Tagged: covid-19

July 14, 2020 @ 11:22 am By JD Alois  |  

This week’s update on COVID-19 support schemes indicates that over 1.1. million UK businesses have been approved to receive £46 billion. The numbers breakdown as follows: Approximately 1.05 million smaller firms have received a total of £31.7 billion through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, an… Read More

July 13, 2020 @ 9:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The G20 summit, which will include representatives from 19 different countries and the EU, will be working on laying the groundwork for accepting digital payments. The G20, which is an international forum for world governments and central bank governors, might make changes to the existing… Read More

July 13, 2020 @ 9:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Over half or 50% of companies that applied for, and received funding via the US government’s Paycheck Protection Program were financial services providers or companies focused on related technology developments. As reported recently, Fintech firms managed to acquire significant amounts of funding from the PPP… Read More

July 12, 2020 @ 2:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The global COVID-19 outbreak has negatively impacted businesses in many different industries throughout the world. Remote working is increasingly becoming the “new normal” for many people. Employees are able to perform most of their daily tasks from home, and don’t need to be at a… Read More

July 11, 2020 @ 4:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

London-based Cogress, a leading property investment company, confirmed that it’s getting ready to begin lending soon as the company prepares to secure £5.5 million in capital through its investors, after finalizing several new deals. Cogress raises funds via private equity, hotel investments, and mezzanine debt…. Read More

July 10, 2020 @ 4:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

CRIF Realtime, a credit scoring tool provider for small businesses, has teamed up with UK-based Finpoint, a platform that lets borrowers compare different options anonymously and negotiate directly with finance providers. Both companies aim to work cooperatively in order to speed up the process of… Read More

July 10, 2020 @ 4:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The UK’s Consumer Finance Association (CFA), a trade association of non-bank lenders that represents alternative consumer credit providers, recently questioned whether forbearance during the COVID- 19 crisis should be reflected or shown on credit files. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has provided guidelines that may… Read More

July 10, 2020 @ 11:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Landbay, a buy-to-let mortgage lender that provides various borrowing opportunities, says that automatic valuation models (AVM) and desktop valuations used by major buy-to-let lenders during COVID-19 are not possible for more specialized lenders. A desktop valuation usually refers to valuations that are undertaken with… Read More

July 9, 2020 @ 9:53 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based challenger bank Tide announced this week it has paused its bounce back loan lending and closed its waiting list. In April 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the lending scheme, which added to the existing support of small businesses that are affected by the COVID-19… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 9:15 am By JD Alois  |  

Funding Circle (LSE:FCH) has posted an update on its participation and support of COVID-19 relief programs. Funding Circle is facilitating programs in both the US and UK. The SME online lender is participating in the British Business Bank’s (BBB) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CBILS) and… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 12:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Jane Gladstone, the recently appointed president of Promontory Interfinancial Network, has been working in Fintech investment banking since the 1990s. Gladstone established a Fintech merger and acquisition (M&A) and advisory service during the 90s, while working at Morgan Stanley. Gladstone, the former senior MD at… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 10:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Around 40% of European consumers responding to a survey claim that they’ve not been able to access new financial services because of lockdown measures enforced after the COVID-19 outbreak. These consumers also said they’re unable to access digital platforms, which is why they can’t use… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 10:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Alternative Business Funding (ABF), a free and easy-to-use website for finding funding sources for SMEs, has teamed up with LawBite, an online legal platform powering a fully SRA regulated UK law firm that provides various legal services to small businesses. Through the partnership, the… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 9:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Tomorrow (July 8), the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, part of the House Financial Services Committee will hold a virtual hearing entitled, “Exposure Notification and Contact Tracing: How AI Helps Localities Reopen Safely and Researchers Find a Cure.”  Open to the public, the virtual… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 8:04 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Trump Administration has released additional information regarding the recipients of the COVID-19 linked Payroll Protection Program (PPP). Brooklyn, New York-based ConsenSys, a leading Ethereum (ETH) development studio, and several digital asset exchanges were listed as beneficiaries of the recent PPP Coronavirus financial relief scheme…. Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 9:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a leading UAE-based financial institution, reports that it has experienced significantly increased levels of digital banking adoption across its retail and corporate services during H1 2020. As noted in a release, almost 60% of ADIB’s retail clients have been using… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 7:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The use of stolen and synthetic identities to carry out fraudulent activities increased significantly in 2019, and the COVID-19 crisis might be making the problem even worse, according to a recently published  Identity Fraud Report from Javelin Strategy & Research. Financial losses due to identity… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 12:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  The global Fintech industry is being transformed by the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting socio-economic problems and challenges, according to a recent report from CB Insights. As mentioned in the report, the first quarter of this year was quite difficult for the financial services sector… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 4:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Borrowers that use Indonesia’s peer to peer (P2P) lending platform Investree, which mainly includes local SMEs, had reported a considerable increase in their earnings. They were also able to better scale their business operations after obtaining loans from Investree, according to a recent study conducted… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 11:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Australia-based TAGZ, a crypto exchange that claimed to be one of the largest fully-regulated digital currency trading platforms, recently announced that it will be shutting down its operations on July 30, 2020. TAGZ was reportedly a licensed AML/CTF compliant digital asset exchange. As noted on… Read More