Category: Featured

Thursday October 17 2019, Weekly News Digest

LendingClub

News Comments Today’s main news: Zopa launches tool to compete with credit bureaus. KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to Marlette Funding Trust 2019-4. OnDeck Capital financial results. ID Finance raises 1.7M euro on Crowdcube in minutes. Canada’s fintech adoption rate has doubled since 2017. Today’s main analysis: LendingClub account performance (A MUST-READ). LendingTree’s Personal Loan Offers Report […]

The post Thursday October 17 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

LendingClub

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

European Union

Other

News Summary

United States

KBRA Assigns Preliminary Ratings to Marlette Funding Trust 2019-4 (Business Wire), Rated: AAA

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to three classes of notes issued by Marlette Funding Trust 2019-4 (MFT 2019-4). This is a $326.27 million consumer loan ABS transaction.

Preliminary Ratings Assigned: Marlette Funding Trust 2019-4

Class

Preliminary Rating

Initial Class Principal

A

AA (sf)

$260,298,000

B

A (sf)

$30,117,000

C

BBB- (sf)

$35,854,000

On Deck Capital Inc. Financial Results Comparing With Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. (Mesa Weekly), Rated: AAA

On Deck Capital Inc.’s volatility measures that it’s 85.00% more volatile than S&P 500 due to its 1.85 beta. Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. on the other hand, has 1.53 beta which makes it 53.00% more volatile compared to S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio
On Deck Capital Inc. 3 0.12 45.93M 0.45 7.99
Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. 4 0.55 13.97M 0.50 7.37

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
On Deck Capital Inc. 1,349,850,114.62% 12.2% 3.1%
Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. 396,042,410.84% 7.6% 0.6%

Global cooling; Upgrade Card (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

In industry news, Upgrade led by CEO Renaud Laplanche released the “Upgrade Card”. The product is a cross between credit card and an installment loan. How does it work? Every month any new charges on the card transition into an installment loan of 12, 24, or 36 months. Customers can select the default payback period when applying for the card and they have the option to change the term for new charges at any time. Upgrade Card offers true risk-based pricing with a range of 6.49% to 29.99%. LendIt Co-Founder Peter Renton has a nice summary here.

In macro news, the Fed is expected to cut rates for a third time later this month to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%.

Source: OECD Interim Outlook Projections, Blackstone, PeerIQ
Source: WSJ, Cantor Fitzgerald, PeerIQ

New LendingClub Account Performance (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

In April 2018, LendingClub provided us with $5,000 to open a brand new account. Since then we have been chronicling the status of the account on a quarterly basis. Below are links to the full series of blog posts in chronological order:

Source: Lend Academy
Source: Lend Academy

Personal Loan Offers Report – September 2019 (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

At 1,270 basis points, the spread between the highest and lowest offered APRs offered to the same consumers were especially stark for high-score borrowers.

  • The average spread for those with scores of 760 or higher was 1,270 basis points, amounting to a difference of 58.5% on the average loan amount offered for a three-year personal loan.
  • Consumers with scores between 720 and 759 saw an average offer spread of 1,145 basis points, representing a 49.9% difference in interest paid.
  • For those with scores between 680 and 719, the average spread was 971 basis points, representing a 37.3% difference in interest paid.
  • Borrowers with scores between 640 and 679 had an average spread of 860 basis points, representing a 28.2% difference in interest paid over the three years of the loan.
Source: LendingTree

Kiva Lending Team: Lendio Gives (Kiva), Rated: A

Lendio has provided over 10,000 Kiva microloans through its

Source: Kiva

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Consolidate Credit Card Debt (Credible), Rated: AAA

According to data collected by the Federal Reserve, borrowers who were assessed interest on their credit card accounts paid 16.97% on average during the three-month period ending Sept. 31. But the average rate on personal loans was only 10.07%.

That’s a spread of 6.9 percentage points — an all-time high in Federal Reserve records dating back to 1998.

Apple and Goldman Sachs aren’t reporting Apple Card information to credit bureaus (MarketWatch), Rated: A

Apple and Goldman Sachs have yet to start reporting consumers’ payment information for the Apple Card to the major credit bureaus, a source close to Goldman Sachs confirmed to MarketWatch on Monday. The source later said that the companies will begin reporting to the credit bureaus later this quarter.

Goldman Sachs CEO says Apple Card is the most successful credit card launch ever (CNBC), Rated: B

“In three short years, we have raised $55 billion in deposits on the Marcus platform, generated $5 billion in loans, and built a new credit-card platform and launched Apple Card,” Solomon said, adding “which we believe is the most successful credit card launch ever.”

Rise of fintech weakens law to prevent lending discrimination (Roll Call), Rated: AAA

As online banking threatens to make in-person banking at brick-and-mortar branches as archaic as video rental stores, it may do the same to a 1977 law created to counteract decades of underinvestment in minority neighborhoods.

Fewer branches, more online

While that includes some wholesale banks or limited purpose institutions, like credit card banks, online banking is driving the sector’s growth.

At the same time, the number of bank branches with an obligation under the CRA to provide loans and other services is falling. Branches have declined every year since a peak in 2010, at 99,550, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Banks closed 1,700 branches in 2018, dropping the total number to 86,375.

After steadily rising to a peak of $505 billion in 2016, the number of CRA-compliant loans that banks issued dropped in 2017 to $482 billion, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

CNB Bank Moves to Revolutionize its Retail Lending with nCino (PR Newswire), Rated: A

nCino, the worldwide leader in cloud banking, today announced that Pennsylvania-based CNB Bank will utilize nCino’s Bank Operating System to digitize its retail lending process from end-to-end to enrich the customer experience.

California has reformed consumer loan interest rates. But will lenders find loopholes? (Cal Matters), Rated: A

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law Assembly Bill 539 by Assemblywoman Monique Limón, Santa Barbara Democrat. The measure sets an annual interest rate cap of roughly 36% on consumer loans from $2,500 to $10,000 made by non-bank lenders.

For the prior 34 years, under state law, the sky was the limit on rates charged for such loans. Last year, 333,416 non-bank consumer loans in the $2,500 to $10,000 range had annual percentage rates of 100% or higher. That represented 40.7% of such loans. In the $2,500-$4,999 range, the triple-digit APR ratio was 55.5%.

DrawBridge Lending CEO Discusses Risk and Compliance for Lending Capital to Bitcoin Holders (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Earlier this month, DrawBridge Lending (DBL Digital), a digital asset lending, borrowing and investment management firm, partnered with Kingdom Trust, a qualified custodian providing a self-directed IRA incorporating several digital assets with property and traditional asset investments.

To be eligible to invest, investors must be eligible contract participants (ECPs), which means they should have a minimum net worth of $1 million. The minimum investment in Drawbridge Lending’s series fund is $1 million, which can be met with the contributions of multiple investors.

There are more than 600,000 millennial millionaires in the US, according to report (CNBC), Rated: A

There are 618,000 millennial millionaires in the U.S. and their wealth is only expected to grow.

Currently, 93% of millennial millionaires have a net wealth between approximately $1 million and $2.5 million, according to the report. Nearly 60% live in either California or New York and they are investing more in real estate than their elder-millionaire counterparts.

