Thursday October 10 2019, Weekly News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: Affirm debuts shopping app. Zopa profits tick upward. RateSetter recovering from loan scandal. PPDAI stock rises 7% with lift in institutional-funded loans. Oportun ends Nasdaq debut with 8% gain. Australia: RBA cuts interest rates, online lenders follow. Today’s main analysis: The Future of Finance: Marcus, Neobank, and fintech. (A MUST-READ) […]

The post Thursday October 10 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

News Comments

Today’s main news: Affirm debuts shopping app. Zopa profits tick upward. RateSetter recovering from loan scandal. PPDAI stock rises 7% with lift in institutional-funded loans. Oportun ends Nasdaq debut with 8% gain. Australia: RBA cuts interest rates, online lenders follow.
Today’s main analysis: The Future of Finance: Marcus, Neobank, and fintech. (A MUST-READ)
Today’s thought-provoking articles: Peter Renton’s quarterly marketplace lending results. Loans for sneakers. Lessons learned from LendIt Fintech Europe. What’s happening in fintech worldwide.

United States

Affirm debuts new app for shoppers. The app allows consumers to shop and check out with “virtually any retailer.” This Business Insider article highlights Affirm’s need to step up its game in order to compete with Amazon, 66 percent of whose customers begin their search for new product at Amazon. Affirm will have to offer better deals for consumers and make it easy to purchase things. With Affirm’s relationship with Walmart, that shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. However, it will be a challenge.
Affirm app allows for bill splitting.
Interview with Max Levchin, founder and CEO of Affirm.
OnDeck survey indicates small businesses are concerned about economy. Old news, still interesting.
Marcus, jobs, the economy, housing prices, and Oportun. From PeerIQ, well worth the read.
Peter Renton’s quarterly MPL results. For Q2 2019. Always interesting to read how Renton’s investments have been doing. With lots of charts.
The rose of “loans for sneakers” as a business. The focus is on Afterpay, an Affirm competitor, but this is a good read because it tackles POS lending from a consumer’s perspective. Insightful and interesting.
What happened to Borro?
Auto, home equity are soft spots in consumer lending.
Maker offers multi-collateral DAI lending.
A $40 billion pile of leveraged loans battered by huge losses.
CFPB ruling shorts debt collectors.
The SEC is hiring a data chief.
Voyager selects Celsius Network for asset management.

United Kingdom

European Union

International

What’s happening in the fintech revolution worldwide. A great read with interesting charts.
Marcus, Neobank, and fintech developments. This is today’s must-read. Very detailed with lots of charts, but the focus is mostly on digital banking. Still, a very good read.
Blockchain: The future of finance.

Other

News Summary

United States

OnDeck Survey: Economy is Top Concern for Small Businesses Ahead of 2020 Election (New Kerala), Rated: AAA

OnDeck today announced the results of a national survey of U.S. small business owners that finds economic issues are the most important factors in determining their choice for president in 2020.

Economic concerns arise in several dimensions, including tax policy, job growth, support for small businesses, government spending and the overall economic climate. These issues were cited as the top concerns of more than 33% of those surveyed;
Immigration was an issue of interest for 11.3% of small business owners surveyed, ranking second behind the economy as a concern.
57% of small businesses surveyed said they were either Very Optimistic or Somewhat Optimistic about the economic outlook for their businesses;
93% of those surveyed said they plan to vote in the 2020 election.
60% of small business owners surveyed said they already know who they plan to vote for in the 2020 presidential election.

Affirm debuted a new app encouraging customers to start their shopping journeys with it (Business Insider), Rated: AAA

The point-of-sale (POS) financing provider

Source: Business Insider

Affirm ships new shopping and bill splitting app (Finextra), Rated: A

Affirm’s app also allows consumers to pay at any brick-and-mortar store that accepts Apple Pay or Google Pay, which is increasingly important as 24% of consumers want the flexibility to look online and shop in-store.

Those with Apple Pay or Google Pay enabled have also seen up to 14% of transactions driven in-store, making the Affirm app a rare omnichannel solution for customer acquisition.

Max Levchin On The Future-Present Of Everywhere POS Lending (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Since Affirm’s launch, the landscape in the POS space is radically different than it was when Affirm entered. It is, first and foremost, a much bigger and more populated space than it once was. Other startups have come to the field — Afterpay, Uplift and Sezzle for example — but also bigger and more established names in financial services. In the last 12 months alone Square, Mastercard, PayPal and Chase have all rolled out POS installment lending products or enhancements as the market continues to pick up popularity among consumers, particularly younger ones.

Latest Macro; latest from Marcus; Oportun goes IPO (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

Q4 is off to a brisk start. The jobs report released this past Friday shows 114K in net new jobs (vs expectations of 120K), generally flat wages, and a drop in the unemployment rate to 3.5%.

On the one hand, the US economy is near ‘stall speed’ – around 1 to 1.5% growth rate.

Source: PeerIQ, The Daily Shot, Conference Board

House prices are expected to rise 5.8% over the next year due to low mortgage rates.

Two major financing announcements this week. FinTech lender, Oportun, led by CEO Raul Vazquez, ends its Nasdaq debut with an 8% gain. The debut is notable as it represents a positive shift in the sentiment to the reception of lenders to the IPO market.

My Quarterly Marketplace Lending Results – Q2 2019 (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

The upward trend in my returns continued in Q2, making it the fifth quarter in a row with increasing returns. My preliminary return for the 12 months ending June 30, 2019 is 6.20% (one investment is still not final), the best I have achieved since Q3 2017.

Source: Lend Academy

The Maybe-Dubious Rise of the Loans-for-Sneaker Business (GQ), Rated: AAA

Afterpay is one of a number of platforms that have sprouted up over the past couple years that are willing to float customers a couple hundred or thousand dollars to shop. In addition to it, there are Affirm, Sezzle, Klarna, and Quadpay. They are positioned as a more consumer-friendly option than credit cards, a whole host of services bent on—because this is 2019—disrupting the powers that be.

Globally, Afterpay, which launched in Australia, has over 4.6 million customers and 35,000 retail partners. In the U.S., where Afterpay only launched in May of last year, it has two million customers and is available at 6,500 retailers. Over three million people use Affirm, while another 500,000 have shopped with Sezzle.

Silicon Valley promises aside, Afterpay is, at best, a platform that allows you to take out what amounts to a small loan on an item. After an approval process—Afterpay does not check a credit score; others like Affirm do—the customer pays a fourth of the price upfront and the rest is paid off in three equal installments every two weeks.

Also new is the $1,500 limit, up from $500, that Afterpay raised after Hyde-McCormick proved himself a responsible shopper and the $87.50 payments currently due every two weeks.

What Happened to Borro? (deBanked), Rated: A

In 2013, Borro, an innovative online lending company that was poised to disrupt pawn shop lending forever, invited me to their stylish offices at 767 Third Avenue in Manhattan.

Borro made $50 million worth of such loans in 2013 and doubled that number in 2014.

Auto, home equity are soft spots in consumer lending (American Banker), Rated: A

In its quarterly report that tracks consumer delinquency trends, the American Bankers Association said that 30-day past-due rates ticked up in eight of 11 categories in the second quarter when compared with the first quarter, but stressed that delinquencies remain well below historic norms.

Finally! Maker Offers Multi-Collateral DAI Lending (Cryptovest), Rated: A

Maker DAO, the most active decentralized finance app on the Ethereum network, has announced a date for its long-awaited multi-collateral DAI generation. According to observers, November 18 may be the date MKR starts accepting other assets as collateral.

Multi-collateral DAI creation has the potential to be riskier in comparison to ETH-based models. Currently, Maker is deliberately over-collateralized at above 300%, with the minimum at 150%, due to the high volatility of crypto assets.

A $ 40 Billion Pile of Leveraged Loans Is Battered by Big Losses (Bloomberg), Rated: A

Loans tied to more than 50 companies have lost at least 10 percentage points of face value in just three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some have dropped a lot more, with lenders lucky to get back just two-thirds of their investment if they tried to sell.

It’s hardly a full-blown apocalypse for the junk-rated leveraged loan market, which totals $1.2 trillion.

Energy is the hardest-hit sector on the list, with more than $12 billion of loans falling more than 10 cents on the dollar. Consumer and health care follow, comprising around $8 billion and $5 billion of loans outstanding, respectively.

Source: Bloomberg

Ruling cuts short debt collectors’ victory lap over CFPB proposal (American Banker), Rated: B

Under the CFPB’s May proposal, debt collectors could have unlimited contact with debtors through email and text messages, though consumers could opt out of such communications. Additionally, collectors could satisfy disclosure requirements with a hyperlink embedded in an email that takes consumers to a description about how they can dispute a debt.

The SEC is hiring a chief data officer (Business Insider), Rated: B

The Securities and Exchange Commission is hiring its first chief data officer, according to a job posting for the role.

Voyager Selects Celsius Network to Manage Certain Assets (AP News), Rated: B

Voyager Digital, LLC, a subsidiary of publicly-traded Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd (Ticker VYGR.CN), an industry-leading best execution crypto asset broker, today announced a partnership with Celsius Network, in which Celsius will manage a portion of Voyager’s digital assets.

United Kingdom

Zopa’s P2P profits tick up but group losses widen due to heavy investment in bank (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

Zopa Group – which incorporates the P2P platform and upcoming digital bank – reported a pre-tax loss of £18.295m for the year ended 31 December 2018, compared to a pre-tax loss of £5.536m the previous year.

Zopa: nine in 10 shoppers confused by car finance options (Verdict), Rated: A

In a survey of 2,000 consumers, 47% of people who had recently bought a car with finance are unable to identify which type of finance deal they signed up for. Zopa estimates that the average car buyer could save up to £11,000 over the course of their lifetime by working out the best finance deal available.

Ratesetter recovering from loan scandal (The Times), Rated: AAA

One of Britain’s largest peer-to-peer lenders appears to be recovering from a toxic loan scandal after its latest results showed it edging towards breaking even.

Accounts for Ratesetter, which links 56,000 ordinary investors with consumer and business borrowers, show that pre-tax losses narrowed by 69 per cent in the year to March.

Wonga customers’ average compensation payout may be just £118 (The Guardian), Rated: A

Customers who were mis-sold loans by the collapsed payday lender Wonga are expected to receive less than 10% of what they are owed in compensation after administrators revealed that only £41m will be put aside for claimants.

Payday loan alternative Savvy secures £20 million funding facility (Finextra), Rated: A

Stockport and Wilmslow based fintech company Savvy.co.uk is to create 25 jobs after securing a £20 million investment.

The funding, from London-based Cairn Capital, will increase lending capacity for the company who provide an ethical alternative to pay-day loans.

MEET THE FRENCHMAN WHO WANTS TO SOLVE THE UK’S HOUSING CRISIS (Business Leader), Rated: A

WHY DID YOU START BLEND NETWORK?

I started working in the financial industry as an FX trader before moving to trading gold and copper, both much more inefficient markets than FX. I realised that the UK property market was a hugely inefficient market in the sense that lenders and borrowers are not meeting. On the one hand, you have very experienced property developers across the country who are trying to access funds to build homes but traditional lenders are no longer active in providing development finance.

Instead, we lend in places such as Coventry, East Anglia, Doncaster, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a very good example of our strategic approach to lending. Last year, we did around 80-85% of our business in Northern Ireland.

Crowdfunding a start up options explained for businesses and investors (What Investment), Rated: A

Crowdfunding a start up brings to mind the statement ‘Nothing worth having comes easy’, never truer than in the case of launching a start-up. Getting a new business off the ground will often require capital. Something which a lot of people don’t know how to go about getting.

These are:

Reward based crowdfunding;
Equity based crowdfunding;
Debt based crowdfunding, and
Donation based crowdfunding.

Landlords wary of tax changes (Money International), Rated: A

Half of the 200 landlords approached agreed tax changes and tougher mortgage borrowing criteria have thwarted their plans to buy more properties, while 15% admitted they had been put off buying homes to rent.

A third who still wanted to invest are considering a switch from buy to let to peer-to-peer lending secured against property, while 8% have already done so.

China

PPDAI Stock Soars 7% on Increase in Institutionally-Funded Loans (Capital Watch), Rated: AAA

The stock in PPDAI Group Inc (NYSE: PPDF) closed 7% higher on Wednesday, at $2.83 per American depositary share, after it announced a positive trend in funding of loans by its institutional partners and increased loan origination volume.

For the third quarter, the Shanghai-based company, which operates an online consumer finance marketplace, said in a statement on Wednesday that the volume of loans facilitated by its institutional funding partners jumped to $2.64 billion, up 91% from the second quarter. Total loan origination volume was above PPDAI’s guidance, it said, as it reached $3.51 billion, up 14% from the previous quarter.

European Union

What we learned at this year’s LendIt Fintech Europe (Business Insider), Rated: AAA

At the conference, Business Insider Intelligence identified four emerging themes that we expect to set the tone for the space for the next year: further proliferation of partnerships between banks and fintechs, increased focus on digital banks’ sustainability, accelerated innovation and disruption from small- and medium-sized business (SMB) lenders, and more challenges ahead for the UK’s P2P lenders.

CYBG bank and price comparison site GoCompare recently partnered to offer an energy compare and switch service for all of CYBG’s B customers.
Barclays bank partnered with SMB finance fintech MarketInvoice last year to give Barclays’ SMB clients access to MarkeInvoice’s solutions.
French Banking-as-a-Service platform Treezor was acquired by Société Générale last year, as the bank looked to enhance its ability to innovate and decrease time to market.

Source: Business Insider

Linked Finance launches ‘Beyond Brexit’ business loans (Bridging and Commercial), Rated: A

The new 18-month loan period will allow borrowers to access working capital facilities of up to €300,000 (approximately £265,194) in just 24 hours.

ID on track to double revenues as it eyes €300m+ of revenue within 2 years (Fintech Finance), Rated: A

ID Finance, the fintech operating in Europe and Latin America, saw revenue growth of over 100% in the first 9 months of 2019 and is on track to double its revenues to €90m revenue this year. The data science, credit scoring and digital finance company is now planning its first equity crowdfunding round via Crowdcube as it targets €300m+ of revenue within 2 years.

Binance Launches New Lending Program Phase (CoinCodex), Rated: A

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has launched the latest phase of its relatively new lending program. For the program’s eighth installment, Binance is sticking with the model of short-term loans, as users only have to commit their crypto for 14 days.

International

A Guide to What’s Happening in the Fintech Revolution (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

These underbanked markets, led by countries in Asia and Africa, have inspired fintech innovation that’s leapfrogging the technology available in the developed world. Ant Financial Services Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay in China, Paytm in India, and Safaricom’s M-Pesa in Kenya are some well-known examples.

Source: Bloomberg

Take Facebook Inc.’s plan to launch a digital currency called Libra in 2020. The social network’s gigantic reach—more than 2.4 billion active monthly users—could draw a much wider audience to Libra than has used previous cryptocurrencies. For instance, global remittances by migrants reached a record $689 billion last year, according to the World Bank.

Source: Bloomberg

San Francisco-based 500 Startups staked 43 such companies in the 12 months ended June 30.

Goldman’s $ 1.3B Marcus burn, Neobank £200MM loss; plus 14 short takes on top developments (Lex), Rated: AAA

Goldman is losing $1.3 billion on Marcus, trying to build a Fintech leader. Etrade is going to lose $75 million from cutting trading fees to $0 to keep up with Robinhood. Revolut is losing £35 million on £60 million in revenue, with another £140 million burned by Atom, Monzo, Tandem, and the rest.

Source FT Research and Future of Finance

Generally speaking, from a deposit point of view, these are still all small businesses at £1 billion in assets (e.g., Betterment manages $20 billion).

Source: ARK Invest and Future of Finance

The first is that the Robinhoods and Monzos of the world are 10x overpriced relative to the payments apps. I can sort of buy this — though money in motion is way easier to capture than money at rest. The second is that venture investors think a finance user is worth $1,500 in a digital bank.

Source: Future of Finance

Blockchain: the future of finance (Financier Worldwide), Rated: A

Recent examples of blockchain’s impact on financial markets go well beyond these initial applications or P2P lending or crowdfunding.

The first wave of applications in finance and banking is being driven by easily achievable gains in actively traded assets.

MasterCard incorporated a blockchain payment system providing vendors real time, lower cost settlements on cross-border transactions. Representing a consortium of more than 40 of the world’s largest banks, fintech firm R3 launched a payment system built on DLT platform Corda, to expedite intra-bank transfers.

St. Regis Aspen, a Colorado resort, is a partnership formed with a crowdfunding site, Indiegogo, that in lieu of a traditional IPO completed a private placement via DLT financing real estate. This sale of ‘tokens’ – fractional interests in the underlying property – raised $18m, compliant with securities laws.

Australia

Hot home loan rates starting with a 2 (mozo), Rated: AAA

The RBA has cut official interest rates for the third time this year, and already a handful of lenders have responded by slashing rates across their range of variable rate home loans. Right now, if your home loan doesn’t have a ‘2’ in front of it, you’re missing out.

loans.com.au jumps on October RBA home loan rate cut party (mozo), Rated: AAA

The online lender has announced its response to the 0.25% drop in the official cash rate though, with loans.com.au taking 0.15% off a number of variable rate home loan offers for both owner occupiers and investors.

The changes, which come into effect on October 17, will have an impact on a number of loans.com.au home loan offers including:

• Essentials Variable loan – reduced by 0.15% with rates now as low as 3.04% (3.06% comparison rate*).

• Smart Home Loan – reduced by 0.15% with rates now as low as 2.88% (2.90% comparison rate*).

• ZIP Home Loan – reduced by 0.15% with rates now as low as 3.08% (3.10% comparison rate*).

• Offset Variable loan – reduced by 0.15% with rates now as low as 3.12% (3.14% comparison rate*).

OnDeck appoints Robbie Fidler as new national broker chief (IT Wire), Rated: B

Online SME lender OnDeck Australia has appointed experienced commercial lending operator Robbie Fidler as its national broker channel manager.

Asia

SPV 2030: Sharing of risks and reward (The Malaysian Reserve), Rated: A

The growth and success of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a testament of the viability of risk-sharing contracts, where the investors take on some risks (for higher return) from the ventures they are financing. This way, finance will be grounded in the real economy, which is another core principle of Islamic finance.

MENA

Beehive funds first SME in Bahrain (Arabian Business), Rated: AAA

Dubai-based Beehive, the region’s first regulated peer-to-peer lending platform, has funded its first SME in Bahrain.

Canada

BFS Capital Opens New Data Science and Engineering Hub in Toronto (Financial Post), Rated: B

BFS Capital, a leader in small business lending, has officially launched a data science and engineering hub in Toronto as the company accelerates its plans to develop best-in-class digital financial products for small businesses across the globe.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

The post Thursday October 10 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday October 3 2019, Weekly News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: Morningstar to rate blockchain securities. nCino raises $80M. RateSetter rolls out Access, Plus, Max. Revolut losses double. Today’s main analysis: Race and homeownership. Today’s thought-provoking articles: Big banks are losing mortgage share. Race and homeownership. LendIt Fintech Europe highlights. International P2P lending volumes for September 2019. United States Morningstar to offer […]

The post Thursday October 3 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

News Comments

Today’s main news: Morningstar to rate blockchain securities. nCino raises $80M. RateSetter rolls out Access, Plus, Max. Revolut losses double.
Today’s main analysis: Race and homeownership.
Today’s thought-provoking articles: Big banks are losing mortgage share. Race and homeownership. LendIt Fintech Europe highlights. International P2P lending volumes for September 2019.

United States

Morningstar to offer ratings on blockchain securities. This should have been easily seen. Blockchain-based securities is growing fast and could overtake traditional securities in volume in short order.
nCino raises $80 million. nCino is working to make banks more competitive with fintech.
Big banks are losing mortgage share. Of course, they’re losing that share to non-bank lenders and alternative lenders.
White Americans are largest homeowner segment. Across the board, white Americans are the largest homeowner segment, however, there are markets where they don’t dominate.
BFS Capital eliminates upfront fees.
Self launches first-of-kind secured credit card without a credit check.
Crowdfunding may not come to commercial real estate.
RiverNorth Marketplace Lending announces monthly distribution of $0.18 per share.
Robots will eliminate 200,000 bank jobs in 10 years.
Goldman traders kicked off desk.
The 7-year auto loan.
Naborly raises $7.5 million.
How much can you get from a business loan?
Best mortgage lenders for first-time buyers.
Coinbase to offer 1.25% APy on USDC holdings.
Curo wants to drop lawsuit.
eOriginal chief product officer honored.
OYO partners with Biz2Credit on small business financing for hotels.
Finastra launches Fusion Mortgagebot Data Insights.
Seattle Bank expands relationship with Finastra.

United Kingdom

International

P2P lending volumes.

European Union

Other

News Summary

United States

Morningstar Inc. will offer ratings to blockchain based securities (Ripple Coin News), Rated: AAA

Chicago-based financial service provider, Morningstar Credit Ratings announced plans to diversify its business operation by providing ratings for debt securities issued on public blockchains, also known as crypto-assets. Morningstar Inc, the parent company of the rating agency is valued at $6.4 billion. Last year it generated $1.7 billion in revenue. The company is well known for rating mutual funds from giants of the financial world like Prudential and Morgan Stanley among others.

North Carolina-based Fintech Startup nCino Raises $ 80M (Crunchbase), Rated: AAA

North Carolina-based nCino, which has developed a cloud-based operating system for financial institutions, has raised $80 million in a round of funding led by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

Bank Wars; ABS East + Blockchain; Housing (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

In U.S Housing, borrower home equity is hitting all time highs. Homeowners with a mortgage saw equity increase by 4.8% since 2Q2018. This equates to $4,900 gained per American homeowner and a strengthening of the US consumer balance sheet.

Over the past ten years, the largest American banks – Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, and Bank of America – have seem their share of home loan originations fall 30% as digital customer friendly non-banks such as Quicken Loans take share.

Source: PeerIQ, Financial Times

White Americans Have the Highest Homeownership Rates but There Are Large Differences Among Cities (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

Americans who identify as white own a disproportionately large percentage of homes in all of the nation’s 50 largest metros. White Americans make up an average of 59% of people in the metros featured in our study, but they own around 73% of owner-occupied homes.

