Rojin Nair, Advisor
June 1st, 2021
At Incyub8 Inc, Rojin is focusing on nurturing and guiding various national and international start-[...]
Category Archives: Marketplace Lending/P2P, Online Lending, BNPL
Propel Holdings Launches Inclusive Canadian Credit Product, Fora
Propel Holdings Inc. (TSX: PRL), a Fintech company dedicated to credit inclusion, announced that it has entered the Canadian market with its new brand, Fora CreditTM (Fora) – “a convenient online credit solution for underserved Canadian consumers.”
- Currently available in Alberta and Ontario and Propel has plans to roll out Fora into additional provinces across the country in the coming months.”
- To support the growth of this new Canadian portfolio, Propel announced it has “secured a revolving credit facility with an aggregate initial capacity of approximately C$26 million shared between senior lender CWB Maxium Financial Inc., a part of the Canadian Western Bank Financial Group of companies (CWB), and junior lender Bastion Management and affiliates thereof (Bastion), an existing lender to Propel.”
See: What You Need to Know About Employee Loans in Down Round Times
Key features of Fora include:
- A flexible line of credit product that allows customers to draw from their available credit as needed;
- Simple online application that can be completed in minutes at www.foracredit.ca from any desktop, tablet or mobile device;
- Quick credit decisions using Propel’s proprietary AI algorithms and technology;
- Seamless online customer experience, including an easy-to-use self-service portal that customers can access 24/7 to manage their line of credit; and
- No origination fees, no annual fees, no late fees and no pre-payment penalties.
Clive Kinross, Propel’s Chief Executive Officer:
Consumers across the United States have trusted Propel and its operating brands for more than a decade to deliver flexible credit solutions and we are delighted to bring our offering home to Canadians. We fully expect that Fora will become a leading solution for the 25 per cent of Canadians who are unable to access credit through traditional financial institutions.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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The Latest Innovative Trends in FinTech
Oct 31, 2022
Image: Unsplash/Skye Studios
The Fintech industry has been home to some of the most interesting innovations over the past few years, with startups leading the way and disrupting traditional financial services. FinTech has been steadily transforming the global economy, allowing the bankless to gain access to banking services and offering new ways for consumers to get more out of their money.
Innovation has been key to change in this sector, bringing new technology and ideas to the table and changing how people do business. Innovation is a powerful tool for implementing new ideas and leveraging resources to create a competitive advantage. You can learn more about how it works with a corporate strategy course, which will give you the tools you need to drive innovation and boost your business’ performance.
Although we’ve seen many big changes in the FinTech industry, there is still room for growth. The global market for financial technology is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.2% through 2030. These are some of the latest innovative trends that can help this sector continue to grow.
Buy Now Pay Later
Buy now pay later (BNPL) is hardly a new concept, but recent innovations have led to it taking off all over the world. Services such as ClearPay and Klarna offer consumers the chance to pay across interest-free instalments. Giving consumers more freedom over when they pay has proven to be a major hit, with a growing number of online retailers now offering this service.
BNPL companies might not charge interest on instalments, but they do charge if the instalments aren’t paid in time. Some have criticised these companies, saying they have the potential to trap the financially illiterate in debt. And when BNPL is offered for things like takeaways, it’s easy to see why people would think this.
In reality, it’s much more like a credit card. Only anyone can use it. Future innovations to BNPL services could include offering better guidelines to consumers on the risks involved in paying on credit and linking a bank account to make direct debits.
FinTech Super Apps
With the help of a payment system, super apps combine many programmes into a single user interface to offer an ecosystem of completely integrated third-party services. The idea is not brand-new. It’s also incredibly prevalent in apps throughout Asia and Latin America, and the concept is becoming more common in the West too.
Any existing digital platform with a sizable user base that has a shared lifestyle or business goal could benefit from developing a super app. It allows the organisation to combine the end user's existing data with fresh insights gleaned from a variety of behaviours and interests. Super apps have a lot of applications within the FinTech industry and could be part of the next wave of innovative ideas.
