News Comments Today’s main news: LendingPoint closes $178M personal loans securitization. OnDeck hits $879M in online financing in Texas alone. RateSetter adds three products. Funding Circle lenders face longer cash out waits. Yirendai files Form 6-K. Today’s main analysis: International P2P lending volumes for August 2019. Today’s thought-provoking articles: Silicon Valley is building a social […]
Silicon Valley is building a social credit system like China’s. This is an excellent read. While there seems to be some evidence that social credit data is useful for determining risk to lenders, consumers are growing more weary of the tactics used to gather that data.
P2P lending volumes for August 2019. Bondora, Fellow Finance, Mintos, and Thincats report milestones in cumulative volume. Total volume across the board was 634 million euros.
Fall conference season. A great list of must-attend conference to attend from September to December from Los Angeles to China.
LendingPoint, the company revolutionizing and democratizing commerce, announced today that it closed its inaugural securitization of consumer loans. LendingPoint Receivables Trust 2019-1 (“LDPT 2019-1”) issued $177.85 million of notes backed by a pool of $187.22 million of direct-to-consumer loans originated on the LendingPoint platform.
The LendingPoint Receivables Trust securitization was rated by Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. and includes $117.76 million of Class A notes rated “A-“, $24.74 million of Class B notes rated “BBB-“, $23.68 million of Class C notes rated “BB-” and $10.67 million of Class D notes rated “B-.” The notes priced at a blended yield of 4.05% per annum and provided for a 95% advance rate. The transaction has a 5% overcollateralization Deposit and a 5% overcollateralization Target. The risk adjusted yield of the receivables securing the notes is expected to be 13.14% per annum.
OnDeck today announced that TyMac Electric of Plano, Texas is its Small Business of the Month for August, 2019. The 30-person company serves the Dallas-Fort Worth area with high-quality, professionally managed electrical services.
Over the last two years, OnDeck has provided additional financing to TyMac Electric as the business grew to meet demand in the Dallas-Fort Worth commercial marketplace.
Overall, OnDeck has provided more than $879 million in financing online to small business owners in the State of Texas.
Have you heard about China’s social credit system? It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese government.
Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies.
Real estate investment platform Fundrise has raised over $22 million for their Opportunity Fund. The information was revealed in a recent Form D 5o6c filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Data is the new oil, as the saying goes, and today Kabbage — a fintech startup backed by SoftBank that has built a business around lending up to $250,000 to small and medium enterprises, using AI-based algorithms to help determine the terms of the loan — is picking up an asset to expand its own data trove as it looks to expand into further SMB financial services. The company has acquired Radius Intelligence, the marketing technology firm that has built a database of information on some 20 million small and medium businesses in the U.S.
Nonbanks and alternative lenders have garnered attention in the banking industry due to their ability to partner with legacy banks and utilize technology to make financial transactions more efficient and convenient for users.
Challenger bank Chime has reached 5 million customers in the U.S. The San Francisco-based startup is creating an FDIC-insured mobile bank without any physical branch. The company also promises fewer fees.
Back in March, Chime said it had 3 million customers when it announced its $200 million Series D round. So that’s 2 million additional customers in roughly 5 months.
Even Financial, a four-year-old New York-based provider of APIs for financial services search, acquisition, and monetization, today announced that it’s raised $25 million in a strategic round of investment co-led by Citi Ventures and MassMutual Ventures, with additional participation from LendingClub. Existing backers American Express Ventures, Canaan Partners, F-Prime Capital, GreatPoint Ventures, and Goldman Sachs also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total raised to $50 million.
Credit Sesame — which lets consumers check their credit scores and evaluate options to rebalance existing debts and loans to improve that score and thus their overall “financial health,” in the words of CEO and founder Adrian Nazari — has raised $43 million. With the company already profitable and growing revenues 90% each year for the last five, Nazari said that this round is likely to be the last round the company raises before it goes public.
Household debt in the U.S. continues to rise and as of this year now stands at nearly $14 trillion.
CrowdBureau Corporation, a fintech startup and index provider, has closed $1.1 million Series A equity funding to expand its series of benchmarks and launch a pilot program for its patent-pending regulatory technology product. The round, which values the company at $9.7 million, was led by Clydagh Limited, Estuary Holdings Ltd. and Alpama Limited along with existing investors.
A growing number of companies are helping workers gain access to payroll advances and loans, reflecting concern over the impact money problems are having on productivity levels and worker retention.
Employers including Walmart Inc. and Pima County, Ariz., have recently added these services. The aim is to help cash-strapped employees, many with damaged credit, cover unexpected expenses without resorting to high-cost debt.
Lendingblock, the regulated, open exchange for institutional borrowing and lending of digital assets, today announces the launch of its institutional lending platform on September 3, 2019. The lending product, which is a reinvented version of securities lending from traditional capital markets, is the first exchange fully dedicated to pure crypto lending and aims to support the needs of the broader cryptocurrency market by providing a secure and liquid venue for lending and borrowing needs of institutional market participants.
Upon launch, Lendingblock platform users will be able to borrow and lend BTC, ETH, PAX and USDT on a fully collateralized basis, for loan terms of 1, 7, 14 and 30 days, with a minimum trade size of $100,000 equivalent of a specified digital asset.
News Comments Today’s main news: Lending Club closes 5 investment funds, rebrands LC Advisors. CommonBond closes $248M securitization, receives AA S&P rating. LendingTree Q3 results. LandlordInvest expects to double IFISA intake. Ant Financial puts off IPO. Renredai volume surpasses 37.8B RMB. New Zealand prepares for open banking. SMART Box to debut in Canada. Today’s main analysis: Don’t forget about loan recoveries. Today’s […]
LendingTree Q3 results. AT: “LendingTree is looking good and setting new records in several areas.”
Big Tech vs. Big Banks. AT: “So far, all this talk of Amazon and Google threatening banks has been speculation. They certainly have the financial clout and technological prowess to be the threat that everyone is anticipating. But we still haven’t seen it happen–yet.”
Anticipation for Amazon SMB lending disruption grows. AT: “The danger for Amazon, if it branches out into too many verticals, is a threat of running up against antitrust concerns. They may very well be checking into those possibilities.”
Yesterday, Lending Clubannounced the closure of several funds. The funds were part of what was previously known as LC Advisors, an investment management company dedicated to investing in notes originated by the platform.
Since each fund is a separate legal entity there were many different buyers that participated. While we don’t know the terms of the deals or who purchased these loans, Suri did share with us that there were over 40 bids for the assets and 5 of the 6 funds have been sold at fair value or a slight premium.
What happens next?
Lending Club is rebranding its asset management business. Now called LendingClub Asset Management or LCAM for short.
When we asked Suri about positioning the new offerings to investors he stated that their biggest flagship fund under LC Advisors had delivered slightly over 6% annualized since 2011.
CommonBond, a leading financial technology company that helps students and graduates pay for higher education, today announces the close of a $248 million securitization of refinanced student loans. The offering’s most senior notes achieved AA ratings from Moody’s, S&P, and DBRS – Aa2, AA, and AA (high), respectively – the company’s highest ratings to date.
The transaction was CommonBond’s fifth and largest to date. Investors submitted $1 billion in orders, making the deal more than four times oversubscribed. Goldman Sachs served as structuring agent, co-lead manager, book-runner, and co-sponsor. Barclays and Citi also served as co-lead managers and book-runners on the transaction, while Guggenheim Securities served as co-manager.
The transaction was the first of CommonBond’s to be rated by S&P, who assigned AA ratings to the transaction, alongside similar ratings from Moody’s and DBRS. Moody’s and DBRS also recently upgraded CommonBond’s ratings on previous deals in recognition of the company’s strong credit performance.
To showcase the significance of the third-party debt collection industry in America, the New York Fed publishes in their Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit a ‘Third-Party Collections’ chart (below). As of 2017-Q1, between 12-13% of consumers with debt have debt being collected by third-party agencies (blue line). Of those, the average amount of debt in collections is ~$1,400 (red line).
Source: Orchard Platform
The 2015-2016 roll rate matrix is experiencing a higher percentage of loans going from non-performing (60-89 DPD & 90-119 DPD) to current when compared to the 2013-2014 roll rate matrix. This 100 bps difference for 60-89 DPD and 200 bps for 90-119 DPD can be attributed to the improvement of servicers’ collection and outreach programs for delinquent loans.
Source: Orchard Platform
Consumer loans have experienced a monthly recovery rate between 5% to 15% within different portfolios on our platform. Based on this table, a $100M pool of loans would have a $1M valuation difference between a 5% and 15% recovery rate input.
LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE), operator of LendingTree.com, the nation’s leading online loan marketplace, today announced results for the quarter ended September 30, 2017.
Third Quarter 2017 Business Highlights
Record revenue from mortgage products of $73.8 million represents an increase of 38% over third quarter 2016 driven by strong growth in both purchase and refinance revenues at 87% and 24%, respectively. According to Mortgage Bankers Association, originations industry-wide were down 16% in the comparable period.
Record revenue from non-mortgage products of $97.7 million in the third quarter represents an increase of 138% over the third quarter 2016 and increased to 57% of total revenue compared to 43% one year ago.
Home equity revenue growth accelerated, increasing $9.0 million, or 176% over third quarter 2016, and marked the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth exceeding 100%.
Personal loans revenue of $25.4 million grew 44% over third quarter 2016 and grew 24% sequentially.
Revenue from our credit card offerings grew to $39.4 million in 3Q compared to just $6.6 million in 3Q 2016. On a proforma basis, giving effect to the CompareCards and MagnifyMoney acquisitions as if they had occurred on January 1, 2016, credit cards revenue grew 43%.
More than 6.5 million consumers have now signed up for free credit scores and savings alerts through My LendingTree, and the volume of new enrollments accelerated. Revenue contribution from MyLendingTree grew 96% in the third quarter compared to the prior year period as new features and smarter savings alerts are driving increased engagement.
Third Quarter 2017 Financial Highlights
Record consolidated revenue of $171.5 million represents an increase of $76.9 million, or 81%, over revenue in the third quarter 2016.
GAAP net income from continuing operations of $10.1 million, or $0.74per diluted share.
Record Variable Marketing Margin of $59.1 million represents an increase of $22.8 million, or 63%, over third quarter 2016.
Record Adjusted EBITDA of $34.7 million increased $16.2 million, or 88%, over third quarter 2016.
Adjusted Net Income per share of $1.17 represents growth of 65% over third quarter 2016.
During the quarter, the company repurchased 42 thousand shares of its stock at a weighted-average price per share of $237 for aggregate consideration of $10.0 million. As of September 30, 2017, the company has $38.7 million in repurchase authorization remaining.
Business Outlook – 2017
LendingTree is revising Revenue, Variable Marketing Margin and Adjusted EBITDA guidance for full-year 2017, as follows:
Revenue is anticipated to be in the range of $603 – $608 million, representing growth of 57% – 58% over full-year 2016 and an increase from prior guidance of $580 – $590 million.
Variable Marketing Margin is anticipated to be $202 – $205 millioncompared to prior guidance of $190 – $195 million.
Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be in the range of $111 – $113 million, up 59% – 62% over full-year 2016 and an increase from prior guidance of $103 – $106 million.
A recent report from McKinsey on the global banking industry addressed the threat banks face from technology firms. Amazon stock jumped 13% on earnings and reporting that Amazon is increasing its lending footprint. Tune into Bloomberg Radio archive to hear more about this topic as PeerIQ’s CEO discusses the threats and opportunities of big technology with Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz and Pimm Fox.
Summary of Amazon’s Lending Business
Amazon finances small businesses that sell products through the Amazon marketplace on an invitation-only basis. Interest rates range from 6 to 15%, tenor ranges from 4 to 6 months, and loan size is up to $750K.
