises £20m for income streaming service

Wagestream, a UK startup that lets customers draw down their 'earned income' at any time during the pay cycle, has raised £20 million in a Series B funding round led by Northzone.

/startups

Defining fintech to better understand the changing ecosystem under Covid-19

When discussing the amorphous nature of fintech, Tania Ziegler, the CCAF’s Global Benchmarking lead was struck by how ‘fintech’ is increasingly used as an all-encompassing term, describing a diverse range of organisations that all have financial technology at the centre of their operations and agenda.

/cloud

Pipe raises funds for SaaS subscription financing platform

Pipe Technologies has raised $60 million in equity and asset financing to support the growth of its SaaS financing platform.

/sustainable

Integrating ESG into capital allocation and investment strategy is ‘simply good investing’

With wildfires, the Covid-19 pandemic, the strengthening Black Lives Matter movement and the Yemen crisis dominating headlines in 2020, the sustainable investing space has seen demand despite the IMF’s projection that global growth will fall by 3% this year, resulting in the worst recession since the Great Depression and consequences far worse than the global financial crisis.

/retail

Santander invests in alternative lender Upgrade

Santander InnoVentures has led a $40 million Series D investment round in Upgrade, the consumer credit platform that is moving into mobile banking.

/retail

Greensill buys Omni for Latin America push

Greensill, a UK-based supplier of alternative supply chain finance, is targeting the Latin American market following the acquisition of Colombian SME digital lender Omni.

/startups

CCAF, World Bank, World Economic Forum launch survey to research fintech’s role post-Covid-19

Targeting 15,000 fintech firms worldwide, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) announced it has partnered with the World Bank Group and the World Economic Forum to survey industry players and compile data about Covid-19’s impact on the marketplace.

/covid-19

Metro Bank in talks to buy P2P lender RateSetter

Metro Bank has confirmed that it is in exclusive talks to buy the UK's biggest P2P lender RateSetter.

/retail

Built for Mars’ Peter Ramsay: HSBC needs Tom Blomfield-like figure to truly transform UX

Built for Mars’ Peter Ramsay has released the fourth instalment of the now sought-after ‘UX for banking’ series where he reviews 12 UK-based banks and reveals whether the experience of opening an account, making a payment or freezing a card is slicker and quicker when banking with the digital challengers.

/startups

MUFG invests in POS financing platform ChargeAfter

US multi-lender Point-of-Sale financing platform ChargeAfter has secured an investment from the venture capital arm of Japanese financial services giant MUFG.

/crypto

Swiss crypto firm launches university courses

Swiss crypto bank Seba has sought to address the potential skills gap in emerging technology by launching a blockchain-themed university education course.

/startups

Santander InnoVentures invests in Latin American SME lender a55

The venture capital arm of Banco Santander has led a $5 million round in a55, an alternative lender to SMEs is Brazil and Mexico.

/covid-19

Nick Ogden: Alternative lending sector must be harnessed by UK government schemes

Involving the alternative lending sector is the key to addressing the problem of distributing government loans and other support to businesses struggling as a result of the Coronavirus lockdown, according to the founder of ClearBank and RTGS Global Nick Ogden.