See: CPAs Are Seeing Fintech Innovation Across Many Canadian Provinces
The emergence of these apps could result in cryptocurrency trading while maintaining multiple savings accounts for fintech. This could also include quick and cost-free account opening alternatives, as well as cross-border payment capabilities and multi-currency possibilities. Already, platforms such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling are approaching Super app territory, offering several different services in one.
Mainstream Adoption of Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency has steadily seen increased adoption around the world since it first appeared in 2010. Every few years, the market grows, and hype builds around these digital assets. Although many dismissed them as a fad initially, they’ve become more widespread, and the potential use cases and applications are extremely interesting.
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, sparking a lot of debate. Since then, no other countries have followed, but El Salvador offers potential insight into a world that fully adopts cryptocurrency payments.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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HSF: 6th Global Bank Review 2022 | Banking on People
HSF | Oct 20, 2022
Surveying the current landscape of the financial sector in late 2022, it is hard to avoid the sense of an industry once again facing a severe squeeze.
- Low carbon squeeze: Global finance is currently facing mounting pressure to invest long-term for a low-carbon, high-tech world in the decades to come, while bracing itself for intense economic headwinds and volatility on the immediate horizon.
- Attracting and motivating talent challenges: How to attract and motivate talent is an increasingly vexed question, as a hard-nosed, comp-driven ethos once taken for granted among bankers has given way to more amorphous motivations for aspiring graduates.
See: CB Insights Report: The State Of Fintech: Q3 2022
- Employees are looking for: Even before the shift to a hybrid working environment reset the business model of the industry, junior bankers were showing signs of focusing on a wider range of factors like work/life balance, good corporate citizenship, sustainability and personal development.
- Job cuts? Some predict that a looming round of job cuts amid a rapidly cooling global economy will bring workers back to their desks, but that is far from certain; given the greater competition from other industries and sectors, an overflow of willing talent can no longer be taken for granted.
- In a fiercely competitive market which is clearly feeling the impact of disruptive challengers targeting the retail banking space, rising investment in technology is becoming mere price-of-entry.
- Lenders are expected to reach customers via new routes, such as social media and deploy increasingly sophisticated tools for advanced automation and AI, just to keep up with peers.
- Such tactics also bring increased scrutiny from regulators intent on ensuring consumers are marketed to as fairly on TikTok as via their local branch, and that AI treats customers equally, rather than entrenching human-built bias. The more tech lenders deploy, the more complexities and online vulnerabilities fraudsters will attempt to exploit.
See: Fintech ‘Ethical Duty’ to Help Combat Cost of Living Crisis
- Higher ethical and social expectations: wider challenge for banks is that policy makers, regulators and society more generally remain determined to impose ever-higher ethical and social expectations on the industry. Meeting these demands will impose a higher cost of doing business on banks.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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As Interest Rates Climb and the Tide Goes Out, BNPL’s Resiliency Will be Tested
FP | | Sep 30, 2022
Higher borrowing costs will test the resiliency of BNPL
- The Bank of Canada has increased its benchmark interest rate three percentage points since March and governor Tiff Macklem has been clear he isn’t finished, as inflation is running at an annual rate of about seven per cent, too fast for a central bank that targets two per cent.
- So, higher borrowing costs will test the resiliency of BNPL, a type of credit popularized in recent years by digital upstarts that typically allows shoppers to pay four instalments at zero interest over a period of six to eight weeks.
- BNPL companies took off in the pandemic thanks in part to central banks in the United States and Europe dropping interest rates to zero, generous government stimulus that induced spending and the e-commerce boom, said Michael Taiano, senior director at Fitch Ratings Inc.
See: CFPB to Regulate BNPL Like Credit Card Firms
- BNPL lenders are feeling the heat. Stockholm-based Klarna Inc.’s latest fundraising round in July implied a valuation of US$6.7 billion, an 85-per-cent drop from US$45.6 billion in 2021, one of the clearest signs of dwindling confidence. Klarna cut staff by 10 per cent in May and announced a second round of firings in September, TechCrunch reported.