The Pros and Cons of Using Peer-to-Peer Lending When Investing in Real Estate (The Motley Fool), Rated: A

Today’s real estate investors have many financing options at their disposal. There are traditional options like government-backed loans, home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), and investment property mortgages. But on top of those, you also have new-age choices like crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.

Real Estate Earnings: What To Watch For This Quarter (Seeking Alpha), Rated: A

The “REIT Rejuvenation” of 2019 has restored the coveted NAV premium for most sectors, giving these REITs the currency to re-open the acquisition pipeline. This valuation premium has allowed REITs to kick-start external growth, which has historically been responsible for more than half of FFO per share growth across the REIT sector. REITs were net buyers again in 2Q19, buying $12.5 billion in assets while disposing of $6.6 billion. The $5.9 billion in net acquisitions was the largest quarterly “buy” since 4Q17, and we expect this trend to continue into 2020 given the favorable valuation environment. We break down the acquisition activity for each of the REIT sectors later in this report.

Source: Seeking Alpha

AMERICAN FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND FINICITY PARTNER TO SIMPLIFY THE MORTGAGE EXPERIENCE (Finicity), Rated: B

American Financial Resources, Inc. (AFR) announced today it is working together with Finicity—a provider of real-time financial data access and insights, to provide its business partners and their borrowers with a faster, simpler and more secure way to verify assets and income while originating loans.

Roofstock Accelerates Innovation with New Chief Product Officer at the Helm (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: B

Roofstock, the marketplace for investing in real estate, announced the addition of Ketan Babaria to the fintech’s leadership team as Chief Product Officer. Formerly the Head of Product for LifeLock and Capital One’s D3 incubation unit, Babaria will enhance Roofstock’s current offerings and introduce new, creative ideas to accelerate the fintech’s growth and make real estate investing radically accessible.

Director of Operations Joins Fintech Startup LenderClose (DS News), Rated: B

Des Moines fintech startup company LenderClose has welcomed Andrew Deignan as Director of Operations. Deignan will manage the Operations and Vendor Relationships group, ensuring LenderClose delivers the highest level of service to its credit union and community bank lender users.

United Kingdom

Zopa launches tool to dispel “mystery” of credit worthiness (AltFi), Rated: AAA

Zopa, the first ever peer-to-peer lending platform, is launching the tool, called Borrowing Power, as it says that lending decisions and credit worthiness have been “shrouded in mystery” for too long.

The tool, which is free of charge, works by giving Zopa customers a borrowing score between one and ten. Customers are shown why they are given the score and how they can help improve the score.

In the Spotlight with Mario Lupori, RateSetter (Financial Reporter), Rated: AAA

We spoke to Mario Lupori, chief investments officer at RateSetter, about whether there is more consolidation to come in the peer-to-peer market and whether forthcoming regulatory changes will hinder the sector.

Samsung.com partners with Klarna to offer pay later payment plans (IBS Intelligence), Rated: A

Samsung.com has partnered with payment provider Klarna in the UK to provide customers service to make purchases from its website and pay later. The customers will get a convenient and hassle-free way to pay later at Samsung.com.

Klarna: too good to be true for students? (Mancunion), Rated: A

Klarna is perfect in those situations, giving you a ‘try before you buy option’. You can get as many items as you wish, in as many sizes, returning all the items you don’t need before a penny leaves your bank account. There’s no waiting around for refunds to reach your depleted bank account – you only pay for what you actually keep.

Octopus Choice’s P2P loans now available within a SIPP (AltFi), Rated: A

The firm has announced that its P2P investment platform is now accessible within a SIPP wrapper.

Could banks become redundant in the future? (Finextra), Rated: A

P2P lending as it right now stands absolutely no chance in competing with traditional banking, as it requires a bit too much time from the lender’s side.

However, should technology such as Artificial Intelligence be successfully implemented on these platforms, it’s likely that P2P lending will occupy a large percentage of the financial market share.

Starling launches TV ad campaign after reaching 900,000 customers (AltFi), Rated: A

Today Starling Bank will premiere its first TV ad on ITV and Channel 4 during England’s UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria, and Jamie’s Meat Free Meals.

Celsius Now Offers up to 10% Return on TrueUSD Lending Service (Finance Magnates), Rated: A

Celsius Network, a cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform, has partnered with TrustToken, the team behind dollar-pegged TrueUSD (TUSD), to offer up to 10 percent interest on four new stablecoins.

Casa Italia to expand its restaurant in Liverpool following £650k loan from OakNorth Bank (Fintech Finance), Rated: B

China

PayPal wants to help Chinese online shoppers buy from overseas (Business Telegraph), Rated: AAA

By the end of this year, Chinese online shoppers will have a new way to buy things from abroad: PayPal.

Despite the tensions between Beijing and Washington, China’s central bank has allowed the US company to take a toehold in the country’s valuable payments market by buying a majority stake of Chinese payments group Gopay.

European Union

Barcelona-based fintech ID Finance secures €1.7 million within minutes on Crowdcube (EU-Startups), Rated: AAA

Barcelona–based ID Finance, a fintech that operates in Europe and Latin America, has raised over €1.7 million in crowdfunding within minutes of its campaign going live on Crowdcube, amidst strong demand from investors. The data science, credit scoring and digital finance company has a target of €2.3 million.

The company has a well established global team and over 3 million users, with over 40,000 new users joining each week. It is on track to double revenues this year to €90 million – up from €13 million in 2017 – and is targeting over €267 million in revenue by 2021, with the goal of becoming the number one digital lending platform in Hispanic and Latino markets.

Fintech exits have raked in €83bn since 2013 amid European funding boom (sifted), Rated: AAA

The sale of European fintechs via initial public offerings or acquisitions has pulled in €83bn over the past six years, according to a new report by Dealroom.co and Finch Capital. This is twice as much as the next biggest category, enterprise software, and highlights the scale of opportunity for investors as well as the growing maturity of the fintech market.

Some of the biggest exits were the €7.1bn flotation of Dutch payments company Adyen and the sale of Swedish start-up iZettle to Paypal for $2.2bn last year.

The same report also estimates that the continent’s remaining private fintechs have an “unrealised” value of €43bn combined, including companies such as N26 and Starling Bank.

Source: sifted
Source: sifted

Which P2P Lending Marketplaces in Europe Accept American Investors? (P2P-Banking), Rated: A

European p2p lending services are growing. And yields of 10+% are achievable on some of the platforms. This attracts international investors.

Here is an overview of 5 services (sorted aplphabetically) that do allow US investors.

Assetz Capital is a marketplace for UK SME and property development loans. The liquid ‘access’ products offer 4.1% to 5.75% interest.

Bondora is an Estonian p2p lending marketplace for consumer loans. The highly liquid Go&Grow product offer yields 6.75%. With other products higher yields of 10+% are achievable.

Estateguru is an Estonian marketplace for property loans. Typical interest rates are 10-12%.

Flender is an Irish marketplace for SME loans. Typical interest rates are around 10%.

Mintos is a Latvian p2p lending market place. A wide range of loan types is offered. The fairly liquid ‘Invest&Access’ product currently promotes around 8% rate. Yields of 10+% are possible with manual and autoinvest.

