Singapore private equity investor Shanda Group has increased its shareholding in US marketplace lender Lending Club, CNBC reports. Shanda, which is run by Chinese billionaire Chen Tianqiao, has increased its stake from 11.7 per cent to 15.1 per cent. Lending Club's founder and chief executive Renaud Laplanche resigned last month after the company was found to have sold a portfolio of loans that did not meet the investor's specifications. Visa Inc has completed its acquisition of Visa Europe, Finextra reports. The European Commission approved the €20 billion deal earlier this month. The combined business serves 40 million merchant outlets and 17,100 financial institutions with a total of three billion card accounts. Visa Europe split from Visa Inc in 2007 and was owned by member banks. BNP Paribas Securities Services, Euronext and Société Générale are among the members of a seven-strong consortium that has formed to investigate the development of a post-trade blockchain infrastructure for SMEs in Europe, reports Finextra. The move has is in response to French regulators opening the way for the issuance and circulation of securities using distributed ledger technology, and to investigate real time settlement, or T+0. By combining their money and expertise, the partners hope to improve SMEs' access to capital markets, reducing transaction costs and making raising funds easier.???LINK:  https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29078/french-firms-to-build-post-trade-blockchain-infrastructure-for-smes?utm_medium=newsflash&utm_source=2016-6-21