All The Fintech - Issue #10
Happy Monday everyone, especially to those that have been holding Bitcoin for the past month with it hitting up to $8100 today. This week's fintech round-up touches upon a wide of of topics from the future of the CFPB, increased competition in personal +SMB lending, and some moves from large financial institutions which I'll touch upon below.
Over the past year, later stage US fintech companies have moved from an "unbundling" of financial service to more "rebundling". For example:
Wealthfront's Path PFM
SoFi's roboadvisor offering
The common playbook for early stage fintech is establishing a beachhead through a differentiated (some might say "niche") product offering, growing + expanding user base, and then launching adjacent products. Always reminds me of Chris Dixon's post that the next big thing will look like a toy.
Meanwhile, we're now starting to see the first responses from larger financial institutions:
Goldman Sach's launch of their online bank + Marcus (more below)
Wells Fargo's roboadvisor + mobile bank account
Chase's mobile bank account
Paypal's partnership and investment with Acorns (more below)
John Hancock recently quietly launched Twine (more below)
and many more examples
Digital acquisition expertise + virality vs large existing network + household brands. 2018 is going to be fun...