The first-ever mobile application making automobile transactions possible at the touch of a screen, Blinker eliminates the role of the middleman in the car buying, selling and financing process. How Blinker Works Blinker‘s focus is on facilitating a hassle-free experience for all stakeholders involved in an auto purchasing transaction. Blinker uses a lot of dealer […]
The first-ever mobile application making automobile transactions possible at the touch of a screen, Blinker eliminates the role of the middleman in the car buying, selling and financing process.
How Blinker Works
Blinker‘s focus is on facilitating a hassle-free experience for all stakeholders involved in an auto purchasing transaction. Blinker uses a lot of dealer tools used to execute trades, but it has leveraged technology to enhance the experience and create a solution that is executable online without any middlemen driving fees. This allows users to buy and sell cars for free on the platform.
The downloadable app simplifies the process of getting approved for credit, and all the user has to do is upload a picture of his driver’s license. Documents are signed with Docusign. The user posts a picture of the car she is selling and the fund transfer is done online, which eliminates the need for any physical interaction as the entire transaction takes place on users’ smartphones.
All transactions start with one picture of the car and, in less than three seconds, the company can find out all the details about the car from the year to the make, model, approximate value, and the number of miles it has been driven. The company has partnered with Carfax and Blackbook for these reports.
Blinker has its own patented technology. Out of 17 patents filed with the U.S. Patent Office, 13 have been issued.
The Blinker Team and Platform
The Blinker platform has the same credit requirements for auto finance as any other bank. It gives instant pre-approvals with a picture of a driver’s license and, upon authorization, for a soft credit pull. The idea is to have the customer approved first followed by the car. Customers have access to unique offers on each vehicle based on credit score, income, and their ability to pay. The platform does not see the seller, the buyer, or the car.
Currently operating in four states, Blinker’s model is able to generate great auto finance deals for its users. Blinker took its own equity to create a loan portfolio to prove the viability of the model. The business caters to a full spectrum of borrowers having FICO scores between 560 and 800. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is usually 20% less than the average dealer offer. The portfolio has faced no delinquencies, highlighting the success of the company’s lending algorithms.
The company has raised a total of $51 million in funding and onboarded 65 professionals in its Denver office, out of which 30 are engineers on the lending side. The company’s president was in senior management at Americredit, a giant in auto finance solutions. All of the above has given birth to a company that is rapidly capturing market share and mind share in the auto industry.
Blinker is now entering into a relationship with Allied Bank and talks are going on with other customers and member groups to expand its reach. Its foundation is to be a fee-based company. It wants to follow an asset light model with no inventory or loans on its books.
Blinker’s Selling Process
The car prices and terms of sale are displayed in the mobile app for full transparency. Car shoppers can set a filter for distance/location, and more, as they search for the perfect vehicle. The average price of cars available on the app is $14,000, but it is not restricted to any particular segment and has even sold a $105,000 Ferrari. Blinker has also partnered with Manheim Auctions, the largest car auctions company in the world, to sell its inventory directly to individuals. The company is extending into selling rental cars and partnering with OEMs to sell cars not picked by dealers.
On average, a Blinker seller gets $2,500 more on a trade than they do through a dealership. Buyers save an average of $2,000 as compared to buying from a dealer. Refinancing from Blinker helps the average customer save $130/ month.
The app has been able to garner a lot of support in a short time since launch. There have been over 175,000 downloads, and Blinker has been successful in generating $44 million in sales. That includes about 3,500 vehicles, 8,000 listings, and the funding of about 650 to 700 loans.
The Changing Auto Industry
Although there are a lot of companies in the market like Shift, Carmax, and Carvana, they are hampered by a model that charges 8%-10% of the sale price, serves only metros and/or focuses only on one part of the trade. There are no players in the market, like Blinker, that facilitate the entire transaction from listing and pricing to car finance. Blinker is able to execute transactions anywhere and anytime. All that is required is access to an internet connection and Blinker will be able to complete a car trade.
Currently, the company is completely operational in Colorado, Texas, Florida, and California. Six more states are ramping up for service. It is looking to expand across the U.S. soon and, by the end of 2018, Blinker hopes to be in all 50 states. The platform will ensure that it is free for buyer and seller. Its model is to generate fees via loans originated.
Target Customers and the Blinker Roadmap
When Blinker entered the marketplace, it had expected that the majority of its clients would be millennials. However, it realized that clients are of all ages and are buying and selling all types of cars. But to ensure optimum portfolio for its loan partners, Blinker does not finance cars below $8,000 in value or over 10 years old.
Blinker is on a mission to empower dealers and customers to transact through their smartphones. It is getting a lot of attention from national strategic partners that love the technology. Its main focus is on acquiring customers as its technology is completely built out. It will tie up with strategic partners to provide complete end-to-end transactions for members and provide revenue share opportunities to make it a win-win proposition. The aim is to become the pre-eminent platform for buying and selling used cars in the U.S.