Europe’s top tech startups to know (sifted), Rated: A

Europe’s startup scene is often overshadowed by Silicon Valley, but the continent is gaining ground with more than 160 tech firms valued at over €1bn.

Klarna
Founded 2005 — Stockholm, Sweden — Unicorn

In 2019 it launched a new $460m fundraising round, giving the company a post-money valuation of $5.5bn and making it the highest-valued private fintech company in Europe. That was a 250% increase on its last valuation at the beginning of the year.

Starling Bank
Founded 2014 – London, UK – Rising Star & Female Led

Led by Anne Boden, Starling has made a dent in the UK’s thriving fintech ecosystem. As of August 2019 the bank has just shy of 800,000 customers, including around 60,000 business accounts. The company says it’s on track to pass a million this year and already has £1bn in deposits.

These numbers are not quite as impressive as Monzo, which boasts 3m customers, or Germany’s N26 with 3.5m.

Greensill
Founded 2011 — London, UK — Unicorn

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron is an advisor to the firm, which is backed by Softbank’s vision fund. The most recent funding round of $800m valued the company at $3.5bn — firm unicorn territory.

Its working finance solution is funded through issuing its own bonds, making it one of the largest bond issuers of the world, with an average of 47 bonds a day.

Nigerian SME Digital Lender Lidya Expands to Europe (Forbes), Rated: A

In an increasing trend where African technology companies are finding a global audience, Nigerian digital SME lending platform Lidya has expanded to Poland and the Czech Republic.

International

London-based finance platform Divido inks deal with US payment company Splitit offering point-of-sale finance (AltFi), Rated: A

Divido, the London-based consumer finance platform which lets consumers take out credit at the point of purchase to help spread the cost of purchases, has signed a deal with US payment company Splitit to offer a monthly instalment option to customers.

4+ INTERNET BANKING OPTIONS FOR GAMING (One Vale Fan), Rated: B

Klarna has become famous among the players in many countries since its creation in 2005. This virtual bank is seductive for its fast transactions and its privacy. The gamblers will remain anonymous when they deposit or withdraw funds utilizing Klarna as a method. In fact, this Swedish company does not ask any personal details or private information. What’s more, Klarna is also an excellent service to the mobile casino allowing the users to move funds at their convenience.

India

How Can Neobanks Potentially Transform SME Lending? (Inc42), Rated: AAA

Neobanking is a relatively newer concept in India as compared to the West, and is still on a take-off mode. However, market experts observe the gradual and steady adoption of Neobanks and credit their fast growth to its lender and SME-friendly characteristics.

IN CONVERSATION WITH CRIF’S ATRIDEB BASU & HOW HE SCALED DATA & ANALYTICS PRACTICE IN INDIA (Analytics India Mag), Rated: A

CRIF is an Italian company, based out of Bologna and caters to more than 6K banks and financial institutions across 30+ countries globally. In India, CRIF has two broad arms – one is the 100% subsidiary (called CRIF Solutions India) – which focuses on consulting, analytics and products and the other is the credit bureau where it has major ownership (CRIF Highmark) – which focuses on multiple services on retail and commercial side.

Asia

Investors Pour Record $ 735 Million Into Singapore Fintech Deals (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

Investors poured a record $735 million into financial-technology ventures in Singapore in the first nine months of this year, according to research from Accenture Plc, which analyzed data from CB Insights, Pitchbook and Tracxn.

That’s up 69% from the same period a year earlier and exceeds the $642 million raised in all of 2018, the study found. Investments in payments startups and those in lending made up the bulk of fintech fundraising, accounting for 34% and 20% of the total, respectively. Insurance technology deals comprised 17%.

MENA

Region’s P2P lending platform Beehive funds first SME in Bahrain (Statup MGZN), Rated: A

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

The funding was granted to Bahrain-based Mira Packaging Factory, which manufactures disposable cups in addition to other food packaging solutions for the GCC, and the African F&B industry.

Canada

FinTech adoption in Canada has increased from 18% to 50% since 2017, according to the EY Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019. Among the reasons driving consumers to FinTech services are better rates and fees (42%), ease of setting up an account (19%) and more innovative products and services (10%).

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

The post Thursday October 17 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday October 10 2019, Weekly News Digest

Lend Academy

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

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

Lend Academy

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

European Union

International

Other

News Summary

United States

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

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

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

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

The point-of-sale (POS) financing provider 

Source: Business Insider

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: PeerIQ, The Daily Shot, Conference Board

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

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

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

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

Source: Lend Academy

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

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

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

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

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

a 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Bloomberg

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

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

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

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

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

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

United Kingdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHY DID YOU START BLEND NETWORK?

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

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

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

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

These are:

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

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

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

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

China

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

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

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

European Union

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

International

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

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

Source: Bloomberg

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

Source: Bloomberg

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

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

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

Source FT Research and Future of Finance

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

Source: ARK Invest and Future of Finance

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

Source: Future of Finance

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

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

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

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

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

Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asia

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

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

MENA

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

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

Canada

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

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

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

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

A Discussion About Internet 3.0 , Decentralized Everything

Internet 3.0

Internet 1.0 is HTML websites. Internet 2.0 is a social network and user-created content. How is Internet 3.0 coming along? What is Internet 3.0? Are you familiar with Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent? Today, Bittorent has met Bitcoin and given birth to the following startups, networks, or organizations: Decentralized computing power. Golem, among others, is a […]

The post A Discussion About Internet 3.0 , Decentralized Everything appeared first on Lending Times.

Internet 3.0

Internet 1.0 is HTML websites.
Internet 2.0 is a social network and user-created content.
How is Internet 3.0 coming along?

What is Internet 3.0?

Are you familiar with Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent? Today, Bittorent has met Bitcoin and given birth to the following startups, networks, or organizations:

  • Decentralized computing power. Golem, among others, is a peer-to-peer market for putting your computer’s excess CPU power to use for other people. It works because there is no easy way to pay anybody on the planet fractions of a dollar for having used their CPU for 1 minute. This is, however, possible via blockchain.
  • Decentralized exchanges. Ether Delta, among others, is a cryptocurrency exchange which operates in a decentralized way (i.e., without a central counterparty). Decentralized exchanges allow peer-to-peer trading, which means that when a trade is executed the items are exchanged directly between the traders without touching any third party, and without the traders being able to stop the exchange. This approach eliminates counter-party risk entirely. On the other side, it also allows people to trade completely anonymously.
  • Decentralized protocol approval. Tezos, among others, is an open-source platform for assets and applications and allows the participants to vote to change its rules and protocols. Participants can choose to change the fee structure, rules, the protocol APIs, nearly everything. This protocol change-mechanism is built within the network rules, and nobody has the right of veto or override. Imagine if eBay merchants could vote to reduce the eBay fees without the eBay management being able to stop it. Of course, this opens the doors to politics, and also to oligarchies as having more Tezos coins obviously gives you more power to influence the votes.

Other similar companies include but are not limited to:

  • Decentralized file storage (Filecoin)
  • Decentralized domain naming (Namecoin)
  • Decentralized cloud storage (Storj)
  • Decentralized databases (BigchainDB, IPFS)
  • Decentralized internet address allocation (JACS)
  • Decentralized Video Encoding and Streaming (Livepeer).
  • Decentralize financial services (Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc.) and more.
Fig. 1. A map of some of the decentralized space from here.