Where white Americans own the most homes relative to their overall population

New York

% of the population – White alone: 46.99%
Median household income – White alone: $91,806
% of owner-occupied homes – White alone: 68.65%
Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: 21.66%

San Diego

% of the population – White alone: 46.20%
Median household income – White alone: $80,276
% of owner-occupied homes – White alone: 65.37%
Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: 19.17%

Phoenix

% of the population – White alone: 56.41%
Median household income – White alone: $64,423
% of owner-occupied homes – White alone: 75.17%
Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: 18.76%

Source: LendingTree

Where white Americans own the least homes relative to their overall population

Pittsburgh

% of the population – White alone: 85.82%
Median household income – White alone: $59,089
% of owner-occupied homes – White alone: 93.29%
Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: 7.47%

Source: LendingTree

BFS Capital Eliminates Upfront Fees to Simplify Financing for Small Business Owners (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

BFS Capital today announced it has eliminated all upfront fees on its financing solutions, including loans and business advances, as it simplifies pricing for small business owners.

BFS Capital customers can now apply for and receive up to $500,000 in financing with no origination fees, no processing fees and no upfront costs.

Self Announces The Self Visa Credit Card, A First-Of-Its-Kind Secured Credit Card That Does Not Require A Credit Check (Globe Newswire), Rated: A

Self, a leading fintech startup offering people a way to build their credit while also saving money, today announced the release of the Self Visa® Credit Card. This first-of-its-kind secured card uses a unique funding model to provide customers with a line of credit without the need for a significant upfront investment or a credit check – two areas that perennially sideline subprime consumers who are looking to build their credit scores.

The Crowdfunding Revolution Might Never Come To CRE (Bisnow), Rated: A

Crowdfunding has not coalesced into the influential force in commercial real estate some may have expected, and is at risk of being decimated by the next economic downturn.

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of
RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of $0.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Corporation, an established and currently operating as a closed-end interval fund dedicated to the marketplace lending asset class, announced on Tuesday its monthly distribution of $0.18 per common share for the months of October, November, and December 2019.

The Robot Revolution Will Wipe Out 200,000 U.S. Banking Jobs in the Next Decade (Fortune), Rated: A

Technological efficiencies will result in the biggest reduction in headcount across the U.S. banking industry in its history, with an estimated 200,000 job cuts over the next decade, Wells Fargo & Co. said in a report.

The $150 billion annually that the country’s finance firms are spending on tech — more than any other industry — will lead to lower costs, with employee compensation accounting for half of all bank expenses, said Mike Mayo, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC.

Goldman Sachs Tries Banking for the Masses. It’s Been a Struggle. (WSJ), Rated: A

Two dozen of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s most profitable traders were kicked off their desk last year to make room for the swelling ranks of the firm’s Main Street lending arm.

Small bank’s big digital goal: Launch 3 niche banks (American Banker), Rated: A

The first one, introduced this summer, is called “booyah” and is aimed at college students and young graduates. The $122 million-asset bank sees it as a way to target a specific audience outside the central Florida area and boost deposits in order to ward off competitive threats from fintechs.

The Seven-Year Auto Loan: America’s Middle Class Can’t Afford Its Cars (WSJ), Rated: A

Walk into an auto dealership these days and you might walk out with a seven-year car loan.

That means monthly payments that last well past when the brake pads give out and potentially beyond when the car gets traded in for a new one. About a third of auto loans for new vehicles taken in the first half of 2019 had terms of longer than six years, according to credit-reporting firm Experian PLC. A decade ago, that number was less than 10%.

Naborly Raises $ 7.5M in Seed Funding (FINSMES), Rated: A

Naborly, a San Francisco, CA-based credit bureau for the rental industry, closed its $7.5m seed funding round.

How Much Money Can I Get From a Business Loan? (All Business), Rated: A

It’s rare for two loan offers from two lenders to come out to exactly the same number. Different lenders (traditional banks, online lenders, alternative lenders) evaluate a variety of factors, have different algorithms, and may place more emphasis on different aspects of your business history.

Coinbase Announces 1.25% APY on USDC Holdings (DeFi Rate), Rated: A

Today, Coinbase announced the launch of USDC rewards. US Coinbase customers are now eligible to earn 1.25% APY rewards on all USD Coin ($USDC) held on Coinbase.

This announcement comes amid the DeFi boom in 2019. While 1.25% APY is substantially higher than traditional savings rates at banks, it’s still lagging behind the broader DeFi lending market. As of writing, Compound currently offers 5.34% APY on USDC holdings while dYdX offers 3.85% APY – View current USDC lending rates. This doesn’t account for other stablecoins, such as Dai, where holders can earn upwards of 8%.

Investors Say Curo’s Bid To Nix Their Suit Misses The Point (Law360), Rated: A

Investors on Tuesday said their stock-drop suit against online lender Curo is

about misrepresentations regarding a transition away from its most profitable product, not a simple failure to meet financial goals, as the company suggests. The online lender said in an August dismissal bid that investors were trying to plead a “fraud by hindsight” case in alleging Curo misled them about a transition away from offering lucrative single-pay loans in Canada, which had drawn the scrutiny of regulators there, and into longer-term open-end loans.

eOriginal Chief Product Officer Honored as a 2019 HousingWire Tech Trendsetter (PR Web), Rated: B

eOriginal, a digital lending technology pioneer, is proud to announce that Simon Moir, Chief Product Officer, has been named to HousingWire’s Tech Trendsetters list for 2019. HousingWire’s inaugural award recognizes the impactful and innovative technology leaders serving the housing and mortgage finance industry. This is on the heels of eOriginal’s second consecutive listing as one of HousingWire’s HW Tech 100TM in April 2019.

OYO Announces Partnership With Biz2Credit to Provide Small Business Financing Options to Hotel Owners (Globe Newswire), Rated: B

OYO, the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing chain of hotels, homes and spaces*, has partnered with Biz2Credit to provide working capital and commercial real estate loans to existing and potential hotel partners across the United States.

Finastra Launches Fusion Mortgagebot Data Insights to Help Financial Institutions Optimize their Mortgage Business (Financial Content), Rated: B

Finastra has launched Fusion Mortgagebot Data Insights – a powerful new tool that benchmarks mortgage borrower behavior and demographics for banks and credit unions against that of more than 1,400 other Fusion MortgagebotPOS users. The solution leveraged Big Data and machine learning to provide users with new insights into consumer behavior to drive a better borrower experience.

Seattle Bank expands relationship with Finastra to drive innovation (Finastra), Rated: B

Seattle Bank, a single branch boutique bank with $650 million in assets, has selected Fusion Phoenix from Finastra to be the open, modern core to run its banking operations, enabling the bank to better serve clients. The core banking system will be integrated with additional Finastra solutions, including Fusion Mortgagebot, Fusion Card Payments, Fusion Analytics, Fusion Item Processing Services, Fusion LaserPro, and Fusion Digital Banking.

United Kingdom

Welcome to Access, Plus and Max! (RateSetter), Rated: AAA

I am delighted to say that our three new investment products – Access, Plus and Max – launched today and are ready for you to enjoy.

Fintech unicorn Revolut’s losses double as it pushes for global expansion (CNBC), Rated: AAA

British financial technology start-up Revolut’s losses doubled in 2018, the firm said Tuesday, as the company embarks on an aggressive global expansion.

The London-headquartered firm recorded a £32.8 million ($40.3 million) net loss on revenues of £58.2 million for 2018. That was more than double the £14.8 million loss it posted a year earlier, while revenue climbed 354%.

Visa Expands Alliance with Revolut to Grow in Fintech Space (Zacks), Rated: A

Visa Inc. (V – Free Report) has expanded its partnership with fintech company Revolut. This London based company will be assisted by Visa to expand its business globally.

LandlordInvest staff asked to avoid EU travel as P2P lenders prepare for Brexit deadline (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

LANDLORDINVEST has asked staff to avoid travelling outside the UK after 31 October as peer-to-peer lending platforms prepare for the latest Brexit deadline.

Small business owners should beware when backing their business debt (Money Week), Rated: A

After all, one argument for setting up a business as a limited company, rather than operating as a sole trader, is that you separate your affairs from the company’s.

However, while this is true in theory, it may not pan out in practice. If your business needs to borrow, lenders often expect owners to stand behind the loan. They ask for a personal guarantee that the debt will be repaid. These guarantees aren’t secured – they’re not tied to a particular asset, such as your home – but they do give lenders a legal right to come after your personal wealth in the event your business defaults.

The future of finance is fintech (Raconteur), Rated: A

When Innovate Finance was formed five years ago, with a mandate to represent an emerging UK fintech community, the picture was different to today. The focus was on models challenging traditional approaches to banking, disrupting the incumbents’ model that had stood for decades.

In the years since, peer-to-peer lending became simpler, management of personal finances became more accessible, and remittance processes became faster and more affordable.

Brokers should be Open Banking advocates (Bridging and Commercial), Rated: A

It’s now more than a year and a half since the introduction of Open Banking, which allows people to securely share data about how they spend their money with other parties.

Drapers and Klarna launch Next Generation Entrepreneurs (Drapers), Rated: A

Drapers’ Next Generation Entrepreneurs are the founders and chief executives that we think are changing fashion. The list shines a light on the new wave of game-changers, innovators and boundary-breakers that are making their mark on the UK fashion industry, as well as emerging businesses that exhibit innovative, entrepreneurial spirit.

Dutch app-only bank Bunq to launch in UK this week (AltFi), Rated: A

The Dutch app-only bank bunq is to launch in the UK this week, saying there are “too many traditional banks” in the UK.

10 Respected Entrepreneurs Reveal How Failures and Triumphs Shaped Who They Are Today (Digital Journal), Rated: A

– Courtney Nichols Gould, Founder& co-CEO, SmartyPants Vitamins
– Annie Jackson, co-founder & COO, Credo Beauty
– Sarah Kauss, Founder & CEO, S’well
– Stephen Kuhl, co-founder & CEO, Burrow
– Renaud LaPlanche, co-founder & CEO, Upgrade, Founder of Lending Club (NYSE: LC)
– Jody Levy, Founder, CEO & Creative Director, World Waters (Maker of WTRMLN WTR)
– Betty Liu, Founder of Radiate, Executive Vice Chairman of The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
– Ben McKean, Founder, Hungry Root
– Sasha Plavsic, Founder & CCO, ILIA Beauty
– Nat Turner, co-founder & CEO, Flatiron Health

Ex-City minister shines spotlight on P2P lending secondary markets (P2P Finance News), Rated: B

The former City minister, who has already tabled several parliamentary questions regarding the role of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the collapse of Lendy and Collateral, has widened the scope of his P2P queries.

He has tabled two parliamentary written questions in the past week.

European Union

How Linked Finance is Linking Irish SMEs With Quick Loans (deBanked), Rated: AAA

The nation’s Central Statistics Office puts the number of active enterprises in the private business economy at over 250,000. As of June, Linked Finance had made more than 2,100 loans for a grand total of more than €100 million.

LendIt Fintech Europe 2019 Conference Highlights (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

We have just wrapped up what I think has been the most successful European conference LendIt has ever had.

We kicked off the show with Rishi Khosla, CEO and Co-Founder of OakNorth. Their approach to underwriting is super interesting. While they have very much a digital approach, they are originating loans typically for £5 million to £10 million to fast growth companies.

Bnext raises $ 25 million for its mobile banking alternative (TechCrunch), Rated: A

Fintech startup Bnext has raised a $25 million funding round. The Spanish company is building a banking product and has managed to attract 300,000 active users.

You can lend money to small and medium businesses and earn interest through October, you can save money using Raisin, you can get a loan, a mortgage, an insurance product, etc. Bnext generates revenue from those partnerships.

International

International P2P Lending Volumes September 2019 (P2P-Banking), Rated: AAA

Mintos leads ahead of Zopa and Ratesetter. The total volume for the reported marketplaces in the table adds up to 639 million Euro.

Milestones in culumulative volume lent crossed this month:

Investly: 50M EUR
Viventor: 100M EUR

Source: P2P-Banking

Australia

P2P lender partners with aggregator (Broker News), Rated: AAA

Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter has announced a partnership with PLAN Australia that will make its unsecured personal loan and car loan products available to the group’s 1,700 brokers and their clients.

National Australia Bank to provide $ 57m warehouse funding facility to Symple Loans (AltFi), Rated: A

Australia’s biggest business bank is furnishing a $57m (£46m) warehouse funding facility to personal lender Symple Loans, as part of its $2bn (£1.63bn) commitment to fund technology startups.

Which banks have cut home loan rates already? (mozo), Rated: A

It’s been two days since the Reserve Bank board made the call to lower the official cash rate from 1.00% to 0.75% – an historically low rate in Australia.

Athena and Homestar raced out of the blocks following Tuesday’s RBA announcement – both delivering full 0.25% cuts to their respective variable rate home loans before the ink on RBA Governor Philip Lowe’s monetary policy statement was dry.

Fellow online lender UBank wasn’t far behind after announcing a 0.25% rate cut of its own across a number of variable rate offers.

Asia

Indonesia’s State-Owned Pawnshop PT Pegadaian to Invest $ 35 Million in Local Fintech Firms (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

The state-owned pawnshop PT Pegadaian in Indonesia is reportedly planning to invest Rp 500 billion (appr. $35.26 million) in several local Fintech firms this year.

Another Milestone Comes True: INLOCK Is Listed on One of the Largest Crypto Exchanges (NewsBTC), Rated: A

On September 30, 2019, after nearly six months of preparation, the INLOCK project, a peer-to-peer lending solution, was listed on the Liquid by Quoine exchange, one of the largest Japanese crypto exchanges in the Asian region, with a daily turnover of $150-200 million.

INLOCK is a peer-to-peer lending platform; its customers can lend or borrow using their cryptocurrencies as a collateral.

40 Innovative Solutions Shortlisted for 2019 FinTech Awards (MAS), Rated: A

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced today that 40 finalists have been shortlisted for the FinTech Awards to be presented at this year’s Singapore FinTech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SFF x SWITCH).

Africa

CredoLab set to drive financial inclusion in South Africa (Next Billion), Rated: AAA

Credit scoring fintech company, CredoLab announced on Tuesday, 1 October 2019, that it has officially launched in Africa. Starting in South Africa, CredoLab is aiming to drive financial inclusion in emerging economies on the continent by credit scoring more people, especially those who are new to banking or credit.

Canada

Stability’s important, but Canada needs to take more chances with fintech (Financial Post), Rated: A

According to Ernst & Young’s 2019 Global Fintech Adoption Index, Canada is 14 points, and the U.S. 18 points, behind the global average of 64 per cent consumer fintech adoption, and we trail world leaders like China, India and Russia by even more. The two countries’ approaches to regulating fintech, which in many ways reflect enduring national stereotypes, almost certainly have contributed to our continent’s fintech lag.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

The post Thursday October 3 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday May 30 2019, Weekly News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: SoFi has raised $500M. Morningstar accelerates acquisition of DBRS. PayPal hits $10B in small business loans milestone. Lendy goes into administration. Klarna launches installment loan app for all retailers. New York overtakes London as financial hub of the world. Today’s main analysis: LendingClub’s advance shareholder meeting presentation (A MUST-READ). Today’s […]

The post Thursday May 30 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

News Comments

Today’s main news: SoFi has raised $500M. Morningstar accelerates acquisition of DBRS. PayPal hits $10B in small business loans milestone. Lendy goes into administration. Klarna launches installment loan app for all retailers. New York overtakes London as financial hub of the world.
Today’s main analysis: LendingClub’s advance shareholder meeting presentation (A MUST-READ).
Today’s thought-provoking articles: PayPal small biz lending compared to OnDeck, Funding Circle. Mortgage borrowers can save $2K+ shopping for loans online. Where we are in the credit cycle. Who’s lending to small businesses.

United States

SoFi quietly raises $500 million. What’s noteworthy about this raise is the source of the funding: Qatar Investment Authority.
SoFi’s valuation remains unchanged.
SoFi could have its name on a football stadium soon. Almost as interesting as SoFi’s fundraising news.
Morningstar accelerates acquisition of DBRS. This is an interesting acquisition. Consolidation in the credit ratings business means fewer ways to analyze a potential investment. It will strengthen Morningstar’s reputation and analysis technology, but investors will lose in the long run since analysis information will come from fewer quarters.
PayPal hits $10 billion in small business loan originations. In only five years, that’s not a bad accomplishment, but it likely will not take as long for the next $10 billion milestone. PayPal is becoming a competitor.
PayPal vs. OnDeck vs. Kabbage, vs. et.al. From Lend Academy and deBanked.
LendingClub’s pre-meeting presentation. Read up on LendingClub’s position before their annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for June 5, 2019.
Mortgage borrowers can save over $2,000 by shopping for loans online. From LendingTree.
Where are we in the credit cycle? From PeerIQ. More interesting is the Fed’s dot plot.
Who’s lending to small businesses? Alternative lenders continue to take more percentage of small business lending. Banks have all but handed this sector over to Kabbage, OnDeck, and the rest.
LendingTree earns 5-star rating.
RedWeek, Affirm partner on travel financing.
Alternative lending options for business credit.
CoreLogic Teletrack launches platform for lenders, credit issuers.
Intuit to buy Origami Logic to use data for marketing.
Kabbage, Azlo partner on small business lending.
BitX Funding partners with Pelagic Capital on equipment financing.
How much Social Security Numbers are worth on the dark web.
Costco has a home loan app.
Investing with very little money.
BFS Capital appoints new chief technology officer, chief product officer.

United Kingdom

European Union

International

New York overtakes London as world’s financial hub. This is based on a survey, not actual objective statistics or data. But it’s still interesting. There is a lot of anxiety surrounding Brexit. The Big Apple can now be known for something else.
Cred to migrate tokens to Binance Mainnet.
BlockFi launches Gemini Dollars accounts.
Emerging fintech hubs.
Nexo releases crypto lending update.
Apolitical releases list of most influential people on gender equality.

Other

News Summary

United States

Online lender SoFi has quietly raised $ 500 million in funding, led by Qatar (TechCrunch), Rated: AAA

Online lending startup Social Finance, better known as SoFi, took another tack this morning, quietly announcing in a press release that it has closed half a billion dollars in a single funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority, a Doha, Qatar-based private equity and sovereign wealth fund.

SoFi Raises $ 500M, Valuation Remains $ 4.3B (PYMNTS), Rated: A

The company said it will use the capital to invest in growth and add some muscle to its $2.3 billion balance sheet. The company’s valuation will stay about the same as with the last funding round two years ago, which was led by Silver Lake.

SoFi Is Close to a Deal Putting Its Name on L.A. Football Stadium (Bloomberg), Rated: A

Social Finance Inc., a financial technology startup, is close to signing a deal that would put its name on a new NFL stadium under construction in Inglewood, California, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The deal for the stadium, which would be home to the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, hasn’t been signed so figures could change. But currently the agreement would have SoFi pay $20 million a year for 20 years, these people added.

Morningstar to Accelerate Credit Ratings Business with DBRS Acquisition (Morningstar), Rated: AAA

Morningstar, Inc. today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DBRS, the world’s fourth-largest credit ratings agency, for a purchase price of $669 million. The combination of DBRS with Morningstar Credit Ratings’ U.S. business will expand global asset class coverage and provide an enhanced platform for providing investors with leading fixed-income analysis and research.

PayPal’s Latest Milestone: $ 10 Billion In Small Business Loans (Forbes), Rated: AAA

The small business lending market is booming and it’s not the traditional banks that are benefiting. Fintechs are leading the way. Case in point: PayPal. It hit a milestone, announcing it has provided more than $10 billion in loans to more than 225,000 small businesses around the globe.

The $10 billion mark comes a little more than five years after PayPal made its first loan. Today it has issued more than 650,000 loans through financing programs in the U.S., UK, Australia, Germany, and Mexico.

PayPal Crosses $ 10 Billion In Small Business Loans (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

Now they are hitting some impressive quarterly milestones, originating $1 billion per quarter, so their next $10 billion is surely to happen even quicker.

deBanked recently highlighted the leading small business originators which showed that PayPal is solidly the leader when it comes to originations in the US. OnDeck which is second to PayPal reported originations of $636 million in Q1 2019. According to data provided by Funding Circle on their website, which includes their lending globally, they have originated $9.5 billion in loans.

Source: deBanked.com

LendingClub Posts Presentation in Advance of Shareholder Meeting (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

LendingClub (NYSE:LC) has posted a presentation apparently in preparation for its annual shareholder meeting which is scheduled to take place on June 5, 2019.

Source: LendingClub

View the full presentation right here.

Borrowers can save over $ 2,000 by shopping for lenders who offer low mortgage fees (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

Key findings

Mortgage fees in the first quarter had a median of $2,059 for purchase loans and $1,807 for refinancing.
The more offers a borrower receives, the greater the potential for savings. For people receiving five offers, the median spread between the highest and lowest fees offered was $2,045.
7% of new purchase borrowers and 8% of refinance borrowers were offered $0 in fees.
15% of new purchase borrowers and 19% of refinance borrowers paid less than $500 in fees.
28% of purchase borrowers paid less than $1,000 in mortgage fees, with 35% of refinance borrowers also paying less than $1,000 in fees.
At the high end, 13% of purchase borrowers were hit with fees over $5,000, 3% over $10,000 and 0.21% over $20,000.
For refinance loans, 12% were offered upfront fees over $5,000, 1% over $10,000 and 0.02% over $20,000.

Home Loan Provider Earns Top 5-Star Rating from TopConsumerReviews.com (PRWeb), Rated: A

TopConsumerReviews.com recently gave their highest rating to LendingTree, an industry leader among providers of Home Loans, for another consecutive year.

Where Are We in the Credit Cycle? (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

First, a quick summary of headlines. The Fed agreed to keep interest rates on hold for longer according to the minutes of the April meeting. The decision is expected to help inflation pick up towards the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed’s latest ‘dot plot’, shown below, indicates Fed governors on the margin expect lower rates in the 2019 to 2021 timeframe suggesting lower growth expectations.

Source: PeerIQ, US Federal Reserve, Bloomberg

“…what we see is right now the fundamentals of the economy in the U.S. on a global basis and the fundamentals of consumers and unemployment being low as you mentioned, means that credit is in good shape and we just don’t see that changing a lot.”

Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America

Kroll also released a report on the Evolution of the Consumer Loan Marketplace Sector to lay out how the sector has matured over time. The report comes on the heels of a Fitch report that said that declining credit enhancements in MPL deals is unwarranted.

Prevent attrition and win new relationships with loan options (Bankless Times), Rated: AAA

Small business clients are increasingly looking to alternative lenders for financing. There are numerous draws for SMB clients: a fast and easy application process, quick funding, and a higher chance of being approved for a loan.

According to the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey, the main reason clients applied for funding from an online lender was the speed of decision / funding (63 percent) followed by a better chance of being funded (61 percent).

The number of small business owners who turn to alternative lenders for funding has increased steadily since 2016.

Source: Bankless Times

RedWeek Teams Up with Affirm to Help Travelers Vacation Now and Pay Later (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

RedWeek.com, the largest online community for timeshare rentals and resales, announced a new partnership with Affirm that will give travelers the flexibility to pay for their vacation rentals in simple, monthly installments.