Blinker’s Founder
Rod Buscher founded the company in 2013. He was into the brick-and-mortar auto space, operating in the industry since 1973. As cofounder of the John Elway dealership, partnering the legendary quarterback until selling the dealership in 2013 to launch Blinker, he has inside knowledge of how dealerships operate and cars are sold.
With deep domain expertise in the space, Buscher realized that people usually do not like what they get for their car trades through the dealer and are not satisfied with the financing experience. Using Craigslist for selling cars is not secure, and selling cars with liens is another headache. Blinker was born to solve this gap in service and provide an app which would “put people in control of buying, selling and financing cars.”
Buscher is out to revolutionize the car selling industry. He’s off to a good start.
News Comments Today’s main news: Ron Suber joins MoneyLion board. Prosper reports full year results. Orca launches P2P investment platform. Santander, Ripple partner on money transfer app. Cash Suvidha raises $1M. China opens payment market to foreign companies. Today’s main analysis: The cost of bankruptcy. Today’s thought-provoking articles: LendingTree studies the cost of bankruptcy. Liwwa creates big impact in MENA. The lowdown […]
Ron Suber joins MoneyLion board. AT: “This is a great match. Suber brings a ton of experience and knowledge of the industry to a company with a lot of great growth potential.”
The cost of bankruptcy. “Mortgage borrowers with scores between 720 and 739 three years after bankruptcy were offered similar APRs to those without bankruptcy, indicating a strong credit score can counteract the effects of a prior bankruptcy.”
Prosper today reported full year results for 2017. Loan originations and transaction fee revenue were up 31% and 37% year-over-year to $2.9 billion and $130 million, respectively. Prosper also generated cash from operations for three consecutive quarters, starting in Q2 2017.
Source: Prosper
Summary of Key 2017 Financial Highlights:
Surpassed $11 billion in cumulative personal loan originations through the platform since inception
Increased loan originations 31% and transaction fee revenue 37% year-over-year
Net loss of $115 million included $89 million of non-cash charges related to warrants to purchase preferred stock that were issued to a consortium of investors and a third party in connection with a settlement agreement
Adjusted EBITDA(1) of $5 million increased $43 million year-over-year
Generated cash from operations for three consecutive quarters, starting in Q2 2017
Closed $50 million Series G funding, ending 2017 with approximately $100 million of liquidity
After years of Citigroup Inc. shrinking its U.S. retail banking franchise to focus on affluent customers and a handful of big cities, the global bank is ready to become a national player once again.
This time, however, it doesn’t plan on gobbling up rivals or opening any new branches. Instead, Citigroup says it will use an expanded mobile app to fully serve new customers.
LendingTree today released the findings of its study on the cost of bankruptcy. The findings show that while a prior bankruptcy can make it more expensive to borrow, it’s certainly not impossible to qualify for credit. If borrowers wait to apply for new loans even just a few years after bankruptcy, they may find rates that aren’t too far off from what other borrowers are being offered.
Key findings:
Forty-three percent of people with a bankruptcy on their credit file have a credit score of 640 or higher within a year of the bankruptcy. Within two years of bankruptcy, 65 percent have a credit score above 640.
A typical $15,000 auto loan incurs an extra $2,171 in borrowing costs for those seeking offers less than a year after bankruptcy, but just $799 for those who wait at least two years after bankruptcy.
Borrowers who have a 3-year-old bankruptcy and apply for a mortgage see an offered APR that is 19 basis points higher than those without a bankruptcy. The higher the APR, the higher borrowing costs will be.
Mortgage borrowers with scores between 720 and 739 three years after bankruptcy were offered similar APRs to those without bankruptcy, indicating a strong credit score can counteract the effects of a prior bankruptcy.
Despite becoming a bank holding company, Goldman’s business remained focused on corporations and the wealthy. That changed a few years ago as it began plotting new strategies, says Omer Ismail, chief commercial officer for Marcus. The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth account of the creation of Marcus, including juicy tidbits like conversations over lunch in the Hamptons.
Goldman decided to tackle the unsecured personal loan space first.
Marcus has found its particular angle in making its loans highly customizable. Rather than setting traditional loan terms, like three years or five years, it asks you how much you can afford to pay each month in addition to asking you how much you need to borrow. So, you might end up with a 31-month installment loan, which is not a conventional loan term.
Synthetic identity fraud usually involves creating an entirely new identity composed of information with no ties to a known consumer. This identity is then used to apply for credit and services. Synthetic identities are one of the most difficult fraud threats institutions face today and their prevalence has exploded over the past several years. Synthetic identity fraud is arguably the perfect crime because there is no consumer victim.
Put yourself in the shoes of a fraudster. As you consider your many nefarious options for committing a crime and getting away with it, you decide that the best crime is one where there is no clear victim. Sure, robbing a bank using a synthetic identity victimizes the enterprise, its shareholders, its employees and taxes its customers. However, no one individual is intentionally, directly hurt. Therefore, the non-existent victim does not alert authorities and the fact that a crime has been committed is lost to history. There is a “credit loss” and the debtholder is impossible to locate. The debt is written off, or sold, and the fraud is perpetuated yet again. Like I said, the perfect crime.