Business models

Centralized online marketplaces , like Amazon, Uber, E-Bay or Lending Club, typically earn roughly 10%-35% of the value exchanges through the platform.

Other online platforms like Facebook or Google don’t share any of the ad revenue earned from the personal-data exchanged through the platform. They keep 100%.

In addition, all centralized marketplaces and platforms exert full control over who can advertise, who and what can be sold, to whom, where, etc.

Their full control, when the company is young or fragile, is not being exercised much. They want to attract users and customers. However, as the company grows, and pressure from investors and the financial markets increases, the platform position of the de facto monopoly in their sector is usually leveraged to increase fees and to control who and what can be transacted on the platform. For example, Google has a history of banning certain ad categories on its platform. Most people agree that the bans, so far, have been legitimate and are targeting harmful or mostly fraudulent industries from selling their products and services. However, Google’s power of life-or-death over entire industries is troublesome.

In comparison, decentralized networks and organizations have so far mostly tried a few different business models.

Financing and crypto coins

Traditional , centralized, startups sell their equity to investors. Equity is scarce by definition, to 100%. And once sold, investors typically have a contractual right preventing startups from creating more shares and diluting them without their approval.

Equity is a problem in a decentralized project. Equity to what? What does an equity holder control?

Most decentralized organizations mentioned above have created their own crypto coins in order to finance their creation. Their usual business model is to make the coin, artificially or legitimately, a required part of each transaction on their network. As the number of transactions grows and the coin inventory is limited, the coins become more valuable. And the network itself uses its own inventory of coins to finance its expenses. In addition, some decentralized networks also take a percentage of the value exchanged on their platforms.

However, the token approach has, so far, failed to work for most networks.

The most successful tokens today have thousands of active daily addresses.

Fig. 2 : Number of active addresses per network per day, log scale, for MakerDAO ( purple) , Tezos (blue), Binance (orange).

This is not surprising. All these decentralized organizations are new startups. It takes time for startups to build traction. A handful of them will have millions of users after 3-5 years. Most startups may still be viable businesses even though they only have hundreds of daily active users, but their tokens will not have any real value due to over-inventory. Therefore, maybe relying on token activity and scarcity to finance all decentralized projects may not be a viable way to finance these projects.

I believe an alternative token model is needed for most of these projects. A model that will have significant return to investors even if the network only achieves modest success of 100s of transactions per day. However, this may require an increase in network fees.

The X Open questions of decentralized entities

As I think of decentralization, many questions are on my  mind:

  1. What are these entities? Are they businesses, networks, organizations, protocols, or something else? The concept of Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO, has been used in the past. But to my knowledge, no actively operating entity using a real DAO model is live and generating revenue today. All entities have executives, employees, bank accounts, offices, etc. Or is it? The Bitcoin network itself, with all the developers in various organizations who are trying to contribute to it, is fairly decentralized.
  2. Governance: Leaders in centralized entities are required. Often, leaders aren’t any good at taking decisions, but making some decision is often better than not being able to make any decision. Many an organization has died because nothing at all was done. Are decentralized organizations able to make decisions fast and efficiently over 5 to 10 years while they grow?
  3. Are decentralized networks cheaper to run, and do they have a disruptor advantage over centralized networks? It is not clear. Lending Club, one of the first P2P lending startups, argued that their cost structure was cheaper than banks’. However, it turns out the cost of capital lending and cost of customer acquisition were under-estimated and banks have cheaper capital and cheaper customer acquisition. Lending Club’s profit margins are not impressive. Neither is Uber’s. Nor are Amazon’s. I believe there is no single answer to this question, but assuming that a decentralized entity is more cost effective than a centralized entity is not obvious. In human history, disciplined centralized organizations (armies, empires, …) have clearly been more successful than federations, communes, etc.
  4. Is there value built, and where is it? The startup/VC model has worked since the Dot Com boom because it was a profitable model for everybody involved. VCs made money, and successful entrepreneurs attracted more smart wannabe entrepreneurs. It is very important to see the founders and investors in these decentralized organizations be successful or there will be no second generation decentralized entities.

Conclusion

What is the innovation here?

I believe that an exchange that can work without counterparty risk is a real innovation.

I believe that a method to pay fractions of a dollars efficiently to anybody on the planet is a real innovation.

I believe one day we will see the Netflix of Internet 3.0 bankrupt the Blockbuster of Internet 0, 1.0, or 2.0.

However, questions remain. Is decentralization in business similar to communism in politics? Does this model really work? In 1990, in Moscow, everything was rationed, bread was extremely scarce. When a communist leader asked the London mayor who is in charge of the bread supply to London so they can learn their secrets, the mayor, confused, answered “Nobody!” Our modern food supply is a decentralized market, and fewer and fewer people are going hungry.

Author:

George Popescu

The post A Discussion About Internet 3.0 , Decentralized Everything appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday October 3 2019, Weekly News Digest

banks mortgage

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

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

banks mortgage

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

International

European Union

Other

News Summary

United States

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: PeerIQ, Financial Times

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

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

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

New York

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

San Diego

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

Phoenix

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

Source: LendingTree

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

Pittsburgh

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

Source: LendingTree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Announces Monthly Distribution of

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

.18 Per Share (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Mortgage Lenders for First-time Buyers (Benzinga), Rated: A

  1. Wells Fargo
  2. SoFi
  3. Bank of America
  4. SunTrust
  5. Citi Mortgage
  6. Rocket Mortgage
  7. Veterans United

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

United Kingdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

European Union

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

International

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

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

Milestones in culumulative volume lent crossed this month:

Source: P2P-Banking
Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Africa

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

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

Canada

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

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

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

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

Decentralized Internet: The P2P of Everything

Decentralized internet

Details Title: Internet 3.0: Decentralize everything Internet 1.0 is HTML websites. Internet 2.0 is a social network and user-created content. Internet 3.0 is the decentralization of everything: decentralization of marketplaces, of resources usage and allocation, etc. Is Internet 3.0 the P2P of everything? Examples of decentralization include: Decentralized exchanges (Ether Delta) Decentralize computing power (Golem) […]

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Decentralized internet

Details

Title: Internet 3.0: Decentralize everything

Internet 1.0 is HTML websites.
Internet 2.0 is a social network and user-created content.
Internet 3.0 is the decentralization of everything: decentralization of marketplaces, of resources usage and allocation, etc.

Is Internet 3.0 the P2P of everything?

Agenda

  • 5pm – 5:30pm networking, light cocktail
  • 5:30pm – 6:30pm panel and Q&A
  • 6:30pm – 7pm networking, light cocktail

Panelists:

Greg J. Nowak, Partner, Pepper Hamilton law firm

Mohamed El Dessouki, CEO, JACS – decentralization of IP address allocation
h

Amer Justice, Senior Project Manager, Tezos Commons, 

Raffi Sapire, Director of Operations. Livepeer,

Salvatore Buccellato, Partner, Ether Delta,

Moderator: George A. Popescu is Editor in Chief, Blockchain Times and Lending Times.