Travelers can check eligibility for a loan online before booking their next trip and, after entering five simple pieces of information, receive a real-time decision without impacting their credit scores.

3 Alternative Lending Options to Help Build Your Business Credit (Nav.com), Rated: A

1. Online Business Loans

Once upon a time, if you wanted to borrow money for your business you had to make a trip down to your local bank branch or credit union to see if you could qualify for funding. However, a new generation of business lenders has since emerged to offer business owners an alternative way to secure capital.

2. Invoice Financing

Is your business structured in a way so that it gets paid after delivering services or goods to customers? If so, invoice financing is an alternative lending option that might work for you.

3. Microloans

Microloans are issued through non-profit organizations aptly named microlenders. Although the maximum loan size is generally $50,000, the average microloan issued to a small business or startup is a much smaller $6,000.

CoreLogic Teletrack launches a new platform for lenders and credit issuers (Automotive News), Rated: A

CoreLogic today launched the new CoreLogic Teletrack platform, offering lenders and credit issuers superior access and greater insight into alternative credit data through one of the industry’s largest alternative credit databases. The new platform and solution combine upgraded services, data, products and an analytics engine to help users discover new market segments, make smarter risk decisions and grow their business throughout the credit lifecycle.

What Intuit knows about you (AXIOS), Rated: A

Intuit said Tuesday it had agreed to buy analytics company Origami Logic, effectively doubling down on the use of customer data to enhance its marketing.

The company can cross-sell its own products as well as products and services from third parties — like a Capital One Platinum Credit Card or a loan from Lending Club — based on what it knows about you.

Kabbage And Azlo Collaborate To Make Small Business Lending Easier (eSellerCafe), Rated: A

US online banking platform Azlo and online small business lender announced the launch of Mission Street Capital, a new program that provides small businesses banking with Azlo access to loans through Kabbage up to $250,000.

BitX Funding Strikes Equipment Finance Alliance (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Small business lending marketplace BitX Funding has struck an alliance with transportation equipment finance company Pelagic Capital, the companies said in a press release Tuesday (May 28).

On the Dark Web, your social security number is only worth (CB Insights Email), Rated: A

5 Home Loan Apps To Test-Drive (Spokes-Recorder), Rated: B

Not many know this discount bulk retail giant also provides a loan marketplace to shop for the best mortgage rate. While open to all, Costco members can access discounts on lending services. Loan options include home equity, fixed and adjustable rate, FHA, VA, USDA, and jumbo. Note, this lender’s services are strictly digital so you will not be able to meet up with someone face-to-face.

Top 5 ways to start Investing With Little Money!! (EconoTimes), Rated: B

Though P2P lendings are not low investment choices; with Fast invest, it is possible. You can start investing here with just 1 pound to accelerate cash flow. The website allows investors to deposit amounts and based on that suggests loans. After you choose the loan pack as an investor, the site assigns borrowers. Once the borrower takes the loan from you, the site starts increasing your invested amount with the applied interest rate of up to 14% till the payback period. It also comes with buyback guarantee if the borrower fails to return your loan in the payback period.

Real estate crowdfunding sites provide you the opportunity to invest in third-party properties. Fundrise is the best crowdfunding platform to go for that lets you start investing with only $500. With a year’s saving, you can start investing in this crowdfunding site and gain 8.7 to 12.4% annual returns based on your deposited amount.

BFS Capital Appoints Fred Kauber as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: B

BFS Capital today announced the appointment of Fred Kauber as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer. As a member of the management team reporting to CEO Mark Ruddock, Kauber will be responsible for leading a customer-focused product and technology organization whose mission is to help BFS re-imagine financial services for small businesses.

United Kingdom

Peer-to-peer lending provider Lendy enters administration (Credit Strategy), Rated: AAA

Damian Webb, Phillip Sykes and Mark Wilson of RSM Restructuring Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators of three companies within the Lendy Group: Lendy Limited, Saving Stream Security Holdings Limited and Lendy Provision Reserve Limited.

Does Lendy Collapse Hint the Failure of P2P Loans Industry? (LearnBonds), Rated: A

Before administration, over £90 million of loans defaulted out of £160 million of outstanding loans. The collapse of Lendy means investors had lost millions of pounds.

BondMason Reportedly Is Shutting Down P2P Business (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

BondMason, an online savings and investments platform that sources investments from across the peer-to-peer (P2P) market for its clients, has reportedly announced it is officially shutting down its P2P lending business.

Combating The Payday Loan With On-Demand Wages (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Peter Briffett, CEO of U.K. FinTech Wagestream, told PYMNTS in a recent interview that the cash flow constraints of having to wait for a single day to receive wages every month can be dangerous to the financial wellness of professionals. A single, expensive incident can force these professionals into debt via bank overdrafts or credit cards — or worse, Briffett said, into the payday loan cycle.

The company recently announced a $51 million funding round for its solution — led by Balderton Capital and Northzone, which provided equity, and Shawbrook, which provided debt.

Microfinance Trends and Size of the Market (Cryptopolitan), Rated: A

And that is where microfinance is moving – to an era where individuals and businesses can get financial services from other individuals and business entities. Technology is providing tools for matching borrowers and lenders. And even more important – the tools for creating contracts that execute accordingly.

European Union

Klarna Launches a Direct-to-Consumer App With Installment Payments Built in (Digital Transactions), Rated: AAA

Announced Tuesday, the Klarna app presents the retailer’s site with a footer containing a Pay with Klarna button. When selecting that option, the shopper can pay for purchases in four equal installments with no interest or fees. The app is open to any merchant, not just those already affiliated with Klarna, the company says. These could include retailers without an alternative-payment option or that use a competitor’s program.

10 more big retail tech plays in 2019 (Retail Innovation Hub), Rated: A

PayTech venture Klarna is launching its first UK “all-immersive store” in London’s Covent Garden, with a private VIP party on 4th June.

Becoming a mortgage lender (IPE), Rated: A

Stabelo’s model is to pool capital from institutional investors in exchange for fixed-income securities and uses the money raised to lend mortgages directly to homebuyers. The firm offers mortgages in conjunction with Avanza Bank, which is the biggest online lender in Sweden, and owns just under 20% of Stabelo.

International

London toppled by New York as world’s financial hub (Tech HQ), Rated: AAA

A survey by consultancy and advisory firm Duff & Phelps, involving 180 executives in asset management, private equity, hedge funds, banking and brokerage, found that confidence in the UK capital has plummetted in the last year.

Just 36 percent ranked London as the foremost global financial hub— a year-on-year drop of 17 percent. With New York rising 10 percent, ranked by more than half (52 percent) as the world’s new financial powerhouse, the two cities have “switched places”.

Source: Duff & Phelps

Crypto Lending Platform Cred to Migrate Tokens to Binance Mainnet in New Partnership (CoinTelegraph), Rated: A

Major crypto exchange Binance has partnered with decentralized crypto lending platform Cred to bring its services to the Binance ecosystem, according to a press release publishedon May 29.

As part of the agreement, Cred will migrate some of its ERC-20 LBA tokens to Binance’s mainnet, Binance Chain, and become the official lending and borrowing platform for the decentralized financial ecosystem.

Crypto Lending Startup BlockFi Launches Gemini Dollar Accounts (CoinTelegraph), Rated: A

Cryptocurrency asset management company BlockFi announced that its interest-bearing accounts now support the gemini dollar (GUSD) in a post published on May 29.

Per the announcement, GUSD deposits will see a yearly yield of 6.2%, paid in the stablecoinin question. BlockFi notes that it also offers GUSD as a U.S. dollar funding option and as collateral from institutional cryptocurrency borrowers.

Top 5 emerging fintech hubs (World Finance), Rated: A

São Paulo
Brazil has more fintech start-ups than any other Latin American country, and most of them are consolidated in the country’s financial centre, São Paulo.

Lithuania
One country poised to see an explosion of opportunities after Brexit is Lithuania. In February of this year, the country saw around 100 British financial companies apply for a licence in the country.

Estonia
Estonia has one of the highest rates of start-ups per capita in Europe. According to Startup Genome, 29 percent of all jobs created by these start-ups are within the country’s fintech industry.

Frankfurt
Home to the European Central Bank and more than 200 banks – most of which are foreign – Frankfurt plays an important role in the EU’s financial system.

Bengaluru
Bengaluru (previously Bangalore) is anticipated to become one of the next big tech hubs. One of Asia’s fastest growing start-up ecosystems, the city is home to 438 fintech start-ups and has been dubbed the ‘Silicon Valley of India’.

Nexo Releases Crypto Lending Update Clarifying Misconceptions and Future Outlook (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: B

Nexo claims their key business model “is unchanged” but that the company is:

“actively exploring new avenues to maximize token utility and investor value.” The company also claims their ultimate goal is to become “a multi-billion dollar financial institution.”

These are the world’s 100 most influential people in gender policy this year (CNBC), Rated: B

Apolitical, a peer-to-peer lending platform for governments, unveiled its list of the world’s 100 most influential individuals on gender equality on Wednesday. It recognized politicians, activists and academics, among others, who were shaping gender policy in 2019.

Australia/New Zealand

Advice beyond mortgages: “the opportunity is huge” (NZ Adviser Online), Rated: AAA

According to Adrienne Church, General Manager at small business lender Prospa, venturing into an unfamiliar type of lending may be worrying – but it is also necessary as the lending market expands, and the property market remains as unpredictable as it inevitably always is.

Asia

TaniGroup Secures US$ 10 Million in Series A Funding to Re-Imagine Agriculture in Indonesia (Global Banking and Finance), Rated: AAA

Agritech startup TaniGroup, which operates agriculture e-commerce TaniHub and peer-to-peer lending provider TaniFund, today announced it raised a US$10 million Series A round of financing led by Openspace Ventures with participation from Intudo Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and The DFS Lab.

Peer-To-Peer Lending In Indonesia: A Regulatory Update (Mondaq), Rated: A

In February of this year, the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan or “OJK”) issued an updated checklist for peer-to-peer lending (“P2P lending”) platform providers (“Checklist”) registering with the OJK or applying to the body for a business license or change of ownership. The new Checklist introduces several changes to the previous checklist issued in October 2018. We highlight the key material changes and new requirements introduced by the Checklist.

MENA

Qatar Investment Authority invests more than $ 500M in SoFi (Mobile Payments Today), Rated: AAA

Qatar Investment Authority has led an investment of more than $500 million in SoFi, a mobile-first personal finance firm. The investment values the company at $4.3 billion on a pre-money basis, according to a release from the fund.

East Africa

Kenya Is Also Setting The Standard For Mobile Lending (Forbes), Rated: AAA

We all know that Kenya revolutionized mobile payments for the developing world and brands like M-Pesa continue to lead the market, but what about mobile lending? According to Creditinfo Kenya, 93 percent of all mobile loans originate from regulated financial institutions, and there are around five million borrowers and each has an average of 5.89 loans.

Canada

This Alternative Lending Company Offers Investors a Huge Margin of Safety (The Motley Fool), Rated: AAA

Home Capital is a specialty finance company that primarily deals in mortgages. The company typically deals with borrowers who don’t meet normal bank requirements. It offers traditional mortgages and consumer lending as well as securitizing insured mortgages and offering home equity lines of credit.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

The post Thursday May 30 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday January 24 2019, Weekly News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: Funding Circle, Stripe partner on small business expansion. Goldman, Citi drop Chinese P2P lenders. RateSetter attracts 75K investors. MarketInvoice gets 56M GBP in equity, debt funding. Hexindai shares credit data with Baihang Credit. Today’s main analysis: PeerIQ on bank earnings. Today’s thought-provoking articles: The link between marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy. 10 best places to […]

The post Thursday January 24 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

News Comments

Today’s main news: Funding Circle, Stripe partner on small business expansion. Goldman, Citi drop Chinese P2P lenders. RateSetter attracts 75K investors. MarketInvoice gets 56M GBP in equity, debt funding. Hexindai shares credit data with Baihang Credit.
Today’s main analysis: PeerIQ on bank earnings.
Today’s thought-provoking articles: The link between marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy. 10 best places to pay down debt. 86 million Americans fear maxing credit cards on large purchases.

United States

Goldman, Citi drops Chinese P2P lenders. I think it’s safe to say that China’s peer-to-peer lenders are a very bad risk right now, and they will be as long as this government crackdown continues.
The link between marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy. This makes total sense. The Madden decision caused Lending Club and Prosper to reduce lending in states affected by the verdict. That had a domino effect, evidently.
Banks see strong earnings. PeerIQ comes through again with a very good analysis of banks’ earnings. Comparisons between Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.
10 best places to pay down debt. Cincinnati tops the list. Most of these are mid-size cities.
86 million Americans fear maxing credit cards on large purchases. Infographic.
Credit line increases most likely to happen at the beginning of the year.
Lendio provides over 5,000 Kiva loans.
Lendio named No. 1 financial services brand by Entrepreneur.
CrediFi surpasses $29 million in total capital raised.
Lending Express celebrates $100 million lending milestone.
Fundation launches digital lending capability.
One-third of businesses start with less than $5,000 in capital.
Government cautions federal workers against online payday lenders.
Most people would loan money to family for a business start-up.
Unconventional mortgages make a comeback.
North Capital launches REITless impact income strategies.
BFS Capital receives $2 billion in funding.
KeyBank to acquire Laurel Road.
GROUNDFLOOR lanches real estate investments specific to Georgia residents.
Community banks increase lending.
Breakout Capital Finance expands board of directors.
ProPair adds advisory board members.

United Kingdom

RateSetter attracts over 75,000 investors. Congratulations. Great milestone.
MarketInvoice receives 56 million GBP in equity, debt funding. Congrats.
Marcus reveals assets under management.
Metro Bank shares crash after loans blunder.
Glenhawk hires from LendInvest.

China

International

Funding Circle, Stripe partner on small business expansions. This is an interesting partnership. I’ll be anxious to see how this plays out. It looks like it’s mostly in the U.S.
Boost Capital parent hits $2 billion in lending.

Other

News Summary

United States

Goldman, Citi Drop Chinese Peer-to-Peer Lenders After Crackdown (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

First came a sweeping government crackdown and a surge in defaults and failures at thousands of China’s peer-to-peer lenders. Now, in another troubling sign for the industry, some of the biggest investment banks have stopped taking them public.

Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. walked away from U.S. initial public offerings of Chinese P2P lenders in recent months, people with knowledge of the matter said. Their concerns mainly stemmed from the timing of the deals, with an uncertain outlook for P2P companies and a slumping market knocking down valuations. In each case, the businesses went ahead with their offerings after finding new underwriters.

Marketplace Lending & Personal Bankruptcy: Cause and Effect (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

A national wave of personal bankruptcies that began in 2008 reached a peak in the year ending September 2010, when nearly 1.6 million bankruptcies were filed.

Filings fell by 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2018, compared with the year ending March 31, 2017. The data continues a national trend of declining bankruptcy filings since 2010-2011.

An interesting white paper (The Real Effects of Financial Technology: Marketplace Lending and Personal Bankruptcy) co-authored by Dr. Piotr Danisewicz, University of Bristol and Ilaf Elard, Assistant Professor of Finance at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics was released last summer.

Among the many additional conclusions Danisewicz and Elard reach in the white paper are:

The Madden win triggered Lending Club and Prosper, the two largest U.S. marketplace lenders, to reduce lending in the states affected by the verdict.

The co-authors attribute the increase in the incidence of personal bankruptcy following Madden to the reduction in marketplace lending. This hypothesis is supported by a number of further results.
The consequences of Madden are limited to the enforceability of marketplace loans and suggest that the increase in bankruptcy rates following Madden arises predominantly from changes in marketplace lending.
Danisewicz and Elard also rule out that the rise in bankruptcy following the verdict could be the result of an increase in defaults by marketplace borrowers in the affected states. This may occur if marketplace borrowers are over-indebted and default after being unable to obtain additional marketplace loans in the affected states.

Strong Bank Earnings (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

Banks had a rough quarter for trading revenues. FICC revenues at MS dropped by 30% YoY and by 18% YoY at GS. Bank of America’s 15% YoY drop in trading revenues was offset by a 10% increase in consumer banking revenues. Revenues at Wells Fargo dropped by 5% YoY driven by lower consumer loan balances. WFC faces a regulatory asset cap until the end of 2019 which is hampering loan growth. JPM was the only bank where the provision for credit losses increased, driven by a reserve build for credit cards due to loan growth.

Source: PeerIQ

10 Best Places to Pay Down Debt (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

Americans’ debt balances continued climbing in 2018, with total consumer debt tracking to top $4 trillion by the end of that year. With balances climbing high, many borrowers will want to use the new year to take their debt down a peg. For those who do so, prioritizing paying off debt can bring major rewards both in the near and long distance future.

86 Million Americans Fear Maxing Out Plastic on Large Purchases (WalletHub), Rated: AAA

The holiday shopping season is over now, and many Americans are seeing the impact on their credit card bills and bank statements. During the holidays, people often make a lot of large purchases, and sometimes max out their cards in order to do so. In a nationally representative survey conducted by WalletHub, 34 percent of respondents say they worry about maxing out their card with a large purchase.

Source: WalletHub

Credit Line Increases Drive Consumer Engagement and are Most Likely to Happen at the Beginning of the Year (AP News), Rated: A

According to a new study from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU), consumers are 50% more likely to receive a credit line increase (CLI) between the months of January and May. However, credit line decreases (CLD) occur at twice the normal rate during the month of January.

Lendio Provides More Than 5,000 Kiva Loans to Support Women-Owned Businesses Around the World (Lendio), Rated: A

Lendio announced today that through continued efforts to support business growth around the world, the Lendio Gives program has funded more than 5,000 Kiva microloans. To-date, Lendio’s employee contribution and employer matching program has provided more than $130,000 in loans to underserved business owners in 78 countries.

Lendio Franchising Named No. 1 Financial Services Brand in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 (Lendio), Rated: B

Lendio Franchising recently ranked in Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500, the world’s first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Named #1 in the Business Financial Services category for the second year running, Lendio Franchising was recognized for its outstanding performance in areas including unit growth, financial strength and stability, and brand power. Placement in the Franchise 500 is a highly sought-after honor in the franchise industry; Entrepreneur received more than 1,000 applications this year, making it one of the company’s most competitive rankings ever.

Commercial Real Estate Finance Platform CrediFi Milestone: Total Capital Raised Has Surpassed $ 29 Million (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

CrediFi, a fintech and commercial real estate finance platform, on Wednesday it has raised an additional $6 million in funding. This funding comes on the heels of the $13 million previously raised in Series B funding. The company reported that the total amount it has raised has surpassed $29 million.

Lending Express Celebrates $ 100M Lending Milestone & California’s Golden Opportunities (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Lending Express, an Israeli tech company dedicated to creating a better world of funding for SMBs, has surpassed $100 million in financing facilitated between small and medium business owners and online lenders. Lending Express also obtained state permission to open for business in California.

Fundation Launches Digital Lending Capability with Banc of California for Small Business Customers (OAOA), Rated: A

Fundation announced that it has recently launched a digital lending solution in partnership with Banc of California, enabling the California-based bank to offer a new, streamlined end-to-end solution for small businesses seeking a business loan or line of credit. The solution enables small businesses to apply for loans and lines of credit through a simple online application at Bancofcal.com and receive funds in a little as one business day.

Entrepreneurs Take Note: Success Is Within Reach (WWD), Rated: A

With insight from 600 “thriving” U.S. small business owners, a study by global financial services platform Kabbage, Inc. reveals one-third of small businesses started with less than $5,000 in start-up capital.

According to the report, particularly scrappy or thrifty entrepreneurs may want to consider starting a business in one of the three categories costing $5,000 or less “during the first six months.” Accounting; at 45 percent, online retail; at 44 percent and construction and landscaping; at 39 percent represented the least amount of start-up capital, or lowest entry barriers.

Officials caution federal workers of predatory online payday lenders during federal shutdown (News 8), Rated: A

Attorney General William Tong and Department of Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez cautioned federal workers on Wednesday to avoid predatory online payday lenders who may seek to exploit the struggling workers during the partial government shutdown.

Most People Would Not Loan Their Loved Ones Money to Start a Business (Fundera), Rated: A

The time and effort it takes to raise the funds for your startup can quickly get out of hand, which may be the reason that 29% of new small businesses run out of cash and fail.

In fact, 38% of startups are funded by friends and family members.

We surveyed 1,000 Americans on whether or not they would loan a friend or family member money to start their business and found that 82% of people would not loan a friend or family member money to start a business.

Source: Fundera

No Pay Stub? No Problem. Unconventional Mortgages Make a Comeback (WSJ), Rated: A

Lenders issued $34 billion of these unconventional mortgages in the first three quarters of 2018, a 24% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry research group. While that makes up less than 3% of the $1.3 trillion of mortgage originations over that period, the growth is notable because it came as traditional home loans declined. Those originations fell 1.2% over the same period and were on track for a second down year in 2018.

North Capital Launches REITless Impact Income Strategies (PR Newswire), Rated: A

North Capital Investment Technology Inc. recently launched a new investment vehicle, REITless Impact Income Strategies (REITless), focused on lending and strategic debt investments to primarily single- and multi-family real estate development and redevelopment projects that aim to produce positive social impact in communities nationwide. The impact initiatives targeted by the company are energy efficiency, employment generation, affordable housing, and green-housing improvements that promote environmental sustainability. REITless is managed by North Capital Inc., an SEC-registered investment advisor (RIA).

BFS Capital Achieves $ 2 Billion in Financing (BusinessWire), Rated: A

BFS Capital, a leading small business financing platform, today announced it has now issued more than $2 billion in financing to over 22,000 small businesses across the United States, Canada and, through its United Kingdom subsidiary, Boost Capital.

KeyBank To Acquire Online Lending Business Laurel Road (PR Newswire), Rated: A

KeyBank National Association today announced that KeyBank and Laurel Road Bank have entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition by Key of Laurel Road’s digital lending business; Laurel Road’s three bank branches located in southeast Connecticut are not part of this transaction. Through the acquisition, Key will enhance its digital capabilities with state-of-the-art, customer-centric technology and will leverage Laurel Road’s proven ability to attract and serve professional millennial clients.

GROUNDFLOOR Launches Real Estate Investments Specific To Georgia Residents During Federal Shutdown (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Today, Atlanta-based GROUNDFLOOR is launching new investment opportunities specific to Georgia residents. The crowdsourced real estate investing and lending platform regularly offers investment opportunities to accredited and non-accredited investors throughout the country. Due to the federal shutdown and furloughs at the Securities and Exchange Commission, GROUNDFLOOR is now resurfacing state-by-state securities to continue to offer investors the opportunity to invest on a fractional, self-directed basis in Georgia real estate.