Although there is no segment-level P&L reporting for the lending unit, loss-rates according to Amazon’s Peeyush Nahar have been “very, very small.” Amazon’s lending makes up a small part of their business (e.g., $3 Bn in loans to date vs. Amazon’s $136 Bn annual revenue). Amazon is also not directly financing the consumers indicating substantial opportunity to grow.
Owning the Customer
The most compelling advantage big tech has outside of data and customer acquisition are the creation of entirely new channels that banks cannot easily replicate.
A few examples:
In-Home: Large consumer tech firms occupy the most intimate space of consumer through services such as Amazon’s Echo, Google’s Home, or Apple’s Siri. These platforms represent a trojan horse for delivering new products and services in a highly personal and exclusive manner.
Personal assistants that are increasingly anticipatory and have access to the calendars, preferences, and daily lives of consumers.
Mobile and virtual wallets which shift the battleground from legacy “share of wallet” and “primary card” concepts to mobile platforms and virtual wallets
Virtual spaces created via social media including Facebook or services such as Lyft or Uber which enable unobstructed access to the consumer.
Technology giants like Google and Amazon, which gained their market muscle from non-finance-related ventures, are slowly stepping into the space. Their next target could be small business lending, and according to some experts, it’s fast approaching the market.
Amazon in particular is positioned to dominate. The company has already lent more than $1 billion to merchants selling on its platform, and, just as alternative lenders put the pressure on traditional FIs with their quick surge into the market, the Amazons of the world will do the same, Mills predicted.
Chatter Picks Up Steam
Karen Mills’ statements have found new backing in the latest banking report released by McKinsey & Co. this week. New reports in Bloomberg on Wednesday (Oct. 25) said the report identifies Amazon as the newest, biggest threat to the small business lending status quo.
The report points to sagging return on equities for the banks, which have not been able to surpass 10 percent since the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. The FIs that collaborate with those FinTechs could boost their return on equities to 14 percent and even higher if they develop their own solutions in-house.
When customers open an account at one of these automated investing firms, they’re put into funds from companies like Charles Schwab Corp. and Vanguard Group and charged a fee of anywhere from 25 to 50 basis points. In return, they get some extra benefits, like tax loss harvesting, which can result in a lower tax bill, and automatic re-balancing at no extra cost.
But there’s a catch, the funds that customers buy through these advisors are all available on free trading platforms such as Robinhood Financial, where there’s no added cost.
Consumer analytics company SelfScore has rebranded as Deserve, writes Julie Muhn at Finovate (Banking Technology‘s sister company).
The California-based company continues to be committed to providing underbanked Americans with access to credit, and to fuel that mission, Deserve has received $12 million in funding. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Aspect Ventures, Pelion Ventures, Mission Holdings, Alumni Venture Group, and GDP Venture, and brings Deserve’s total funding to $27 million.
Blockchain is particularly relevant to the lending market. Lending is a contract-intensive process with an extensive lifecycle; it carries significant risk and limited trust across its value chain – from origination to funding through to the fulfillment and servicing of the loan.
Moreover, the integration of blockchain with digital lending ensures transactions are tracked in an open and transparent way. Banks and lenders get direct visibility into exactly what happened during the lending process – who was involved, who had control over the authoritative copy of the digital assets and ultimately, who owns the value of those assets, as required by law.
Jiko, an Oakland, Calif.-based personal bank startup, raised $7.7m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Upfront Ventures and Radicle Impact with participation from Social Capital, 500 Fintech, Digital Currency Group, Core Innovation, Embark Ventures and Story Ventures.
Templum, LLC, a NYC-based fintech startup facilitating regulatory compliant ICOs as securities and secondary trading of digital assets, closed a $2.7m seed funding round.
The round was led by Raptor Group, Galaxy Investment Partners, Blockchain Capital and firstminute.capital.
Touching on the recent boom in real estate crowdfunding firms, John McNellis, co-founder of Palo Alto, Calif.-based development firm McNellis Partners, divided the crowdfunding sector into two groups: firms that simply connect investors with developers and firms that invest in projects themselves. The first concept should work in the long term, he noted. But when it comes to crowdfunding firms underwriting real estate deals, McNellis pointed out that it takes at least a decade in the business to become a reliable underwriter. “To expect these 20-year-olds who are good at tech to be good at underwriting” is unrealistic, he said. McNellis added that established developers normally already have financial partners that they prefer to work with. The developers most in need of crowdfunding dollars would be either those just starting out in the business or developers with a spotty track record.
The decline in underlying collateral quality — a theme across wider consumer ABS sectors — has been playing out in marketplace loan ABS, with recent deals from Prosper, Marlette Funding and Avant featuring a growing proportion of loans taken by borrowers with credit scores of less than 680.
There is now a way anyone can help veterans launch their new life through a concept called StreetShares.
You can invest just a few dollars or thousands to the fund. Investors can earn 5 percent on their money.
For Shane and Melissa Underwood, a $20,000 loan allowed them to purchase a piece of equipment that launched their small business Driveshaft Specialists.
A 2017 crowdfunding reportby the National Women’s Business Council, for example, found that 47% of successful campaigns on the popular crowdfunding platform Indiegogo were run by women.
Online Lenders
Keep in mind that online business loan shopping sites may operate in a variety of ways:
Lead generation sites will simply gather your information then sell it to various lenders, which may then call or email you with information or offers.
Online lenders may offer a specific set of loan products aimed at specific types of borrowers (for example, those with significant credit card sales). Remember: just because you can’t qualify with one lender doesn’t mean you can’t quality with others.
Online brokers may try to help get you funding with various lenders with whom they have a relationship. They may charge a significant fee for this service, so be sure to ask.
Online marketplaces will present you with options and allow you to choose which ones seem right for your needs. Ideally, you’ll also see which loans are best matched to your qualifications. (Disclosure: Nav’s small business loan marketplace operates this way.)
Zeus CrowdFunding once again offers borrowers what other lenders won’t – low rates designed specifically for the real estate investor and their year-end needs. For a limited time, qualified applicants will pay only six percent interest for the first six months of the loan term.
The company loans up to 100 percent of a project’s cost to qualified applicants in as little as four days.
On Deck Capital, Inc. (NYSE:ONDK) is scheduled to be issuing its quarterly earnings data before the market opens on Wednesday, November 1st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.03 per share for the quarter.
As banks rush to catch a wave of robo technologies, Wells Fargo Advisors is rolling out a factor-based approach designed for advisors and their clients.
The wirehouse has launched an expansion to its electronic model portfolio services platform, according to Patty Loepker, WFA’s head of research directed advisory programs. The new managed accounts program features allocations built around smart beta ETFs.
Litigation finance specialist Pravati Capital has launched its third fund vehicle to capitalize on opportunities in the burgeoning litigation finance sector.
The new fund, named Pravati Credit Fund III, will invest in mature stage, high-probability, high-value cases or case portfolios where there is established liability and precedent for settlement, according to a statement.
LANDLORDINVEST is expecting its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) intake to double this tax year.
The property peer-to-peer platform, which launched its IFISA in January, said it attracted £419,385 in the previous tax year and was hoping to see that double to nearer £1m.
LENDINGCROWD has been ranked as an alternative to Funding Circle for investors looking to continue with manual lending, as they both offer similar interest rates and borrower profiles.
The U.K. government’s economic and finance ministry has released a new policy document stating that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin pose a “low risk” for terrorist financing.
The paper further cited the peer-to-peer lending industry, which it said has the potential to be used as a “terrorist financing tool,” though no incidences have been observed in the U.K. to date.
Initially, my co-founders and I had experience verifying identity documents meant for an offline world. The current way of verifying documentation for a standard current account requires hours and hours of face-to-face in-branch and still not getting approved; it’s no wonder there’s a 40% drop-off.
Of the 7 billion people in the world, Facebook has brought their social identity online, LinkedIn has brought their professional identity online and now we’re looking to bring their legal identity online.
How exactly are Onfido providing something that mainstream banks should take notice of?
Very simply, we help business verify the identity of the people they are onboarding digitally. That can be with a photo of their government issued ID that the user can send with a smartphone. We cover 600 IDs globally and use machine learning to verify whether the ID is genuine or not. There are three steps to our core technology. The first, we extract the details, see if the patterns are consistent and compare them to the millions of historically computed IDs. The second step is asking the user to take a photo or short video of their face, which we compare to the photo on their identity document for similarity. The third step is to check that their details – name, date of birth and address – are consistent with records on multiple databases. Altogether this verifies the person is who they claim to be and, end-to-end, takes two minutes.
We use a hybrid machine/human approach – the technology is able to automatically process the vast majority of documents, and the small number of outliers are passed to our expert human team for review. It means that human resource can be put to more effective use, and would heavily cut down on the 30,000 people employed by Citibank, for example, who just work on onboarding and compliance checks.
As a Millennial yourself, how much of a role do you think generations play on attitudes to banking?
Millennials are just so used to doing absolutely everything on their phone.
Fintechs have really monopolised the millennial market and they’re building the models to ensure they keep that market for the next 15-20 years. That’s where PSD2 becomes very relevant as a leveller of the playing field for the market – it’ll increase healthy competition.
Silicon Valley investors have more than doubled funding for UK technology companies this year, in a sign of strengthening links with the world’s biggest tech hub after the Brexit vote.
British start-ups received £884.8m from venture capital backers based in San Francisco and the Bay Area in the first nine months of this year, compared to £342m in the whole of 2016, according to London & Partners, the London mayor’s promotional agency.
According to the latest figures from London & Partners (L&P), the Mayor of London’s official promotional firm, investors from around the world have backed London-based fintech firms to the tune of £825m so far this year. This is a positive sign for the industry after UK fintech investment plummeted by more than a third in 2016 as investors put off decisions in the wake of the Brexit vote.
One of the biggest London fintech success stories, currency exchange platform Transferwise, is reported to be in discussions with investors to raise a further £77m, which would value the company at more than £1.2bn.
Strange as it may seem, using the analogy of Lego may be the best way to demonstrate why we believe the peer-to-peer (P2P) industry also isn’t – and can’t be – a one trick pony. While some see the industry as a fad that is set to become redundant, there are many reasons why this isn’t the case.
P2P platforms are exploring a range of new and old ways, and their aim is to create something which is more equitable, satisfactory and useful for everyone.
Uber has appointed a former senior adviser to the Bank of England as non-executive chair in the UK, as it endeavours to clean up its image and “make things right” after Transport for London last month revoked the ride hailing company’s licence to operate in the city.
Laurel Powers-Freeling, who will take up the newly created position, is currently senior independent director at online lender Atom Bank.
Flush with cash, Chinese financial-technology giant Ant Financial Services Group is putting on hold plans for an initial public offering while it steps up investments in everything from startups to artificial intelligence, according to a senior company executive.
Investors and analysts have been expecting Ant to go public sometime in 2018. The Hangzhou-based company last raised $4.5 billion from private investors in April 2016 in a deal that gave it a $60 billion valuation—and its business has since expanded significantly.
51 CreditCard (u51.com), an online platform for credit card bill management, is reported to be listed on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) in 2018, aiming to raise at least 500 million dollars.
According to a report of China Daily, the credit database of PBOC has collected credit information of more than 840 million individuals as well as more than 19 million companies and organizations by the end of April. Among these agencies, only 255 licensed micro loan companies have been connected to the company credit information system and 156 to the individual credit information system.
From November 1st, customers will be able to pay their train tickets by using WeChat Pay through the official booking website 12306.com or in the train station (booking office/self-service ticket machine).
On October 18th, Trustdata released the long-awaited “Trustdata: China Consumer Finance Analysis Report (2017)”. The document presents a comprehensive review of consumer finance development in China, makes a deep analysis of payday loan, installment credit and consumer behaviors, and proposes a new concept called “Consumer Finance Development Index”.Statistics from the research notes that, by the end of last month, the credit scale of consumer finance in China has reached more than 110 billion yuan with 3.7 million registered users.