George Popescu

 

 

 

Register Here

The post Decentralized Internet: The P2P of Everything appeared first on Lending Times.

Digital Lending: How Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Are Making a Difference

machine learning digital lending

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are ubiquitous in today’s workplace conversations. Turn on any business news channel and you’ll hear them repeated over and over. Ask any venture capitalist and they are sure to brag about several investments in these areas. Google artificial intelligence and machine learning, and you’ll find 213,000,000 hits, and […]

The post Digital Lending: How Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Are Making a Difference appeared first on Lending Times.

machine learning digital lending

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are ubiquitous in today’s workplace conversations. Turn on any business news channel and you’ll hear them repeated over and over. Ask any venture capitalist and they are sure to brag about several investments in these areas. Google artificial intelligence and machine learning, and you’ll find 213,000,000 hits, and rising. Overhyped? We don’t think so.

Accenture boldly claimed that AI could boost average profitability rates by 38% and lead to an economic benefit of $14 trillion by 2035. That is no small statement. Even more astonishing is the general alignment among analysts on this issue. It’s widely agreed that AI and ML hold great promise across all industries, and, specifically, in finance.

In 2019, IDC projected that banking would be the second largest global industry to invest in AI, with $5.6 billion going toward AI-enabled solutions (trailing only retail). Why? The anticipated effect on business. According to the research firm, Autonomous, the financial industry’s slice of the global AI pie represents upwards of $1 trillion in projected cost savings.

Fintech Disruptors and Underwriting

Fintech disruptors, characterized as fast-moving companies, often start-ups, focus on a particular web-based innovative financial technology or process, spanning mobile payments to lending. Fintech disruptors initially found an entry point in finance through the use of AI/ML in underwriting.

In the U.S., if the customer consents, you can gain almost unlimited data about their credit profile: how many loans they have, whether they have a mortgage, if they’re delinquent, and whether they requested credit recently. According to the Brookings Institution, “AI coupled with ML and big data, allows for far larger types of data to be factored into a credit calculation. Examples range from social media profiles, to what type of computer you are using, to what you wear, and where you buy your clothes.” Access to this type of data gave rise to the development of sophisticated algorithms to underwrite consumer credit risk. We’ve seen this across a variety of lending companies offering unsecured consumer, student, or even small business loans, particularly focused on digital lending.

Importantly, though, those employing AI must be hyperaware of data collection practices, model design, and the potential for misuse. There is an inherent obligation when using these powerful tools to avoid profit at any cost. When used responsibly, AI can promote growth and better serve consumers. To meet this goal, companies must focus on creating ecosystems that are exponentially more just and equitable than what we have today.

On the surface, the digital lending numbers seem incredible. Digital lenders have grown to $50 billion in originations per year, not including incumbents. And, the research firm Autonomous notes that the digital lender model continues to raise $5 billion in annual venture capital investment, dominated by investments in the U.S.

And, yet, that same report shows that an AI/ML-driven digitization of the lending process is not headed to zero cost. To date, the cost advantages of onboarding and ongoing servicing (up to 70% reductions) have not been able to overcome the relatively high marketing costs that have yet to effectively scale lower than $250 per loan. Moreover, capital costs can reduce efficacy relative to traditional bank competition, and, then, there are the unplanned expenses, such as legal fees or elevated product development costs, the firm reports.

So, if digital lending driven by AI/ML-powered underwriting cannot deliver a material cost advantage, is further AI/ML advancement possible? And, will it improve outcomes for the consumer? Yes, absolutely. It all boils down to operations. As the use of AI shifts beyond obvious use cases and is deployed cross-functionally across entire companies to address various operational inefficiencies, the real promise emerges.

AI/ML 2.0: Improving Outcomes for Everyone

According to Deloitte, the top 30% of financial services firms who are frontrunners are more adept at integrating AI into the core strategic business of their firms, delivering revenue and cost gains quicker than competitors. In our opinion, this is clearly the case with fintech disruptors. Those that are focused on AI integration throughout the organization will quickly pull ahead of those who limit AI deployments to chatbots, underwriting, and other AI/ML 1.0 use cases.

Fintech disruptors can offer the market’s most cost-effective solutions by dramatically curtailing operation costs. Harnessing large-scale, multi-functional AI systems across organizations, instead of simply deploying in underwriting, presents fintech disruptors the opportunity to control costs at each stage and offer quality outcomes for their customers at reduced costs – with lean workforces.

So, while these systems may not face the end customer in any way – in fact, that may not be visible at all – they are the true future of AI/ML for fintech disruptors.

Fintech disruptor leaders who understand the opportunity to use an interconnected system of AI models across their organizations will likely drive the greatest overall efficiencies, both reducing costs and boosting revenues. This enhanced efficiency can be used to drive competitive position and ultimately higher profits.

AI/ML 2.0 at Work

AI can be used to help allocate resources across a variety of functions. For instance, a lender could create an AI model used to predict which of its retail partners would see the greatest increase in usage as a result of a field visit by a partner support representative. Generally, these visits don’t have uniform outcomes. Therefore, using a model-driven approach could help to allocate resources in the most effective manner. Increasing usage obviously drives overall revenue, but also helps to amortize cost over a greater number of transactions, driving better unit economics. Further, with time, the usefulness of such a system can grow. The more data collected from previous visits, the better the algorithm can be at predicting which visits will yield increasing usage.

Or, a lender could deploy AI in the call center to optimize the efficiency of the collections support team. Outbound reach to delinquent customers could be prioritized based on an ML algorithm that evaluates the potential for a successful call and the expected dollar collection. This may sound simple, but making the “good” calls and avoiding the “bad” ones offers all the obvious advantages of more precise resource allocation.

What is less obvious, though, is how these models are interconnected. The model used in the call center complements the underwriting model. If the collections team performs better, then the underwriting model can be recalibrated to maintain the overall risk of the loan portfolio. If the model prioritizing field visits is working, then it increases usage and reduces the average costs to originate a loan. This further enables a recalibration of both the underwriting model and the collections model. The combination of these models, ultimately, increases both expected and realized returns on the loan portfolio, reducing expenses and allowing the company to pass this savings back to customers in the form of lower rates. This is a win for everyone.

Optimizing the AI/ML Ecosystem

This is the true promise of AI/ML – a robust ecosystem of interdependent models utilized to enhance cross-functional outcomes. This leads to a much broader point: inefficiencies exist in all aspects of business – including accounting, legal, operations, finance and customer experience – and negatively impact profits.

Responsibly managed AI/ML 2.0 promises to address many of these functional silos with great success, improving outcomes for everyone involved.

Author:

Dr. Tamir Hazan is a co-founder and head of Analytics at Digital Lending: How Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Are Making a Difference appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday September 26 2019, Weekly News Digest

LendingClub eligibility

News Comments Today’s main news: SoFi intros crypto trading. Investors locked out of LendingClub in 4 states. Funding Circle asks US regulators to folow UK’s model. Fundbox raises $176M. Klarna surpasses 12M transactions per year. Today’s main analysis: U.S. subprime auto loan ABS recession scenarios (A MUST-READ). Today’s thought-provoking articles: Recession talk cooling. Consumers with […]

The post Thursday September 26 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

LendingClub eligibility

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

European Union

International

Other

News Summary

United States

SoFi Introduces Crypto Trading With SoFi Invest (PR Newswire), Rated: AAA

SoFi announced today that it has added crypto trading to its fast-growing SoFi Invest platform, as a response to demand from its over 800,000 members. SoFi Invest is now the first platform to offer automated and active investing with stocks, ETFs, and crypto through a single app.

