Consumer Bureau Scraps Restrictions on Payday Loans, TransferWise Secondary Share Sale, Ant Group IPO

Lenders spent years battling planned new rules that they said would gut a short-term lending market that often leaves borrowers trapped in debt.

SoFi has filed an application for a national bank charter, which would allow the fintech company to offer more competitive interest rates on checking, savings and loan personal finance products.

German prosecutors said on Monday they had arrested the head of a Dubai-based subsidiary of Wirecard, widening the circle of suspects in a multi-billion-dollar fraud investigation into the collapse of the payments company.

TransferWise, the British fintech champion, is on the brink of joining an exclusive club of UK startups to achieve $5bn (£4bn) valuations with a share offering that is attracting interest from major global investors.

Ant Group, the fintech arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, plans a Hong Kong float as soon as this year and targets a valuation of more than $200 billion, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Taulia, a San Francisco-based fintech that provides working capital for companies, has raised $60 million in a strategic funding round led by Ping An Global Voyager Fund along with JPMorgan and Prosperity7 Ventures. “Providing SMEs access to efficient sources of…

Payfazz, a startup that provides financial and payment services through agents, just raised US$53 million in series B funding. The round was led by B Capital Group and Insignia Ventures Partners, along with existing investors Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, ACE & Company, and Quiet Capital.

As IPO season continues, another venture-backed tech company is moving closer toward going public. This week nCino filed an updated S-1 filing, providing an initial price range for its equity of $22 to $24 per share.

PBI (Progetto Banca Idea) an Italian challenger set up by two banking veterans, has landed €45 million in a funding round and acquired Fide Spa.

Less than a decade and millions of customers already, valuations in billions, after billions of VC money invested — what’s so different about these challenger/digital-only/neo banks? Where were the traditional banks failing that led to these new breeds of banks? What do people now expect as standard from these digital banks?

Frustrated traders occasionally show up at Robinhood’s headquarters in California, which led the company to take precautions, a new report said.

Amazon helps sellers to access loans of ING Germany in a convenient application process. Small and medium sized businesses gain access to liquidity to help them grow. ING Germany opens up new sales channel and lays the foundation for further growth in the customer segment “Business Banking”

Auditors are still figuring out how to assess the financial statements of fintech companies, a challenge highlighted in the recent accounting scandal surrounding German electronic-payments company Wirecard.

A Deloitte survey across nine key markets in the Middle East has found that despite a growing willingness to adopt fintech solutions, only just over 20% of banking services customers currently use fintech tools.