Five At Five: Amazon’s India Expansion

Welcome to Five at Five, your late look at the day’s payments and commerce news. Today’s coverage includes the latest international plans from Amazon and a new bid for Sears. Google is becoming charitable, P2P lending in China faces problems and U.S. credit-scoring firms face more scrutiny.

Amazon Sets Its Sights on Rural Areas of India

Amazon is setting its sights on India’s rural consumers, building a logistics network so that it can serve the 800 million people, many of whom don’t have much in terms of access to retailers.

Eddie Lampert Submits $4.4B Bid to Save Sears

The bid was partly backed by funding from multiple financial institutions. The institutions are said to have agreed to a revolving credit line of $350 million and an asset-backed loan of $950 million.

Google Assistant Becomes Charitable

Google’s proprietary voice-activated AI helper has added a feature that lets users donate to charities via voice from any smart device using the company’s software.

China’s P2P Lending Market Expected to Shrink in 2019

The P2P lending market in China has been rife with scams and controversy for some time. The lack of regulation led to the country’s biggest Ponzi scheme, protests across cities in China and losses for thousands of people.

Credit-Scoring Companies to Face More Scrutiny With Dems Taking Over House

Equifax and the other credit reporting companies could end up in the crosshairs of lawmakers as Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives.