Wealthfront is the first of the tech-powered financial advisers to offer securities-based lending. It will compete with the likes of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.
For all the talk of co-optation and partnerships with banks, financial services startups are doing well in underserved niche markets such as actors and musicians.
A freewheeling discussion (over beers) about the future of branches with Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital and Dave Martin of BankMechanics at the Trump National Doral hotel in Miami during American Banker’s Retail Banking 2017 conference.
At last week's conference in London, host Brett King took time away from speaking and judging startup pitches to talk to some of the main presenters, including Ruth Wandhöfer, Citi's global head of regulatory and market strategy.
"Virtually evert venture capitalist I know is excited about insurance as the next big thing in fintech," says Sam Hodges, co-founder and U.S. managing director at Funding Circle.
Fintech companies can help consumers and small businesses obtain credit at lower costs, but it is critical to ensure that these innovative companies do not harm borrowers with predatory or discriminatory lending practices.
The hype surrounding voice technology, bots and machine learning suggests that artificial intelligence is increasingly common in financial services. But that is not the purist’s view of what AI represents.