Is community banks’ loan growth too much of a good thing? (American Banker), Rated: A

Total loans at publicly traded banks with assets of less than $20 billion rose 9.2% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, based on Jan. 18 data compiled by FIG Partners. Publicly traded banks above that threshold have reported a 2.7% increase in loans.

Breakout Capital Finance expands Board of Directors, appoints Neil Gurvitch and Firoze Lafeer (PR Newswire), Rated: B

Breakout Capital Finance, a leading fintech innovator, announces the expansion of its Board of Directors by appointing Firoze Lafeer, company CTO, and Neil Gurvitch as an independent director. In making the appointments, Carl Fairbank, Breakout’s Founder and CEO, said, “We continue to see rapid growth in our lending- and technology-focused endeavors. Adding more seasoned leadership continues our expansion and growth plans.”

Samsung NEXT, NBKC Executives and Ellie Mae Veteran Join ProPair Advisory Board (BusinessWire), Rated: B

ProPair, a Silicon Valley innovator using machine learning and predictive decision-making to change how mortgage lenders are assigning and prioritizing their leads, today announced the additions of Leo Chang, Chad Cronk and Nick Hedges to its advisory board.

United Kingdom

RateSetter attracts over 75,000 investors (Bridging and Commercial), Rated: AAA

RateSetter has announced that over 75,000 investors have put money into its platform.

Since its launch in 2010, investors have earned £120m through the P2P lending platform at an average interest rate of 4.4% per year.

RateSetter currently has £830m of investment under management, including £170m invested through its Isa.

MarketInvoice secures £56m equity and debt funding (MarketInvoice), Rated: AAA

Fintech business MarketInvoice today announced it has raised £26m in new equity funding. This Series-B funding round was led by Barclays and Fintech fund, Santander InnoVentures with significant participation from European venture fund Northzone, an existing investor in the company. Technology credit fund Viola Credit, who also participated in the equity round, will provide a debt facility of up to £30m. The facility will help scale the MarketInvoice business loans offering that sits alongside their core invoice finance solutions.

Goldman Sachs’ Marcus platform reveals AUM (AltFi), Rated: A

The US investment giant said its digital bank attracted has more than £5bn in UK savings just three months after its launch.

The US investment giant debuted its online lending and deposit platform, Marcus, in the UK at the end of last summer, and pulled in 100,000 customers and £5.4bn in the final quarter of the year.

Metro Bank shares crash after loans blunder revealed (The Guardian), Rated: A

Metro Bank has revealed a major blunder in how it classifies its loan book, an admission that drove its share price down by nearly 40% on Wednesday, wiping £800m off the value of the company.

The bank, which has been opening new branches as established rivals cut back, revealed that hundreds of millions of pounds of commercial property loans and loans to commercial buy-to-let operators had been wrongly classified in risk terms, and should have been among its “risk-weighted assets” (RWAs).

Glenhawk grows team with LendInvest hire following strong start to 2019 (Property Funds World), Rated: B

Having originated GBP28.4 million of potential loans since the start of the year, and completed on just over GBP4 million, early indications are that 2019 will see accelerated demand for Glenhawk’s fast and flexible short term property finance. Wareham joins Glenhawk’s 20-strong team of real estate professionals, supporting an increasingly diverse range of borrowers across the South of England and Midlands.

China

Hexindai Begins Sharing Credit Data with Baihang Credit (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

Hexindai Inc. (NASDAQ: HX) (“Hexindai” or the “Company”), a fast-growing consumer lending marketplace in China, announced today that it has connected its systems and begun sharing credit data with Baihang Zhengxin (“Baihang Credit”).

China crackdown aims to push peer-to-peer lenders out of the industry (Australian Financial Review), Rated: A

Chinese authorities have further tightened controls on the peer-to-peer lending industry, aiming to clear out as many P2P platforms as possible, according to an official document seen by Caixin.

Microlenders need to obtain licences from the regulators and meet certain minimal capital requirements. For instance, a microlender in Shanghai needs to register its business with more than 200 million yuan ($41.2 million). P2P platforms usually don’t have to meet such requirements.

Chinese investors try to storm company after P2P lender failure (Business Times), Rated: A

In the latest sign of turmoil in China’s once booming peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector, around 80 investors in failed lender Xinhehui protested outside the Hangzhou headquarters of a related company on Tuesday, demanding a US$330 million bailout.

Mrs Xue, who would only provide a surname for fear of retaliation, said she arrived at 8am with around 80 other investors from Zhejiang and neighboring provinces, demanding payment for 2.26 billion yuan (S$452 million) of products that Xinhehui had sold, including 860 million yuan (S$172 million) worth that were due for repayment on Jan 6.

Xi Tells Cadres to ‘Prevent and Control’ Risks as China’s Economic Woes Mount (The Epoch Times), Rated: B

At a high-level meeting of senior Chinese Communist Party officials held in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave an opening speech on Jan. 21 that hinted at the severity of China’s economic downturn.

European Union

Fellow Finance Launches Peer to Peer Lending in Denmark (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Finland based peer to peer lender Fellow Finance is now operating in Denmark. The company says it will offer Danish consumers access to credit while Fellow Finance investors will be able to fund Danish loans. Currently, Fellow Finance provides consumer loans in Finland, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

Note to Irish and US parents: college not the only path for your cherished offspring (Irish Central), Rated: A

According to the student loan marketplace www.lendEDU.com, the average debt per borrower at a public college is $26,872. This rises to $31,710 if you’re inclined to a private college experience. For graduate school students – whose parents have by now presumably said, “Time to pay your own way, sunshine” – the average debt is a staggering $57,600.

International

Funding Circle partners with Stripe to help small businesses expand (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

Funding Circle, the global small business loans platform, today announced that it has joined the Stripe Partner Program, providing businesses using Stripe with access to affordable business financing through Funding Circle. As a verified extension partner, Funding Circle now enables Stripe users to import their data directly and securely to apply for a business loan up to $500,000 — making the process faster and easier so they can get back to running their businesses.

Boost Capital ups firepower as US parent hits $ 2bn lending milestone (AltFi), Rated: A

Small business lender Boost Capital has refinanced its credit facility lifting its funding capacity to $60m, as its US parent targets European growth.

The Chelmsford-based platform, which provides business loans and merchant cash advances, said it upped its credit firepower from $40m after signing a deal with New York-based investment firm Atalaya Capital Management.

India

Matrix Partners invests in P2P lending platform LiquiLoans (Techstory), Rated: AAA

Mumbai based peer to peer lending platform LiquiLoans, one of the few players to have secured a P2P license, has now secured an undisclosed amount of funding from some of the existing investor that is Matrix partners India.

Fintech startup floated by ex-Lendingkart execs MoneyOnClick raises funding (VC Circle), Rated: A

Two former executives from online lending platform Lendingkart have quit the firm to set up a new venture in the alternative lending space, catering to consumers.

According to their respective LinkedIn accounts, the startup, which has been operational since October 2018, has already raised $2.25 million (Rs 16.02 crore at current exchange rates) as part of its first institutional funding round from undisclosed investors.

Women, non-metros topping up on credit, says BankBazaar survey (MoneyControl), Rated: A

Non-metro cities have emerged as the bigger market for unsecured credit in terms of volume than the metros in 2018, according to BankBazaar Moneymood 2019 report.

The average personal loan ticket size in non-metros is Rs 2.80 lakh compared to Rs 2.55 lakh in metros. The unsecured credit portfolio includes personal loans and credit cards which are used more for consumption activities than secured loans.

Online rental marketplace Sacorooms Rises fresh funding Pre-Series A (Times of India), Rated: A

Sacorooms, a start-up that is building co-living spaces, has closed a pre-Series A round of funding for an undisclosed amount from Mr. Broadway. The investment comes after a strategic round led by Incubate Fund and a group of investors from the real estate industry this year.

Asia

OJK Zero Down Payment Policy Drives Multifinance Growth (Tempo.co), Rated: AAA

The recent policy of zero percent down payment for vehicle credit issued by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) believed to be able to drive the performance of the multifinance industry. Businesses are confident that multi-finance companies will perform better with the new regulation.

Chairman of the Indonesian Financing Company Association (APPI) Soewandi Wiranto, said that the business expansion stated in the new regulation can increase financing industry growth. Based on APPI’s calculation, industrial asset growth for 2019 can reach up to 9 percent while the growth rate of receivables is predicted to be in a range of 6 to 7 percent.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

The post Thursday January 24 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday November 29 2018, Daily News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: MPOWER Financing raises $110M. Funding Circle, BBB partner on SME lending. Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans. Yirendai misses earnings estimates by .17 EPS. RateSetter aiming to be Australia’s biggest consumer loans provider. Revolut greenlighted to expand into Singapore, Japan. Today’s main analysis: Is UK headed for credit card crisis? Today’s thought-provoking articles: 37.4% of purchase […]

News Comments

United States

MPOWER Financing raises $110 million. Congratulations.
37.4% purchase borrowers received mortgage rates below 5% last week. Another interesting LendingTree study.
5 technologies, trends changing the credit industry. Cool infographic. Two of the trends are online lending and peer-to-peer lending.
Intuit Consumer Group discusses LendingClub, Wealthfront partnerships.
Marketplace loan performance monitor as of August 2018. From PeerIQ.
Lendio still a great place to work.
4 major fintech trends in self-directed IRA industry.
There’s never been a better time to find a bad credit mortgage.
stREITwise launches Invest for a Cause.
2018’s top commercial property takeaways.
Small banks join forces on fintech.
Stocks hold onto gains.
Online lender settles with FTC.
Velocity Commercial Capital chooses SS&C.
Guaranteed Rate expands into Hawaii.
BFS Capital appoints new CEO.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle, BBB partner on SME lending.
Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans.
Is UK headed for a credit card crisis? 74% of retail consumers are likely to revolve credit. Same as in Norway, however, Norway has fewer mass affluents likely to revolve credit. Mass affluents are more likely than retail consumers to revolve credit in France, the only European nation where that is true. Across the board, retail consumers are likely to revolve credit in Europe. This spells a golden opportunity for POS lenders like Affirm and Klarna.
Britain’s creative industries break 100 billion GBP barrier.

Southeast Asia

Other

News Summary

United States

MPOWER Financing raises USD110 million in latest funding round (Private Equity Wire) Rated: AAA

MPOWER Financing, a fintech company providing educational loans to high-potential international and DACA students, has completed its largest funding round to-date with USD110 million in new financing for students enrolling in major US universities.

This latest round, led by Gray Matters Capital and Community Investment Management (CIM), will be used to support new product growth and technology enhancements as well as to finance MPOWER Financing’s expanding student loan portfolio.

“We co-created a unique type of debt with Community Investment Management’s leadership team. This USD100 million is just the beginning of MPOWER’s Capital Markets roadmap,” says Mike Davis, MPOWER Financing Chief Investment Officer and co-founder.

37.4% of Purchase Borrowers Received Mortgage Rates Under 5% Last Week (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

For 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 37.4% of purchase borrowers received offers under 5%, up from 29.4% the prior week. A year ago, 98.1% of purchase offers were under 5%.
Across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications on LendingTree, the most common interest rate was 4.875%, offered to 21.3% of borrowers.

27.9% of 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance borrowers received offers under 5%, up from 20.1% the prior week. A year ago, 98.1% of refinance offers were under 5%.
Across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance applications, the most common interest rate was 5.00%, offered to 22.3% of borrowers.

5 Technologies And Trends Changing The Credit Industry (ValueWalk), Rated: AAA

New tools and advancements in the credit industry are transforming the way consumers borrow cash. Before, loan options were limited to government entities (Pag-IBIG and SSS), banks, credit cards, cash advance from credit cards, and loan sharks. These financial institutions (apart from loan sharks) are heavily regulated, but with a roster of new methods offered today, loaning has become more accessible and borrower-friendly.

The Future of Fintech Video Series: Intuit Consumer Group (ATM Marketplace), Rated: A

Intuit Consumer Group’s Varun Krishna gives some background on the company’s latest partnerships with Lending club and Wealthfront. This interview is part of a video series, “The Future of Fintech,” produced by Mobile Payments Today and powered by Galileo Processing.

MPL Loan Performance Monitor (as of August 2018) (PeerIQ), Rated: A

Highlights from the August 2018 MPL Loan Performance Monitor :

Our MPL Loan Performance Monitor tracks the delinquency rates, cumulative losses, cumulative prepays and transition matrices using public marketplace lending data that comprises unsecured consumer loans originated by Marketplace Lenders.
Delinquencies on the 2017 vintage in the first 18 months are lower than those on the 2015 and 2016 vintages with lenders having tightened underwriting standards.
Cumulative loss rates on the 2017 vintage are lower than those on the 2015 and 2016 vintages. Cumulative losses on the 2015-2017 vintages are outpacing those on earlier vintages.
Cumulative prepayments have picked up, with the 2017 vintage paying significantly faster than all prior vintages.

Lendio Recognized as a Great Place to Work for Third Consecutive Year (Lendio), Rated: A

Lendio was certified for the third consecutive year as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work. Lendio earned this credential based on extensive ratings provided by its employees in anonymous surveys. A summary of these ratings can be found at

Four Major Fintech Trends In The Self-Directed IRA Industry (Forbes), Rated: A

Fintech has helped significantly increase the number of investment options available to self-directed IRA investments. From online crowdfunding platforms to peer-to-peer lending portals, as well as cryptocurrency and digital asset exchanges, new financial technology has helped self-directed IRA investors gain access to new and exciting investment opportunities in an efficient and secure investment environment.

There has never been a better time to find a bad credit mortgage (Mortgage Introducer), Rated: A

Research conducted by the Online Mortgage Adviser website has discovered that up to 70% of potential mortgage applicants fail to approach lenders or other service providers because they mistakenly believe that their personal circumstances or financial histories will preclude them from being considered.

The study, which was based upon a survey of over 2,000 people nationwide, found that almost 50% of respondents believed that a low credit score, or evidence of previous issues, would automatically disqualify their application. 33% and 15% (respectively) felt that a zero-hour contract or payday loan would prevent them from achieving a mortgage loan.

stREITwise Launches Invest for a Cause (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A

stREITwise, an investment vehicle that makes commercial real estate investments accessible to everyone, is announcing the second annual Invest for a Cause holiday campaign. Through December 31st, their executive team will personally make a donation equal to 2% of any new investment to a non-profit of the investor’s choice.

2018’s Top Takeaways (Commercial Property Executive), Rated: A

But perhaps the biggest catchphrase of 2018 represents the rapidly evolving technologies that are benefiting—and some even say revolutionizing—the commercial real estate industry. So-called “proptech” includes a range of building performance solutions, along with financial benefits like the developing blockchain process protections and growth of the still fledging real estate crowdfunding business. (Our most recent discussions include our Mission: Success profile of MetaProp’s founders and the CFO Corner column “3 Ways to Leverage Fintech.”)

Small Banks Join Forces To Bring Fintech To Customers (Forbes), Rated: A

The move is driven in part by a desire to innovate and part survival. It comes as millennials are bypassing branches and traditional banking services for the fintech offerings at an increasing rate. Take Quicken Loans, the Detroit-based lender that operates Rocket Mortgage it’s completely digital platform, for one glaring example.

Stocks Hold Onto Gains Ahead of Powell Speech (Nasdaq) Rated: A

Counterstrike: The market looks like it might rise into the G-20 meeting that begins on Friday, so Jeremy thought this was a good time to pick up a couple names. Firstly, the editor added a 6% allocation in online marketplace Lending Tree (TREE), which has been halved from its 2018 highs. But it could be poised for a sharp move higher as a strong quarterly report has exposed its oversold position.

Online Lender Settles With FTC Over Refinancing Misrepresentations (Manatt), Rated: A

Issuing a warning to other lenders, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a deal with an online lender over charges the company violated the FTC Act by making false statements about student loan refinancing.

Velocity Commercial Capital Chooses SS&C for its Finance Transformation (SS&C), Rated: A

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:SSNC), a global provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, today announced that Velocity Commercial Capital, LLC (‘Velocity’) has signed a multi-year agreement with SS&C Primatics’ EVOLV platform. EVOLV will help Velocity transform their financial operations and capitalize on growth opportunities in a controlled environment. Velocity, a direct portfolio lender, provides investment property loans for residential 1-4, multi-family, mixed-use and small balance commercial properties.

Guaranteed Rate Expands Its Footprint in Hawaii (GlobeNewswire), Rated: B

Guaranteed Rate, Inc. (“Guaranteed Rate”), one of the largest independent retail mortgage companies in the United States, today announced that it will acquire certain assets of Honolulu HomeLoans (HHL) and Hawaii Lending Alliance (HLA), growing its existing Guaranteed Rate presence in the Hawaii market and adding an experienced team of mortgage professionals.

BFS Capital Appoints Mark Ruddock as Chief Executive Officer (Citizen Tribune), Rated: B

BFS Capital announced today the appointment of Mark Ruddock as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. He will also join the company’s Board of Directors.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle and BBB announce £150m SME lending partnership (Bridging & Commercial), Rated: AAA

The British Business Bank (BBB) has committed to lend up to £150m to UK small businesses through Funding Circle.

The transaction has been made under the bank’s ENABLE Funding programme and is expected to support the growth of over 2,000 UK companies.

The new facility will provide senior financing to a transaction with the Funding Circle SME Income Fund Limited, the publicly traded fund that lends exclusively through Funding Circle.

Zopa sells batch of defaulted loans to boost investor returns (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

ZOPA has sold a batch of defaulted loans to a debt collection agency, which it says will enable a faster and higher recovery for investors.

The peer-to-peer consumer lender informed its investors last week about the debt sale. It said that it has received upfront payment for the loans in question and will pass on the proceeds to investors within the next couple of weeks.

The UK could be headed for a credit card crisis (GlobalData Email), Rated: AAA

Almost three quarters of retail consumers in the UK (those with liquid assets between £0 and £3,918) do not pay off their credit card balances in full each month, says

Britain’s creative industries break the £100 billion barrier (Gov.UK), Rated: A

The UK’s roaring creative industries made a record contribution to the economy in 2017, smashing through the £100 billion mark.

Its value of the creative industries to the UK is up from £94.8 billion in 2016 to £101.5 billion, and has grown at nearly twice the rate of the economy since 2010, according to figures published today by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).

It continues to perform highly and over the last two months British tech firms Monzo, Farfetch and Funding Circle have surpassed the $1 billion mark, meaning they are now so-called ‘unicorns’.

China

Yirendai (YRD) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $ 0.17 EPS (Fairfield Current), Rated: AAA

Yirendai (NYSE:YRD) announced its earnings results on Monday, November 12th. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.17), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $163.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.48 million. Yirendai had a return on equity of 40.40% and a net margin of 18.56%. The company’s revenue was down 28.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS.

Source: Fairfield Current

Senmiao Technology (AIHS) Acquires 60% Equity Interest in Chinese Automobile Financial Leasing (StreetInsider), Rated: AAA

Senmiao Technology Limited (NASDAQ: AIHS), an online lending platform in China connecting investors with individual and small-to-medium-sized enterprise borrowers and creditors, today announced that it entered into an Investment and Equity Transfer Agreement (the “Agreement”) to acquire a 60% equity interest in Hunan Ruixi Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. (“Ruixi”), a Chinese licensed financial leasing company focusing on the auto industry with registered capital of $10 million. In exchange for the 60% equity interest in Ruixi from its three existing shareholders, Senmiao has agreed to contribute $6 million in registered capital to Ruixi. The acquisition closed on November 22, 2018.

Beyond The Sugar Rush: Strategic Stimulus For Chinese Stocks (Seeking Alpha), Rated: A

Private companies and even individuals have taken full advantage of loose credit conditions. Rising corporate bond defaults and nonperforming loans, as well as the recent collapse of hundreds of peer-to-peer lending platforms, suggest that at least in some cases, the money came too easily. Concerned global equities investors are already applying a substantial discount to Chinese stocks because of debt issues.

European Union

‘Inconsistent and punitive’ employee ownership rules are damaging Europe’s start-ups, say tech bosses (Telegraph), Rated: AAA

A group of thirty European tech start-ups have warned that the European Union’s “inconsistent and often punitive rules” employee ownership rules are hindering their businesses.

The entrepreneurs, which include the founders and chief executives of iZettle, TransferWise and Delivery Hero, stated that laws across the continent make it costly for employers to give out stock options to employees.

The warning to EU policymakers, in an open letter, comes as research by venture capitalists Index Ventures finds that employees own only 10 per cent of late-stage start-ups in Europe, because of limitations brought about by regulations. However in the US it is 20 per cent.

Online Lender October Officially Launches in the Netherlands (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Online lender October (formerly Lendix) has launched in the Netherlands. Alongside this expansion, the Paris based October is providing SME financing in France, Spain, and Italy.

According to a note from October, SMEs may apply for loans ranging from €30,000 and up to €3.5 million.

Solactive Launches New Sharing Economy Index (Mondo Visione), Rated: B

Solactive is pleased to announce the launch of the Solactive Sharing Economy Index. It tracks companies active in the Sharing Economy, and other modern economies such as on-demand and subscription.

Formerly being attributed to open-source communities, the umbrella term “Sharing Economy“, nowadays reflects various economic activities such as peer-to-peer sharing of goods and services.

International

Zero Fees and Interest-free Loans in Decentralized Credit Networks (NewsBTC), Rated: AAA

Money lending is the core principle of any functioning economy. Decentralized credit networks which have recently seen a rapid increase in popularity promise easy and global access to credit and loans for businesses and the public by immediately connecting borrowers and lenders on the platform. Users of IOU credit networks can even take advantage of interest-free loans and zero fees.

Australia

RateSetter putting pieces in place to be Australia’s biggest consumer loans provider (Finder), Rated: AAA

When RateSetter started operations in Australia four years ago, the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry was in its infancy and its risk-based, investor-funded loan was seen as an alternative. But a lot can happen in four years. Today, major banks such as CommBank, HSBC and Citi use risk-based pricing, once only the domain of P2P lenders, while the formerly “alternative” RateSetter funded over $25 million in consumer loans this month.

Foggo said the lender has been “determined” to focus on specific products. One of its new ones is a renewable energy loan which it launched two and a half years ago.

India

Suspension of Aadhaar verification to hit lending of small fintech players (The Hindu Business Line), Rated: AAA

Fintech players, especially online lenders in the personal and consumer loans segment, are likely to face slowdown in business following the Supreme Court order that prevents private companies from seeking Aadhaar data for e-KYC and e-signatures.

Asia

Fintech firm Revolut gets green light to expand to Japan and Singapore (CNBC), Rated: AAA

British mobile bank Revolut has obtained licenses to operate in Japan and Singapore as it readies an expansion into Asia.