Block Completes Purchase of BNPL pioneer Afterpay
- Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. finally brought its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service to Canada last week, eight months after buying BNPL pioneer Afterpay Ltd. for US$29 billion in January.
- Block is betting that the new interest-rate backdrop will separate the strong from the weak, as financial technology companies that are overly reliant on BNPL become prey for companies that offer a wider array of financial services.
- Canada’s major entries, PayBright and Flexiti Financial Inc., were purchased by Affirm and Wichita, Kan.-based Curo Group Holdings Corp., respectively, between December 2020 and February 2021.
See: Why BNPL Swedish giant Klarna has sights set on Canada
“We think we’re going to see consolidation,” said Alyssa Henry, who runs Square. “But I think we’re also going to see the rise of ecosystems like the ecosystem we have.”
“What gives me confidence is if you look at gen Z, they’re responding very strongly to buy now, pay later,” Lieu said.
“A lot of these BNPL providers just kind of popped up in the last couple of years when it was an attractive environment, but maybe they don’t have the business model to withstand some of the challenges that are currently present,” Taiano said.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Bank CEOs Defend P2P Payments Network Zelle in Senate Hearing Over Consumer Fraud Handling
BankingDive | Anna Hrushka | Sep 23, 2022
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, called the peer-to-peer payments network “unsafe,” claiming Zelle users were defrauded out of $500 million last year.
“You have created a perfect weapon for criminals to use and they have used it and you have not stood behind your customers,” she told the witnesses, which included the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, Truist, PNC and U.S. Bank.
- Zelle, a network designed to compete with P2P fintechs such as Venmo and Cash App, is owned by six of the seven banks represented at Thursday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing.
- Senate Democrats on Thursday pressed the CEOs of the nation’s largest retail banks to answer for scams associated with Zelle, a bank-owned peer-to-peer payments network, calling for the institutions to implement policies to protect and redress customers defrauded through the platform.
See:
Asset Managers, Banks Are Tightening Controls of Communication Tools like WhatsApp
Some New Banking Rules Implemented to Protect Consumers in Canada
- In a joint letter sent to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra in April, the Democratic lawmakers called on the regulator to expand the definition of “error payments” to include payments a consumer makes to a scam artist. The lawmakers also called for the CFPB to issue guidance that would place the burden on banks to make consumers defrauded by such transactions whole.
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who is no stranger to fiery exchanges with Warren, said his bank reimburses customers whose accounts have been hacked, a policy banks follow under Regulation E. Anything that’s unauthorized, we do cover,” Dimon told the senator, adding the amount of fraud on Zelle is “relatively small.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Saddled with Rising Rates and Debt, Canadian Borrowers Seek Mortgage Alternatives
Reuters via yahoo finance | | Sep 7, 2022
TORONTO (Reuters) - In a country where the Big Six banks control 80% mortgage market share, Canada's smaller lenders are making some rare headway after the Bank of Canada's sudden and sharp interest rate increases this year raised the bar to qualify for home loans. The Bank of Canada has so far this year increased rates by 300 basis points, including Wednesday's 75 basis-point hike. That has lifted the minimum qualifying rate for the biggest banks' mortgages, set by regulator OSFI, reducing the amounts borrowers can access and leading some of them to seek alternatives.
- Credit unions' mortgage balances increased 4.1% between March 31 and June 30 [compares with 2.6% growth at the Big Six banks]. That's good news for credit unions, which hold 14% of outstanding Canadian mortgages.
- Most credit unions can take into account factors that the big banks may not consider, including variable income for self-employed borrowers and those who have stable income now but may have a limited or checkered credit history, said Michael Hatch, vice president, government relations, at the credit union association.