Candex, a San Francisco, CA-based fintech startup, raised $3.5m in seed funding.
Backers included Edenred Capital Partners, Partech Ventures, Advisors.Fund, Camp One Ventures, NFX, Tekton Ventures, Big Sur Ventures and fintech angel Mark Goines.
The average borrower in Hawaii spends 36.2 percent of their monthly paycheck on credit card, student loan, and housing payments, according to a study by Credible.com, making Hawaii the state with the highest average debt-to-income ratio.
According to the online lender marketplace, the average monthly credit card payment for a Hawaii resident is $238, the average monthly student loan payment is $385, and the average monthly housing payment is $1,091, for a total of $1,714.
With average annual income in Hawaii at $56,889, the state’s average debt-to-income ratio is 43 percent more than residents of Michigan, the state with the lowest debt-to-income ratio.
On average, Michigan residents in the dataset spent 25.3 percent of their monthly income on credit card, student loan and housing payments.
Nationwide, the study found the average American in the dataset paid $207 on credit card debt, $370 on student loans and $906 on housing each month, while taking home an average salary of $60,671.
When fund managers choose experienced service providers, including custodians, auditors, accountants, attorneys and administrators, they can increase transparency in the fund, which can in turn promote investor confidence. Service providers can be much more than just an added expense; they can be valuable partners that can help position the fund for success.
Orca, an independent data, research and analysis provider targeting the the UK peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market, has launched its premier investment platform. The new platform will allow investors to easily diversify across multiple P2P lending platforms from a single P2P investment portfolio.
Orca seeks to provide their new service to the retail investor market.
Total cumulative lending is £13 billion since the asset class was created in 2005. Orca’s secondary service, Orca Analytics, has 2016 to 2017 growth at 18%, with £4 billion lent in 2017 alone. The estimated customer-base stands at approximately 200,000-250,000 retail investors.
The Orca Investment Platform Features include exposure to both consumer, business and property lenders. Investors may expect a return of 5% net of Orca’s cut which is a 0.65% fee.
Khosla said his firm is already in “open conversations” with multiple countries about its global expansion plans, including the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany, Singapore, South Africa and Australia. The company has already established offices in some of those countries, he added.
OakNorth is expanding abroad by licensing its technology platform, ACORN, to banks in other countries. The platform uses big data and machine learning to optimize credit for small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
OakNorth offers loans between £500 and £30 million to SMEs. It was granted a banking license by U.K. regulators in 2015.
‘No firm views’ on IPO
OakNorth is currently valued at $1.4 billion, which puts it in the ranks of the U.K.’s “unicorn” companies — firms valued at $1 billion or more.
IFISAs are also a way for investors to do something interesting with their savings. For example, Oaksmore has recently launched an Isa which allows investors to capitalise on historic renovation.
This particular IFISA, specialising in historical building renovation, offers a tax-free return of up to 7.5 per cent each year.
Another lender trying to do some- thing different is Folk2Folk, a peer-to- peer platform for rural and local businesses. It is offering an IFISA which gives lenders the opportunity to earn 6.5 per cent interest a year, while supporting British businesses within their local area.
China has decided to open up its payments market, allowing companies to apply for a payments license.
The People’s Bank of China said in a statement that foreign players who apply for payment licenses will receive the same treatment as local companies.
Applicants must set up local units, establish payment infrastructure — including disaster recovery systems — and store client information domestically, the central bank added.
Banco BNI Europa launched an online account opening process through videoconference. This new process also introduces an innovative system of documents signature with a qualified digital certificate and is available for Portuguese citizens who want to open an individual current account. The process is simple, fast and intuitive, without the usual bureaucracies associated with account opening.
This product is offered in partnership with DigitalSign, a Portuguese Certifying Entity specialized in the issuance of qualified digital certificates, registered in the National Security Office as an accredited entity. The partnership with Digital Sign allows, in addition to the online account opening, the issue of a digital certificate, with similar strength to a physical signature, which may be used by the client in the context of other contractual relations with the Bank.
Santander is on track to launch an international money transfer app in partnership with fintech startup Ripple in the next few months, the bank’s UK CEO has confirmed.
Nathan Bostock told the International Fintech conference in London on Thursday: “This spring, if not one beats us to it, we will be the first large retail bank to carry out cross-border payments at scale with blockchain technology.”
Peoples Trust Company of Saint Albans has selected Finastra to provide a single, end-to-end lending solution for commercial and consumer lending. Using Finastra’s Total Lending solution, which packages the power of the Fusion LaserPro, Fusion DecisionPro and Fusion CreditQuest products, the bank will be able to manage its lending process from origination through to booking and thus increase efficiency and customer service.