The London-based financial technology firm said Thursday that it had acquired a remittance license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and full authorization from Japan’s Financial Services Agency.

It said Thursday that it intends to launch its platform in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in the first quarter of 2019, and is looking to select Singapore to host its APAC headquarters.

Online lending platform Oriente announces 5m initial funding for Southeast Asia (kr-Asia), Rated: A

Hong Kong-based online lender Oriente today announced a US$105 million initial round of financing to scale its business across Southeast Asia. The fintech startup already runs lending platforms in the Philippines and Indonesia and will launch in Vietnam soon.

Tapping into digital economy (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A

According to the latest survey by Google and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Indonesia’s digital economy is projected to triple to US$100 billion by 2025 from $27 billion this year, given the mushrooming of the country’s online marketplaces. The projection is not an exaggeration as indicated by the huge transaction values at a recent online shopping festival, dubbed a warm-up for the National Online Shopping Day in mid-December.

P2P lending transactions total Rp 13.8 trillion in first three quarters (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A

According to Financial Services Authority (OJK) data, transactions through peer to peer (P2P) lending totaled Rp 13.8 trillion (US$951 million) in the first three quarters of 2018, with the non-performing loan (NPL) rate recorded at 1.2 percent.

P2P lending transactions in 2018 have increased drastically compared to the last two years, with the OJK recording Rp 284 billion in transactions in December 2016 and Rp 2.56 trillion in December 2017.

Who’s afraid of peer-to-peer lending? (Bangkok Post), Rated: A

The recent announcement by the Bank of Thailand on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending rules represents a significant paradigm shift. If all goes to plan, by early next year Thailand will be among the few Asian countries, most notably China and Indonesia, to legalise this match-making platform between lenders and borrowers.

Bukalapak eyes investment products, P2P lending to cash in on fintech opportunity (Deal Street Asia), Rated: B

Indonesia’s online marketplace unicorn Bukalapak is planning to cast a wider net in the country’s booming fintech market. The company is looking at launching new investment products and enter new verticles such as P2P lending and remittances, co-founder and president Muhamad Fajrin Rasyid told this portal.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

Tuesday February 20 2018, Daily News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: Cross River Bank, PeerIQ partner on loan data.Coinbase to offer crypto payments service to compete with PayPal.Better Mortgage hits $1B in mortgage loan funding.LendingClub updates Truth in Lending Statement.Zopa to launch a credit card.Funding Circle plans IPO at $2.1B valuation.Prospa ranked #1 among high-growth firms in APAC. Today’s main analysis: […]

News Comments

United States

Cross River Bank, PeerIQ partner on loan data. AT: “An excellent partnership.”
Coinbase to compete with PayPal with crypto payments service. AT: “The time has come for cryptocurrencies to have their own global payments megafirm. Could that be Coinbase? They’re as likely a candidate as any, and poised for greater growth.”
Millennial SME owners prefer online lenders. AT: “I think it’s pretty well established across the board that millennials prefer alternative lenders. This study breaks it down to SME owners, specifically.”
P2P lending soars while SMEs are wary of finance.
Better Mortgage hits $1B in mortgage loan funding. AT: “Congratulations! Better Mortgage is one of the leading companies transforming the mortgage industry with technology.”
Why banks should buy online lenders. AT: “A must-read analysis from PeerIQ. There’s more to it, however, than mere numbers. As financial technology rises, if banks do not find a way to make use of technology to remain competitive, they will become obsolete. That’s why they need a presence at the table.”
LendingClub updates Truth in Lending statement.
Will LendingClub turn the corner in 2018?
Pricey personal loans could be outlawed in California. AT: “The attack on high-interest small-dollar loans is taking place simultaneously at the state level and the federal level.”
BFS Capital has a new $175M credit line.
Braviant Holdings to raise $7M in equity.
VPC’s portfolio sales drag.
PeerStreet review.
How real estate investing benefits from technology.
Podcast interview with Marla Blow of FS Card.
BBVA, Azlo partner on freelance market.
Goldman Sachs hones in on consumer banking.
Banks urged to compete with payday lenders on small-dollar, lower-cost loans.
Big banks are fine with Dodd-Frank.
Entrepreneur launches mobile tax refund loan app.
Roostify gets another investor.
French asset manager signs deal in meatpacking.
House bill on MPL passes.

United Kingdom

Zopa beefs up employee base for credit card launch. AT: “Zopa has always been a leader in marketplace lending. Does this spell a new age of credit for the industry? Will we see a day when all alt lenders issue credit cards?”
Funding Circle IPO will value lender at $2.1B.
Funding Circle to hire Morgan Stanley to lead float.
Lendy reports 224% turnover increase.
Lending Works to use Credit Kudos to power open banking.
Small businesses use specialist lenders.
The best time to seek alt finance is now.
ArchOver prepares for IFISA launch.
Crowdfunding comes of age.
Time to get clear on IFISA.
P2P lending is 13 years old now.

China

Banks push back on new lending rules.

European Union

International

Australia

India

APAC

Other

News Summary

United States

Fintech-friendly Cross River Bank partners with PeerIQ on loan data (American Banker), Rated: AAA

Cross River Bank in Fort Lee, N.J., has entered into a partnership with PeerIQ, a provider of consumer loan data analytics, in an effort to streamline capital sourcing between online lenders and institutional loan buyers such as small banks.

Coinbase Now Powering Payments in Digital Currency (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has launched Coinbbase Commerce, a payments platform that allows merchants to accept digital currency anywhere, anytime.

Millennials SME Owners Prefer Online Alternative Lenders to Tradtional Ones (Bank Innovation), Rated: AAA

According to Mercator’s report, Business Banking Services: Keeping Up with Millennial Owners, 27% of total U.S. SMEs have used online alternative lenders (P2P lenders or marketplace lending platforms) in 2017.

Of this number, 48% of millennial owners (aged 18–34), currently have a loan from an alternative lender compared to 25% of SMEs run by owners over 35 years of age. Further, these millennial owners said they are twice as likely to use alternative lenders than their older counterparts.

Source: Bank Innovation

P2P lending soars but SMEs generally wary of finance (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

The 2018 Small Business Finance Markets report, released on Tuesday, found that P2P business lending rose by 51 per cent in 2017. In contrast, bank lending to UK small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fell to £700m in 2017 from £3bn the previous year.

Despite increased demand for alternative finance, the report found that 70 per cent of smaller businesses would rather forego growth than borrow. The BBB’s analysis found that only 1.7 per cent of small firms sought new loans over the last 10 quarters – a record low since its index began in 2011.

Less than half (43 per cent) of businesses surveyed were confident they would get a loan if they applied, even though most new loan applications (72 per cent) are approved.

Better Mortgage Hits $ 1 Billion Dollars in Mortgage Loans Funded after Launch in January 2016 (BusinessWire), Rated: AAA

Better Mortgage, a digital mortgage company focused on improving access to home financing for a new generation of homeowners, announced that it has funded over $1 billion dollars in mortgage loans to date. Better launched in January 2016, making it the third fastest online lender to reach this $1B milestone — per research published by Lend Academy in July 2017.

The Case for M&A (Why Banks Should Buy Online Lenders) (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

Tech firms have already demonstrated they can open these markets. The largest money market fund in the world, Ant Financial’s four-year-old Yu’e Bao, was built on a sweep from the AliPay payments product. Intuit can utilize proprietary accounting and tax data to underwrite (and acquire) borrowers in novel ways. Amazon can underwrite small businesses using inventory turnover and reams of customer data.

“Big Tech” firms also have proprietary platforms and channels – in-home (think ‘Alexa’), apps, in-car, and mobile to name a few. However, in the US – at least for now – Big Tech firms lack a regulatory “swimlane” to compete with banks in lending and payments on a national scale. Their non-bank and commercial status confines their activities to narrow forms of lending, affinity partnerships, and lead generation. Until that impediment is dissolved, “Big Tech” firms need to partner with national banks with unsecured lending capabilities to fully unlock these markets.

Our argument is that banks without an unsecured lending capability risk losing long-term customer relevance. Banks that do not have an unsecured lending business do not have a seat at the table.

Source: PeerIQ

Which Banks are the logical buyers?

Banks that have the following characteristics would make a short-list of likely acquirers:

Are active in lending, but have a gap in unsecured consumer loans
Banks with asset management or structured products arms that can package loans into new products (e.g., ABS offerings, investment vehicles, etc.). Also, banks that have aspirations to develop a robo-advisor
Banks that have a demonstrated history of partnering with FinTechs

Source: PeerIQ, SEC filings, bank corporate websites

We assume underwriting and loan terms similar to those today (e.g. ~700 credit score, 15% coupon, $15k principal, 3 to 5 year term). We assume annual charge-off rates of 5%. We assume a 1.5% deposit funding charge and a leverage ratio of 15%.

We find that a bank can generate 10% NIM, 2 to 3.5% ROA, 15 to 20% marginal-ROE during good times.

Update to Truth in Lending Disclosure Statement (Lending Club), Rated: AAA

As of Friday, February 23, 2018, recent updates made to the Truth in Lending disclosure statement for unsecured consumer loans will take effect. The forthcoming Truth in Lending disclosure statement is available here.

Will LendingClub Turn a Corner in 2018? (Guru Focus), Rated: A

LendingClub has a market cap of about $1.6 billion, which makes it one of the biggest players in the peer-to-peer lending market.

The company’s stock price has plunged nearly 40% over the last four months and this could continue unless the upcoming earnings call changes investor sentiment. LendingClub was valued at about $9 billion in late 2014 but it has dropped to about $1.6 billion.

Source: Guru Focus

Pricey personal loans would be outlawed by bill that would reshape state lending industry (Los Angeles Times), Rated: AAA

A bill introduced Thursday by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) could dramatically reshape California’s lending industry by capping interest rates at roughly 20% for consumer loans between $2,500 and $10,000. Since rate caps were removed by the Legislature in the 1980s, there’s been no limit to the amount of interest lenders can charge on those loans.

That has led to startling growth in the market. In 2016, more than half of the loans between $2,500 and $5,000 and about 21% of larger loans charged interest rates of 100% or higher. In all, Californians in 2016 — the most recent year for which state data are available — borrowed $1.1 billion at triple-digit interest rates.

But Kalra’s bill would do much more than ban lenders’ priciest offerings. The bill would extend an existing set of rate caps that now apply to loans of less than $2,500 to all loans of up to $10,000. That would cap interest rates at roughly 19% for loans up to $10,000.

Had the caps been in effect in 2016, 98% of loans between $2,500 and $5,000 and 95% of loans up to $10,000 would have been outlawed. Only about $91 million of the $2.7 billion in loans made in those sizes in 2016 had rates below 20%.

BFS Capital Announces New 5 Million Credit Line (BFS Capital Email), Rated: A

BFS Capital, a leading small business financing platform, today announced it is has received a new $175 million revolving credit line provided by funds managed by Ares Management, L.P. BFS Capital will use the new facility to accelerate the growth of its lending business, following a record year where the company generated more than $300 million in originations, a new annual high.

Braviant Holdings Announces $ 7 Million Equity Raise (Braviant Email), Rated: A

Braviant Holdings, a leading fintech startup that uses advanced analytics and proprietary technology to make smarter lending decisions, has raised $5 million common equity from Loom Capital, LLC. Alongside the equity investment, Braviant has entered into an exclusive partnership with a subsidiary of Trend Capital, a tech-enabled digital marketing platform affiliated with Loom.

VPC’s portfolio sales drag on performance (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

VPC Specialty Lending Investments has reported a total net asset value (NAV) return of 3.07 per cent for 2017 – below its target return levels.

PeerStreet Review (Benzinga), Rated: A

In addition, “accredited investors” need only apply. Investors must have a net worth greater than $1 million in liquid assets (meaning the equity in your home doesn’t count) or you need to earn more than $200,000 per year or make $300,000 jointly.

PeerStreet’s minimum investment is $1,000 and account fees range from 0.25% to a 1% setup fee. The investment length ranges from six to 24 months.

Marla Blow of FS Card (Lend Academy), Rated: A

In this podcast you will learn:

How Marla’s time at the CFPB indirectly led to the founding of FS Card.
Why creating a new credit card company is so complicated and challenging.
What their Build card is and who is their target market.
How they are able to offer an secured credit card to people that banks reject.
The types of data they use to find stable customers in the subprime segment.
The typical size of the credit line they provide to these customers.
The profile of their target customer and how they are using the credit card.
How they are providing financial education to these people.
How FS Card is acquiring these credit card customers.
The percentage of their customers who have qualified for credit line increases.
Why improving credit scores of their customers is a key metric.
How they are able to issue these cards through their partner bank.
How FS Card makes money.
What regulators could be doing to help subprime consumers get more access to responsible credit.
What more should fintech companies be doing to help these underserved people.
The biggest challenges that FS Card has to overcome to become a large and successful credit card company.

How does real estate investing benefit from technology (Realty Biz), Rated: A

Buying and selling property has already become much more accessible due to technology, and this trend is only going to speed up. While historically, real estate professionals, investors, and landlords have been reluctant to pay for technology, and the data available has been spotty, the tide is turning as more wake up to the opportunities. Investment values are shooting up in many places due in a large part to technological advances, including the ability to market real estate to audiences beyond the immediate community and to close deals securely, quickly, and remotely with investors.

BBVA taps digital start-up Azlo to target US freelance market (Fintech Futures), Rated: A

BBVA has partnered with digital business account provider Azlo to target the freelance market in the US.

According to BBVA, by 2020 in the US alone, 43% of workers will be employed in freelance capacities – a trend that is expected to continue to grow.

Goldman Sachs and rivals home in on risky consumer banking (Financial Times), Rated: A

Lloyd Blankfein was a breezy opening act at a big industry event this week in Key Biscayne, Florida. On stage at the Ritz-Carlton the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs was talking about Marcus, the bank’s new online savings and lending platform, which is targeting borrowers with scores as low as 660 on the 300-850 Fico scale. Goldman calls such people “creditworthy”; others call them subprime.

Banks Urged to Take On Payday Lenders With Small, Lower-Cost Loans (WRAL), Rated: A

Those who find themselves pinched for cash often turn to high-cost payday lenders. But traditional banks and credit unions could serve that role for borrowers and do it at much lower rates, according to a new proposal from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

B of A’s Moynihan: Big banks are ‘fine’ with Dodd-Frank (American Banker), Rated: A

While small and regional banks are pushing for a rollback of the Dodd-Frank Act, big banks are largely supportive of the 2010 financial reform law, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said Thursday.

African-American Entrepreneur Launches Innovative Mobile Tax Refund Loan App to Revolutionize the Tax Industry (Black News), Rated: B

Good news for Americans struggling with income tax returns given the recent changes in the tax laws with the enactment of The PATH ACT. A visionary African-American entrepreneur, Marshawn Govan, has come up with an innovative mobile tax refund loan app that is all set to revolutionize the tax industry and make tax returns simpler for Americans.

Titled as MKG Tax Refund, the state of the art program is a patent pending mobile tax refund Collateral Driven Interest & Investment (SaaS) Software-as-a-Service (FOF) Fund-Of-Fund multi-manager investment application.

Add Another Bank to Fintech Roostify’s Roster of Investors (Bank Innovation), Rated: B

If there’s any question that digital mortgage firms are gaining attention from larger fintech players and investors, then look no further than venture capital firm Santander InnoVentures‘ investment in Roostify, a startup that digitalizes the mortgage application process.

French asset manager signs record deal in the Meatpacking District (The Real Deal), Rated: B

Tikehau Capital, a Paris-based firm with $15.6 billion in assets under management, signed a lease for the top two floors at Rockpoint Group’s new development at 412 West 15th Street, sources told The Real Deal.

The 11-year lease covers nearly 10,000 square feet on the top two floors of the 18-story building, which offer sweeping views of the Hudson River.

Lawmakers highlighted that H.R. 3299 — the Protecting Consumers’ Access to Credit Act of 2017 — clarifies current law to ensure innovative marketplace lending remains in-tact while simultaneously providing safe consumer protections.

H.R. 3299 passed through the House by a vote of 245-171 and went on over to the Senate, which received it, read the measure twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

United Kingdom

Zopa on hiring drive to support credit card launch in 2018 (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

ZOPA is recruiting staff to develop its new credit card, which it plans to launch later this year as a feature of its digital bank.

Temasek-backed Funding Circle plans IPO at .1b valuation (Deal Street Asia), Rated: AAA

Funding Circle, the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) lender in the UK, is planning to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that will see it float at an estimated valuation of £1.5 billion ($2.1 billion), according to a report by Britain’s Sky News.

Funding Circle set to hire Morgan Stanley to lead London flotation (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

FUNDING Circle is reportedly poised to hire Morgan Stanley to lead a flotation on the London Stock Exchange in the second half of this year.

The largest P2P platform by loan book size in the UK is expected to hire the US bank in the coming weeks, according to Sky News.

Lendy reports 224% turnover increase (Bridging&Commercial), Rated: AAA

Lendy has revealed a 224% turnover increase in 2016 (to £29.2m), compared with the previous year (2015: £9m).

The P2P lending platform has published its audited accounts for 2016, which also showed that profits before tax increased to £3.3m, compared with the £53,000 reported in 2015.

Lending Works chooses Credit Kudos to power new Open Banking initiative (Finextra), Rated: A

Credit Kudos, a challenger credit bureau, and Lending Works, a fast-growing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, are partnering to enable customers to benefit from the UK’s Open Banking initiative, a secure way for banking customers to take control of their financial data. Credit Kudos and Lending Works’ partnership is one of the first initiatives to use Open Banking to improve customer experience in the finance industry.

Currently, approximately 60% of Lending Works’ borrowers are provided with instant and automated credit decisions, whereas the remaining 40% require some manual processes. Within the new world of Open Banking, Lending Works expects to increase that figure to up to 90% of credit decisions being fully automated.

Small businesses look to specialist lenders for loans (Financial Times), Rated: A

British small businesses are diversifying their sources of funding away from big banks, as a growing number turn to specialist asset-backed lenders, peer-to-peer finance sites, private equity and venture capital investors.

Fewer small businesses are applying for loans than in the past five years and more of them fear that if they did they would be rejected, according to the latest report into small business finance by the British Business Bank, a government-backed development bank.

Out of the UK’s total of 5.7m small businesses, only 1.7 per cent applied for a loan or overdraft last year, the fifth consecutive year of decline since 2012.

There’s never been a better time to seek alternative finance (Belfast Telegraph), Rated: A

There are also several privately funded lenders (with a local presence in the province through brokerages) such as Atom Bank, Relendex, Thin Cats and Dunluce Capital which have all completed a number of deals in Northern Ireland from cash flow loans to property development finance.

The Access to Finance initiative supported by Invest Northern Ireland offers a variety of support including start-up funding, loans and equity investment.

WhiteRock Capital Partners manages the £50m NI Growth Loan Fund (Access to Finance) which offers loans from £50k to £1.25m to local SMEs. With an extensive network of funding partners, we work hard to deliver the most appropriate support for local businesses.

ArchOver readies for IFISA launch (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

ARCHOVER is planning to launch its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) in the next few weeks.

Crowdfunding Comes of Age (moneyexpert), Rated: A

Crowdfunding is gaining serious traction in the UK market, with the sector pushing past the £10 billion milestone in 2016. While, most people will probably still associate the idea of ‘crowdfunding’ with websites like Kickstarter or early stage equity investments, the reality is that 97% of the market is debt-based – either P2P lending or Crowd Bonds.

Both P2P lending and Crowd Bonds are also making big strides into the mainstream thanks to their inclusion in the new(ish) Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), which allows investors to earn interest tax free on their investments.

It’s time to get clear on the Innovative Finance ISA (moneyexpert), Rated: A

With the birth of the Lifetime ISA (LISA) for 18-39 year olds on 6 April 2017, the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) is no longer the baby of the ISA family. But it is perhaps still the least well understood.

The peer-to-peer lending industry celebrates its 13th birthday this year. Has it finally grown up? (Verdict), Rated: B

Whether that’s Paypal in the US or the start of the peer-to-peer lending industry (P2P) in the UK, financial services were changing long before the global recession hit.

The P2P industry is celebrating its 13^thbirthday this year. With big changes afoot in its major players such as Zopa, as well as Funding Circle, what is next for P2P lending?

China

China Gets Pushback on New Rules to Curb Lending Practices (WSJ), Rated: AAA

Chinese regulators and commercial banks are butting heads over new rules Beijing is rolling out to tackle off-the-books lending that’s compounding China’s debt woes.

Particularly targeted are practices banks use to move loans off their books by repackaging them as investments. Banks transfer the loans—mostly corporate and local government borrowings—to brokerages and other types of shadow lenders, which then peddle the rebundled investments to investors. Such maneuvers accounted for $3.5 trillion in off-balance lending as of last year.

European Union

Online Lending Market Growth Continues With Spanish Purchase (Prague Post), Rated: AAA

Wonga’s latest acquisition is Spanish company Credito Pocket, who was a lending company based in Barcelona. This is aimed to boost the visibility of their Wonga.es domain.

BinckBank and Raisin double up for Dutch savings market (Fintech Futures), Rated: A

BinckBank says it will be the first in the Dutch banking sector to offer its clients access to European savings products via its cooperation with Raisin.

Augmentum Fintech to raise £100mln to cash in on Europe’s financial disruption (Proactive Investor), Rated: A

A new trust aimed at Europe’s fast-growing fintech sector is looking to raise £100mln ahead of a float in London.

Augmentum Fintech PLC said the financial services sector is ‘ripe for disruption and disintermediation’ but, unlike other sectors such as retail and travel, this has yet to happen.

ING Diba Buys Lendico (P2P Banking), Rated: A

Bank ING Diba acquires p2p lending marketplace Lendico. According to Finanz-Szene.de the transaction was reported to the German Federal Cartel Authority last week. The bank has confirmed the acquisition.

International

Digital Identity Pioneer IdentityMind Global Lands $ 10M (Coverager), Rated: AAA

IdentityMind Global, the leader in Digital Identities You Can Trust, today announced that it has closed a $10M Series C round of financing. In addition to all existing investors, the round was co-led by Benhamou Global Ventures and Eastern Link Capital and included Hanna Ventures, Overstock.com, and Zanadu Capital Partners.

Coin-backed P2P platforms shrug off crypto volatility (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

Digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum suffered from price falls in January but many firms are still seeing the benefits of creating their own cryptocurrency to use for P2P lending. One provider, SOFIN, is currently looking to raise up to $1m (£720,000) to create a token that can be used as a tool to bypass high exchange rates so loans can be funded internationally.

