Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Former Credit Suisse board member de Boissard backs credit risk AI startup

Former Credit Suisse board member Gaël de Boissard and ex-Deutsche Bank COO Henry Ritchotte have invested in James, a startup using artificial intelligence to tackle credit risk.

17 July 2017

News/Credit risk

Capital One Canada launches free credit score tool

Canadians are suffering from ostrich syndrome, according to a new survey from Capital One which shows that more than half have never attempted to get their credit score.

05 May 2017

News/Credit risk

Big banks more popular than fintechs with US SMEs - survey

A survey of small business credit published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has revealed that online lenders are less popular with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) than big banks.

13 April 2017

News/Credit risk

Online lender Upstart raises $32.5m

Upstart, a US online lender founded by a gaggle of former Googlers, has raised $32.5 million in a funding round led by Japan's Rakuten and an unnamed asset manager.

03 March 2017

News/Credit risk

High rate of defaults hit P2P lending sector

Investors in the peer to peer (P2P) lending sector have seen their returns suffer due to a high rate of borrower defaults among start-ups, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

20 February 2017

News/Credit risk

P2P lender gets £40m boost from UK government

UK startup Funding Circle has received £40m from the state-owned British Business Bank (BBB)on the condition that the funds be used to lend to small businesses, according to a report from news website Business Insider.

05 January 2017

News/Credit risk

Fed Governor sounds warning on alternative credit scoring data

A Federal Reserve governor has cautioned fintech firms about the risks of using non-traditional data such as social media information to judge creditworthiness, warning that it could lead to them falling foul of fair lending laws.

05 December 2016

News/Credit risk

CPMI-Iosco reports push CCP regulatory agenda

Derivatives central counterparties (CCPs) have made meaningful progress in boosting their resilience in recent years but more work is needed to ensure consistency around the world, according to new reports from major global bodies.

16 August 2016

News/Credit risk

Baidu partners ZestFinance to turn search data into credit scores

Chinese web giant Baidu has made an investment in ZestFinance, a US fintech startup using machine learning to overhaul the credit scoring business. The size of the deal has not been disclosed.

18 July 2016

News/Credit risk

UK P2P lender MarketInvoice raises £7.2m

MarketInvoice, a UK-based P2P lender has secured more than £7m in its latest round of fundraising, defying the economic uncertainty around startups following the UK's controversial vote to leave the European Union.

18 July 2016

News/Credit risk

Ormsby Street partners Deutsche Bank to launch credit checking tool in Germany

British startup Ormsby Street has launched its small business credit-checking tool in Germany through a partnership with Deutsche Bank.

26 May 2016

News/Credit risk

US Treasury calls for online lending oversight

In a week in which the sector has been rocked by the Lending Club scandal, online marketplaces have been warned in a new report from the US Treasury that they need to be more transparent and should, in some cases, face greater regulatory oversight.

11 May 2016

News/Credit risk

Wells Fargo promises faster credit for small business customers

Wells Fargo is ditching the paperwork for small businesses in need of short-term credit with the introduction of FastFlex, an online, fast-decision loan that is funded as soon as the next business day.

10 May 2016

News/Credit risk

Branch raises $9.2m to bring mobile-based lending to developing markets

Branch, a startup promising to bring lending to people in developing nations by using data stored on their mobile phones to make credit decisions, has raised $9.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

31 March 2016

News/Credit risk

Alternative lender SoFi becomes Fico-free zone

US online lending powerhouse SoFi has declared itself a Fico-free zone, ditching traditional credit scores in favour of what it claims are more useful data.

12 January 2016

News/Credit risk

Rabobank to lay off 9,000 staff

Dutch co-operative bank Rabobank is set to shed almost a fifth of its workforce as it restructures in order to meet new European banking regulations.

11 December 2015

News/Credit risk

Online lender Earnest raises $275m to build 'modern bank for the next generation'

Earnest has raised $75 million in a Series B funding round and secured another $200 million in debt financing as it prepares to take on traditional banks with its data-centric approach to online lending.

17 November 2015

News/Credit risk

Dutch banks team up on digital identity service pilot

Dutch banks are banding together on a digital identification service which will let online customers use their login details to access other commercial and government sites.

02 November 2015

News/Credit risk

P2P lenders target UK market ahead of new regulation

The UK could be swamped by P2P lenders after it emerged that more than 100 companies have sought regulatory authorisation while almost 200 are already operating via interim permission from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

11 August 2015

News/Credit risk

Commerzbank venture fund invests in iwoca

The venture capital arm of Germany's CommerzBank has joined in a $20m funding round for UK-based SME lending platform iwoca.

30 July 2015