FintruXNetwork is a global P2P lending blockchain-based ecosystem, powered by Ethereum. FintruX Network aims to connect borrowers, lenders, and rated service agencies. FintruX facilitates marketplace lending in a true peer-to-peer network to ease the cash-flow issues of small businesses and startups. The startup announced today it has successfully raised over 22,000 ETH ($25 million) in token sale from contributors around the world. The proceeds of the sale will be used to build an Ethereum-based platform that will fundamentally enhance the P2P loan experience for small businesses and startups.
Delhi-based fintech startup, Cash Suvidha, has raised $1 million in its pre-series A round of investment from Initia Holdings Ltd., Vipin Agarwal, Partner in India Industrial Growth Fund and others. The company plans to use the newly secured funds to increase customer base and to further strengthen its technological infrastructure.
The company claims to receive 15,000 loan applications every month and disbursement of loans in another 2 working days. The company has raised a total of $5.2 million and claims to have disbursed over Rs 152 crore.
Further, Cash Suvidha has disbursed loans to over 35,000 borrowers with an average ticket size between Rs 20,000 – Rs 5,00,000.
Reportedly, India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India is looking to create a blockchain-based exchange for Non-Performing Assets (NPA’s).
To be launched in association with 30 banks, this platform will assist the banks in data-driven price discovery.
SBI is said to have assets over $460 Bn and offers services in areas such as retail, corporate banking, financing, and insurance. The Indian banks are said to have to battle with NPA’s worth $210 Bn of which $30 Bn resides with SBI alone.
Broadly, there are three types of software systems that enterprises employ. These include:
a)Systems that help in running a business process
b)Those that help companies to grow their businesses
c)Systems that transform businesses
In the year 2013, China reported an eight-fold rise in the total number of borrowers that touched 1,49,300. The growth continued through 2014, with total borrowers reaching 630,000 by the year’s end.
Quality
Traditionally, lenders considered credit score as the key parameter in defining a borrower’s creditworthiness. In case of digital lending, a borrower’s risk profile is defined based on aspects such as Aadhaar for identification, salary slips for working professionals, and the applicant’s financial behavioral patterns determined based on information curated from online sources such as social media channels.
User Experience
Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2020, 48% of India’s internet users will be rural and of that, 21% will be women.
QARASoft’s now-defunct platform, called “QARA,” connected individual asset managers with funds pooled — or borrowed — from peer-to-peer investors, in part by making use of the venture firm’s artificial intelligence-powered robo adviser.
The “decentralized” platform collected some 100 retail investor loans in the first two weeks. But they were retrieved after the Financial Supervisory Service banned its operation, despite a patent earned the previous year for the pooling scheme of the fund and the platform’s three-year operation of its beta version.
The service will primarily target retail investors in overseas markets in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, and the English version will be launched prior to a Korean version.
SMALL business executives who took part in the AmBank BizRACE gained a new perspective in managing their operations, allowing them to bring the business further.
The top 15 finalists in the programme recently completed two, out of four, executive development programmes at Menara AmBank.
Peoplender Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Kristine Ng, a participant in the programme, said she was inspired with a new structure for her business after the first day itself. Ng recalled one of the trainers talking about constraints that one would face in growing businesses – if it doesn’t fit the business model, then change must occur.
According to the World Bank, 63 per cent of Mena SMEs do not have access to capital.
In Jordan, SMEs represent 97 per cent of companies and create 70 per cent of new jobs in the kingdom, according to Oxford Business Group, Jordan: Finding Financing for SMEs.
Liwwa is a peer-to-peer lending platform in the Mena region that provides SMEs with trade and asset financing. Liwwa’s target audience is divided into borrowers and investors, also referred to as lenders. To date, liwwa has maintained a solid portfolio and delivered annual returns of 10.6 per cent.
The liwwa index delivered 9.45 per cent over the last 12 months, which is attractive.
Liwwa has raised $5.55 million from investors and $6 million in debt to date. Their investors include Silicon Badia, Bank Al Etihad, DASH Ventures and Mena Venture Investments. Their debt partners include Bank Al Etihad, Capital Bank, Arab Bank and the Dutch Good Growth Fund.
News Comments Today’s main news: Lending Club losses extend to Q4 2017. LendingClub to settle lawsuit for $125M. Groundfloor launches online public offering. Even Financial gets backing from American Express. LendInvest launches buy-to-let calculator online. Today’s main analysis: Lend Academy reviews LendingClub’s Q4 2017 results. Today’s thought-provoking articles: Equity sharing and home ownership. How millennials move emerging markets. Why Australia needs […]
LendingClub’s losses extend into Q4 2017. AT: “This is an example of how litigation can eat into profits and impact growth. Nevertheless, despite continued losses and expected pending losses, LendingClub is looking good with increased originations. But it’s not out of the water yet.”
Groundfloor launches online public offering. AT: “This is significant because Groundfloor offers the first SEC-authorized opportunity in payment-dependent notes for non-accredited real estate crowdfunding investors. For $10 per share, anyone–literally–can invest in Groundfloor. While I applaud this opportunity for opening doors to virtually everyone, a part of me wonders if Groundfloor can raise enough operating capital by selling common stock for $10 per share. How long will it be before they are profitable? Is this a good ground floor price?”