The phenomenon of “Chinese companies lining up for an IPO in the United States or Hong Kong” has re-surfaced recently, Tiger Brokers, an online brokerage helping Chinese investors trade US- or HK-listed stocks, told chinadaily.com.cn Thursday.
Beijing-based Jianpu Technology Inc, which is 100 percent controlled by RONG360 Inc filed its preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, without the estimated IPO price range, on Oct 20.
Prior to Jianpu, Chinese online small consumer credit provider Qudian Inc made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct 18. Qudian priced its IPO of 37,500,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) at $24.00 per ADS for a total offering size of about $900 million, according to Xinhua News Agency. Qudian closed at $26.39 Wednesday after diving 7.24 percent, still above its IPO price.
Recently, Renrendai issued its performance report for the third quarter of 2017.According to the report, the cumulative turnover of the platform surpass 37.88 billion RMB, with 524 thousand transactions in total.
More details, Renrendai remained steady growth in the third quarter. The volume on the platform reached 6.51 billion RMB this quarter, a 109% increase over the same period last year, and the amount of money that investors earn is up 55% from the same period last year. In addition, the per capita borrowing amount on the platform is 80.8 thousand RMB, which represents the capital requirements of small business owners and self-employed people in the class, and always below the national regulations of loan balance ceiling of $200000.
On 27th October, the shares of Qudian tumbled again, closing down $3.59 to $22.8, down 13.6% below the offering price of $24 a share.
The company has fall into constant questioning just after it landed in the SEC. Luo Min, the CEO of Qudian, responded several questions through an interview Qudian’s Luo Min Respond To All, but this move has raised more query. Many media and media outlets gathered to lambast Luo Min for “lying” in her response.
On 23th October, Luo Min avoided all the media interviews again. Since then, the shares of Qudian began to slump, which closed at $26.39 on 26th Oct, down nearly 20 percent from the opening price of $31.89 on Wednesday.
Jianpu Technology Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese fintech firm Rong360, has filed for a $200 million IPO in the US. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are bookrunners for the deal, according to a stock exchange filing.
China is preparing to tighten regulation of online consumer lending as part of a campaign against financial risks, dealing a possible setback to Chinese fintech groups that hope to sell shares in the US.
Household debt in China remains low as a share of GDP, and authorities have encouraged growth of consumer credit as a way to rebalance the economy towards consumer spending, but now concerns are rising about irresponsible lending practices online.
Online consumer lending has replaced peer-to-peer lending as the trendy new area in Chinese fintech, as a regulatory crackdown on P2P reduced that sector’s profitability. Short-term consumer loans outstanding in China grew by Rmb1.49tn ($225bn) through the first nine months of this year, compared to an increase of Rmb830bn for all of 2016, according to PBoC data.
Chan also said the rapid growth of new fintech services, such as peer-to-peer lending marketplaces and online money market funds, was made possible by a lack of innovation by the country’s traditional banks in addressing the needs of not only the average consumer, but also many small and medium-sized enterprises.
High-flying start-up Ant Financial Services Group, which runs online payments service Alipay and money market fund Yu’ebao, has made AI a key driver for expanding its businesses and improving customer service.
China was the world’s second-biggest investor in AI enterprises last year, injecting US$2.6 billion into the sector, according to the state-run think tank, Wuzhen Institute. The United States topped the list with US$17.9 billion in investments.
What would your reaction be if you wanted to get a loan and your bank asks to go through your Facebook profile? In China, this is already happening on a large scale, but it’s not banks that are doing the rating—it’s the country’s burgeoning fintech companies. And it’s not Facebook they are looking at—its social platform WeChat and shopping website Taobao.
Social credit scoring analyses data from non-traditional sources: social media, online shopping, payment apps, cell phone accounts, and more. This type of scoring is meant to fill a gap for people who want a loan but don’t have any way of proving they can repay one. In order to gauge whether you are creditworthy or not, the score can take into account a number of variables: who your friends are, what you buy, whether pay your bills on time or even how much time you spend reading the user agreement. It’s like FICO but decidedly more creepy.
Alibaba was once a kind of shadow lender too. The company first started building its own credit scoring model to provide loans to Taobao vendors. For this, it relied solely on the platform’s ability to gather big data—transactions, user ratings, market positioning, and others.
Sesame Score (screenshot above) tracks five areas: identity information, such as information on users’ education and work, ability to keep financial obligations, credit history, behavioral preferences like shopping, money transfers, and connections with other people. In return, it offers deposit-free bike and power bank rentals as well as other benefits.
Yirendai (YRD) is a Chinese fintec company focused on facilitating unsecured loans. Leveraging the experience of its parent company, CreditEase, Yirendai has facilitated more than RMB 47 billion (US$7 billion) of loans since commencing operations in March 2012.
Financials and performance
Yirendai’s core business has seen rapid growth, facilitating over RMB 20 billion(US$3 billion) in loans in 2016, up 112% from 2015. The most recent forecastfrom the company expects loan volume to continue to grow through 2017, with RMB 35-37 billion (US$5.3-5.6 billion) this year. Earnings have been strong and growing as well, with net income for the six months ending June 30, 2017, rising from RMB 392 million to 620 million (US$58.9 million to 93.2 million) over the same prior-year period, translating to diluted earnings per ADS of RMB 6.71 to 10.26 (US$1.01 to 1.54) for the same periods.
China’s upcoming Social Credit System
Presently, eight companies have been licensed to develop algorithmic SCS scoring systems, including China Rapid Finance, a partner of social network TenCent (OTCPK:TCEHY) and Sesame Credit, which is run by Ant Financial, an Alibaba (BABA) affiliate.
Italian P2P firm BorsadelCredito.it has followed in the footsteps of its UK antecedent Funding Circle by launching a closed-end fund. The unlisted fund, which is called Colombo, hopes to raise €100m to invest across a 5 year timespan, and is managed by BorsadelCredito.it (through a vehicle named ART SGR SpA). The fund’s custodian bank is Caceis Bank.
By investing in Italian SME loans, originated exclusively by BorsadelCredito.it, the fund will target a yield of 5 per cent (5.5 per cent pre-tax).
To be or not to be a bank? That was the question asked by Funding Circle boss Samir Desai at the AltFi Europe Summit in London earlier this year (video below).
Desai left the audience in no doubt that Funding Circle has “no plans” to launch a bank. Later that same day, Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana delivered his keynote: “Why we’re launching a bank”.
José Rego, who runs Portuguese P2P firm Raize, sees the issue as black-and-white.
“By definition, if you become a bank, you stop being an alternative lender,” he said. “Becoming a bank is an extremely complex and very expensive strategic decision which typically takes into consideration other elements besides the equity value generated by the alternative lending. Only a select number of platforms are likely to have the opportunity to become banks (if they wish so). So, in reality, I don’t think it should be something we’re thinking about within the industry.”
In a new report ‘Asset & Wealth Management Revolution: Embracing Exponential Change’, PwC anticipates that global Assets under Management (AuM) will almost double in size by 2025, from US$84.9 trillion in 2016 to US$111.2 trillion by 2020, and then again to US$145.4 trillion by 2025.
By 2025, AuM will have almost doubled – rising by 6.2% a year, from US$84.9 trillion in 2016 to US$145.4 trillion in 2025, with the fastest growth seen in the developing markets of Latin America and Asia Pacific.
While active management will continue to grow and play an important role, reaching $87.6 trillion by 2025 (60% of global AuM), PwC predicts growth in passive management to reach $36.6 trillion by 2025 (25% of global AuM).
If current growth is sustained, the industry’s penetration rate (managed assets, as a proportion of total assets) will expand from 39.6% in 2016 to 42.1% by 2025.
PwC anticipates assets growing at 5.7% a year in North America from 2016 to 2020, slowing to 4.0% per annum from 2020 to 2025, lifting assets from US$46.9 trillion to US$71.2 trillion over the nine years. Similarly, Europe is projected to grow at 8.4% and 3.4% per annum respectively over the two periods, with assets rising from US$21.9 trillion to US$35.7 trillion.
McKinsey said that the industry needs to continue its digital makeover to protect the up to 40 percent of revenues at risk by 2025 and prepare for competition from so-called platform companies like Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc.
As he extends Amazon’s reach, the Seattle-based company has had discussions with banking regulators about financial innovation, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by American Banker. And it already has a small-business lending arm that has doled out more than $3 billion to more than 20,000 of the merchants on its e-commerce platform.
The global banking industry, which had an 8.6 percent return on equity last year, could offset the loss of profits from price competition by partnering with platform companies and generating more revenue from their data. Banks that go further by creating their own platforms could elevate their ROE to 14 percent, according to the report. ROE is a measure of profitability.
Furthermore with smartphone prices of $30 to $50, Asian markets maintain a robust mobile market. 76% of Taiwan is connected to mobile, and 70% of Myanmar is connected.
Experts estimate Asia as the region to become the fastest growing Internet region by 2020. And while their internet industry is flourishing, only 27% of Southeast Asians have a bank account. In 2017, China has 731 million internet users. That is only 53.1% of the population. China represents internet development at a fast pace, but it still has 21% unbanked. Internet traffic growth in Myanmar is at 58%, yet Myanmar is one of the lowest banking rates in Asia with over 70% of adults (aged 15+ years) unbanked.
As an example OECD research points out that financial sector works constitute 19% of the top 1% earners but the share of finance in the overall employment is only 4%.
In developed world, there are huge reserves of money lying in banks at sub zero, zero or miniscule interest rates. On the other hand in the developing world where there is a dearth of credit, loans can only be had at rates as high as 20-30%.
According to Eurostat, SMEs represent around 99% of all enterprises. In OECDcountries alone SMEs are responsible for job creation to the tune of 60-70%.
Source: Cryptocoins News
Karma plans to use the blockchain in such a way that individuals as well as legal entities can make the most of profitable relationships with each other. This will entail creating a community of participants, who will be able to lend money, borrow money, insure against default, Score loans and carry out assessments and even collections. All of this will be fuelled by the Karma token that will be at the centre of this new ecosystem.
The sale of Karma tokens is legal in all jurisdictions including the United States and China. Qualified US investors can participate. The basic price of Karma Token is US$ 0.01. Early investors can get discounts of 50% till US$ 1 mln is collected, thereafter 30% discount is available till US$3 mln is collected and 15% till US$ 8 mln is collected. There is a hard cap of US$ 10 mln on the token sale.
Though fintech can take many forms, “I think the disruption is really in the payer experience,” says Sharon Butler, EVP, education at Flywire, a global payment solutions company. “Essentially we are leveraging banking infrastructure. I think really what fintech is, is sort of the blend of the old and the new.”
Preceding the growth in cross-border tuition fee payment services, which track the money and file it instantly with minimum costs involved, were more staff resources sifting through multiple transactions and matching them to the student, coupled with uncertainty from the student’s side about when or whether the money would actually have arrived.
Improvements in payment services is one of the biggest ways fintech has benefitted students, agrees Devie Mohan, founder of fintech research company, Burnmark.
Fertile ground in China
Financial technology as an industry has grown globally at an unprecedented scale. Last year, fintech reaped $17.4 billion of venture capital investment – a colossal increase on the $2.5 billion it received just four years ago.
And $7.7 billion of this investment went to China, seeing it overtake the US as the top investment market for fintech companies for the first time.
A platform targeting the Chinese market has recently struck a deal to partner with ChinaPay, the online payment subsidiary of China UnionPay, one of the world’s payment giants.
The mobile payment industry is one which has grown particularly quickly in China in comparison with other countries around the world, predominantly led by Alipay and WeChat Pay. These two platforms combined saw $2.9 trillion in transactions overall last year.
Modernising student loans
But it was Prodigy Finance that entered the loan market specifically to serve international students. Since its inception in 2007, the platform has lent over $310 million to international students all around the world to study overseas, and is expanding its services.
