BankThink

Morning Scan: Marketplace Lenders Look to Mom and Pop; Going Digital

11/03/16

Wall Street Journal

Seeking retail: Marketplace lenders, rebuffed by institutional investors who stopped buying their loans, are hoping retail investors will provide a more permanent source of capital. Several new funds allow retail investors to buy into the business. Investors are attracted by loans that yield over 6%. But there's a catch, warns the Wall Street Journal: "They might find themselves locked into loans due to the illiquid structure of these funds, even as they shoulder...

[more]

Some Cyber Regulations Are Excessive. Not This One

11/02/16

If modified, the cybersecurity standards in New York State are a step in the right direction to protect banks and consumers.

[more]

Will the Election Really Change All that Much for Banks?

11/02/16

A lot of analytical horsepower is being spent on what will happen to the markets after the election, but it seems to make more sense to talk about what will not change for consumers, investors and financial institutions.

[more]

Morning Scan: Wells Settles; Silicon Valley Seeks Gold in New Jersey

11/02/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Another hit: Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in which it was accused of overcharging homeowners for appraisals ordered after the borrowers defaulted on their mortgages. The plaintiffs allege they were charged $95 to $120 for a service that cost the bank $50 or less. Under the proposed settlement, Wells will mail checks, averaging $120 each, to more than 250,000 customers whose home loans were...

[more]

Reinventing Banks Isn't Just About the Technology

11/01/16

The founder and chief executive of Anthemis gets an early look at all types of fintech innovation. She's noticed that, no matter how different the ideas are, there is one underlying commonality in this sector: it's lacking something profound. Here are some small changes that could make a big difference.

[more]

Morning Scan: Competition for Bitcoin; Eying Visa, MasterCard

11/01/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Move over bitcoin: Speculators drove up the price of a single unit of Zcash – a new virtual currency that was built to be all but untraceable – to over $1,000 on Monday, a few days after it was introduced. The online currency, developed by scientists at Johns Hopkins and MIT, uses advanced cryptography that enables Zcash "to be sent around the world essentially without a trace, unlike Bitcoin." Price volatility aside,...

[more]

Why Making Yourself Uncomfortable Matters

10/31/16

Marva Smalls has gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable throughout her career, and she advises others to do the same, particularly aspiring leaders.

[more]

How Can Chatbots Be the Future If They Are Stuck in the 1960s?

10/31/16

One of the hottest bank technologies is already repeating mistakes of decades past and showing just how far banks have to go to catch up with the times. Here is one easy way to make this emerging tech more appealing to today's customers.

[more]

Morning Scan: SoFi Expands Products; Goldman Softens Policy

10/31/16

Wall Street Journal SoFi selling insurance: Marketplace lender SoFi, which got its start in 2011 refinancing student loans and has since expanded into mortgages and other financial products, is now gearing up to sell life insurance. The San Francisco-based company obtained a license in its home state in September to sell insurance on behalf of Protective Life Insurance, a Japanese-owned company that had $767 billion of insurance in force at the end of last year. SoFiÂ...

[more]

Less Channel, More Product: the Growth Formula for Banks

10/28/16

What matters is what the customer gets, not how they get it. Investing in digital distribution yields little unless banks are delivering the products and services that customers crave.

[more]