SoFi Adds Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum to Invest Platform (Cheddar), Rated: A

SoFi goes live with crypto trading service for its over 800K users (The Block), Rated: B

SoFi users can initially buy and sell three cryptocurrencies – bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). The Block first reported the story last week, saying that the firm is beta testing the service in partnership with Coinbase.

SoFi CEO on what’s next for the company (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Sofi CEO Anthony Noto joins The First Trade to discuss what’s next for the company.

Watch the video here.

Charlie Lee {LTC} praises SoFi as crypto-investing with Litecoin kicks-off (Our Bitcoin News), Rated: A

Litecoin is ranked at #6 underneath Tether, as well as Bitcoin Cash, in the market. The price jumped up at a rate of 0.60% in the course of the past 24-hours. This led to LTC scaling all the way up to $57.03 where it presently rests. The trading volume recorded stands at roughly $2.957 billion, whereas the supply has 63,337,479 LTC coins included as part of circulation. The total market cap of Litecoin amounts to $3.612 billion which depicts a massive decline compared to the value attained a week back.

SoFi CEO: Start investing in your 20s (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto discusses how his company’s consumers can now buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.

SoFi Refunds Investors Hit By Capital Gains from Proprietary ETFs (ETF Trends), Rated: A

Financial technology company SoFi is offering refunds to investors hit by capital gains taxes following the change of replacing Vanguard funds with their proprietary ETFs in certain portfolios managed by their robo-adviser.

Some Investors Locked Out of Investing in LendingClub Loans (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

Over the last 24 hours we’ve received several messages from Lend Academy readers alerting us that they have received information that they are no longer able to invest in LendingClub notes. There is is also an active discussion on the Lend Academy forum.

LendingClub state eligibility as of 9/24/2019. Source: Lend Academy

Funding Circle urges US regulators to follow UK model (P2p Financ News), Rated: AAA

FUNDING Circle’s US division is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to amend its restrictions on peer-to-peer retail investment.

The US financial regulator limits annual investment to five per cent of an investor’s annual income if their yearly income or net worth is under $107,000 (£86,075), rising to 10 per cent if the investor earns more than that.

Two Franchise Trends Aspiring Franchisees Should Look Out For (Forbes), Rated: A

Over the past 14 years, I’ve coached more than 1,500 people who were searching for the best franchise for their situation. I recently read the 2019 Small Business Trends 

Fintech Fundbox raises $ 176M to lend to business using AI (Information Management), Rated: AAA

Fintech Fundbox Inc. has raised $176 million in a new funding round from investors including Allianz SE and General Catalyst. The company planned to announce the funding along with a new $150 million credit facility.

A Fundbox spokesman said the new round valued the company at between $500 million and $1 billion, but would not disclose the exact valuation.

U.S. Subprime Auto Loan ABS: Evaluating Recession Scenarios (DBRS), Rated: AAA

Summary Highlights

  • Under the hypothetical Recession Scenarios, DBRS found that credit enhancement (excluding excess spread) coverage of remaining expected losses, as determined by a multiple calculation, decreased at the inception of the hypothetical recession for all of the Sample Transactions. The senior debt tranches experienced a swift deleveraging whereas some of the subordinated debt tranches could be at risk for a potential downgrade during the hypothetical Recession Scenarios.
  • After the initial decline in the multiple calculations at inception of the hypothetical Recession Scenarios, the deleveraging nature of the sequential pay structures of the transactions resulted in the calculated multiples for the analyzed debt tranches to move into the multiple range corresponding to the original rating of the debt tranche over varying lengths of time. The multiples for some of the debt tranches originally rated BB were weaker and moved into the BB range at a slower pace. As a result, those tranches would be more likely to be considered for a potential downgrade as compared to the more senior debt tranches where the structures delevered more quickly and the multiples reached the range corresponding to the original rating over a generally shorter period.
  • Over the life of the Sample Transactions, the credit enhancement multiples for all of the debt tranches analyzed, some on a delayed basis, ultimately moved into the AAA rating multiple range.
  • In each of the Recession Scenarios, the structure of each of the transactions provided sufficient credit enhancement for timely payment of interest and ultimate payment of principal of all debt tranches.
Source: DBRS

Read the full report here.

A Cooling in Recession Talk, Heat Up in Housing (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

Lower rates, improved credit scores, and tighter housing inventory are improving the outlook for housing. Housing market achieved an 18-month high in housing starts and a record high in FICO scores.

The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index – a measure of actuals vs economist’s expectations – has also registered readings above the neutral baseline suggesting slowdown fears may be exaggerated.

Source: PeerIQ, CitiGroup

Consumers with Significant Liquidity Needs Often Access Alternative and Traditional Credit Markets Concurrently (GlobeNewswire), Rated: AAA

Many lenders believe that consumers who turn to the alternative credit market for liquidity do so because they have no other options. However, a TransUnion study presented today at the Lend360 conference found that these borrowers are frequently applying for and receiving traditional credit at the same time. While traditional subprime installment lenders and alternative lenders are competing over the same consumers, the study finds that the liquidity need is often not fully met in either market.

Source: TransUnion

Risk Levels Higher for Traditional and Alternative Loan Borrowers

Controlling for risk score, 8.5% of the alternative credit-active consumers had a serious delinquency in the first 12 months, vs. just over 2% for the control group. Bankcard performance was also worse. While these borrowers exhibited a preference for unsecured personal loans under $1,500 within 12 months of the alternative credit origination, they also originated auto and bankcard credit during that time.

Read the full report here.

Lendio to Double Sales Force, Expand Loan Product Offerings (Benzinga), Rated: A

Lendio today announced plans to double the sales force at its Lehi, Utah, and Woodbury, New York, offices. The company has hired 80 employees in 2019, and intends to add another 40 sales representatives by the end of the year, with plans to bring on another 40 in the first quarter of 2020. In addition to the expanding workforce, Lendio plans to bolster its selection of loan products for small businesses, with a 10% increase in the number of product offerings in the coming year.

Fintech lenders taking more market share from banks, survey finds (American Banker), Rated: A

Fintechs are continuing to siphon away customers for unsecured personal loans from traditional lenders, according to a study released Wednesday by Experian.

The study found that digital lenders more than doubled their market share in the past four years, with consumers across the credit spectrum increasingly turning to fintechs like Lending Club and Social Finance.

Fintechs now provide 49.4% of unsecured personal loans as of March compared to 22.4% in 2015, according to Experian.

Fintech Lenders Could Hold the Keys to Recession Recovery (Salon), Rated: A

Born out of the last recession, young fintech lenders have not yet been tested by a significant economic storm, and many in the industry are wrapped up in a dialogue of speculation about the industry’s ability to ride out an impending recession. It’s time to turn the conversation instead to focus on how fintech lenders can position themselves to play a critical role in recovery from the next downturn, whenever it may happen.