Financial services startup Ethercash has proudly announced its Pre-ICO Campaign, which will raise funds to develop its blockchain-backed financial platform. The Ethercash platform aims to revolutionise three core functions of finance to bring greater transparency and security in the way we lend, send and spend. The Etherecash platform will allow its users to leverage their cryptocurrency holdings to acquire fiat currency loans without the need for credit history, through the application of lawyer-backed smart contracts. The Etherecash Pre-ICO campaign will run from October 25th, 2017 until November 7th, 2017 and ICO campaign will begin November 15th, 2017 and finish on December 19th, 2017.
Andrew Sieprath is among the first people in the Europe to embrace “open banking” as a customer.
His chosen banking provider is Revolut, which isn’t even a bank.
Revolut is just one of three “open banking” services due to launch here in the next few months. They will lead New Zealand into something of a banking revolution which threatens to do to banks what Uber is doing to taxi firms, and ultimately put more pressure on them to cut staff or close branches.
There are many emerging open banking models, but as a starting point, think internet banking that’s slicker, more intuitive, and allows users to see and manage accounts from multiple banks in a single place.
While the technology behind robo-advice is making it cheaper to invest, it doesn’t mean it is actually providing advice let alone the right advice, says the Association of Real Return Investment Advisers general manager Rebecca Jacques.
She told a recent Calastone forum that she put a few global and domestic robo-advisers to the test by giving each the same simplistic target: to pay her young children’s private school fees.
Every robo asked for a country of origin; only one asked for a tax bracket – but what was “scary” was that not one asked if the funds would be used for private school tuition, she notes.
IN the competitive fight against the big banks, smaller lenders such as credit unions find themselves hopelessly outgunned in terms of technology budgets.
But the chairwoman of the Customer Owned Banking Association said smaller lenders were taking opportunities to collaborate on budgets and spruce up their technological offering.
But the report found property transactions made up a very small part of that alternative financing industry, making up just $49 million, or 8%, of the $609 million dealt out in 2016.
Australia lags behind the Asia-Pacific average (excluding China) of 17% of alternative financing going towards real estate. The popularity of peer-to-peer property financing in South Korea is a big contributor to the high average.
The $49 million alternative lending spent on real estate in Australia is made up of $36 million in peer-to-peer lending and $13 million in crowdfunding. In the US, peer-to-peer is worth $1 billion and crowdfunding $800 million.
CrowdfundUP – The startup has so far allowed 2,000 people invest in 17 projects, with individual investments typically ranging from $5,000 to $2 million.
CoVESTA – The real estate on offer includes residential, commercial and even agricultural properties, with investors requiring to contribute at least 5% of the purchase price if they wish to be a tenant in the property. For passive ownership, just 1% ownership is required.
It has been observed that, when the P2P lending industry or any other industry is prudently regulated, it attracts more participation. In terms of P2P, the regulation will increase entry of investors as well as borrowers. This is a reason why RBI regulating the NBFC-P2Ps is a long-term positive for the Indian P2P lendingindustry.
RBI regulating the sector means dead-end for players that are looking only to generate money without adding any value.
However, the potential social benefits of P2P lending are contingent on a facilitative and proportionate regulatory ecosystem. A review of the P2P regulations issued by the RBI leaves much to be desired in that sense. Saliently, the P2P regulations delegate potentially arbitrary discretion to RBI in gatekeeping, impose high market-access barriers that would inhibit innovation in a technology-intensive sector, and lack clarity around critical issues like leverage ratio.
A. Excessive regulatory discretion: One of the principal governance issues of a modern state is injecting accountability into regulatory discretion.
B. Disproportionate minimum capital requirements: The RBI has prescribed a mandate that would require a minimum net-owned fund (NOF) of Rs2 crore.
C. Lack of clarity around critical issues like leverage ratio: Leverage ratio is defined as “total outside liabilities divided by owned funds, of the non-banking financial corporation in P2P (NBFC-P2P)”. This leverage ratio has been capped at 2.
The current marketplace for financial products in India is still highly inefficient, time-consuming & uncertain for customers – especially the SMEs and the MSMEs. When they require loans as working capital or for expenditures like purchase of raw materials, payment towards wages etc. to achieve scale and growth, approaching a bank directly or even visiting loan aggregator websites becomes challenging in terms of time & information. Also, due to varied risk appetite of traditional financial institutions, many SME and MSME entrepreneurs are often puzzled in terms of documentation requirements; different banks and lenders have their own set of risk parameters which they assess while sanctioning a lending facility. This results in high rejection rates within the loan ecosystem.
Why online lending is emerging as an enabler for India’s MSME industry
New-age fintech lending marketplaces endeavor to revolutionize the country’s financial lending patterns by changing the way it works. They are enabling easy access to loans by connecting these small businesses to financial institutions on a consolidated platform for quicker sanctions. Such neutral platforms, with customer-centric features offering a wide range of loan products and end-to-end loan fulfillment, enable MSMEs to concentrate on building their businesses rather than worrying about finances to fulfill the gap in their cash flows or fund their expansion and growth.
While the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines for lenders and borrowers on peer to peer (P2P) lending platforms are important cautionary moves, caps on lending should ideally be linked to lenders’ incomes, Neha Agarwal, co-founder of i2ifunding, told Shritama Bose. The company has disbursed more than Rs 3 crore so far in FY18 and has a full-year target of Rs 10 crore, she added.
We have had more than 30,000 registrations on our platform so far, of which around 25,000 people are registered as borrowers and around 5,000 as lenders. Since launch, around 500 loans have been disbursed and we have around 2,000 active lenders.
The average loan size is about Rs 1.5 lakh.
Almost 90% of the lenders have invested more than once. Around 40% of lenders are lending regularly on our platform.
Gregor has a company in Singapore where individuals can securely store their gold and silver.
Using peer to peer lending you can withdraw up to half of your holdings in loans at low-interest rates. For example, if you have $100k worth of gold you can deposit and take out a loan for 50k at around 3.5% interest per year.
The fast growing Fintech industry is another feather in the cap of rising Asia. According to EY FinTech Adoption Index 2017, there is a palpable global shift of fintech activities from the UK and the US to Asia.
Source: e27
Another report provided by KPMG and CB Insights says in 2016, investments in Fintech companies in Asia hit $8.6 billion across 181 deals.
Source: e27
In light of this, fintech innovation labs and fintech accelerator/incubator spaces are rapidly growing throughout Asia, especially in Hong Kong. The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and Standard Chartered, etc.
A bout of high-profile mega-rounds in the Chinese market has also played a vital role in uplifting Fintech investment. One such activity was a whopping US$4.5 billion funding round by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba group. The other smaller but successful funding rounds in China during 2016 were: US$73 million to Quant Group, and US$30.4 million to China Rapid Finance.
According to a recent research conducted by Startupbootcamp FinTech Mumbai and PwC, it was found that more than 95% of financial service companies are seeking partnership with Fintech startups through collaboration rather than competing with them.
Another report regarding Indian Fintech ecosystem is more interesting. It says Indian Fintech market is expected to double from current US$1.2 billion to US$2.4 billion in 2020.
Tan, who formerly partnered with Sequoia Capital Asia, said his Singapore-based fund is looking for ambitious, strong Korean tech startups to invest in what could become the next unicorn.
He believes Asian-based VCs have a competitive advantage over established VCs from Europe or the US in the region as they can effectively tackle the needs of startups.
Fintech and software as a service, especially targeting small and midsized businesses, are the buzzword in Southeast Asia, according to Yoo Jung-ho, investment manager at Korea Investment Partners.
“In many of these countries, payment, banking abd finance, are still in a nascent stage with only 10 percent of the population utilizing credit and banking services,” said Yoo. “There is a great demand for firms that provides peer-to-peer lending and payment services. “So companies that target small and medium enterprises that make up the majority in Southeast Asia, will have a fighting chance.
According to recent reports, only 12 percent of households in Malawi have access to credit. With 65 percent of the population living under the poverty line, the rural population is especially vulnerable to the limitations of credit.
In today’s modern age, a physical bank is no longer needed to conduct financial services. Virtual and automated banking is expected to replace 30 percent of bank roles in the next ten years. These virtual banks even the playing field for Malawians by allowing consolidated rates, 24/7 access to services, and a location for information about other services. Some of these alternative, virtual services include:
Personal Loans: To find a personal loan, Malawians can use search sites such as this example from Finland.
Peer to Peer Loans:Rather than receiving a loan from a financial institution, peer to peer loans allow people to receive a loan directly from an individual financer. In order to apply for a loan, you must visit a peer to peer lending platform such as Prosper or Perform, and the online marketplace will match borrowers and lenders. Although the site still uses credit scores, individuals may have more sympathy towards you and your situation as opposed to a national bank.
Crowdfunding:Another way to finance an opportunity is through crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a fairly recent innovation that utilizes crowdsourcing as a way to raise funds for a project or business.
The change in financial technologies in the coming years will have a great impact in Malawi, and create more access to services for the entire population.
The Canadian Lenders Association (CLA) and the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA) today announced the introduction of the SMART Box™ into Canada – a model pricing disclosure and comparison tool that will enable Canadian small businesses to better assess and compare their finance options. Top small business lenders in the country, including Company Capital, Evolocity Financial Group, IOU Financial, Lendified, Merchant Advance Capital, OnDeck and Thinking Capital, have committed to adopt the tool for use by their customers.
Lendified, a Canada-based lender who provides small business loans online has entered into an agreement with ClearFlow Commercial Finance to increase its lending capacity. According to the lending platform, through the agreement, ClearFlow is providing it with a $60 million credit facility to fund loans delivered through its website.
Finn.ai, the award-winning, AI-powered virtual assistant built for banking and personal finance, today announced it has raised $3 million in its recent institutional financing round.
News Comments Today’s main news: SoFi surpasses $25B in originations. JPMorgan Chase rolls out mobile banking app. ID Analytics has 85% visibility into online consumer lending. Zopa prices new securitization. Fannie Mae expands digital mortgage platform. SEC investigated Bank of Internet. China’s cash loan market hits 1 trillion RMB. Lendified secures $60M credit facility. Facebook, Clearbanc partner on merchant cash advance. Today’s main […]
SoFi hits $25B in loan originations. AT: “Interestingly, instead of firing out a press release, they made the announcement on Twitter. Congratulations.”
JPMorgan Chase rolls out mobile banking app. AT: “Apparently, this is an attempt to reach millennials, but I wonder if the younger crowd will fall for that, giving their distrust of legacy financial institutions, or opt for the more independent mobile banking apps?”
JPMorgan Chase spent more than a year researching what millennials (and clients wanting to bank like them) desire in a financial relationship. The result is a new mobile-only app that lets people sign up for a bank account within minutes and also helps manage their spending.
The megabank made a splash on Monday debuting Finn by Chase, an app that includes a checking and savings account and a physical debit card.
At Money2020, deBanked caught up with Kevin King, Director of Product Marketing and Ken Meiser, VP of Identity Solutions for ID Analytics. The last time I crossed paths with the company was six months ago at the LendIt Conference in New York City. Since then, the company has increased its visibility into the online consumer lending market to 85%.
Behalf’s merchant acceptance partners have found a way to apply Amazon’s small business strategies to their own business models. By adding the Behalf instant credit approval tool to their ecommerce experience, they also unlock the power of flexible terms on every sale. Customers of our partners can get instant access to up to $50,000 in buying power with their choice of flexible payment terms. With this boost in working capital, small businesses are able to invest in their growth, which increases their business purchasing velocity. Case in point: 92.3% of the Behalf acceptance partners surveyed reported that adding Behalf to their checkout experience drove a 10-20% sales lift.
Online lender Bank of Internet was the subject of a formal 16-month Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, according to a report.