Lending Club lost money for a fourth year in a row last year, as it wrote a big cheque to settle class-action lawsuits connected to its governance glitches of 2016.
The San Francisco-based company, the biggest listed online lender in America, said on Tuesday that net losses for the fourth quarter almost tripled from a year earlier, to $92m, as it agreed a $125m settlement to resolve civil suits stemming from the loan-mis-selling scandal that blew up almost two years ago. About $48m of the sum would be covered by insurance, the company said, with the remainder to be paid from liquid assets of about $650m.
The loss for the full year came to $154m, wider than the previous year’s $146m.
Under the agreement, which was announced Tuesday, the San Francisco-based online lender expects to pay $77.25 million. An additional $47.75 million is expected to be covered by LendingClub’s insurance, bringing the total payout to $125 million. The deal is subject to court approval.
Lending Club also underwhelmed in its revenue as the company raked in $156.5 million during its fourth quarter, below Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $157.6 million, according to FactSet. The figure did increase 20% compared to the year-ago quarter.
On an adjusted basis, the company posted earnings of a penny per share, compared to a loss of 2 cents in the year-ago quarter.
The company also experienced a 23% annual growth in originations, which reached over $2.4 billion.
LendingClub delivered another record quarter of $156.5 million in revenue up slightly from their previous quarter. Originations were slightly down from the third quarter at $2.436 billion. They reported a GAAP net loss of $92.1 million in the fourth quarter which was affected by the class action litigation settlement expense.
Source: Lend AcademySource: Lend Academy
LendingClub provided the below guidance for Q1 2018 and reaffirmed their guidance for 2018:
First Quarter 2018
Total Net Revenue in the range of $145 million to $155 million
Net Income (Loss) in the range of $(25) million to $(20) million
Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $5 million to $10 million
Reconciling Items between net loss and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA consisting of stock-based compensation of approximately $19 million, and depreciation and amortization and other net adjustments of approximately $11 million
Full Year 2018
Total Net Revenue in the range of $680 million to $705 million
Net Income (Loss) in the range of $(53) million to $(38) million
Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $75 million to $90 million
Reconciling Items between net loss and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA consisting of stock-based compensation of approximately $77 million, and depreciation and amortization and other net adjustments of approximately $51 million
LendingClub stock plunged 10 percent after the bell. The peer-to-peer lending company reported earnings and revenues that missed Wall Street estimates.
Groundfloor, the first issuer qualified by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to offer real estate based payment dependent notes that are available to non-accredited investors, today announced that it has raised a total of $4.3 million from 687 participating investors in a combination of two recent financings, a private online bridge note closed late last year and an initial closing of its online public offering of equity. In each case, the company kicked off the invitation-only raises to customers and friends of the company with a $1M target, surpassing that in under 48 hours. Due to increased growth opportunities and strong demand, the company has today expanded the equity raise to the public.
Groundfloor is offering a total of up to 530,000 shares of Common Stock at $10 per share in its online public offering. Investor benefits include: no investor fees for life2; access to regular shareholder-only loan offerings; and invitations to attend annual Groundfloor shareholder events.
Recently increased expectations that the Fed may raise interest rates in the future has investors rebalancing their portfolios, with a shift out of equity into debt, as bond yields are expected to increase. Twelve-month bond yields have recently inched up to 1.97 percent.
By comparison, Groundfloor investors have earned an average of 13.6 percent per year over the past three years, which represents over 6x the yield of a current one year Treasury note, and over 1,000 percent more than they would have made if their money had been in a CD or savings account over this period.1 Groundfloor’s retail investors create their own portfolios of real estate debt investments in the fix and flip residential housing market, and the loans on which the investments are based are secured by a first lien position against the underlying real asset.
• High yield potential
• Lower barrier to entry: Even if you have a very less amount of money, you can still invest even in large commercial real estate projects through equity crowdfunding and enjoy the benefits of the real estate i.e., strong returns and lower volatility.
• No self-employment taxes
• Higher returns
Cons
• The risks. An investor should know how to evaluate the risk factors like local economy volatility and chances of higher than expected construction costs. Due diligence is what is required.
• Liquidity constraint: These investments need to be held up for a period of five years or so, and hence one should go for this option if this much bandwidth is available, lack of liquidity is not there, and an investor is comfortable with the invested amount to be tied up for several years.
• It’s still an early option: It is still an early option to be considered as the performance track record and validation is still not complete and individual investors are still trying to figure it out.
• Lack of control: Since it is a passive investment, the investors are not involved in the day to day activities and therefore have limited ability and control over the operations required.
In a rising tide of fintech apps, RealyInvest is emerging as a new way for beginning investors to access the high-priced world of premier commercial real estate right from their smartphones.
RealyInvestors can purchase fractional shares of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) for as little as $5. Investors can also own shares of commercial real estate NNN Assets, such as a building long-term leased to Starbucks, for as little as $20.