FintruX’s whitelist closes in 11 days (AMBCrypto), Rated: B

The global P2P lending ecosystem, FintruX backed by Ethereum and No-Code development has reopened the Token Sale, FTX which is used to power the FintruX network and is set-up as a mean to reward or get rewarded for participating in the marketplace. The token’s minimum per transaction at present is 0.1 ETH.

Harnessing the Full Potential of the $ 600 Billion Crypto Network (NewsBTC), Rated: B

Gluwa and Aella Credit are the two fintech companies that have come together to create a blockchain based protocol that will allow investors to lend in any crypto.

These two companies plan to launch Creditcoin, which will operate across blockchains in the P2P lending market.

The Gluwa platform, to be powered by Creditcoin, will address the issues of accessibility of the crypto market by those in the fiat world by seamlessly connecting them with cryptocurrencies.

GISC LoanCoin Network (NewsBTC), Rated: B

GISC LoanCoin Network is a utility token based lending and borrowing platform that allows users to leverage their blockchain assets to secure cash loans. The network is optimal for P2P and B2B credit financing on a global scale.

The TWQ (Tawarruq) is an ERC20 token that confer the right to the token holder to submit an application for a personal financing based on a Commodity Tawarruq Trading program, through the iP2PGlobal platform and have it listed in the platform for prospective lenders to view and choose to finance.

10TWQs are needed to apply for a personal financing of up to 5ETH.

Australia

Australian Online Lender Prospa Ranks #1 in List of High Growth Firms in Asia Pacific (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Prospa, a Sydney based online lender servicing the SME market, has received a nice recognition as it took the top spot for a high growth firm in Asia Pacific. According to a recent ranking of the top 1000 firms in Asia-Pacific by the FT, Prospa ranked number one having experienced revenue growth of 1600% during the time period of 2103 to 2016.

Payday lender Nimble Money up for sale, bids due this week (Financial Review), Rated: A

Privately owned personal loans company Nimble Money is on the block, with its two founders believed to be seeking an exit.

Street Talk can reveal Melbourne-based Baillieu Holst has been hired to find a buyer for the business and has been marketing the short term loans provider to financial services industry players and private equity firms in recent weeks.

Interested parties have been told Nimble Money is on track to make about $15 million in earnings this year, following significant growth in its loan book over the past 12-months.

It’s expected to be worth about $100 million.

Loans.com.au slashes variable rates for home buyers (Canstar), Rated: B

Online lender loans.com.au has cut interest rates on its variable rate home loan to just 3.52% (3.56%* comparison rate).

Comparatively, the next lowest variable home loan for owner-occpupiers at the time of writing sits at 3.54% (3.55%* comparison rate).

Over $ 11.5 million lent by payday loan alternative (finder), Rated: B

BaptistCare has approved 16 loans per week to some of Australia’s most financially vulnerable people.

The No Interest Loan Scheme (NILs), a microfinance program aimed at providing small no- and low-interest loans to financially vulnerable people, has this week announced it has surpassed $11.5 million lent in NSW. The loans are designed to help people on lower incomes purchase essential goods and services.

The loans are provided through BaptistCare with the scheme run under Good Shepherd Microfinance in partnership with NAB and the NSW Office of Fair Trading.

India

Financial services execs invest in fin-tech startup Fincash (VC Circle), Rated: AAA

Mumbai-based personal finance startup Fincash.com has raised Rs 1 crore ($150,000) in a fresh funding round from a group of angel investors from the financial services sector, a company statement said.

The startup will use this money to build its team, expand its product line, acquire customers and make its services available across more cities and towns, the statement added.

Fintech startup Aye Finance raises Rs 25 cr from Vivriti Capital (Economic Times), Rated: B

Fintech company focussed on the MSME sector Aye Finance has raised Rs 25 crore through a securitisation deal facilitated by Vivriti Capital.

APAC

Lendit’s accumulated volume of loan tops W100b (The Korea Herald), Rated: AAA

Lendit, a peer-to-peer lending platform operator in South Korea, has extended a combined 101.8 billion won ($95.4 million) in nearly 7,300 consumer loans as of Monday to midrange borrowers seeking lower interest rates, according to the fintech startup Monday.

How VC Firm Magma Partners is Tapping Into the Untapped Chilean Fintech Market (Bank Innovation), Rated: A

With government-backed initiatives and a finite business of copper export, Nathan Lustig, co-founder and managing partner at Magma Partners, saw huge potential in the Chilean fintech market.

Lustig points out that only 30% of Chileans have credit cards, while only 50% have bank accounts, “and that’s the more advanced population,” he said. Additionally, consumer experience is “pretty horrible for about 80% of this population,” he said.

One area within the fintech space that Magma has been particularly interested in is invoice-based lending, also known as factoring. In its portfolio is Portal Finance, a startup that provides SaaS for the factoring industry.

Portal Finance earns between 0.5% to 1% for every deal the bank accepts.

Talad platform offers SME loans based on invoice collateral (The Nation), Rated: B

Talad Invoice, a lending platform initiated by a fintech startup, is expected to grow at an exponential rate this year, following two years of peer-to-peer lending using invoices as loans collateral, said Watewiboon Pumipue, chief executive officer of D90 Capital Co, which operates the financial platform.

Finda envisions online financial marketplace (The Korea Herald), Rated: B

Finda operates an eponymous web portal that provides information about over 7,000 financial products — ranging from personal and mortgage loans, investment instruments, credit cards to insurance products — standardized in Finda‘s own format. Users can be offered easy-to-understand and up-to-date information about products online, she said.

Finda gathers information primarily from an open API by the Financial Supervisory Service, but since the FSS’ database provides data, including interest rates, of the previous months, Finda reflects updates directly from sellers — banks, insurers, credit card firms and peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Africa

Global Startups Boot Camp Coming To Rwanda (KTPress), Rated: A

Rwanda will next month host a continental Startup boot camp (SBC) that will source innovative and top startup talents in the country and across the globe.

SBC is a global family of industry-focused accelerators, which last year launched its first-ever Africa-based programme.

Canada

KiWi’s marketplace loans set for imminent Canadian debut (Financial Post), Rated: A

The next stage in the development of Canada’s first credit fund that invests in marketplace loans — unsecured consumer and small business loans provided by online lending companies — is set to play out over the next month.

The gang behind KiWi Private Credit Fund — formed last summer with $30 million of contributions from institutional and high-net-worth investors — is planning to meet the Canadian platforms.

Russia

Microfinancers warn Central Bank of return to 90s (Realnoe Vremya), Rated: A

The regulator has been fighting against expensive and very risky loans for several years already. Last July it tightened reserve requirements for MFO again: they must add 100% interest for payday loans with a delay of more than 90 days.

Firstly, the regulator is going to restrict the size of payday loans to 10,000 rubles, secondly, to reduce the biggest term of such loans to 15 days, thirdly, to reduce interest rates to 1,5% in 2018, to 1% in July 2019 a day. Now the largest payday loan is 45,000 rubles. The maximum term is 2 months, while extra payment on such loans is limited to a threefold size of a loan.

Payday loans account for 57,6% of all loans that MFOs granted in the second quarter of the last year.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

Thursday December 7 2017, Daily News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: Credible raises $50M in Australian IPO. Kabbage considers IPO. Blockchain project gives New York homeless a digital identity. Funding Circle surpasses $5B global lending, $1B to U.S. businesses. RateSetter publishes 2016-17 accounts. Starling Bank gets full FCA, PRA approval. N26 launches premium debit card, partners with WeWork. Revolut rolls out bitcoin services. Vietnam gets first P2P lending platform. IOU […]

News Comments

United States

Kabbage considers IPO. AT: “The company wants to expand into Asia, which would be a good move indeed.”
How securitizations secure Lending Club’s future. AT: “A Lending Club blog post.”
7 fastest-growing personal finance apps of all time. AT: “If you read just one article today, this should be it. CB Insights delves into the fastest-growing personal finance apps including Robinhood, Mint, Check, Level Money, and others and illustrates–better than any case study ever can–how you can grow your own alt lending company. Learn what to do before, during, and after launch by studying these companies.”
Millions of consumers hounded for debt they don’t owe. AT: “An interesting look into phantom debt.”
Fummi uses the blockchain to give homeless a digital identity. AT: “This is interesting, but I wonder what the rationale is for charging users $3 per month, and will they collect it?”
Amazon is now the most-talked-about tech company on earnings calls. AT: “I’m not surprised. Are you?”
Global Debt Registry joins Wall Street Blockchain Alliance.
Discover enables Apple Pay Cash.
Curo Group goes public at $620M valuation.
Online lender convicted of $220M fraud.
Instamotor customers can apply for financing.
Lendio opens franchise office in Nashville.
Progressive Leasing, Marqeta partner on lease-to-own financing.
Real estate crowdfunding expands into more niche markets.
Will the SEC crack down on ICOs?
Spat over FICO ensues.
Tips to reduce college costs. AT: “Infographic from Earnest.”
Roostify to integrate with Black Knight’s LoanSphere.
Envestnet/Yodlee announce new cohort for incubator.
AutoGravity appoints new CTO.
QCash wins Financial Times Future of Fintech award.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle is the first company to lend $1B across two markets. AT: “Congratulations. A huge milestone for the industry.”
Funding Circle’s December review.
RateSetter publishes 2016-17 accounts. AT: “I’d like to know more about why they didn’t use their provisional fund.”
RateSetter losses jump.
RateSetter’s goodwill pushes it deeper into the red.
Starling Bank gets full FCA, PRA approval. AT: “Huge news. Congratulations. This could be the first step to making digital-only banks legitimate in the UK, and it could be the first step to helping them gain real traction elsewhere in the world–first in Europe, then Asia, and the U.S.”
Barnett backs P2P Global Investments.
The future of financial advice is ‘Fintegration’.

China

China targets booming online lending.

European Union

N26 launches premium debit card, partners with WeWork.

International

Australia/New Zealand

Credible launches IPO and raises $50M. AT: “This is a huge move, but I wonder why they chose Australia as opposed to the U.S. Ron Suber’s comments provide a clue.”
Prospa added to Yellow Brick Road.
Marketplace lenders need to educate SMSFs.
Nga Tangata breaking hold of predatory lenders.

India

Loans are easy to get.

Asia

Canada

IOU Financial surpasses U.S. $500M in loan originations. AT: “Congratulations.”

News Summary

United States

Kabbage Mulling An IPO (Seeking Alpha), Rated: AAA

According to FT Partners, the FinTech market saw a record 412 financial deals during the third quarter of 2017. One of the largest deals in the quarter involved a $250 million investment by Softbank (OTCPK:SFTBY) in billion-dollar unicorn Kabbage (Private:KBGE).

Kabbage generates revenue from the fees on the loans. It expects revenue of over $200 million in 2017, roughly double the revenue in 2015. The company claims to have a loss rate lower than the rest of the industry, and that its direct lending business had turned profitable in the fourth quarter of 2016. It expected the whole business to be profitable in the second half of this year.

Kabbage plans to use the funds for expansion into Asia and build new products like insurance and payroll services. It will also be positioning the company for a possible IPO.

Securitizations Securing the Future (Lending Club), Rated: AAA

As we near year’s end, we’re excited to announce that LendingClub has closed its third self-sponsored securitization. The $330 million transaction saw immediate traction and has further increased access to consumer credit for the stable and scalable pool of investor capital in the liquid Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) investor market.

Of note, with 48 total securitization investors this year, over two-thirds 34 are new to LendingClub, including insurance companies, hedge funds, a bank and a pension fund.

We Analyzed 7 Of The Fastest-Growing Personal Finance Apps Of All Time To Figure Out The Secrets To Their Success (CB Insights), Rated: AAA

Ninety-two million millennials will soon be in what Goldman Sachs calls their “prime spending years.” In aggregate, they command $1.3 trillion in annual spending.

(Bankrate found 83% of millennials don’t think they’ll ever retire: they simply “don’t think they’ll have the money” to do so.)

Source: CB Insights

For three of the tools we looked at — Mint, Level Money, and Check — we studied how their product evolved all the way up to their acquisition (by Intuit, Capital One, and Intuit, respectively).

Source: CB Insights

What follows are the results of our analysis — six secrets to success in the world of personal finance management.

1. Use pre-launch marketing to build both trust and hype

Mint had by far the most significant growth in its valuation — from $0 to $170M in just two years.

Source: CB Insights

2. Making the first experience valuable

Keeping users around is hard: according to Localytics, the average mobile app loses 80% of its users within just three days of download.

The best apps retain about 70% of users after three days. The next-best retain about 60%.

Source: CB Insights

3. Design for The Specific User You Want

Source: CB Insights

Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

A few minutes later, Therrien’s phone buzzed. It was the same guy. He gave his name as Charles Cartwright and said Therrien owed $700 on a payday loan. But Therrien knew he didn’t owe anyone anything. Suspecting a scam, he told Cartwright just what he thought of his scare tactics.

Therrien had been caught up in a fraud known as phantom debt, where millions of Americans are hassled to pay back money they don’t owe. The concept is centuries old: Inmates of a New York debtors’ prison joked about it as early as 1800, in a newspaper they published called Forlorn Hope. But systematic schemes to collect on fake debts started only about five years ago. It begins when someone scoops up troves of personal information that are available cheaply online—old loan applications, long-expired obligations, data from hacked accounts—and reformats it to look like a list of debts. Then they make deals with unscrupulous collectors who will demand repayment of the fictitious bills. Their targets are often poor and likely to already be getting confusing calls about other loans. The harassment usually doesn’t work, but some marks are convinced that because the collectors know so much, the debt must be real.

The problem is as simple as it is intractable. In 2012 a call center in India was busted for making 8 million calls in eight months to collect made-up bills. The Federal Trade Commission has since broken up at least 13 similar scams.

This New Blockchain Project Gives Homeless New Yorkers A Digital Identity (Fast Company), Rated: AAA

Three thousand homeless people in New York are about to receive a special holiday gift: a free smartphone that allows them to manage their digital identity, access shelters and food pantries, and make use of financial services.

The project comes from Blockchain for Change, a New York City startup that has developed a mobile app called Fummi that’s preloaded on the phone. It has teamed up with Life Wireless, which provides phones to low-income groups using federal subsidies. Also involved are NYC service providers like Urban Pathways, Part of the Solution (POTS), Hakook, and the Robin Hood Foundation.

Life Wireless is distributing the phones, starting in the Bronx. The service groups create the blockchain identities for individuals. Once on the system, they can then open an account, receive money, and track their activity.

Blockchain for Change has raised more than $500,000 in a seed round, but it’s also planning a public initial coin offering where it hopes to raise up to $50 million. It generates revenue by charging fees to users at a rate of $3 per month.

On Earnings Calls, Which Tech Company Are Senior Execs Most Obsessed With? (CB Insights), Rated: A

More than Google, Apple, or Facebook, there’s one company that CEOs and public company execs are talking about the most. We analyzed earnings call transcripts to identify the new king of technology.

Amazon has been mentioned nearly 3000 times in the last year. That’s more than Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft combined.

Source: CB Insights

Global Debt Registry joins Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (Finextra), Rated: A

Global Debt Registry (GDR), the asset certainty company, today announced its membership to The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA).

WSBA is an industry non-profit trade association created for financial market professionals, by financial market professionals. The alliance engages market participants, regulators, policymakers and technology innovators to advocate the adoption of blockchain’s distributed ledger technology.

Discover Enables Apple Pay Cash (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Discover has announced that transactions made with Apple’s new Apple Pay Cash card will leverage the Discover Network.

The card is part of the new Apple Pay functionality, which allows U.S. customers to quickly, easily and securely send and receive money among friends and family. When Apple customers receive money on a supported device, the money is added to their new Apple Pay Cash card. They can use the money instantly to pay someone or to make purchases using Apple Pay in stores, apps and on the web.

Payday lender Curo to launch in New York with $ 620m valuation (Financial Times), Rated: A

One of America’s biggest payday lenders is launching on the stock market with a $620m valuation, cashing in on mounting hopes that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will ease regulatory restrictions on the sector.

Curo Group, which targets “underbanked” consumers and is behind WageDayAdvance in the UK as well as Speedy Cash in the US, begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Shares in the private equity-backed company were priced on Wednesday evening at $14 per share, according to Bloomberg data.

Jury Convicts Online Lender Of $ 220M (Mondaq), Rated: A

Recently, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Richard Moseley Sr., the head of an online network of payday lenders and loan servicers, on charges of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and Truth in Lending Act, among other counts.

Moseley was convicted due to his leadership role over a vast and complicated system of interrelated companies that collected over $220 million from more than 600,000 borrowers and deceived regulators in the process. Convincing state and federal regulators and even his own lawyers that his companies were based offshore and not bound by U.S. law, Moseley coordinated a network of lenders and loan servicers that routinely misled both consumers and regulators.

Instamotor Customers Can Now Apply for Financing While Shopping For A Used Car (BusinessWire), Rated: A

Instamotor, the free online used car marketplace, announced today that its customers can now apply for and receive financing for vehicles on its platform.

An estimated 54% of used car buyers need financing according to Experian. By working with leading direct-to-consumer automotive lenders, Instamotor will become one of the few true automotive marketplaces to enable its users to shop for a used car and secure the financing more than half of them will need, all conveniently integrated in one place.

Loans enabled through Instamotor will be available to consumers with FICO scores as low as 500, which are people who commonly have trouble receiving optimal loan terms through traditional financing methods. Also, the application is optimized to be completed entirely in the comfort of one’s home rather than in a dealership office or credit union.

Lendio Opens New Franchise in Nashville (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Marketplace lending platform Lendio, recently announced its has opened its new franchise located in Nashville, Tennessee. Lendio revealed that its franchise program makes accessing business loans easy by helping small business owners skip the legwork of looking for a small business loan.

Progressive Leasing and Marqeta Partner to Power New Lease-to-Own Financing Experience (BusinessWire), Rated: A

Marqeta, the open API payment card issuing platform, and Progressive Leasing, a virtual lease-to-own company and a division of Aaron’s, Inc., today announced a technology partnership that will enhance the checkout process for Progressive Leasing customers.

As one of the largest players in the lease-to-own industry, Progressive Leasing sought a partner who could support their needs today and provide innovative solutions to help build their future payment checkout roadmap. Through the partnership, Marqeta will enable Progressive Leasing to issue virtual cards at the point of sale and work with them to create additional innovative payment offerings.

With the partnership, Marqeta will enable Progressive Leasing to take advantage of a wide range of modern features, including virtual card issuance, tokenization, and its patent-pending Just-in-Time (JIT) Funding, allowing Progressive Leasing to authorize and reconcile transactions in real time.

Real estate crowdfunding expands into more niche markets (Curbed), Rated: A

To those unfamiliar with real estate crowdfunding, the Fair-Haired Dumbbell development in Portland may be just the kind of wacky, esoteric project one envisions when imagining what happens when strangers pool funds online, crossing Kickstarter with construction. A pair of six-story towers connected by a skybridge, the commercial project does in fact resemble a hand weight, with an ostentatious, colorful Italianate pattern sprawled across the facade for extra impact.

Funded in part by investors who pooled money via the Crowdstreet crowdfunding platform, the building, located in a former industrial neighborhood called Burnside Bridgehead, is also open for business and looking for tenants. It’s the city’s first crowdfunded building, and a sign that the growing world of real estate crowdfunding has developed and matured since a 2012 change in investment regulations made these platforms possible.

While reliable numbers about this growing and fragmented market prove difficult to come by, research firm Massolution estimated the global market for real estate crowdfunding surpassed $3.5 billion in 2016.

Hope grows that a larger SEC crackdown on ICOs is coming — and soon (TechCrunch), Rated: A

More than $3 billion has been raised through so-called initial coin offerings so far in 2017.

That wait-and-see stance looks to evolve into much more action in 2018, suggest those who’ve either spoken with the Securities and Exchange Commission or otherwise have a vested interest in its rulings. (The SEC isn’t commenting publicly on its specific plans.)

Just Friday, a new division of the agency that’s focused on ICOs filed charges against an outfit called PlexCoin that reportedly raised $15 million from thousands of investors by promising a 1,354 percent return in 29 days or less.

Credit score row as FICO chief hits out at banks over ‘Fako’ rivals (Financial Times), Rated: A

A row has erupted over credit scoring after the head of FICO, the company whose metric underpins trillions of dollars in lending decisions in the US, hit out at some lenders for supplying customers with a rival measure he dismissed as “Fako”.

The group that supplies lenders with the rival assessment, VantageScore, hit back, saying Mr Lansing was spreading “misinformation aimed at discrediting FICO’s only real competitor”.

The spat points to the opacity of credit scoring, a crucial part of America’s consumer finance economy that is in the spotlight after the huge data loss at the credit reporting company Equifax.

Tips for Reducing College Costs (Earnest Email), Rated: B

Source: Earnest

Roostify to Integrate With Black Knight’s LoanSphere Empower Loan Origination System (BusinessWire), Rated: B

Roostify, a provider of automated mortgage transaction technology, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) to integrate its platform with Black Knight’s LoanSphere Empower loan origination system (LOS). The integration will enable Empower users to add further efficiency and transparency to the loan origination process – from application to closing.

Envestnet | Yodlee Incubator Unveils New Class of Fintech Disruptors (Business Insider), Rated: B

Envestnet | Yodlee(NYSE: ENV) today announced the members of the newest Envestnet | Yodlee Incubator class.

The members of the 2017–2018 Envestnet | Yodlee Incubator class are:

Amplifunds helps donors find non-profits that match their interests and performance expectations.
Datasine turns transactional data into psychometric insights, allowing banks to better serve their customers.
Golden helps families care for their senior parents’ financial health, wealth and security.
Peanut Butter offers a cloud-based software to help employers attract college-educated talent by managing student loan assistance programs.
Starbutter AI makes text and voice chat Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents that help consumers pick financial products like credit cards and mortgages.
Stessa enables property owners to manage, track, and communicate performance of their real estate assets.
Tangello improves home affordability by bridging the gap between renting and buying and offering a flexible, lower cost, and quicker way to finance homes, directly from mobile devices.
Veryfi provides mobile-first bookkeeping software that empowers business owners by automating the tedious parts of accounting through AI and machine learning.

AutoGravity Names Sheng Wang As Chief Technology Officer (PR Newswire), Rated: B

AutoGravity has announced the appointment of Sheng Wang as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to drive the company’s global engineering efforts. Wang joins AutoGravity’s executive team with responsibility for leading product and engineering to deliver a trustworthy and innovative car buying experience that empowers the consumer.

Prior to her appointment as CTO, Wang led AutoGravity product development as the company’s first Director of Product, building cross-functional teams to develop and launch the award-winning AutoGravity platform, as well as branded platforms for Volkswagen Credit and Kia Motors Finance. Wang joined AutoGravity with more than fifteen years of leadership experience in the technology industry and an uncompromising dedication to building dynamic teams and high-impact products that people love.