The company, led by Chief Executive Greg Garrabrants, was the subject of scrutiny until June — when it ceased without the SEC taking any action.
The probe was focused on alleged conflicts of interests, auditing practices, and loans made to two entities, according to subpoenas and government documents obtained by Probes Reporter, a publisher of investment research.
Large U.S. banks are starting to pay up to keep depositors from moving their money, saying customers are becoming increasingly demanding as the stronger economy nudges interest rates higher.
The average interest rate paid by the biggest U.S. banks on interest-bearing deposits jumped to 0.40% in the third quarter, the highest level since 2012 and the biggest quarterly increase this year, from 0.34% in the second quarter, according to Autonomous Research.
Bank executives said that the newest pressure for higher rates is coming primarily from wealth-management customers, typically well-to-do individuals and families who deposit cash as part of their investment accounts.
Fifth Third executives said they were raising deposit rates for some of those customers, particularly those who had other relationships with the bank.
On October 25, 2017, Credit Sesame announced it has raised over $42 million in equity and venture debt
The funding comes from existing and new investors including Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Globespan Capital, IA Capital, SF Capital, among others, along with a strategic investor
The $42 million in funding is comprised of $26.6 million in equity and $15.5 million in venture debt, bringing the Company’s total funding to over $77 million
Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Credit Sesame was founded in 2011 and has provided credit and loan management tools to over 12 million members
The mobile and web solution provides consumers with tools to build a path to achieve financial wellness, including free access to their credit profile complete with their credit score, credit report grades, credit monitoring, interactive step-by-step tools and recommendations for better lending options
With about $2.4 billion raised in IPOs on US exchanges by Chinese companies so far this year, other China-based firms are increasingly vying for US investors and exchanges.
On October 18, Chinese online micro-credit provider Qudian Inc listed on the NYSE, raising $900 million in an IPO that was priced at $24, in the biggest ever US listing by a Chinese fintech firm. The financial sector firm’s stock, trading under the symbol QD, closed at $33 as of October 23. The stock commands a market capitalization of $8.8 billion in the US stock market.
Year-end Forward P/E for the depository receipt is estimated at 21.47. Estimated earnings-per-share stand at $8.21.
China Internet Nationwide Financial Services (CIFS)
This Beijing-based financial sector firm, trades under the ticker CIFS on the NASDAQ GM stock exchange, is engaged in providing financial advisory services in China. The company’s stock listed on the US stock market on August 8 at an initial offer price of $10 a share, raising $20.2 million for the company. The stock, trading at $31.5 (as of October 23rd), commands a market capitalization of $693 million in the US stock market.
Listed since April 28th on the NYSE stock market, China Rapid Finance Limited operates one of China’s largest online consumer lending marketplaces. The company caters well to China’s 500 million EMMAs (Emerging Middle-class Mobile Active consumers), and has facilitated over 20 million loans to more than 2.7 million borrowers. Back in April, the company raised $69 million in an IPO, marking its listing on the US stock exchange under the ticker XRF. The shares initially offered at $6 a share, and now trade at $9.06 (as of October 23) with a market capitalization of $586.2 million.
JPMorgan was the first major US bank to partner with a fintech company when they launched their small business lending partnership with OnDeck in early 2016. That partnership was renewed earlier this year and has helped the bank to offer a seamless small business lending experience and reach customers it might not have otherwise. In recent months they have struck a new partnership with Mosaic Smart Data to help the slumping fixed income trading revenues and they have also completed an acquisition of WePay, a Silicon Valley company that offers payment capabilities to business platforms using APIs. Finally, just this week they launched Finn by Chase, an app aimed at millennials that allows people to use a phone to open a bank account, make deposits, issue checks, track spending and set up savings plans.
Bank of America saw more than 1 million users added to their digital channels and active digital banking users go from 32.8 million to 34.5 million in the last year. The main driver of this growth was through their mobile app. Customers are using the mobile deposit feature more than any other, mobile deposits now account for 21 percent of total bank deposits.
Wells Fargo’s digital growth, which includes web based and mobile users, saw a 2 percent increase from 2016. Branch and ATM interactions were down 6 percent while digital sessions through the web and mobile app increased 6 percent.
Citi is the first global bank to integrate banking, money movement and wealth management on mobile.
“Technology has helped us bring efficiency, speed and first-rate customer service to the small-loan space for all of our stakeholders, borrowers and brokers alike,” said Bonnie Habyan, executive vice president, marketing, at Arbor. Small-balance owners and operators need to work long hours to be successful, and the time and paperwork dedicated to obtaining financing is an inefficient use of time. Online multifamily financing platforms such as Arbor LoanExpress, or ALEX, address this by providing the ability to e-sign and upload documents.
“Crowdfunding was originally created to give average investors access to investments they normally wouldn’t have access to, and to give sponsors or borrowers easier access to capital,”said Bill Lanting, vice president, Commercial Debt at RealtyShares. “We were formed specifically with that idea in mind, to make borrowing easier and less cumbersome, and also to make investments in assets more available to everybody.”
AutoGravity, a FinTech pioneer on a mission to transform car financing by harnessing the power of the smartphone, announced a partnership with Global Lending Services LLC, a South Carolina-based auto finance company, to provide access to finance offers through the innovative AutoGravity digital platform. Qualified car buyers gain access to an even broader set of car finance options through the AutoGravity iOS, Android and Web Apps.
The good news about student loans is that they allow millions of people to earn college degrees who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. The bad news is that college graduates enter the workforce deeply mired in debt that deflates their net worth and keeps them cash-strapped for years, if not decades. The current wave of college graduates is facing debt in amounts far above previous generations.
Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, sets the median figure for an undergraduate degree at more than $25,000. That figure rises with each advanced degree. Graduates with MBAs enter the workforce with a median debt of $45,000. Medical school graduates can expect to be $200,000 in debt.
Debt repayments for the typical college graduate will amount to $265 a month and for medical school graduates, $1,600 a month.
Target announced that, starting this November, the retailer will integrate a wallet function in its Target mobile app. The purpose, says the retailer, is to allow customers to pay for purchases and redeem promotions through the use of a smartphone.
Veteran investor Jim Rogers believes that banks must invest in the financial technology (fintech) space or they face being replaced.
According to the report, he has invested in Hong Kong-based ITF Corporation, the world’s first financial technology bank founded by Hui Jie Lim. Rogers has also invested in Tiger Broker, a Chinese online brokerage.
He also believes that digital currencies could change how we see money in the next 10 to 20 years. Even though he hasn’t invested in the crypto market Rogers is of the opinion that governments could issue their own cryptocurrencies in the future.
A securitisation of loans originated by peer-to-peer lending firm Zopa has received a warm reception in the market. The deal, which is the second securitisation of Zopa loans, has been priced significantly tighter than last year’s transaction.
The securitisation was led by P2P Global Investments PLC, the first UK listed investment trust to dedicate itself to investing in marketplace loans, and was arranged by Deutsche Bank. The most senior class of notes was priced at 70bps over one month Libor, compared to 145bps last year.
The senior tranche of the £209m securitisation, which represents 80 per cent of the portfolio, was rated AA by Moody’s.
One central piece to understanding why trading (or flipping) strategies can be highly attractive is the effect of even small premiums pocketed on the portfolio yield. Take an investor that invests into a 100 (whatever currency) loan part and sells that part for 100.40 after holding it for 5 days. That is only a 0.4% premium, but the annualized yield is 33.8%.
Two main strategy approaches
Investors can
A) Invest on the primary market and then sell the loan later on the secondary market
or
B) Buy loan parts on the secondary market which they deem underpriced and then sell at a higher price. Be it buying at discount and selling at a lower discount, or already buying at premium and selling at an even higher premium.
One important point, is that market conditions change, usually good opportunities will stop working after a few months or weeks either because too many investors try to use them, or more general the demand/supply ratio changes or the marketplace itself changes the rules how the market functions.
First an investor will want to look how loan information is presented on the primary and secondary market.
Understand the allocation mechanism on the primary market. How does the autoinvest feature work exactly?
When is interest paid? Does it accrue for each of the day held, or does the investor holding the loan at the date of the interest payment gets full interest credited. This is important, because if in the example at the start of the article the investor not only makes a 0.40 capital gain but also collects interest for the 5 days he held the part, it will have a huge impact on yield
Usually for this strategy longer duration loans are more attractive.
Usually smaller loans are more attractive.
Usually the time span a trading investor wants to hold on to a loan part, will be as short as possible (days). However there might be patterns observed where it could be desirable to hold for longer time spans.
Strategies that allow to hold parts only at a time when the status of a loan cannot change can be attractive.
Monzo has announced today, after a week of dropping hints on various Twitter accounts, that it plans to integrate Android Pay into its user interface for current account users.
A few hours earlier, Starling Bank confirmed this morning that it will be the first bank in the UK to connect with Fitbit Pay.
The UK peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market has flourished in the last decade. Lending volumes among the major platforms are increasing rapidly, pushing the cumulative total above £7 billion for the first time, as the understanding of the investment model continues to grow.
New technology architectures, as well as the ability to quickly run up minimal viable products, mean that emerging P2P companies can turn ideas into reality much faster than their larger counterparts (“fail fast” or as I like to call it, “test quickly”).
This prioritisation of speed and efficiency, coupled with the ability to focus, means that P2P lenders can zero in on specific problems and provide what customers want and are increasingly expecting. At Landbay we can bring a new micro service up from scratch in 20 minutes, with the lag for code from committing to going live being about six to eight minutes whilst still maintaining the up time required.
As the alternative finance market has become saturated with different funding options, it can be difficult for brokers to determine the best solution to suit their clients’ needs.
Loans can also be tailored to fit the specific needs of customers, with fixed rates available to allow customers to budget effectively for the full term of the loan. The flexibility of loans means borrowers can cover unexpected costs or finance planned purchases at more affordable rates, meaning P2P finance is a great option when situations happen to change at a company.
Whilst 25% of borrowers that apply to banks have their loan application rejected, according to British Business Bank, other forms of lending have paved the way for businesses to obtain cash, with P2P lending becoming one of the most prominent solutions in the current market.
Dear Andrew, your comments on the BBC on Monday 16th October reflect the concerns that many share with the FCA about the effect of the high cost of credit impacting society widely and, in particular, the young.You cited concerns about certain aspects of credit card and payday lending practices, but you did not pass comment on the retail banks and their provision of overdraft credit at rates that may well exceed the rates of payday and credit card loans.It should be noted that at 1p per day for every £7 of overdraft, the fees for an overdraft of, for example, £2,000 pa, are in excess of 50% interest, uncompounded. This is certainly higher than many credit cards.Alex Letts
Founder and chief unbanking officer, U
Cash loan originated from the payday loan in America, and accelerated in China. In less than one year, the total volume increased from 600 billion RMB to 1 trillion RMB. As a branch of consumer finance, cash loan developed rapidly as much as P2P lending industry.
Early in this April, the regulator issued the first order to clean up the “cash loans”，while after six months the trend of compliance in the field is still unclear. Recently, with several relative businesses coming to the U.S. for IPO, the critical voice on the profiteering of cash loan becomes louder.
However, owing to the annual lending rate much more than the rate legal limited (36%), taking the consumer finance vents, cash loan still grow wildly under strict regulation.
Houses are for living in, not for speculation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week. The trouble is, fueling this speculation has been a surge in consumer lending, not only by banks but also by fintech firms such as recently listedQudian Inc.
Thanks to improved earnings and corporate debt that’s souring at a slower rate, Chinese bank shares have rallied this year.
Source: Bloomberg
What investors may be ignoring at their peril, however, is the spike in household advances. Consisting of mortgages, credit-card debt and auto loans, consumer lending as a share of the total is relatively low. Only 400 million Chinese had personal loans in 2016, or about 29 percent of the population. The ratio in the U.S. is about 82 percent, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. But it’s been growing fast and even People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan is worried. China’s household debt-to-GDP ratio reached 47 percent in the first half, according to a recent Citigroup Inc. report.