All investments, rental income and dividend earnings can be managed right on your smartphone. Fees range from $1 to $3 per month, depending on investment options.
A handful of companies, including those backed by marquee Silicon Valley names such as Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization, are experimenting with a product that essentially lets them take an ownership position in a house along with the homeowner. The agreements, called shared-equity contracts, provide a new way for investors to get exposure to rising home prices across the U.S.
Shared-equity products are aimed at new buyers who need help with a down payment, or current homeowners looking for an alternative to a cash-out mortgage refinancing or a home-equity loan. The first use has caught the attention of mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac,which recently agreed to buy loans on properties where one firm,Unison Agreement Corp. , contributes to the down payment.
Landed Inc. offers these down-payment contracts to teachers and other educators. Last year, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative , a philanthropy co-founded by FacebookInc.’s chief executive, gave Landed $5 million to start a new fund.
The length of the contracts can vary from a few years to 30. Homeowners can repay early, including if they sell their house before the term ends. How much they end up owing depends on how the value of their home changes. Because the funds are equity, not a borrowing, they don’t require monthly payments.
Even Financial, the technology platform powering financial services online, has secured a strategic investment round totaling $3 million. The round includes an investment from American Express Ventures, the strategic investment unit of American Express, as well as Plug & Play and Arab Angels.
With this investment, Even Financial will expand its team and advance its proprietary technology, which allows financial institutions and other partners to scale customer acquisition and remain competitive in the growing online financial services industry.
“In 2017, Fundrise investments earned an 11.44%* total return on investment, including over $16 million in dividends paid out to investors. Delivering attractive, consistent cash flow is a core part of our mission to offer you a better way to invest.”
South by Southwest Interactive Innovation Award winner and 2018 LendIt Fintech Industry Award finalist Blinker, the only peer-to-peer e-commerce platform that provides an end-to-end solution for anyone buying, selling or financing cars, announced two major milestones for its business today:
Blinker is now available in the largest car markets in the US – Beginning today, Blinker is expanding its proprietary e-commerce and loan origination platform from Texas and Colorado to California and Florida, allowing millions of customers to buy, sell and finance vehicles easier, quicker and safer with other people. Thirty percent of vehicle sales across the US every year are between people, yet private-party marketplaces including Craigslist, Letgo, Autotrader, Cars.com and Facebook Marketplace don’t have services such as integrated financing or lien payoff support. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, Blinker customers get guidance and tools to complete the entire purchase process themselves, from instant vehicle valuation to real-time auto loan approval to e-signing documents to secure funds transfer, all for free within Blinker’s mobile app.
Blinker joins with Ally to offer best-in-class auto protection products – Blinker will now give customers the option to add Ally’s vehicle protection coverage, including Ally Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) and Ally Premier Protection vehicle service contracts, for their vehicle purchases in the app. GAP covers the difference between the cash value of a vehicle and what Blinker customers still owe on their loan if the vehicle is totaled or stolen. Ally vehicle service contracts cover the repair cost for over 7,400 mechanical, electrical, safety or digital components, as well as some related expenses like trip interruption, rental car coverage, towing and 24/7 roadside assistance.
Scammers have taken to Zelle, the Venmo alternative backed by U.S. banks, to defraud consumers who believe the service includes the same protections they’ve come to expect from PayPal. A number of customers report having lost hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, over Zelle, when they used it for transactions with people they didn’t know – like tickets bought off a Craigslist posting, for example.
Malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016, the White House said Friday.
The estimate comes in a Council of Economic Advisers report on the impact of cyberattacks on U.S. government and industry. The report details the range of threats that U.S. entities face from actors including corporations and countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
The council’s estimate represents between 0.31% and 0.58% of the 2016 U.S. gross domestic product. For comparison, the report cites a Center for Strategic and International Studies report that estimated the cost of malicious cyber activities against U.S. entities at $107 billion in 2013, 0.64% of GDP that year.
Speaking to The Drum in the final instalment of a four-part video series with Falcon.io exploring social media strategies, she admitted that while it can be a challenge, using data to understand her audience’s wants and needs has helped her shape content which is likely to resonate.
Fox says she has been finding success on the unlikeliest of social media platforms – Pinterest.
“All our content is more lifestyle focused than finance focused,” she explained.
OpenClose, an industry-leading multi-channel loan origination system (LOS) and mortgage fintech provider, announced that it has added staff to its integration and customer support departments. The new hires will help enhance OpenClose’s existing software products, facilitate digital mortgage processes, produce fintech-level innovation and provide excellence in customer support. The company also recently added three senior software engineers to its development team.
You usually have only a couple of weeks to repay the loan, and the typical APR is almost 400.00%, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If you can’t pay it back and have to take out a new payday loan to pay off the first, you could end up stuck in a vicious cycle of predatory debt.
The business lender, which currently only has an iPhone app for investors to access, monitor and manage their accounts, is now advertising for a global mobile apps product manager and for an Android developer.
Both positions are based in the UK.
