Fortune (January 23)
China’s investment in financial technology (fintech) has surged ahead of North America’s, accounting for “more than half of all fintech investments globally in the first nine months of last year…. Specifically in terms of venture capital, the country more than doubled its worldwide share of the investment category, rising to 46% of the global total versus just 19% the same period in 2015.” In contrast, the U.S. dropped from 56% to 41%.
Tags: China, Fintech, Investment, North America, U.S., Venture-capital
Wall Street Journal (April 290)
Fintech companies like SoFi are doing their “best to turn the banking system upside down.” We may be glimpsing the “Uberization of Banking” if fintech firms succeed in moving “lending away from the big banks and onto your smartphone.”
Tags: Banks, Fintech, Lending, Smartphone, SoFi, Uberization
Euromoney (April 4)
“After a record year for fund raising, large fintech companies are now emerging in marketplace lending and payments, with many more newcomers deploying venture capital money raised in $25 million to $50 million chunks to transform capital markets and traditional banking mainstays such as mortgage lending.” Fintech could prove highly disruptive. “Fintech start-ups are building revolutionary applications for blockchain, attacking every specialist niche in the financial world and keeping the image of fintech clean with business ventures aimed at inclusion.”
Tags: Applications, Banking mainstays, Blockchain, Fintech, Fund raising, Mortgage lending, Niche, Payments, Revolutionary, Venture-capital
Institutional Investor (January 21)
“For more than half a decade, a seemingly irresistible momentum has been building around the idea that finance and technology are converging at a historical inflection point, a combination of business transformation and competitive disruption that has come to be labeled fintech.” Fintech “has legs,” making a “2000-style crash” unlikely. Still, fintech is not immune to cyclical decline, may be approaching frothy levels, and carries other risks as well.
Tags: Cyclical decline, Disruption, Finance, Fintech, Froth, Inflection point, Momentum, Risks, Technology, Transformation