**QCash Financial Wins Financial Times Future of Fintech Awards for the Innovation Category (BusinessWire), Rated: B**

QCash Financial, a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) providing automated, cloud-based small-dollar lending technology for financial institutions, announced that it was selected as the winner of Financial Times Future of Fintech Innovation Award.

The FT Future of Fintech awards recognize pioneering companies able to demonstrate innovative ideas capable of creating lasting change in the financial services sector on a global scale. Financial Times offers an Innovation Award for newer Fintech companies that are bringing out novel solutions. QCash Financial was awarded the Innovation Award.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle passes $ 5 billion lent globally, including $ 1 billion lent to US businesses (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

Funding Circle today announced that investors have lent more than $5 billion globally to small businesses through the Funding Circle platform. This has supported a network of 40,000 businesses across the UK, USA, Germany and the Netherlands and helped to create more than 100,000 new jobs.*

Today’s news follows a record November for Funding Circle globally with the business facilitating more than $260 million of lending, including $175 million in the UK (£130m), $70 million in the US and $15 million in Continental Europe (€14.5m). Together this has helped thousands of business owners to access fast, transparent finance to grow their businesses, and will lead to an estimated 7,500 new jobs.

With US businesses now having accessed more than $1 billion in funding through the platform, Funding Circle becomes the first lending platform anywhere in the world to have facilitated more than $1 billion across two markets.

Your December Review – Insight and Analysis (Funding Circle), Rated: AAA

Your lending has reached £3 billion in the UK! November was also a record month, with £129 million lent to small businesses in the UK.

Over half of Brits (56%) think they have the skills to run their own business, but only 13% believe they’re entrepreneurial.

Source: Funding Circle

RateSetter Publishes 2016-2017 Accounts (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

On Wednesday, UK peer-to-peer lending platform RateSetter released its accounts for the year ending on March 31, 2017. The online lender reported that revenues were £23.7m, up 38 percent from 2015-16; loans under management grew by 23 percent, from £581m to £714m; the number of active lenders grew by 36 percent from 31,036 to 42,049; and, over the same period, the number of active borrowers grew 27 percent from 161,000 to 204,000.

Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter’s losses jump as it takes a hit from bad loan to ad company (Business Insider), Rated: A

RateSetter booked a pre-tax loss of £23.3 million in the year to March 2017, compared to a £5.3 million in the previous year. The company operates a peer-to-peer platform that matches retail investors with individuals looking to borrow money.

Operating losses were £9.2 million last year but the figure was pushed higher by a one-off write-down relating to a loan the platform made to Adpod Limited, an advertising business RateSetter lent £12 million.
‘A resilient business’
RateSetter’s accounts also show that revenue rose by 38% to £23.7 million. Loans under management rose by 23% to £714 million. The number of active lenders on the platform rose by 36% to 42,049 and the number of borrowers rose by 27% to 204,000.

Goodwill impairment helps push Ratesetter further into to the red (Verdict), Rated: A

A goodwill impairment pushed pre-tax losses for RateSetter down to £23m in the year ending March 2017, despite revenue growth of 38% to £23.7m.

The company, which launched a consumer vehicle and commercial assets HP offer this year, saw a rise of 36% in the number of lenders and 27% of borrowers. However, operating losses of £9.2m were further weighed down by a £14.1m goodwill impairment on a loan to advertising company Adpop.

In 2015 Vehicle Trading Group, a company operating in motor finance for consumers and dealerships, used a wholesale facility from RateSetter to lend £12m to Adpop. Both Vehicle Trading Group and Adpop subsequently went into financial difficulties, and RateSetter then bought the two companies.

RateSetter thus decided to back Adpop’s repayments of third party loans, preventing its provision fund from absorbing the hit, as it normally would in case a borrower defaults.

Starling Bank Receives Full Regulatory Approval from FCA & PRA to Offer Broad Portfolio of Financial Products (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Starling Bank has been granted approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to offer customers a wide array of financial products by the mobile only bank. Starling Bank received a licence to operate as a bank by the Bank of England in 2016. The digital only challenger bank will now be able to provide; mortgages, consumer loans, ISAs, and other investment products via their App. No bricks and mortar necessary.

Barnett backs P2P Global Investments for recovery (Citywire), Rated: A

P2P Global Investments (P2P), the largest of the listed alternative lending funds, has won the backing of Invesco Perpetual’s Mark Barnett, its largest shareholder, for the turnaround plan it outlined last week.

The future of advice is ‘Fintegration’ (Professional Adviser), Rated: A

The financial advisory sector has seen much change in the past few years, much of it driven by new technologies and a wave of new market entrants. While we are seeing consolidation and innovation in response, this is just the start. So if you thought the merry-go-round was slowing down, then grab hold tightly because it is only going to accelerate.

‘Fintegration’ – the integration with fintech services – is emerging as an important factor.

What is common to both groups is their appetite for financial online and digital services – from online banking and mortgage management to peer-to-peer lending platforms. There is no doubt we will shortly see the fully integrated dashboard becoming commonplace.

China

China targets booming online lending as crisis fears build (Hong Kong FP), Rated: AAA

The 24-year-old secretary is among millions of Chinese who have turned to proliferating online companies that dish out quick loans — and are worrying the country’s leadership.

Jia started accumulating her debt when she was in college, turning to tech titan Alibaba when she could not get a credit card.

The ease of a few taps on her phone and a four minute wait led Jia to borrow and borrow and when she was finally able to take out a card, she used it to repay Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial.

But her debt reached roughly US$9,000 this summer, and her monthly interest payments eclipsed her meagre salary.

‘Lending nirvana’

Alternative lending, with loans that can be wired to accounts within minutes, has taken off in China and accounts for 85 percent of the global market, according to a University of Cambridge report.

European Union

N26 launches a premium debit card for ‘the digital customer,’ partners with WeWork (TechCrunch), Rated: AAA

N26, the European mobile banking service, today announced the launch of N26 Metal, the company’s premium MasterCard-affiliated debit card “tailored to the needs of digital customers” at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. N26 Black customers in Germany, France, Italy and Austria will be able to sign up for the new NFC-enabled card, which obviously features a metal core made from tungsten and that makes the card weigh a lot, starting December 14.

It’s also worth noting that this is the first metal card in Europe that supports contactless payments.

What better company to partner with then than co-working and real estate startup WeWork. Using the N26 Metal service, N26 customers will also be able to join the WeWork network and get credits to reserve workspaces and conference rooms.

International

Currency trader Revolut’s offer to those champing at the bitcoin (The Times), Rated: AAA

Revolut, which provides foreign currency services to consumers and small businesses, said that from today its users would be able to buy bitcoin and other “cryptocurrencies” using 25 conventional currencies.

BFS Capital has Extended Over $ 1.7 Billion in Financing to Businesses across the US, UK and Canada (BusinessWire), Rated: A

Marking its 15^th anniversary year, BFS Capital, a leading small business financing platform, announced it has now extended over $1.7 billion in financing since funding its first deal in 2002. The company also reported that over 75 percent of its originations have occurred in the last five years and more than 25 percent took place in the last 18 months. For full year 2017, BFS Capital expects to generate more than $300 million in originations, a new annual high.

Recent Origination Milestones in Online Lending (Lend Academy), Rated: A

Today, Kabbage announced they had crossed the $4 billion mark. They have now lent to more than 130,000 small businesses which they claim is the largest customer base of any online small business lender.

This week LendingHome announced it had crossed $2 billion in mortgage loans for homeowners and real estate investors.

Funding Circle UK crossed the £3 billion (approx. $4 billion) mark in small business lending for their UK business.

LendingClub quietly announced total small business originations of $500 million since 2014 in a recent blog post.

Emerging markets are under pressure, but I’m buying the dip (CNBC), Rated: A

The Chinese government instituted tough new regulations on online consumer lending platforms, which are made up of payday loans and peer-to-peer lending. Some of them are associated with large holdings in the emerging markets exchange-traded fund like Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group affiliate.

While much of this is a continuation of the Chinese debt bubble, the move suggests that it has gotten out of the regulators’ control.

We see a global trade boom continuing to drive emerging markets as global Purchasing Manager indexes show continued growth in demand for manufactured goods. For example, Korea is already registering signs of slowing Chinese demand but is still showing 9.6 percent year-on-year growth for November exports. However, we continue to watch the tone out of Washington, since a shift toward more protectionism could put a dent in this.

Viola FinTech is a new $ 100M Israel-based VC fund targeting fintech startups around the world (TechCrunch), Rated: B

Viola, the Israel-based technology investment group, is launching new independent VC fund targeting fintech startups from anywhere in the world. Dubbed Viola FinTech, the “cross-stage venture fund” has an initial closing of $100 million but will extend that towards $120-150 million. It is backed by global banks, insurance companies and asset managers from North America, Europe, APAC and Israel, including Scotiabank, The Travelers Companies, Inc and Bank Hapoalim.

Australia/New Zealand

San Francisco’s Credible Raises $ 50 Million in Australian IPO (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

San Francisco-based financial technology company Credible Labs Inc. is going public, but not on a U.S. exchange.

The startup, a consumer loans marketplace, raised $50 million (A$66 million) in an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange, according to a statement Thursday.

The IPO values Credible at A$300 million, about 50 percent higher than the valuation it got in its last fundraising round, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public.

Yellow Brick Road Adds Prospa to Lending Panel in Boost to Aussie Small Business (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Yellow Brick Road has added online lender Prospa to its lending panel. The move was described as an effort to diversify its lending offerings for Australian small business customers. Yellow Brick Road is a full service wealth management company that offers products and services for home loans, financial planning, insurance, superannuation, and investments.

Marketplace lenders must ‘start educating’ SMSFs on opportunities, discipline (Nestegg), Rated: A

Speaking to Nest Egg, CEO of fully licensed marketplace lender Zagga, Alan Greenstein said that self-directed investing is now a “very, very big part of SMSF investment” and that according to Zagga research, well over 30 per cent of SMSFs at a sophisticated wholesale level are self-directed investors.

Pointing to a recent whitepaper produced by Zagga, Mr Greenstein said SMSFs tend to be invested at either end of the spectrum; very high risk and high yielding opportunities, or very low risk opportunities.

He said that Zagga’s newly launched ZAG Fund offered a middle ground, with a targeted net return of 6.5 per cent.

Ngā Tangata Microfinance breaking hold of predatory lenders (Scoop), Rated: A

With loan capital provided by Kiwibank, Ngā Tangata Microfinance (NTM) provides no-interest loans to qualifying clients for family well-being and relief from high-interest debt.

An evaluation conducted by the University of Auckland’s Centre for Applied Research in Economics found NTM’s no-interest loans were crucial in helping low-income clients break the cycle of debt caused by predatory payday and fringe lenders.

Partnering with local budgeting advisors, NTM has now disbursed more than $660,000 in no-interest loans to more than 300 clients, with 70% of the support being for relief from high-interest debt. It is estimated these loans had potentially saved clients a total of more than $1 million in interest and additional costs. Requests for help continued to trend up – 30% more NTM loans were approved in the past 12 months compared to the previous year, amounting to nearly 130 loans worth $275,000.

India

Loans are easy to get, but are they for you? (livemint), Rated: AAA

When you buy a phone, you have the option to pay for it then or pay later. You have this option even when you are buying grocery or paying bills. Credit these days can be available relatively easily, even for amounts as low as Rs1,000. In fact, in a country where you need to have a good credit history and credit score to get loans from banks, you can now get loans on your phone—even if a bank would not lend to you.

According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd (CMIE), personal loans (incremental numbers) increased 179% and credit card outstanding rose 34.63% in value during April to October period in FY 2017-18. In comparison, incremental numbers during the same period for housing loans showed negative 32.7%.

Source: livemint

HDFC Bank Ltd saw a 35.75% growth in personal loans and 44.50% growth in credit card business in the second quarter (on a year-on-year basis). ICICI Bank, in its second quarter results this financial year said that its personal loan book saw a 40.1% year-on-year growth and the credit card business grew by 36.5%. And this is true for the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) as well. Bajaj Finance Ltd saw a 42% growth in consumer lending in the same period.

Asia

Vietnam launches first peer-to-peer lending platform (XinhuaNet), Rated: AAA

Vietnam has launched its first peer-to-peer lending service Vay Muon, enabling people to borrow and lend money without having to go through a financial institution.

Matching lenders and borrowers via a smartphone application, the lending platform does not require mortgages and one-on-one meetings, local VTV online newspaper reported on Thursday.

First-time loan requests will be reviewed and disbursed within four hours and subsequent requests will be handled in just half an hour.

‘Korean startups should do what they are good at to get funding’ (The Investor), Rated: A

Korean startups flock to Silicon Valley hoping to become the next Facebook or Google. However, setting up a business from scratch where thousands of new startups come and go every year, is not easy, and becoming a “unicorn” is near impossible.

One fundamental reason is because they can’t get enough funding, according to Tim Chae, head of the Korean unit of US accelerator 500 Startups.

First of all, a company should either run a business in a certain sector for which Korea is widely famous worldwide, such as beauty and e-sports segments, rather than roll out me-too services and products.

Datarius Cryptobank Participates at BlockShow Asia 2017 (Digital Journal), Rated: B

On November 29–30 a large-scale event — Block Show Asia 2017 — was held, and Datarius Cryptobank participated in this event.

Datarius Cryptobank is a unique project. This is a first social cryptobank built on base of the distributed register technologies using neural networks and artificial intelligence. The main attractive features of the project for investors and future customers are the lowest transaction fees, as well as P2P-lending.

Canada

IOU Financial Surpasses US$ 500 Million in Loans Originated (Cision), Rated: AAA

IOU Financial Inc. (“IOU” or “the Company”) (TSXV: IOU), a leading online lender to small businesses (IOUFinancial.com), announces today that it has facilitated more than US$500 million in financing to thousands of merchants and small businesses across the United States and Canada since launching its lending platform.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

Friday August 18 2017, Daily News Digest

News Comments Today’s main news: iFunding insolvent, SEC issues subpoena. DreamFunded now offers Reg CF investment opportunities. MarketInvoice integrates with Veritas. Raisin passes 4B Euro mark. Today’s main analysis: China Rapid Finance reports unaudited Q2 results. European real estate investment up post-Brexit. Today’s thought-provoking articles: Community banks refuse to step down on ILC battle. How Swift makes renminbi payment frictionless. Small lenders […]

News Comments

Today’s main news: iFunding insolvent, SEC issues subpoena. DreamFunded now offers Reg CF investment opportunities. MarketInvoice integrates with Veritas. Raisin passes 4B Euro mark.
Today’s main analysis: China Rapid Finance reports unaudited Q2 results. European real estate investment up post-Brexit.
Today’s thought-provoking articles: Community banks refuse to step down on ILC battle. How Swift makes renminbi payment frictionless. Small lenders offer biggest savings on $1M property loans in Australia.

United States

iFunding insolvent. AT: “This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has been following the iFunding story for the past year.”
DreamFunded now offers real estate investments under Reg CF. AT: “This makes two platforms using Reg CF for real estate investment opportunities, that I know of. I believe we’ll start seeing more platforms making offers to non-accredited investors soon.”
Community banks not stepping down on ILC fight. AT: “Banks feel emboldened after defeating Wal-Mart’s attempt to get a special bank charter in 2006. However, SoFi is not Wal-Mart. It will be interesting to see if the banks succeed this time.”
iPayment intros new business unit.
Morgan Stanley advisor allegedly crosses the line.
10 predictions about the future of financial advice.
What an uptick in IPOs could mean for fintech.
3 ways to invest in real estate crowdfunding.
KeyBank partners with Billtrust.
Top 5 emerging fintech hubs in the U.S. AT: “The rise of technology means that industries do not have to concentrate in one geographical location any more. If fintech technology decentralizes the processes of financial services, why can’t it also decentralize where those services are performed?”
Recent partnership bode well for GH Capital.
BFS Capital appoints Michael Marrache as CEO.
Washington Capital Partners now offers flip-to-rent hard money loans.

United Kingdom

MarketInvoice integrates with Veritas.

China

China Rapid Finance reports unaudited Q2 results. AT: “Stellar results.”
Fox Fintech Group to obtain Internet micro-credit license from Ningbo city government.

European Union

Raisin passes 4B Euro mark. AT: “This means the company is poised for international expansion.”
European real estate investment up after Brexit vote. AT: “Interesting. Could this mean that companies are relocating from the UK, or maybe companies expanding internationally are looking at continental Europe instead of the UK?”

Australia

Small lenders offer biggest savings on $1M property loans. AT: “There could be any number of reasons for this. One is that large lenders have massive overhead expenses and therefore are forced to charge higher interest rates and fees. Smaller lenders can use technology and agile business practices to cut costs.”

India

KNAB Finance raises funds from InCred.

Asia

Africa

RECF platform LCB Moguls graduates from BongoHive.

News Summary

United States

iFunding Insolvent, SEC Issues Subpoena as Investor Jazco Looks to Step In (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

iFunding, a real estate crowdfunding platform, is insolvent according to several sources.

In recent days, information has cropped up that investors have been left holding the remains of the company that included properties with an estimated value of $20 million. One individual estimated the number of impacted investors at 400 individuals. These Investors are now looking at options to salvage what they can from the crowdfunding platform.

Crowdfund Insider has been told the SEC did issue a subpoena at some point regarding the operational questions regarding iFunding. Specific details have not been made available but one individual suggested it had to do with the platform operating as a Broker Dealer without having the appropriate license.

DreamFunded Now Offers Real Estate Investments Using Reg CF (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

DreamFunded Real Estate has launched its first real estate investment opportunity under Reg CF. DreamFunded is a FINRA approved crowdfunding platform that may offer securities the newest crowdfunding exemption. This iteration of crowdfunding allows any investor access to these opportunities – not just wealthier, accredited types. DreamFunded is one of only two real estate crowdfunding platforms using Reg CF.

In ILC fight, community banks will not stand down (American Banker), Rated: AAA

Commentators who say we should do away with that historic separation should be aware that the community banking industry will once again fight tooth and nail against such a move. We fiercely and successfully opposed Walmart’s 2006 bid. More than a decade later, the core principle remains the same.

Allowing nonbank corporate conglomerates to own banks not only violates the U.S. policy of maintaining the separation of banking and commerce. It also jeopardizes the impartial allocation of credit, creates egregious conflicts of interest, and results in a dangerous concentration of commercial and economic power. It also extends the federal safety net to commercial interests, which is counter to the principles upon which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was created.

The Independent Community Bankers of America’s main objection to the SoFi application for federal deposit insurance is that the ILC charter would allow the fintech company to avoid the legal prohibitions and restrictions under the Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA).

iPayment, Inc. Introduces New Business Unit: iPayment Capital (PR Newswire), Rated: A

iPayment, Inc., a trusted provider of payment and processing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), introduces iPayment Capital, a new business unit focused exclusively on merchant cash advance services.

iPayment Capital will formally launch this fall with a focus on iPayment’s more than 137,000 SMB customers. Adding merchant cash advance as a direct offering, the Company will significantly streamline the process for its customers, offering a simplified application, expedited reviews and approvals, and a seamless re-payment process.

The Company recently hired Mr. Tomo Matsuo as Senior Vice President to lead this important initiative. Mr. Matsuo spent over six years with Bizfi, a premier fintech company combining aggregation, funding and a participation marketplace on a single platform for small businesses, where he held several senior level positions including Chief Operating Officer.

Morgan Stanley Advisor Charged with Insider Dealing (Financial Advisor IQ), Rated: A

Morgan Stanley financial advisor Michael Siva is among seven people charged with making about $5 million trading on illegal leaks made by a former Bank of America employee, Bloomberg writes.

Daniel Rivas, a former employee at Bank of America’s capital-markets technology group, allegedly passed dozens of tips about unannounced deals to two friends, including his girlfriend’s father, James Moodhe, an assistant controller at a brokerage that prosecutors didn’t identify, according to the news service.

Moodhe allegedly passed the tips on to Morgan Stanley’s Siva, whose trades on the leaked deals allegedly made his clients more than $880,000 and $8,000 for himself, Bloomberg writes.

10 bold predictions about the financial advice industry’s future (Investment News), Rated: A

“In 10 years, we’ll be in the midst of the largest wealth transfer in history, as more than $30 trillion is passed to millennials.”

Lowell Putnam, co-founder and CEO, Quovo

“Clients are going to want more technology that they can touch. I think there’s going to be more of a collaborative piece to planning.”

Rose Price, financial planner, VLP Financial Advisors

“The emerging influence and affluence of women — specific to income, education, entrepreneurship and wealth — will further demand comprehensive planning and financial independence.”

Sameer Somal, chief financial officer, Blue Ocean Global Wealth

“As the Gen X and millennial generations become more empowered to take charge of their financial future, they will demand advice in an ‘instant’ … whether through an app, online digitally or virtually with an adviser.”

Julia Carlson, CEO and wealth adviser, Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group

“There will be commoditization of financial planning advice in the same way we’ve seen in investment management in the past, that’s going to offer the opportunity for further specialization.”

Nicholas Crow, president, Motley Fool Wealth Management

Here’s what an uptick in the US IPO market could mean for fintechs (Business Insider), Rated: A

Initial public offerings (IPOs) have been

Crowdfunded real-estate investments: 3 ways to do it (MarketWatch), Rated: A

In fact, investment crowdfunding (excluding community fundraising tools like Kickstarter) could top $300 billion annually by 2025, according to CFX Markets.

A typical crowdfunded real-estate project raises anywhere from $50,000 to $3 million from individual investors; the total project size can range up to $30 million or higher. For a $10,000 investment, return expectations range from $700 to $1,200 for a one-year debt investment to $5,000 to $15,000 for a longer-term (over three to five years) equity investment.

Equity crowdfunding

Pros

• Lower barrier to entry: For as little as $5,000, individuals can invest in large, commercial real-estate projects and enjoy the benefits of real estate: strong returns, a low degree of correlation with public markets and historically lower volatility.

• High yield potential: As equity investors, individuals can share in uncapped gains.

Cons

• Risk remains: These investments do carry risk, and some investors may not know how to evaluate risk factors, such as local economy volatility, or potential for higher-than-expected construction costs.

• Lack of liquidity: Many of these investments entail a hold period of up to five years. No prominent secondary markets have emerged yet.

• It’s early: While many platforms tout positive aggregate return figures, it’s inevitable that some projects won’t go well.

Syndicated debt crowdfunding

Pros

• Less risky than an equity investment: Debt investors are entitled to repayment before equity investors earn a return, so these investments carry less risk.

• Extra diligence: The loans upon which these investments are based were originated by professional real-estate lenders, who often have a physical presence and expertise in the markets where they issue loans.