“We have an ambitious roadmap for this year and want to launch two new apps (Android and iOS) for our investors,” the job advert on the Funding Circle website said.
ONLINE lending platforms may partner with banks to fund and market credit products in the future, even sharing the approval process and compliance, in one scenario outlined by global banking regulators.
A number of peer-to-peer lenders have already partnered with banks on a smaller scale. For example, Metro Bank has lent through Zopa’s platform and Santander has referred borrowers to Funding Circle. However, these tie-ups have not gone as far as the report’s scenario suggests in terms of becoming a joint venture.
Square Pie, which started life as a stall in London’s Old Spitalfields Market, expanded with the help of a “pie bond” that promised 8% annual interest over four years. The bond was offered through one of Britain’s biggest crowdfunding platforms, Crowdcube.
A total of 324 investors signed up, lending more than £650,000 to fund Square Pie restaurants and its efforts to improve supermarket sales. Square Pie has gone into administration — the first failure of a business that issued a mini bond on a crowdfunding site.…
Lendingblock is one such business. The soon-to-launch platform is, in its founder Steve Swain’s words, “an open exchange for cryptocurrency loans”.
Lendingblock is in the middle of a three-stage Initial Coin Offering that will conclude in March. The first phase has already been completed, raising the equivalent of $500,000. The offering has a hard cap of $10m.
The number of conversions of farm buildings into new homes dropped 20% in the last year, denting hopes that these conversions could help solve the rural housing crisis.
According to Lendy, one of Europe’s largest peer-to-peer lending platforms, only 1,511 agricultural-to-residential conversion applications were approved in 2016/17.
Finnest is an interesting online lender operating in the DACH countries. The peer to peer platform was launched to provide SME funding supported by individual investors but the company is now expanding by providing loans of €10 million and higher. Institutional investors such as insurance companies, funds, family offices and banks will now be able to invest in large SMEs on “FinnestPro.”
The new EU legislation on payment services – PSD2 – and the introduction of Open Banking in the UK seem to have passed the vast majority of people in the country by, according to an AltFi News article last month.
This referred to a report by Which saying that 92 per cent of consumers hadn’t even heard of Open Banking.
Millennials in advanced economies have come under pressure in recent years, thanks to stagnating wages, rising house prices and escalating student debt. But an altogether different trend is taking place in many emerging markets where millennials are seeing their prospects rapidly improve. This in turn is creating an investment opportunity, as millennials in these countries are becoming hugely influential on the prospects for emerging market equities.
Millennials will account for half of the global workforce by 2020, meaning they will be one of the most influential groups in shaping the economy and society, including consumption habits, policy and how companies may want to market and brand themselves. They are disrupting traditional industries and companies are having to adapt. This presents investment opportunities, but it also presents new investment risks.
Based on ERC-20, the multilayered cryptocurrency platform will host a marketplace that allows developmental phases. The first phase focuses on micro loans (small loans), rent payments, student loans and peer-to-peer payment processing.
As trust grows on the platform, phase 2 will be implemented to cater to sales distribution, global small business investing and global commercial and residential real estate crowdfunding while the third stage will serve charity and insurance. The final phase will be dedicated to maintenance and future developments that may include additional currency adoption, feature adding etc.
Valorem (VLR) is the token offered. The exchange rate stands at 1 ETH= 1000 VLR. There is a total supply of 200 million tokens of which 150 million are available during the ICO and 50 million will be kept in reserve. Valorem will not be mined.
People born between roughly 1982 and 2002 are set to receive the biggest inheritance boom of any post-war generation. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) estimated the figure will be around $4 trillion in the UK, Canada and United States.
NewsBTC: Now it seems that you have no experience with banking services yet. How do you plan to cover this area?
Now I can say we understand confidently how banking works and how it should work in the crypto industry. By 2020, we’re going to have a licensed bank and transform it into a crypto one with a network of crypto terminals.
A bit sooner, in 2018, we plan to release crypto e-wallets with linked debit cards. Miners will be able to use recently mined coins right away, transferring them to their wallets immediately. We’re also designing a platform for peer-to-peer lending.
Australian investors and borrowers are increasingly adopting peer to peer lending platforms according to the results of survey undertaken by ASIC. The results of the survey suggest that as much as $300 million of personal and business loans were underwritten by peer to peer lenders over the course of the last fiscal year. That represents a doubling in the amount that was lent on such platforms during the 2015/2016 financial year.
Australia’s credit rating system is failing both borrowers and lenders. Many borrowers are unaware of their own credit scores and our research shows they have trouble applying for suitable loans. Lenders are also struggling with too little information, causing them to extend loans to those they shouldn’t and restrict loans to worthy borrowers.
Upcoming changes to Australia’s credit reporting system could remedy these issues.
Under the new credit reporting regime, both lenders and borrowers will have access to more data, such as monthly payment histories on loans and credit cards.
More innovation ahead in mortgage lending
For higher-risk borrowers, novel techniques to assess credit risk (such as analysis of social media accounts) may be the answer to distinguish good borrowers from bad.