WeWork should ask SoFi CEO for advice on how to save the company (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

The two new guys running the slowly sinking ship known as once hot tech startup WeWork should give SoFi CEO Anthony Noto a holla on his Apple iPhone. Trust me, Noto has some good, timely advice for Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham.

Because the former Goldman Sachs banker and Twitter chief financial officer, now SoFi chief clearly gets how to rebuild a promising tech startup after a high-profile challenge or two. And then possibly, take it down the path of a successful initial public offering.

Generation Z’ers want more financial education – and innovative tools to help them learn (PR Newswire), Rated: A

As high school students return to school, they may see the benefits of new state laws across the country that require curriculums to offer a class about personal finance. This is great news for young adults as 76% of recent high school graduates agree it should be required, according to a national survey by Experian.

Many Gen Z’ers surveyed say innovative tools are the way to go when it comes to learning about credit (45%) and almost half (48%) would prefer to use tech-driven tools versus textbooks to learn more.

Survey respondents also say they are currently learning about finances mostly through their friends (28%), YouTube (27%) and some form of social media (24%).

D.C. Court Dismisses Challenge to OCC’s Fintech Charter (Manatt), Rated: A

In the latest battle over the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) plan to issue special purpose national bank (SPNB) charters, a D.C. federal judge has for a second time dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS).

The decision creates the potential for circuit split, as a New York federal court reached the opposite conclusion in a nearly identical action filed by the state’s Department of Financial Services (DFS).

9 Ways To Build an Empire Without Lifting a Finger (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Another way to build your real estate empire is through real estate crowdfunding. As with investing in a REIT, real estate crowdfunding allows you to pool your money with other investors to invest in real estate. This could include multifamily units, commercial properties and bundles of single-family homes.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the top real estate crowdfunding platforms are ArborCrowd, RealCrowd, Groundfloor, CrowdStreet, PeerStreet, Small Change and RealtyMogul.

If you can afford the minimum investment — which is usually $25,000 — you can make big returns. Groundfloor boasts 10% returns for individual investors and CrowdStreet’s is even higher with 25.5% total average annual returns across all fully realized deals.

RealCrowd offers a breakdown of average annual income on a $1 million investment based on the property type: $78,000 for a suburban office, $72,000 for a retail space, $59,000 for a downtown office and $58,000 for a multifamily unit.

The Best And Worst MA Towns For Young Families (Patch), Rated: A

The online mortgage broker Lending Tree has tried to take some of the guess work out of that decision by ranking every community in Massachusetts with 5,000 or more residents based on their appeal to families with school-age children.

Hingham, under Lending Tree’s methodology, received a score of 72.5. Last-place Webster’s score was 31.9. Other towns in the top 10 included Winchester, Needham, Milton, Longmeadow, Wellesley, Cochituate, Pinehurst, Lexington and Nantucket.

JPMorgan donates $ 25M to get fintech in hands of underbanked (American Banker), Rated: A

JPMorgan Chase announced Tuesday a $25 million commitment to the Financial Health Network’s Financial Solutions Lab, a program meant to focus on the creation of fintech tools to help consumers better manage their finances.

The Financial Health Network (formerly The Center for Financial Services Innovation) previously received a $30 million philanthropic donation from the bank that spanned the last five years.

Bitcoin and Ethereum dive deep, is Bakkt to blame? (Mashable), Rated: A

“The disappointing BAKKT opening signals to the crypto community that institutions are less ready to invest in BTC at scale than was supposed, which means the price was probably too high and due for a correction. What we’ve just seen is short sellers and momentum traders piling on to make things worse, and now here we are back at support,” Alex Mashinsky, CEO at crypto lending and depository company Celsius Network, told Mashable in an emailed statement.

STRATA Trust Company Reaches $ 2 Billion AUC Milestone (PR Newswire), Rated: A

STRATA Trust Company (“STRATA”), a custodian dedicated to the complexity of holding alternative investments in tax-advantaged, self-directed retirement accounts, announced today that the firm has surpassed $2 billion in assets under custody. STRATA offers access to a range of asset classes that include private equity, private debt, real estate, crowdfunding, structured settlements and more. Since 2008, STRATA has been committed to empowering investors and the investment community with wider diversification and alternative asset custody solutions in retirement portfolios by delivering industry-leading service, education and support.

Online Pawn Lending Goes Back Offline (Business Wire), Rated: A

Prominent online lender Borro Private Finance unexpectedly ceased its collateral-based lending program this summer after nearly ten years of business. The UK-US-based establishment specialized in online pawn loans against valuable assets, including fine art, jewelry, and watches. Borro’s discontinuation of its operations comes nearly two years after the company’s withdrawal from the bridge loan market in July 2017.

Eleventh Circuit Tosses Online Lender’s Forum Selection, Class Waiver Clauses (Lexology), Rated: A

Siding with six consumers who filed suit asserting violations of state usury laws against online lenders, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh…

Marqeta Hires Vidya Peters As First Chief Marketing Officer, as Company Continues to Build Out Expansive Global Vision (Business Wire), Rated: B

Marqeta, the first global modern card issuing platform, today announced the addition of Chief Marketing Officer Vidya Peters to its executive team.

White Oak Commercial Finance Acquires Veritas Financial Partners’ Asset-Based Loan Portfolio (ABL Advisor), Rated: A

White Oak Commercial Finance (“White Oak”), an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, announced today it has purchased a portfolio of asset-based loans from Veritas Financial Partners, a Boca Raton, FL based specialty finance company.

Alchemy Technology And Equifax Partner To Drive FinTech Innovation (PR Newswire), Rated: B

Alchemy Technology Inc. and  Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced a new partnership to drive FinTech innovation. The relationship is designed to help banks, specialty financing firms and FinTech startups accelerate their time to market with easily deployable white labeled lending solutions. The two companies will make the “tech” in FinTech available to organizations of all sizes with a powerful combination of the Alchemy Lending Operating System and Equifax data analytics, credit, identity and income verification solutions.

Ex-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Joins Lendingblock as Strategic Advisor (Lendingblock), Rated: B

Lendingblock, the regulated, open exchange for institutional borrowing and lending of digital assets, today announces the appointment of John Macpherson as a strategic advisor.

CoreLogic Credco Integrates its Three-Bureau PreQual Solution with eLEND Solutions (CoreLogic), Rated: B

CoreLogic, a global provider of property information, insight, analytics and data-enabled solutions, today announced that CoreLogic Credco integrated its Three-Bureau PreQual credit report and score solution on eLEND Solutions, an automotive technology company specializing in online and in-store credit and finance solutions. The integration of the prequalification solution gives CoreLogic Credco customers who use eLEND instant, single-source access to a consumer’s credit report and FICO score from all three national credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion or Equifax.

Tavant Named to 2019 IDC FinTech Rankings (Business Wire), Rated: B

Tavant, a Silicon Valley-based provider of AI-powered digital lending technologies, announced today it has been named to the 2019 IDC FinTech Rankings, the most comprehensive vendor ranking within the financial services industry.

United Kingdom

Klarna Surpasses 12M Transactions This Year (PYMNTS), Rated: AAA

FinTech payments disruptor Klarna has announced the start of its “No drama, just Klarna” retail campaign in partnership with 13 brands in the U.K., the company said in a press release on Wednesday (Sept. 25).