Watch Keith Taylor, Executive Director, DUCA: Fintech Fridays EP45: Mission-driven and Consumer-centric Financial Services
Pippa Nutt, chief marketing and member solutions officer at DUCA Financial:
We're seeing a lot more rate shoppers, so we're seeing a lot more inquiries, which has seen a 300% increase in loan growth in June from the previous year, and 27% from the prior month.
Mark Ostland, director, mobile experience, at Meridian Credit Union:
We're certainly seeing more people come over saying, 'I'm good, I'm OK, but I failed the stress test'. Their financial profile may (still) be strong.
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The Canadian Press via Global News | Sep 7, 2022
Image: Unsplash/Alice Pasquale
Rising interest rates, high household debt to spur ‘payment shock’ for Canadians
Canadians are increasingly vulnerable to “payment shock” as higher household debt levels collide with oversized interest rate hikes.
- Another major rate hike: The Bank of Canada raised its key lending rate by three-quarters of a percentage point Wednesday, making it more expensive to borrow money in a time of climbing debt.
- Climbing consumer debt: Equifax said total consumer debt climbed 8.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same quarter last year. TransUnion’s latest credit industry report said total debt grew to an all-time high at $2.24 trillion, up 9.2 per cent from the same time in 2021 and up 16.4 per cent from pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2019.
See: Fintech Lenders Polarized: Some Plan for a Difficult Year as Others See Opportunity
- Relying on cards, loans, and feeling the pressure: It’s a situation experts say could push some to a breaking point as they rely on higher interest rate loans and credit cards to pay for the soaring cost of everyday essentials.
- Wes Cowan, a licensed insolvency trustee and senior vice-president at MNP Ltd., says people are increasingly using credit cards and loans to make ends meet. He says given growing debt levels and escalating interest rates, he expects to see more people struggle to make minimum debt servicing payments in the coming months.
“Anything that has a variable rate attached to it, like the lines of credit, we’re going to see a huge payment shock,” he says. “Everything is more expensive — buying groceries, heating your home, the basics — and now servicing your debt will cost more too.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Fintech Lenders Polarized: Some Plan for a Difficult Year as Others See Opportunity
AltFi | Daniel Lanyon | Aug 22, 2022
Lenders are preparing for a difficult year ahead as pandemic tailwinds cease at the same as high inflation and a host of related economic headwinds start to gather. But some also see opportunity
Sentiment and perspectives
- Lending could soon become much more polarised market with low-risk businesses and low-risk consumers still having plentiful access to credit but higher risk borrowers cut out. The former will therefore be courted more heavily by a larger group of lenders. The latter, the opposite. Lenders meanwhile will require a suite of new data sources to price both groups accurately. Fintech-enabled firms may well be best suited to these conditions.
See: UK Alternative Lenders Funding Delivery Performance to Small Businesses During COVID
- While this scenario makes risks harder to calculate prompting some lenders to pull back, Wilder says fintech lenders may have the advantage to take new market share from incumbents.
- Chris Keane at GDS Link: There's a whole cohort of consumers who are really feeling the pinch through the rising cost of living and businesses that have had their balance sheets flattered through Covid support schemes
- Katrin Herrling, Funding Xchange’s CEO: we're starting to see failure rates for a cohort of SMEs going up after the ‘normal’ signs that you would see to understand risk profiles of businesses become less muted. The next twelve months as a result will become harder for lenders to assess SME borrowers.
- The removal of support from Government-backed Covid loan schemes’ to businesses and the unwinding of consumer savings buffers stockpiled during the pandemic means we are in a new era for lending.
- A key question for lenders is whether to pull back from lending in such uncertain times. Lenders need to know which customers are ‘good’ risks and which customers are now most vulnerable when a complete pullback is not an option.
See: What You Need to Know About Employee Loans in Down Round Times
“At the same time if you are fast, if you have a testing mentality and if you're very analytical, and also embrace the power of additional data... then it's also still a time to win market share and support those consumers in a responsible way with capital and at the same time, do good business,” said Wilder.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