But prior experience from an over-reliance on credit scores in the United States shows that careful assessment of borrowers remains vital.
Among all the personal loans the medical loan is the most crucial one which is often required on an urgent basis by the applicants.
Recently a host of Financial technology(Fintech) and Non-banking financing related start-ups have been launched in India providing a variety of medical loans to the clients.
Unable to qualify for a loan from her bank, Johnston searched online for private lenders and found a website for what appeared to be a legitimate company calling itself North Clear Credit.
Everything about it — the variety of loans offered, the glowing testimonials, the company description — seemed professional. In fact, a customer who later reported North Clear Credit to police says an officer told her the website looked legitimate.
For Johnston and Mood, the terms were appealing. The money could be paid back monthly over five years at an interest rate substantially lower than what they would be charged elsewhere.
Johnston completed an online application and was approved for a $20,000 loan.
Within a few days, Johnston and Mood had lost $3,500, and two North Clear Credit “representatives” with whom Johnston had been corresponding had disappeared.
Blackchain Solutions Inc. (the “Company” or “Blackchain”) (CSE: BIS), announces a private placement of up to 3,400,000 units at a price of $0.18 per unit, for gross proceeds of $612,000. Each unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable at a price of $0.22 per share for a term of two years.
Proceeds generated from this financing will be used to initiate and support the filing of multiple patents and trademarks related to the Blackchain Crypto Credit Rating API and P2P Lending Platform.
One question LendIt attendees got answered for them this year is, “What is the future of financing and purchasing vehicles?” The auto lending industry is one that is in serious transition as we speak. A panelist of insiders discussed the question on the table and here are the highlights. How Cars are Researched and Bought […]
One question LendIt attendees got answered for them this year is, “What is the future of financing and purchasing vehicles?” The auto lending industry is one that is in serious transition as we speak. A panelist of insiders discussed the question on the table and here are the highlights.
How Cars are Researched and Bought Today
Brad Rogers, chief operating officer of RouteOne, LLC made the observation that “the way cars are researched today is not the same as it was five years ago.” Anyone who has purchased a vehicle in the last couple of years can vouch for that. RouteOne provides online application and financing solutions for auto dealers. They process 50 million credit applications annually, which is why Rogers can say that customers want more information up front.
AutoFi President and Co-Founder Jonathan Palan said the innovation process for auto financing is driven by players outside of the industry.
He could mean technology companies like AutoGravity, a company that connects auto dealers and financing options with consumers ready to buy through a mobile app. Serge Vartanov is the company’s chief marketing officer and co-founder. Based on how users interact with AutoGravity’s mobile app, he’s narrowed car buyers into two segments.
“Some car buyers are less brand loyal and more emotional,” he said. “They like to compare vehicles and dealerships then get out of the transaction quickly. The other segment is more brand loyal.” The brand-loyal segment will move from one BMW, or their favorite vehicle brand, to the next while other buyers will purchase a car from the same dealer three or four years in a row. “They still want a fantastic digital customer experience.”
Sam Ellis, co-founder and CEO of DriveUp, said it’s very important to be transparent with consumers and, of course, not to violate consumer finance laws. DriverUp is a web portal that connects dealers and financiers with car buyers through a search feature online.
Blinker is another mobile app that allows consumers to buy and sell vehicles seamlessly. Rather than a focus on dealerships, Blinker connects individual sellers with individual buyers. Danny Martinez, the company’s president, said, “Used cars are sold primarily through dealerships, but a third are sold privately. With the advent of technology, consumers can sell cars without dealerships and buyers are able to transact digitally.”
Martinez sees Blinker as a “thinner” intermediary than an auto dealer. Sellers can get a better value by selling their car to an individual than they’ll ever get on a trade-in. Meanwhile, buyers can get a better car at a better price.
Palan said the average time car buyers spend in an auto dealer is 3.1 hours. “Anything you can do reduce that is good,” he said.
The customer wants to see what they want digitally, but they also want to hop offline and talk to somebody without having information repeated,” Martinez said.
Since titling is different from state to state, Martinez said handling that transaction digitally is a huge challenge for the industry to overcome.
Will Lenders Offer Separate Direct, Indirect Buying Channels?
Moderaor Craig Schleicher of PwC asked the panel if lenders will ever offer separate channels for direct and indirect buying processes.
Palan said the direct channel can be misleading. “The car buyer can go to a website and get ‘flipped’, so there needs to be a standard platform that allows each lender to offer a loan.”
“The average consumer doesn’t know the difference between direct and indirect auto financing,” Vartanov said, “but every lender cares.” He also said consumers want financing approved and the vehicle ready before they enter the dealership, which is a feature built into AutoGravity. He loves the idea of car buyers searching for the vehicle they want while lying in bed and getting approved for a loan at the same time.
It’s pretty clear from the current slate of auto buying and financing technologies that the future of car buying, selling, and financing is here, but I’m convinced it will only get better. It’s time to make the consumer aware.