• Short hold period: Relatively short terms (typically under two years) allow investor to reinvest sooner, and reduces liquidity risk.

Cons

• Less upside than an equity stake: Though debt investments are generally more secure, they carry less upside, as the investor’s yield is limited to the interest rate of the loan.

• A middleman: The experienced real estate lender is an additional layer of diligence, but it’s also another party between the investor and the original loan. This typically means a net annual percentage return of 0.5% to 1% lower than platform-issued debt offerings (see below).

Platform-issued (‘pre-filled’) debt crowdfunding

Pros

• Less risky: Debt investors are the first to be repaid, and the investment is secured by the underlying property.

• Short hold period: The individual typically recoups their money in six months to two years.

• One less middleman: With the platform acting as the lender, one less party takes a fee.

Cons

• Less upside than equity, for the same reason that syndicated debt does.

• Less diligence: Unlike syndication, the only loan underwriting is done by the platform (acting as lender). Some platforms practice conservative underwriting, but the companies themselves may have limited operating histories and minimal experience in all the markets where they issue loans.

KeyBank Partners with Billtrust to Deliver Best-in-Class, Automated Accounts Receivable Solution (PR Newswire), Rated: A

KeyBank (NYSE: KEY) announced today its strategic partnership with and equity investment in Billtrust, a pioneer of payment cycle management solutions. This collaboration, along with the launch of KeyTotal AR™, marks the most recent in a series of partnerships with emerging fintech providers, affirming Key’s commitment to bringing innovative solutions to market. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

The KeyTotal AR™ platform allows KeyBank’s corporate clients to improve operational efficiency during the invoice-to-cash process using electronic invoicing and payments in a flexible, cloud-based solution. Powered by Billtrust’s Quantum Payment Cycle Management solution, the platform accelerates cash flow by automating invoice delivery and payment and cash application. Merging this innovation with KeyBank’s broad range of accounts receivable (AR) capabilities has created one of the highest-level product suites available in the market today.

Top 5 Emerging Fintech Hubs in The U.S. (Bank Innovation), Rated: A

Atlanta

Atlanta has enjoyed a position as a hub for financial services, if not necessarily fintech, for quite a while. The city, which is presently playing host to a number of fintech startups, incumbents, and technology accelerators (including the Techstars Atlanta Program) is the place to be for payments companies, to the point where some have nicknamed areas of the hub things like “Transaction Alley.”

For the older guard of digital payments, companies NCR and WorldPay are both currently headquartered here, and of course, it’s the birthplace of the Atlanta Automated ClearingHouse, or ACH.

Startups like First Performance Global are innovating the authorization side of payments, using data analytics, social media, and automation to make sure its businesses stay competitive.

Austin

The city is home to older fintech residents like banking technology provider Kasasa, mobile trendsetter Malauzai, and digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdings .

Now, Austin is headquarters to newer entrants like Draft, which is using the venture funding it received from Plug and Play and Envestnet Yodlee in order to build insights based on data analytics to help financial advisors avoid poor portfolio performances and to further build trust with clients. Companies like Self Lender are focusing attention on the under-banked, using digital savings plans to help users build up the credit they are missing from lack of access to more traditional financial products. Other startups like Able are focusing on the increasingly competitive small business lending market, aiming to fund SMBs at all stages with help from friends and family.

Miami

Take for example the startup Waleteros, a banking app geared specifically to serve the underbanked U.S. Hispanic customer.

Then there’s ClassWallet, an app geared specifically to help schools. This virtual wallet streamlines the process of payments and reimbursements for teachers and schools alike.

Catering to Miami’s entrepreneur demography is a startup like InvestReady, formerly known as Accredify. This company uses API integration to allow crowdfunding portals to verify investors, thus simplifying the tedious compliance and verification process. The company, which was founded in 2014, has to date raised $120K in funding.

Omaha-Lincoln, Neb.

D3 Technology in Omaha has become a stalwart in the mobile banking scene, helping institutions replace their aging, first-generation mobile apps with data-driven solutions and modern UX’s. Lincoln’s Hip Pocket is a financial wellness tool that allows users to save money with a swipe.

Washington D.C.

Some companies like Wealthminder are using digitized financial planning tools and investment recommendations fueled by data analytics to help its users to achieve longer term financial goals, such as funding college, buying a home, or retirement.

Startups like FS Card are busy re-designing credit, offering new options for small dollar loan customers to move towards more traditional (more affordable) credit products. Others, like StreetShares are enabling “social finance” for small businesses, allowing like-minded investors to fund small businesses through auctions (businesses pitch themselves through a simple mobile application, and investors compete to fund; the lowest bids are consolidated into one single loan with a low interest rate).

Recent FinTech Partnerships Bode Well for GH Capital (KFM BFM), Rated: A

Using aggregators also allow retailers to instantly offer multiple payment methods to the customers leading to a higher conversion rate. That’s why we see digital payment processing companies like Wirecard AG (WRCDF) expanding at a quick rate. The company registered a transaction volume growthof ~34% during the first quarter of 2017.

GH Capital Inc (GHHC), a gateway provider for online banking electronics payments, can also benefitfrom this trend. The company already entered in several partnerships with multiple payment processors. It recently partnered with Allied Wallet and has taken a 23% equity stake in VMoney.

GH Capital is involved in the provision of IPO services for small corporations.

BFS Capital Appoints Michael Marrache as CEO (BusinessWire), Rated: B

BFS Capital Inc., a small business financing company, announced that it has appointed Michael Marrache as Chief Executive Officer to succeed outgoing CEO and co-founder Marc Glazer. Named President in September 2016, Marrache previously served for more than three years as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He also will join the company’s Board of Directors. Marc Glazer will continue to serve as Chairman of the BFS Capital Board.

Washington Capital Partners Rewrites the Rules of Flip-to-Rent Real Estate Investing (Press Release Rocket), Rated: B

Today, Washington Capital Partners (WCP), a hard money lender operating in the Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland areas, announced their new Flip-to-Rent Hybrid Loan product. This 3-year hard money loan allows fix and flip investors to immediately roll their property into a long-term rental loan.

United Kingdom

Fintech lender MarketInvoice to tap 400,000 strong customer base (AltFi), Rated: AAA

MarketInvoice continues on its mission to extend its services to a broader range of businesses. The invoice finance platform, which recently launched a new longer term funding line (MarketInvoice Pro), has forged a strategic alliance with credit management specialists Veritas Commercial Services.

Veritas is a leading credit management firm with a digital sales ledger platform called VeritasVirtual. Its customers use this platform to monitor the status of outstanding payments. The MarketInvoice platform has now been seamlessly integrated into VeritasVirtual, offering small business users access to MarketInvoice Pro – a funding line which is secured against their outstanding invoices.

China

China Rapid Finance Reports Unaudited Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

China Rapid Finance Limited (“China Rapid Finance” or the “Company”) (NYSE: XRF) today reported its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017. The Company will hold a conference call on August 17, 2017 at 8:00 am Eastern Time (8:00 pm Beijing Time) to discuss the financial results for the second quarter of 2017. Dial-in details are provided at the end of this release.

Second Quarter 2017 Financial Highlights

Total gross billings on transaction and service fees^[1]grew by 59% year over year to $24.5 million, or 46% over the previous quarter.
Gross billings from consumption loans exceeded gross billings from lifestyle loans, marking an important milestone. Gross billings from consumption loans increased by 642% year over year to $13.2 million, or 97% over the previous quarter. Gross billings from consumption loans represented 54% of total gross billings as compared with 12% in the prior year period, and 40% in the previous quarter. Gross billings from lifestyle loans were $11.3 million as compared with $13.7 million in the prior year period, or $10 million in the previous quarter. Gross billings from lifestyle loans were 46% of total gross billings, as compared with 88% in the prior year period, and 60% in the previous quarter.
Net revenue increased by 9% year over year to $15.2 million (after netting off customer acquisition incentives of $8.1 million) from $13.9 million (after netting off customer acquisition incentives of $0.6 million) in the prior year period, and 45% over the previous quarter from $10.5 million (after netting off customer acquisition incentives of $5.3 million) in the previous quarter.

Second Quarter 2017 Operating Highlights

Number of new borrowers added in the second quarter of 2017 was 760 thousand, increasing 39% over the previous quarter. As of June 30, 2017, the Company had 2.7 million unique borrowers.

Total number of loans facilitated grew by 354% year over year to 5.1 million, or on average 55 thousand loans facilitated per day. Total number of loans facilitated since inception reached 20 million.

Total loan volume facilitated increased by 244% year over year to $720.7 million. Consumption loans facilitated increased by 431% year over year to $637.5 million, with lifestyle loans facilitated totaling $83.2 million, as compared with $89.7 million in the prior year period.

Average cumulative loan volume per borrower of the Q4 2015 cohort increased to approximately $1,550 in their 18^th month on our marketplace from approximately $1,300 in the 15^th month. Average cumulative loan volume per borrower of the Q1 2016 cohort increased to approximately $1,340 in their 15^th month on our marketplace from approximately $1,099 in the 12^th month.

Repeat borrowers on the Company’s marketplace accounted for 72% of the total borrowers as of June 30, 2017.

Sohu’s Fox Fintech Group Approved to Obtain First Internet Micro-credit License Issued by Ningbo City Government (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Recently, the Finance Office of Ningbo City Government approved a subsidiary of Fox Financial Technology Group Limited (“Fox Fintech Group” or “the Company”), an affiliate of Sohu.com Limited (NASDAQ: SOHU), to obtain the city’s first internet micro-credit license. This is a milestone that shows Ningbo City Government’s positive stance towards leading internet companies to set up fintech-related businesses in the city.

European Union

Savings Marketplace Raisin Passes the €4 Billion Mark Faster than Any Wealth Management Fintech (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Headquartered in Germany, Pan-European savings marketplace Raisin reports that in less than 4 years its customers have invested more than €4 billion in the platform’s savings products. As a result, Raisin is the leading marketplace for investments in Europe and one of the fastest growing Fintechs in the world.

Founded in 2013 as the first marketplace for investments in Europe, Raisin is now about twice the size of its next largest competitor.

Source: Crowdfund Insider

European real estate investment up on Brexit (Pensions&Investments), Rated: AAA

The immediate impact of 2016’s Brexit vote on private equity real estate investing in the second half of the year carried over into 2017, with reciprocal effects in mainland Europe. The first half of 2017 saw 201 deals closed, down from 315 and 302 in the first six months of 2016 and 2015, respectively. Continental Europe saw about 500 deals close between January and June 2017, as compared to about 400 halfway through 2016 and about 300 at 2015’s midpoint.

Source: Pensions&Investments

International

How Swift makes renminbi payment frictionless (The Asset), Rated: AAA

Swifts’s gpi enables banks to make cross-border renminbi payments to Chinese companies. By collaborating with China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System they aim to make renminbi payments as fast as possible, Michael Moon, head of payments markets for Asia-Pacific at Swift, tells The Asset.

A recent Swift report shows that the renminbi only ranked sixth as a share of total global payments by volume.

Malaysia and Germany are the two countries which have had the highest growth in renminbi utilization for the past three years. For the first six months of 2017, Malaysia and Germany have seen a 551% and 436% growth respectively, compared to the same period in 2014.

SONM Advisory Board Onboards Digital Economist Paolo Tasca (Finance Magnates), Rated: B

Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining (SONM) has made an announcement regarding digital economist Paolo Tasca having joined the company’s board of advisors.

Tasca is the founder of the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at the University College London (UCL) and currently holds the role of Executive Director there. Prior to this position, Tasca acted as Lead Economist for digital currencies and peer-to-peer lending at Deutsche Bundesbank, which is located in Frankfurt, Germany.

Australia

Small lenders offer biggest savings on $ 1m property loans (Financial Review), Rated: AAA

Small lenders are offering the lowest rates on $1 million mortgages, with some products potentially lowering repayments by $500 a month, or $200,000 over a 30-year term.

The loan sizes have crept up as the median price of a property in Sydney hit $1.15m and about $850,000 in Melbourne.

Loans.com.au, an online lender, and Mortgage House Advantage offer the lowest variable, principal and interest rate for an owner-occupier of 3.64 per cent, or monthly repayments of about $4569. That compares to an average rate of 4.27 per cent, a difference of 53 basis points, $362 a month or $130,000 over a 30-year term.

Australian Unity has a top rate for interest-only, owner occupiers of 3.79 per cent, or $3158 in monthly repayments. There is a $600 application fee. The average basic variable rate in the category is 4.73 per cent, a difference of 94 basis points, $551 a month or more than $198,000 over a 30-year loan.

Loans.com.au offers owner occupier, interest-only loans at 3.89 per cent, or $4711 in monthly repayments. That compares to an average rate of 4.53 per cent, a difference of 64 basis points, or $374 a month, or more than $134,000 over 30 years.

India

Online lending startup KNAB Finance raises funds from InCred, others (VC Circle), Rated: A

KNAB Finance Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a fin-tech firm that provides unsecured working capital loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has raised a little over Rs 2.5 crore in two funding rounds, a top company executive told VCCircle.

Non-banking financial company (NBFC) InCred, and over a dozen individual investors including Mindtree executive chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan and Sharjah Islamic Bank’s senior vice president Ravi Bhardwaj invested in the company.

The startup extends loans with an average ticket size of Rs 6 lakh, and it has disbursed Rs 10 crore worth of loans so far. It also offers short-term loans, allowing customers to close them within a month.

Asia

Fintech Investments In Indonesia Pick Up Pace (CB Insights), Rated: AAA

P2P Lending: According to a recent study, 80% of the Indonesian population does not have a formal bank account, with 203 million Indonesians earning less than $4.50 a day.

Merchant payments: These companies include Moka, backed by investors including Convergence Ventures, East Ventures, Fenox VC, and Wavemaker Partners; Pawoon, backed by Ideabox and Kejora Ventures; and Cashlez, backed by Mandiri Capital and Gan Kapital, which offers a wireless card reader to facilitate card payments for small and medium-sized businesses.

E-commerce installment lending: In November 2016, East Ventures invested in Cicil, a financing platform targeted at college students to provide installment loans for items such as smartphones and laptops. Akulaku, which has a presence in five countries including Indonesia, provides an installment shopping mall and has racked up more than 5,000,000 downloads in the Google Play store. Kredivo, which is owned by Singapore-based startup FinAccel, also offers credit for online shopping in Indonesia without credit card on 30-day or 3-, 6-, and 12-month installments.

Funding ideas the right way (New Straits Times), Rated: A

Historically, crowdfunding may be traced back to 1885, when renowned publisher Joseph Pulitzer launched a fundraising campaign in his newspaper, The New York World, to seek funds from the public for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty — a gift of friendship from the French government to the United States.

The fast-growing phase of the Internet in 1990s marked another success story for crowdfunding. British rock band Marillion in 1997 succeeded in its call via the Internet to collect US$60,000 from the fans to fund its concert tour. Since then, Internet-mediated crowdfunding platforms started to flourish in many countries, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and recently, in other parts of the globe.

As at 2014, the value of the crowdfunding industry worldwide reached US$16.2 billion (RM69.7 billion). The figure was predicted to increase to US$34.44b in 2015.

The Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) issued the Guidelines on Regulation of Markets under Section 34 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 on Feb 10, 2015, to regulate the equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms. Since then, the SC has approved six ECF platforms, namely FundedByMe, Ata Plus, Crowdo, Eureeca, Equity.pitchIN and Crowdplus.Asia to start their operation.

Automobile-focused P2P Lending Platform Baijindai Secures USD 10 Mln Financing (Marbridge Consulting), Rated: A

Beijing-based Rongsheng Xinlian Information Technology, operator of online and mobile automobile-focused P2P lending platform Baijindai.com, recently secured a strategic investment of USD 10 mln from Xingda (Singapore) Group Holding.

Baijindai is an automobile-focused financing platform, which allows users to apply for loans to buy a car, and for investors to fund users’ loans.

The potential impact of AI on trade finance (The Asset), Rated: A

HSBC announced that it was working with IBM to create a cognitive intelligence solution aimed at extracting key data from trade documents before entering the bank’s formal system. The bank typically processes over US$500 billion worth of trade documentation for customers and must manually review an estimated 100 million pages of documents annually.

In Singapore, financial technology firm Silent Eight has alternatively proposed using AI solutions to support bank analysts and investigators with their fight against AML violations and terrorism financing.

Africa

8 Zambian startups graduate from BongoHive accelerator (Disrupt Africa), Rated: A

The eight startups taking part in the programme were gaming startups LudoHuband Gamers Entertainment Meet (GEM), food startup InspireMe Trading, development and design startup Orbitrix Programming Solutions, flowers company Unforgettable Moments, real estate crowdfunding startup LCB Moguls, agri-tech startup eMsika, and interior design company Kreate Interiors.

Authors:

George Popescu

Allen Taylor

News Comments

News Summary

United States

OnDeck Survey: Economy is Top Concern for Small Businesses Ahead of 2020 Election (New Kerala), Rated: AAA

Affirm debuted a new app encouraging customers to start their shopping journeys with it (Business Insider), Rated: AAA

Affirm ships new shopping and bill splitting app (Finextra), Rated: A

Max Levchin On The Future-Present Of Everywhere POS Lending (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Latest Macro; latest from Marcus; Oportun goes IPO (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

My Quarterly Marketplace Lending Results – Q2 2019 (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

The Maybe-Dubious Rise of the Loans-for-Sneaker Business (GQ), Rated: AAA

What Happened to Borro? (deBanked), Rated: A

Auto, home equity are soft spots in consumer lending (American Banker), Rated: A

Finally! Maker Offers Multi-Collateral DAI Lending (Cryptovest), Rated: A

A $ 40 Billion Pile of Leveraged Loans Is Battered by Big Losses (Bloomberg), Rated: A

The SEC is hiring a chief data officer (Business Insider), Rated: B

Voyager Selects Celsius Network to Manage Certain Assets (AP News), Rated: B

United Kingdom

Zopa’s P2P profits tick up but group losses widen due to heavy investment in bank (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

Zopa: nine in 10 shoppers confused by car finance options (Verdict), Rated: A

Wonga customers’ average compensation payout may be just £118 (The Guardian), Rated: A

Payday loan alternative Savvy secures £20 million funding facility (Finextra), Rated: A

MEET THE FRENCHMAN WHO WANTS TO SOLVE THE UK’S HOUSING CRISIS (Business Leader), Rated: A

Crowdfunding a start up options explained for businesses and investors (What Investment), Rated: A

Landlords wary of tax changes (Money International), Rated: A

China

PPDAI Stock Soars 7% on Increase in Institutionally-Funded Loans (Capital Watch), Rated: AAA

European Union

What we learned at this year’s LendIt Fintech Europe (Business Insider), Rated: AAA

Linked Finance launches ‘Beyond Brexit’ business loans (Bridging and Commercial), Rated: A

ID on track to double revenues as it eyes €300m+ of revenue within 2 years (Fintech Finance), Rated: A

Binance Launches New Lending Program Phase (CoinCodex), Rated: A

International

A Guide to What’s Happening in the Fintech Revolution (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

Goldman’s $ 1.3B Marcus burn, Neobank £200MM loss; plus 14 short takes on top developments (Lex), Rated: AAA

Blockchain: the future of finance (Financier Worldwide), Rated: A

Australia

Hot home loan rates starting with a 2 (mozo), Rated: AAA

loans.com.au jumps on October RBA home loan rate cut party (mozo), Rated: AAA

OnDeck appoints Robbie Fidler as new national broker chief (IT Wire), Rated: B

Asia

SPV 2030: Sharing of risks and reward (The Malaysian Reserve), Rated: A

Canada

BFS Capital Opens New Data Science and Engineering Hub in Toronto (Financial Post), Rated: B

News Comments

News Summary

United States

Morningstar Inc. will offer ratings to blockchain based securities (Ripple Coin News), Rated: AAA

North Carolina-based Fintech Startup nCino Raises $ 80M (Crunchbase), Rated: AAA

Bank Wars; ABS East + Blockchain; Housing (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

White Americans Have the Highest Homeownership Rates but There Are Large Differences Among Cities (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

BFS Capital Eliminates Upfront Fees to Simplify Financing for Small Business Owners (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Self Announces The Self Visa Credit Card, A First-Of-Its-Kind Secured Credit Card That Does Not Require A Credit Check (Globe Newswire), Rated: A

The Crowdfunding Revolution Might Never Come To CRE (Bisnow), Rated: A

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of $0.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of $0.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

The Robot Revolution Will Wipe Out 200,000 U.S. Banking Jobs in the Next Decade (Fortune), Rated: A

Goldman Sachs Tries Banking for the Masses. It’s Been a Struggle. (WSJ), Rated: A

Small bank’s big digital goal: Launch 3 niche banks (American Banker), Rated: A

The Seven-Year Auto Loan: America’s Middle Class Can’t Afford Its Cars (WSJ), Rated: A

Naborly Raises $ 7.5M in Seed Funding (FINSMES), Rated: A

How Much Money Can I Get From a Business Loan? (All Business), Rated: A

Best Mortgage Lenders for First-time Buyers (Benzinga), Rated: A

Coinbase Announces 1.25% APY on USDC Holdings (DeFi Rate), Rated: A

Investors Say Curo’s Bid To Nix Their Suit Misses The Point (Law360), Rated: A

eOriginal Chief Product Officer Honored as a 2019 HousingWire Tech Trendsetter (PR Web), Rated: B

OYO Announces Partnership With Biz2Credit to Provide Small Business Financing Options to Hotel Owners (Globe Newswire), Rated: B

Finastra Launches Fusion Mortgagebot Data Insights to Help Financial Institutions Optimize their Mortgage Business (Financial Content), Rated: B

Seattle Bank expands relationship with Finastra to drive innovation (Finastra), Rated: B

United Kingdom

Welcome to Access, Plus and Max! (RateSetter), Rated: AAA

Fintech unicorn Revolut’s losses double as it pushes for global expansion (CNBC), Rated: AAA

Visa Expands Alliance with Revolut to Grow in Fintech Space (Zacks), Rated: A

LandlordInvest staff asked to avoid EU travel as P2P lenders prepare for Brexit deadline (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

Small business owners should beware when backing their business debt (Money Week), Rated: A

The future of finance is fintech (Raconteur), Rated: A

Brokers should be Open Banking advocates (Bridging and Commercial), Rated: A

Drapers and Klarna launch Next Generation Entrepreneurs (Drapers), Rated: A

Dutch app-only bank Bunq to launch in UK this week (AltFi), Rated: A

10 Respected Entrepreneurs Reveal How Failures and Triumphs Shaped Who They Are Today (Digital Journal), Rated: A

Ex-City minister shines spotlight on P2P lending secondary markets (P2P Finance News), Rated: B

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of
RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of $0.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A