In the first half year of 2017, Chongqing Ali Microcredit Ltd. has made the revenue of 3.97 billion RMB, which increased 100 million RMB compared to the 3.86 billion RMB of 2016. The company’s net profit was 2.644 billion RMB, in a growth of about 700 million RMB from the end of 2016.
As one of the Ant Financial eco-system, Ali Microcredit takes the business of credit loan (Ant Jiebei). Therefore, Ali Microcredit is already the industry leader in the consumer finance field. Even compared to the listed banks, Ali Microcredit’s profit data can defeat many of them. Take the first half year for example, the company profit exceeded 14 of all the 38 listed banks in stock exchange of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, including Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank (01551.HK, profit of 2.639 billion RMB), Bank of Tianjin(01578.HK,profit of 2.62 billion RMB), Bank of Hangzhou(600926.SH, profit of 2.53 billion RMB),etc.
Chinese people are becoming more and more willing to spend. But if they don’t have money, they borrow. This ever-growing phenomenon has recently thrown cash loans, also known as fast loans, right under the public spotlight.
Han, a 26-year-old white-collar worker in Shanghai, who preferred only to give her surname, borrowed a 6-month loan of 10,000 yuan ($1505.53) from Mayi Jiebei, the online cash loan service provided by e-commerce giant Alibaba’s subsidiary Ant Financial, at the end of September.
When borrowing the money, Han was informed by Mayi Jiebei that she will need to pay a monthly interest rate of slightly more than 100 yuan. In total, Han will need to pay an interest rate of 637 yuan to the provider.
Currently, the entire cash loan market is worth between 600 billion yuan and 1 trillion yuan, the wdzj.com report showed.
China provides the infrastructure for financial technology to succeed, such as clearly-defined laws and good internet penetration, says Soul Htite, Dianrong CEO.
China Rapid Finance has named Zhou Ji’an a non-executive independent director. He becomes the seventh member of a board that includes former executives of Hewlett Packard, McKinsey & Company, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.
Mr. Zhou is the executive director and general manager of China United SME Guarantee Corporation aka Sino Guarantee. He previously served in senior roles with China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, and China Life Insurance Co . and is a senior scholar of the Eisenhower Fellowships, an international nonprofit leadership corporation.
Two main topics of the 6th Annual Convention of the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) on October 19th and 20th were technology innovation and cross-border finance.
To retain their lead in innovation over banks and traditional finance’s Fintech, startups must keep delivering greater customer orientation and execution efficiency. The success of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) is a clear signal, and a red flag, that there exist gaps in technology and cross-border funding that finance has not filled.
Cross-border alternative finance is still hampered by the fragmentation of the European Union (EU) regulation at many levels: Not only do crowdfunding and crowdlending regulation differ from one country to the next, but so do investor taxation and corporate law.
Ingi Sigurdsson, CEO, Karolina Engine, claimed that artificial intelligence enables the platform to predict the success of crowdfunding campaigns with 80% accuracy. Mads Dalsgaar CMO, Funderbeam, explained how Funderbeam uses Bitcoin’s blockchain to register, clear and settle the trading of private companies’ shares. For Rein Ojavere, CFO of Bondora, technology enables his lending platform to “cut through the layers of fat” of multiple investment intermediaries. In the same vein, Lasse Mäkelä, CEO of Invesdor, called his company a “digital investment bank.”
Umberto Piattelli of law firm Osborne Clarke summarized the conclusion of ECN’s updated complete review of national crowdfunding and crowdlending regulations in 29 countries. He stressed the strong correlation between the growth of alternative finance and effective crowdfunding regulation. Only 11 out of the 28 EU markets researched have published specific regulations for crowdfunding and crowdlending. These markets have taken off rapidly after the issuing of such regulations.
Swedish fintech company Tink has signed with Nordic banks Nordea, Klarna and Nordnet. Integrating in 2018, the banks will use Tink’s payment technology and personal finance management (PFM) platform within their existing customer channels.
In addition to the partnership agreements, SEB, Nordea, Nordnet, ABN Amro, Creades and Sunstone has invested €14 million in Tink.
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a provider of clearance, settlement, and a wide range of other services to the financial markets, has issued a new white paper on technological innovations and the disruptions fintech may generate.
By “core banking functions,” (1) the authors of the white paper have in mind credit, liquidity, and maturity transformation. The banks have more institutional experience handling these functions than upstart fintech firms and, to the extent the latter take over the core functions of the former, there may be reason to worry. Likewise, the fragmentation (2) of “the creation and delivery of financial services across additional providers and platforms” could cause errors and inefficiencies. And (3) if certain players could become too good at delivering these services in this way, they could pose systemic risks.
A research report by Transparency Market Research, predicts that the global peer-to-peer (P2P) market lending valuation will reach US$897.85 billion by 2024, as it expands at a significant CAGR of 48.2% from 2016 to 2024.
Dragon Victory International Limited (NASDAQ: LYL) announced today that, the Company has entered into a Strategic Cooperation Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Shenzhen 708090 Investment and Development Co., Ltd (“708090”), a leading provider of shared workspace, community, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups and small businesses, to promote incubation services.
On October 24th, Fiserv announced that Regions Bank will expand their digital money movement capabilities with the addition of person-to-person payment and account-to-account transfer solutions from Fiserv.
On June 15th, Yirendai announced that it was awarded the Best P2P Lending Platform in ChinaAward at The Future of Finance Summit (the “Summit”) held in Singapore. Yirendai is the first FinTech company in China to receive this prestigious reward.
Qudian Inc. (NYSE: QD) is a leading provider of online small consumer credit in China. The Company uses big data-enabled technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to transform the consumer finance experience in China. The company recently emphasizes Its collection efforts and pricing policy. The Company’s collection efforts extend to every delinquent borrower. The Company’s collection process is divided into distinct stages based on the severity of delinquency, which dictates the level of collection steps taken. As part of the major upgrade of the Company’s risk management system in January 2017, the Company has developed a machine learning algorithm to better allocate collection resources based on more detailed grouping of larger delinquency risk. Higher risk groups are allocated with more collection resources as the likelihood of their outstanding balance becoming longer-term delinquent or even uncollectable is generally higher.
On Tuesday, ASIC announced that it had reached a confidential in-principle settlement with ANZ resolving the dispute over alleged BBSW misconduct. Commenting on the matter, RateSetter chief executive Daniel Foggo said the corporate regulator’s activity in this area of the market bodes well for a more transparent financial system.
There was a time when a loan mostly meant you were going to buy a house or a car. This is not the case any longer. With changing times, now there are loans against salary advance to fund even your honeymoon. Today, there are loans available practically for every need and dream.
Take the case of the ubiquitous car loan, the advent of luxury cars has turned several car companies to offer loans that are tailored to suit customer offerings. For instance, Volkswagen Finance (India), offers financing solutions to customers for both new and pre-owned Volkswagen group vehicles (namely Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, MAN and Scania) through registered and authorised Volkswagen group dealer channels.
Yet, borrowing is not as smooth as one would expect it to be. Take for instance Mumbai-based Amit Shukla, he had to take a personal loan of Rs 5 lakh to fund his first commercial car, because a car loan did not work out the way he wanted it to work for him.
When equity and debt-based crowdfunding platforms were launched in the market, there were concerns that these vehicles could be used for money laundering. After all, investors could unknowingly fund a fraudulent company and the money could end up being misused by the issuers for their personal gain or, even worse, to fund criminal activities.
The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) introduced a legal and regulatory framework for equity crowdfunding (ECF) in 2015 and peer-to-peer (P2P) financing last year to address these concerns. According to the SC’s deputy general manager Tengku Ahmad Ruzhuar Tengku Ali, the regulator views money-laundering activities to be of minimal risk on ECF and P2P platforms due to the safeguards built into their frameworks and the platform operators’ vetting process.
There have been several cases of fraud linked to investment crowdfunding. The first widely known case, involving US-based Ascenergy, came to light in 2015. The company had raised US$5 million from about 90 local and foreign investors by leveraging some of the better known crowdfunding platforms such as Fundable and EquityNet.
The SC’s approach
All six ECF operators registered in Malaysia are operational. According to Tengku Ahmad Ruzhuar, 31 issuers had successfully raised RM18.3 million on ECF platforms as at end-September, reaching 80% of their target amount.
Retail investors are allowed to invest up to RM5,000 per issuer and a total investment of RM50,000 within a 12-month period. Angel investors registered with the Malaysian Business Angel Network can invest up to RM500,000 while there are no restrictions for sophisticated investors.
Issuers are able to keep the funds raised if they reach a minimum of 80% of the target amount, but they are not allowed to raise multiple funds for the same purpose.
Lendified, a Canada-based lender who provides small business loans online has entered into an agreement with ClearFlow Commercial Finance to increase its lending capacity. According to the lending platform, through the agreement, ClearFlow is providing it with a $60 million credit facility to fund loans delivered through its website.
Small businesses advertising on Facebook can now get their hands on up to half a million dollars in growth capital, in the latest example of an online platform moving into territory historically dominated by bricks-and-mortar banks.
The social network has been trialling a scheme in partnership with Clearbanc, a Toronto-based firm, since February. Under the scheme, known as “Chrged,” customers connect their Facebook Ads account and their payment processor with Clearbanc, which then makes an offer.
Funds are not loans but merchant cash advances, giving Clearbanc the right to a certain portion of revenues flowing through the customer’s account until it gets its money back, plus a fee, typically of 5-10 per cent. The fee is set by analysing daily cash flows to determine the customer’s ability to repay.
About 1,000 small-business owners have so far taken up an offer.
According to CB Insights and PwC’s Canada’s latest MoneyTree report, 2017’s sluggish start may transform into a podium finish by year’s end.
The report, which tracks VC activity in Canada for Q3 2017, indicates that Canada could exceed $2.5 billion ($2 billion USD) across more than 300 deals for the year. The result would match or surpass activity from last year, when a total of $2.2 billion USD was invested, and 2016, which fell just below the $2 billion USD threshold.
Source: Betakit
Seed-stage deals accounted for 32 percent of deals in Q3 2017, a 19 percent drop from 51 percent of all deals in Q2 2017. However, early-stage and expansion-stage deals increased to 27 percent and 21 percent of deal share, respectively. Expansion-stage deals climbed to an eight-quarter high in Q3 — a strong contrast from past quarters where seed-stage deals were the most prominent, and perhaps a sign of a more robust investment ecosystem.
FinTech was another notably strong sector, as Canadian FinTech companies have received $252 million ($200 million USD) across 27 deals. This year is on pace to see $341 million ($270 million USD) invested across over 30 deals, on par with last year’s figure of $351 million ($278 million USD).
News Comments Today’s main news: Seedinvest cancels Sharestates’ Series A Offering. LendInvest bond issue. How Samoyed Financial is outsmarting Tencent, Alipay. Faircent launches auto-invest. MoneyMatch to replace 5-6 scheme in Philippines. Today’s main analysis: The state of business lending. Fintech lending: Financial inclusion, risk pricing, and alternative information. Today’s thought-provoking articles: How Goldman Sachs is disrupting consumer lending. How FCA consultations will […]
Seedinvest cancels Sharestates Series A offering. GP:”This is very worrying.” AT: “I’m always leery of anonymous tips, but this should be easy enough to verify for someone willing to do the legwork. In the way of full disclosure, I write for Sharestates, but I have no insight into this matter and, therefore, no comment.”
How Goldman Sachs is disrupting consumer lending. AT: “What’s interesting about Marcus is that it’s not just disrupting consumer lending among banks. It’s also disrupting the alternative lenders who themselves are disrupting bank lending. So, in a way, they are disrupting the disruptors. They’ve probably got the smartest bank executives in the world, and Marcus is proof of that.”
