There is big news on the trade association front today. The Marketplace Lending Association (MLA), the trade organization for fintech...
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With 2.6 million people and the highest remittances in Africa, Nigeria is currently the 7th most populous country in the world.
A report from the Beijing Bureau of Financial Work says 90% of P2P platforms will struggle to stay in business in 2017; if their predictions are correct that would reduce the total number of P2P companies from 4,856 to approximately 500; companies will begin to undergo a review by regulators and it is expected that a run on deposits is likely to occur; regulators will be checking for a number of variables including two new requirements: the appointment of a custodian bank and full disclosure of the use of deposits; other factors under review will include risk management, business scale, IT infrastructure, investment sources and shareholders' credibility; firms will either be granted a P2P lending license or be required to liquidate; in 2016 the industry accounted for 800 billion yuan and according to the Beijing Bureau of Financial Work it is likely that 2017 will end drastically different for the industry overall. Source
Binance said it would pull out of the FTX deal in a tweet, citing corporate due diligence and media reports.
This week, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) proposes improvements to the loosely-regulated fintech sector in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Kenya; CGAP is a global partnership of 34 leading organizations advancing financial inclusion; they note fintech companies may inappropriately publicize a borrower's personal information if they default on a loan, and others may sweep a user's social media data with minimal notice to the consumer; a key step, by law and proactive process, is to rigorously include all fintech platforms under existing laws for lenders in Kenya. Source
On November 7, China passed data control laws that had been put on the table in August; the laws include government security checks on companies in finance, telecommunications and other critical data industries as well as mandatory in-country data storage; also, individuals will have to register with their real names on messaging services; businesses are concerned that information flow will be curtailed in industries where this is critical to be effective and corporate security checks have the potential to be invasive rather than simply regulatory; the law will go into effect next summer; some aspects of the law will need clarification over time from the government. Source
Gensler said his biggest worry about the equity market was competition and consolidation. While retail investing has taken off, the PFOF that enables it is ripe for conflict of interest.
These operations had been legally challenged by credit card companies, which currently dominate this type of activity in Chile.
Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, spoke about regtech at the Fintech Australia Summit; the treasurer discussed a regtech collision occurring in fintech where both crowdfunding firms and traditional banks are benefiting from increased technological innovation around regulation; likely that the marketplace lending ecosystem could see expansion in regulatory technology innovation. Source
The "crypto crackdown" continues with the SEC's sights set on Coinbase. The company is holding firm.