The state of business lending in 2017. AT: “This is another survey by alternative business lending marketplace Fundera, but much of the data backs up research conducted by other sources.”
Varo Money applies for a bank charter. AT: “I think we’re going to see a lot more of this in the coming year. I’m looking forward to the changing face of banking, but I wonder if mobile and online banks will ever take a play from Amazon and open brick-and-mortar branches eventually. My bet: Yes, some will.”
The world’s first robo-lawyer for real estate investing. AT: “I’ve been wondering when this would happen. It’s an idea whose time has come if only because much of the documentation for real estate transactions are fairly routine.”
Seedinvest cancels Sharestates Series A Equities (Anonymous Email), Rated: AAA
Seedinvest gave the investors this explanation, according to our anonymous source:
The closing was held up and we subsequently discovered new material information. Sharestates’ offering (i.e. the ability to make new investments) came to a close during Q1 of this year. As we were working through closing operations, we requested a final set of offering documents from Sharestates’ counsel. This request in and of itself took months to be satisfied. While reviewing the red-line version of these updated documents, our counsel discovered that Sharestates had begun distributing quarterly management bonuses using cash they were generating through normal course of operations. As a result, we do not recommend proceeding with an investment. We are also withdrawing our fund’s commitment.
It’s been just over nine months since Goldman Sachs(NYSE:GS)launched Marcus, its newly created consumer lending venture, and the platform has been rather successful so far. In fact, the company recently announced that it has surpassed $1 billion in loans already, and it could have much more room to grow.
It’s been just over nine months since Goldman Sachs(NYSE:GS)launched Marcus, its newly created consumer lending venture, and the platform has been rather successful so far. In fact, the company recently announced that it has surpassed $1 billion in loans already, and it could have much more room to grow.
In addition, there’s no legacy credit card business to worry about, unlike most banks that also make personal loans.
According to Talwar, Marcus customers enjoy rates that are 300 to 500 basis points lower than credit card interest rates, and Marcus’ loans come with no origination, prepayment, or late fees — a rarity in consumer lending.
The biggest factor that’s presently clouding small business lending is the post-financial crisis surge of alternative small business lenders. Fundera’s VP of Strategy, Brayden McCarthy (along with Karen Mills, former head of the Small Business Administration) identifies in his working paper on small business lending that tighter restrictions on lending were imposed on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. Because of these tighter restrictions, banks had their hands tied when it came to providing loans to small businesses—providing a space within the small business lending market.
Main Takeaways
Small businesses are mainly applying for offensive financing rather than defensive financing.
Small businesses are still overwhelmingly going to brick-and-mortar banks to apply for financing.
A disconnect exists between small businesses owners and educational resources made specifically for them.
When you look at the business owners we surveyed, they are, by-and-large, successful. 56% of the businesses surveyed had a revenue of greater than $100,000 a year, and 60% of those surveyed ran businesses that had been in business for five years or more.
Furthermore, 80.6% of the small business owners reported having a personal credit score of 650 or above, one of the most important parts of the business loan application, and 68% reported having a business credit score of 80 or above.
One of the more shocking results was that a mere 5.94% of the respondents sought business financing in order to refinance a loan.
Meanwhile, only 10.89% of respondents said they applied for small business financing with an online lender.
That being said, our respondents demonstrated a preference for the experience of applying online. 57.23% applied for a business credit card online directly while another 16% applied online through an affiliate like Creditcards.com, Nerdwallet, or The Points Guy.
Our poll found that 89.73% of those polled checked their personal credit at least once a year. Meanwhile, within the same sample of small business owners, 58.19% don’t check their business credit score at all.
Even more, when we asked respondents if they would be interested in a free business credit check, 34.23% said that they were “not at all interested.”
In this paper, we explore the advantages/disadvantages of loans made by a large fintech lender and similar loans that were originated through traditional banking channels. Specifically, we use account-level data from the Lending Club and Y-14M bank stress test data. We find that Lending Club’s consumer lending activities have penetrated areas that could benefit from additional credit supply, such as areas that lose bank branches and those in highly concentrated banking markets. We also find a high correlation with interest rate spreads, Lending Club rating grades, and loan performance. However, the rating grades have a decreasing correlation with FICO scores and debt-to income ratios, indicating that alternative data is being used and performing well so far. Lending Club borrowers are, on average, more risky than traditional borrowers given the same FICO scores. The use of alternative information sources has allowed some borrowers who would be classified as subprime by traditional criteria to be slotted into “better” loan grades and therefore get lower priced credit. Also, for the same risk of default, consumers pay smaller spreads on loans from the Lending Club than from traditional lending channels.
LendingTree today released its quarterly list of the top customer-rated lenders on its network based on actual customer reviews for the second quarter of 2017. The list features the top lenders in multiple loan product categories, including Mortgages, Personal Loans, Business Loans and Auto Loans, all of which are included in LendingTree’s online loan marketplace.
Lender rankings are based on a weighted average of overall rating and the total volume of customer reviews for mortgage, personal, business and auto loans. Lenders were rated on offered rates, fees and closing costs, responsiveness, customer service and overall customer experience.
But Varo Money, which provides a mobile-first banking product to consumers, is up to that challenge. In an effort to offer similar — but better — checking, savings and lending products to consumers, the company has applied for a national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
To get the company off the ground, Walsh raised $27 million from Warburg Pincus and spent the last two years creating a mobile-first competitor to existing checking accounts.
Bootstrap Legal, a legaltech and fintech startup, today launched software that automates the drafting of complex legal paperwork for those raising capital for real estate projects of $2 Millionand under. For the first time, real estate investors can draft their own legal offering documents using artificial intelligence. The new online service was launched in recognition of the changing marketplace of real estate investing. More and more smaller investors are able to access investment opportunities online. For platforms and issuers originating these offers, a streamlined and low cost service to provide necessary legal documents is vital.
This first-of-its-kind legaltech product both undercuts the legal fees associated with real estate capital raises and expedites the process. Real estate investors typically have limited time to raise capital for their project, and Bootstrap Legal’s new software allows users to control the legal process, so that they can have extra time to raise capital. Users who require additional assistance are connected to a real estate securities attorney to get questions answered.
BeSmartee: BeSmartee is an artificial intelligence-powered lending and mortgage platform that originates documents, credit checks, and other financial information in just minutes.
Capsilon: Capsilon builds technology solutions for the mortgage industry’s most imperative challenges.
Credit Sesame: Credit Sesame is a fintech company that operates in the fields of education, credit, and personal finance.
Home Captain: Home Captain is a lending company that pairs clients with a pre-screened realtor in their area with the help of a real estate concierge throughout the way.
SuperMoney: SuperMoney compares financial products and services to give people the information they need to make better financial decisions.
CoinList, founded as a partnership between Angel List and Protocol Labs, is quietly trying to standardize initial coin offerings (ICOs) by self-imposing similar restrictions as the SEC imposes on companies that conduct certain private offerings under Regulation D.
CoinList, which was founded in part by AngelList, appears ready to launch token offerings on its site that are similar to the offerings available on AngelList’s site; that is, offerings regulated by the SEC under Regulation D. In order to invest in the offerings on CoinList, investors have to be “accredited” which is the same requirement that investors on Angel List have to meet as imposed by Rule 506(c) of Regulation D. However, since the SEC hasn’t come out with any guidance on ICOs and token sales yet, the requirement that investors be accredited on CoinList is one that is self-imposed by CoinList.
From client meetings to doctor appointments to family time, most things Sam Hodges does is public knowledge to his employees. All they have to do is check out his online calendar, which is set to “public” for employees. So why is this co-founder and managing director OK with letting others in on even his private life? Because at Funding Circle, Hodges says he fosters a culture of openness and transparency — in every respect.
“The first really crucial trait is around vision. As a leader your job is to understand the market, understand the business’ capabilities and then come back to the organization with a view on what you need to do in order to become successful.
“A second really vital skill is communication — being able to communicate in the right way with many different types of stakeholders.
“A third really important skill is problem-solving. In a leadership position, oftentimes what you face day to day are the things that are not going well and the opportunities that exist — so comfort with ambiguity, the ability to put structure around problems and the ability to be calm in the face of things blowing up.”
So he co-founded Dream Forward, a 401(k) supplier that offers, as its website says, “Emotional Advisor A.I. technology.”
Easterbrook: The super high level of what we do is we’re selling 401(k) plans, fix all the obvious problems, lower the cost, make it easier to use, cause less headaches, no conflicts of interest, and then add conversational AI that employees can talk to about whatever they don’t understand, whatever the issues are.
Easterbrook: It looks like an online chat. It’s a chatbot. It’s designed to basically have 24/7 chat available to employees on whatever they don’t understand, whatever their issues are, whatever concerns they have. It talks to them in plain English in a way that we call it almost an emotional advisor instead of a robo-advisor.
Tech companies are increasingly becoming more mobile and cloud based. According to Affirm and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Google’s (GOOGL) best bet to rival Amazon (AMZN) is through the cloud services business.
In his opinion, Google should diversify and focus on its cloud storage services as a means of competing and catching up to Amazon’s AmazonDrive.
Social Finance’s application for an industrial loan charter has not only drawn opposition from a coalition of incumbent banks and community activists. It also serves as a microcosm of several perennial debates in financial services policy.
From complaints about an unlevel playing field to warnings about systemic risk, from giving back to the community to fostering innovation, here’s a rundown of the issues.
I’m excited to share that I recently joined Affirm as Head of Product to help build honest financial products that improve lives.
Affirm presents a new and unique opportunity for me at the intersection of technology, user experience, and financial services. If we’re successful, Affirm has the potential to be the most innovative and globally loved financial institution in the world.
Based in San Francisco, SoFi has changed the lending and wealth management space of fintech.
Wealthfront has introduced to the automated financial advisor to the world. Based in Redwood City, the company has deployed high tech software to follow market trends and create analysis for good investments. The automated financial investor manages risk, lowers taxes, and minimizes fees. Wealthfront’s trademark product, PassivePlus, combines high-level research experts with high-level technology to create a speedy and precise automated financial advisor.
Nerdwallet is the hub for free information on credit cards, banking, investing, mortgages, loans, credit scores, and more.
LendingClub Corp LC, based in San Francisco, allows people to invest and borrow money. The company offers personal loans, small business loans, auto refinancing, and now loans for medical treatments. Investors make monthly payments in order for investors to make a monthly return. Scott Sanborn is the CEO of the company, which has lent $26 billion and has over 1.5 billion customers.
Property investment platform LendInvest is launching a five year retail bond, offering investors a fixed rate of 5.25 per cent. The Bond is due to reach maturity in August 2022.
The bonds will bear interest at a fixed annual rate of 5.25 per cent, payable semi-annually on 10th February and 10th August. The minimum initial subscription is £2,000, each Bond has a face value of £100. Once launched, investors will be able to sell their bonds on the open market at any time during market hours. The offer period is now open and is expected to close at 12 noon (London time) on 4 August 2017.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending will continue to go from strength to strength, with low interest rates still squeezing bank margins, a trend towards fintech and a requirement for rapid decision making. P2P lending is establishing its position in the market even with an uncertain economic and political climate. As a result, myriad of opportunities and challenges must be considered across the sector.
The regulator has also expressed concern that P2P firms’ wind-down plans may not be adequate and is planning to strengthen the rules around this. Firms should therefore expect to see an increase in capital requirements.
Another cause of concern, which requires further exploration, is around potential conflicts of interest. There’s a risk that large investors will have greater access to preferential deals, over small investors, which creates problems for effective competition within the sector. Given the regulator’s mandate to promote competition more generally across financial services, it will be interesting to see how this gets applied to the new rules.
That looks a smart move because it’s now planning to return to the retail market but this time via bond – Funding Circle, by contrast, chose to use an investment trust to raise money from the stock market, with a target annual yield of around 6.5%.
Compared with the rates on offer from rival P2P platforms such as Zopa and Ratesetter, the yield of 5.25% is not bad and unlike its nearest rivals the investor also get secured assets to work against. That’s important when comparing the Lendinvest yield of 5.25% against the Funding Circle SME Loan income fund yield of around 6.5%. The latter is not secured and is mostly invested in risky SME loans.
Also, Lendinvest has a sensible average LTV ratio at 63% which should give private investors some comfort although I would observe that if house prices fell more than 15% across the board, the bond might be in danger of breaching its covenant. I don’t think that is likely but it is always possible.
It’s been a decade since the collapse of two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns. The funds were backed by subprime mortgages, and they failed when hoards of borrowers defaulted on their loans. This sparked a chain reaction which culminated in the global financial crisis of 2008.
“ABS could therefore represent the future of crowdfunding more generally, but real estate crowdfunding in particular. This long-suffering acronym could very well make a comeback to help revolutionise the market for real estate investment as we know it.”
SME lender Growth Street has brought on board a new Director of Sales, Head of Relationship Management and Business Development Manager as the firm’s expansion continues.
The new appointments bring a wealth of sector experience to Growth Street. Chan Purewal, formerly of Boost Capital and Bibby Financial Services, has joined the business as Director of Sales.
Nicola Weedall, previously of GE Capital and latterly Head of Risk and Compliance at invoice financing specialist DueCourse, has joined Growth Street as Head of Relationship Management. Her role will be split between London and Manchester.
Meanwhile, Nick Owers, formerly Head of Banking Relationships at iwoca, becomes a Business Development Manager. Nick has also worked for Lombard and Royal Bank of Scotland in the past.
According to CB Insights’ ‘The Global FinTech Report: Q2’17′, venture capital-backed deals in UK FinTech fell by 40% during the second quarter of this year.
The report says funding plummeted by 52% after a temporary surge in the first quarter of the year following Atom Bank’s and Funding Circle’s $100m deals.
Over the past ten years, peer-to-peer lending has taken the UK by storm and has become a viable option for many people looking for a potential retirement income. To date, more than £10 billion has been invested through UK peer-to-peer lenders, returning on average 7.17% total gross interest. (source: AltFi Data)
With the right peer-to-peer loans that are backed by tangible assets like property, such as ones offered by Assetz Capital, the risk of loss can be reduced as those assets may be sufficient to recover lent funds should the loan default.
Morgan Tucker, the Nottinghamshire-based consulting engineering firm, went into administration at the end of May owing over £3m to creditors, according to papers seen by TheBusinessDesk.com.
The business’s expansion into the Middle East caused significant losses, it emerged in June.
Among some of the firm’s biggest creditors were Funding Circle which was owed £218,513 and Vendor Loans which was owed £112,000. The firm also owed HMRC £286,513.
Startup firms like Samoyed Financial, a Chinese online credit card issuer, are on the cutting edge of consumer lending.
Samoyed Financial offers prime consumers credit cards online at below-market interest rates. While so many consumers require loans to make larger purchases, online lending firms in China (particularly peer to peer lending firms) have in the past struggled to control risk.
Credit card use in China has risen from five million in 2002 to 300 million at present.
Because China lacks a complete credit risk credit rating system like FICO, firms have been forced to rely on their own credit risk assessments in the burgeoning consumer lending market. Lin’s firm uses data taken from the consumers’ phone records and online behavior, with consumers’ authorization. The data is then used to build a credit risk model.
Samoyed Financial also incorporates artificial intelligence in the form of the Alpha S robot to review information and determine whether an applicant looks suspicious.
Chinese police will strike hard against shady financial schemes because of the risk of social unrest from such fundraising ploys, according to the Public Security Ministry.
Guo said at a nationwide meeting with local police authorities on Sunday that law enforcers must use “big data” technology to uncover and stop such crimes as early as possible.
Last November 11, China’s so-called Singles’ Day, sales across Alibaba platforms reached new heights: RMB 120 billion, or $17.9 billion.
Offline borrowing, however, is still largely absent. Hua Bei is basically a virtual credit card, but 60% of the users have never owned a physical credit card. Traditional banks are not lending money to individuals because they lack a reliable credit score. In fact, most Chinese people, by Western standards, are simply “unscorable”–only 25% of the population have a credit history.
With spending increasing, credit card use per capita actually declined from 0.34 in 2014 to 0.29 at the end of 2015, according to People’s Bank of China. In that same year, however, mobile payment users grew 65%. For the whole year, $5.5 trillion third-party mobile payments were completed in China.
Neo Online, a leading Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform under Neo Capital Management Group Co., Ltd. (“Neo Group”), joined with the 2017 International Champions Cup China to hold a public interest meeting under the theme “Big big kids in a big big world”.
In January 2017, Neo Online launched the public welfare program “Kids Are Awesome”, which supports adolescent development and growth in such areas as culture, sports, arts, and health.
One of the most interesting and recent of these partnerships is between challenger bank Fidor and host of other players such as digital wealth manager Nutmeg. Fidor’s UK commercial customers can now access a whole suite of investment opportunities through the digital marketplace, including access to alternative investment opportunities via a number of the most respected fintech companies in the UK.
Fidor Bank is a digital bank with over 100,000 users across Germany and UK.
Pre-vetted real estate investment opportunities – Our experienced real estate and finance team evaluates thoroughly each aspect of every project and picks the best investment opportunities to be published for crowdfunding. Low minimum investment amount – the minimum investment on our platform is just 100 euros, meaning basically anyone can afford to invest into real estate with Crowdestate. Everyone can invest – Crowdestate is open to all investors all around the world, provided that they have a way to make an international bank transfer to their virtual investment account previously created on our platform.
There are many different types of investment opportunities on Crowdestate. Debt, equity, secured, unsecured… Why did you decide to use so many different types for the offers?
What ROI can investors expect?
The historical money-weighted average internal rate of return on our exited investment currently at 29.59%. However, as the fast-increasing money supply is driving the expected returns down, the investors’ annual returns are probably going to remain between 10-20%.
In a joint survey by InvestOps and SimCorp, 14 percent of 100 respondents highlighted securities lending as their most popular source of liquidity.
The survey did not detail respondents’ reasons for neglecting securities lending as a liquidity source or expand on whether heads of operations simply considered the practice as a back-up option.
International
ID Finance’s chatbot cuts client services workload by a third (ID Finance Email), Rated: AAA
ID Finance, the digital finance, credit scoring and emerging markets company has developed and introduced a self-learning chatbot for MoneyMan, its online lending platform serving customers in Spain, Georgia, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan and most recently Brazil. Since launch at the beginning of July, over a third of customer requests are already being processed automatically.
The chatbot interacts with new customers at the loan application stage and with registered users when they log in to their personal account. The chatbot helps to locate the information required to determine loan eligibility, and provides recommendations of relevant products tailored to the individual’s requirements and financial prudence. General advice on personal budget planning and financial literacy is also offered.
The chatbot works within the NLP (Natural Language Processing) and NLU (Natural Language Understanding) AI frameworks. Information is processed based on statistical matches covering a wide range of frequently asked questions. And the NLU platform enables analysis of messaging flow so the meaning of the information can be sought out in context.
Additional capabilities include finding non-trivial links in dialogue with users and providing relevant answers to questions unrelated to credit and finance. Thanks to the machine learning technology, the number of questions the chatbot is able to answer increases by 20 per cent daily. The average response time is around ten seconds and if a question cannot be answered the message is automatically forwarded to an available client support operator.
Online loan marketplace and fintech HashChing has welcomed two new financial services heavyweights to its advisory board.
Paul Rickard, managing director of CommSec and former executive at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Marty Switzer, chief operating officer of the Switzer Financial Group both joined the board in June earlier this year.
In a pioneering development for the country?s fintech sector, Faircent.com, India?s largest peer-to-peer lending platform has launched a new Auto Invest feature for registered lenders.
It eliminates the need for lenders to browse through several borrower profiles by automating the entire process.
As per its latest Data and Analytics report, 90 percent of the lenders on the platform are earning 18 percent to 26 percent gross returns.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday approved Softbank’s acquisition of 20 percent stake in Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday approved Softbank’s acquisition of 20 percent stake in Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications.
Hike messenger, a popular phone messaging service app in India, has recently decided to introduce payment services on its platform.
The payment service includes both peer to peer payments that do not require bank accounts and use in-app wallets, and bank to bank payments using the UPI platform introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Hike has been able to beat Whatsapp to providing in-app payment services.
It’s been seven months since the Indonesian government issued regulations for the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry, and the mood in the sector is optimistic.
Suleiman said the market is dominated by local companies that engaged with regulators as the guidelines were being created and were primed to grow once the legal structure was in place.
Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK)stipulated that startups must have $200,000 in capital before they can be approved for an operating licenses as lenders, and capped loan values at $150,000. For now, that amount suits most P2P lenders just fine, Suleiman said.
Suleiman said that most SMEs fail to secure traditional bank funding because they don’t have enough collateral, which he said is especially problematic in creative industries.
One company meeting the demand for SME financing is Investree, a P2P marketplace startup that launched in 2016.
The ant gold service today announced an agreement with Touch’n Go (TNG), a subsidiary of CIMB, to form a joint venture to provide electronic wallet solutions for local users.
At present, millions of Malaysians use the Touch’n Go card for electronic payments every day in retail stores, car parks and public transport systems. In the future, new e-wallet will help TNG’s new and old customers to get more services on their mobile phones, including electricity providers.
Reports Friday (July 21) said Mitrausahua Indonesia Group, which operates a peer-to-peer lending platform, has launched a mobile app for individual investors of small businesses.
The app joins Mitrausahua’s flagship offering Modalku. For small businesses, interest rates range from 12 to 26 percent. For investors, Modalku promises returns higher than those of commercial bank deposit and fixed investment products.
The app offers a feature, Automatic Funding, which automates the process by which investors can find SME borrowers suitable to lenders’ preferences. Investors can start investing at $75 but must have $750 deposited into their accounts.
A total of 97 campaigns were successfully funded in the region in 2015 and 2016, 24 of which were female-led and 73 male-led. And while the number of campaigns funded in the region is still relatively low vis-a-vis more established territories, however, seed crowdfunding is still relatively new to the region. Average pledge amounts to female-led campaigns are 29 per cent higher than male-led campaigns, compared with a difference of only 5 per cent globally, said PwC and The Crowdfunding Centre report – Women Unbound: Unleashing female entrepreneurial potential.
Seed crowdfunding generated a total financing of $ 3.25 million (with $527,300 going to female led campaigns) in the Middle East for 2015 and 2016, with female-led campaigns in the Middle East generating an estimated 5,320 backers, compared with 4,240 for those that were male-led, it added.
Although the percentage of Canadians using new financial technology has doubled over the past 18 months, Canada lags much of the rest of the world in adopting services offered by online providers.
In Canada, only 18 per cent of digitally active Canadians have used two or more fintech services in the past six months, compared with 33 per cent globally, according to Ernst & Young LLP’s FinTech Adoption index. And while the Canadian rate has almost doubled from 8 per cent in 2015, Canada remains in the bottom of world rankings along with Japan and Belgium.
China has the highest adoption rate at 69 per cent, while India and Britain are close behind with 52 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.
MoneyMatch, an online peer-to-peer lending platform developed by local company FinTech Global Inc., aims to provide Filipinos an alternative to “5-6” scheme, or moneylenders charging exorbitant interest rates on loans.
Bautista said a borrower could apply for loan from P10,000 to P2 million which could be used to start to a small business, get a housing loan, or a new car, and pay for their loan at terms that they could afford.
The interest rate for the loans will range from 15 percent to 36 percent depending on creditworthiness of the borrower.