Klarna offers “pay later” payment options and attracts 50,000 new users each week. The startup said that in the past year, it has processed 12 million transactions. In August, more than 100,000 U.K. shoppers downloaded the Klarna app.

Klarna reports surge in payments, merchant growth during first half of 2019 (Mobile Payments Today), Rated: A

Klarna, a London based installment financing provider and challenger bank, said it surpassed 3 million active users in the U.K. and 170,000 retail merchants worldwide.

Brits hit financial maturity at 31 (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

THE age at which UK men and women finally feel secure in their finances is 31, according to Zopa.

The survey showed a clear split between age groups, with 21 to 25 year-olds believing 32 would be the age when they finally felt good about their finances, while those age 26 to 30 were less optimistic about the future, saying they would reach money maturity at 38.

OakNorth Bank completes £20m loan to specialist lending fund (London Loves Property), Rated: A

OakNorth Bank, the UK bank powered by OakNorth, has provided a £20m loan to the RAW Mortgage Fund, a specialist fund providing buy-to-let property loans against residential real estate in the UK.

Wonga borrowers have less than a week to submit payday loan reclaims (The Sun), Rated: A

Anyone who believes they have been mis-sold a Wonga loan is allowed to apply for compensation, but its administrators set a deadline of 11.59pm on September 30.

If you miss the deadline, you won’t be able to apply anymore and you won’t get any compensation for mis-selling.

Nexo Now Accepts Tokenized Gold for Instant Credit Lines and Will Offer Interest-Bearing Accounts on Gold (Covington Journal), Rated: A

Nexo is adding the NYDFS-regulated PAX Gold as a collateral option for its signature , bringing gold-backed lending to the blockchain.

With PAX Gold, now offers gold investors instant access to their gold wealth in over 45 fiat currencies via same/next day transfers and across 200+ jurisdictions.

European Union

Kreditech Eyes Expansion After Securing EUR 20 Million in Equity Financing (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: AAA

Kreditech is ready to scale globally in the near-prime customer segment – declares David Chan, Kreditech CEO. The Germany-based online direct lender and Point-of-Sale (POS) financing provider estimates its global target market at ca. EUR 300 bn in consumer credit issuance. It aims to reach EUR 1 bn in revenue by 2025, which will be driven by growth in existing markets where Kreditech is present, as well as expansion into new geographies. Kreditech currently operates in India, Poland, Russia and Spain, and serves over one million customers. The company has raised EUR 20 million in its latest equity financing round.

You’ve heard of challenger banks, now meet the challenger lenders (sifted), Rated: AAA

For better or worse, it was Wonga that first put “challenger lenders” on the map. The UK payday lender’s meteoric rise saw it become a household name before its collapse last year after a string of irresponsible, inflated loans.

This month alone, large funding rounds were announced by Sweden’s Capcito and Lendify, as well as by UK’s Sonovate, an invoice lender for SMEs with over 750 active clients. Banks are also watching closely, with Goldman Sach’s equity arm being a notable funder in Lendable, recently ranked the UK’s sixth fastest-growing private tech company.

In the UK, the challenger-lender industry grew to £6.1 billion in 2017, according to a study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). The CCAF also estimated that 29% of all new loans issued to SMEs came from challenger lenders in 2017. PwC predicts that figure will rise to nearly 40% in the next decade.

Source: Financial Times
International

Marketplace Lenders Navigate The Choppy Waters Of Compliance (PYMNTS), Rated: AAA

Regulators the world over are beginning to take a closer look at the alternative and marketplace lending business model.

In June, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority announced plans to impose stricter restrictions on marketplace and peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders beginning this December following the watchdog’s decision to place P2P lending platform Lendy into administration — a result, the FCA said, of the industry’s lenient requirements to disclose governance arrangements and controls.

Also, in China, analysts at Yingcan Group pointed to the government’s P2P and marketplace lending crackdown as being likely to shrink the industry by as much as 70 percent this year.

This Fintech Safari Could Be a Wild Ride (The Washington Post), Rated: AAA

From ATMs to credit cards and PayPal, the West’s dominance of innovation in consumer finance appears to have exhausted itself.

At the top of the emergent new order is the fintech duo from China — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Next in line are Alphabet Inc. and Walmart Inc., whose highly localized smartphone payment rivalry is playing out between Google Pay and PhonePe in India. In Southeast Asia, two homegrown ride-hailing giants are aspiring to dominate commerce.

The rise of African mobile money is associated with M-Pesa, Kenya’s digital-wallet revolution. Now traditional lenders like Standard Chartered Plc, with a presence on the continent going back more than a century, are discovering that online banking can help them mobilize low-cost current and savings accounts more profitably than acquiring customers via physical branches.

Australia/New Zealand

Harmoney says the P2P lender has been ‘slowly moving to lending our own money’ since 2015 (interest), Rated: AAA

The founder of Harmoney, New Zealand’s biggest licensed peer-to-peer (P2P) lender, says he can’t see a viable P2P lending model in New Zealand which is why Harmoney has started lending its own money.

Neil Roberts and David Stevens of Harmoney (Lend Academy), Rated: A

Harmoney, the first peer to peer lender to be licensed in New Zealand, has originated more than NZ$1 billion in loans since launching five years ago.


Read the PDF transcript here.

India

Kreditech targets India after EUR20m funding boost (Finextra), Rated: AAA

Kreditech, a German-based online lender and POS financing provider focused on “near prime” borrowers, is looking to the Indian market after raising EUR20 million in funding.

The round was co-led by Runa Capital and unnamed German private investors, with participation from existing shareholders HPE Growth and Amadeus Capital Partners.

Will RBI relax the restrictions placed on fintech startups lending? (India Herald), Rated: A

Southeast Asia

Accumulated P2P lending exceeds W6tr (The Investor), Rated: AAA

Accumulated peer-to-peer loans in South Korea have surpassed 6 trillion won ($5 billion), data showed on Sept. 26.

Outstanding P2P loans extended by 220 companies stood at 6.2 trillion won in June, compared with 4.7 trillion won at the end of last year, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.

Indonesia’s Investree in talks to raise series C funding for regional expansion (Tech in Asia), Rated: A

Indonesia’s fintech peer-to-peer lending startup PT Investree Radhika Jaya is in talks with several investors to raise a series C funding as the firm looks to boost its expansion in Southeast Asia.

The Securities Commission Malaysia Approves EdgeProp as First Property Crowdfunding Platform in Malaysia (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has registered EdgeProp Sdn Bhd as the first “Recognised Market Operator” to establish and operate a property crowdfunding platform in Malaysia. EdgeProp was granted an approval in principle in September 2019.

FINTECH COMPANIES FACE TALENT SHORTAGE (StaffingIndustry.com), Rated: A

The majority, or 94%, of fintech companies in Singapore, say the country requires fintech talent, according to survey data from Michael Page Singapore.

The number of Singapore consumers adopting fintech products and services has drastically risen in the last two years, tripling from 23% in 2017 to 67% in 2019, according to Michael Page.

Bitcoin Daily (PYMNTS), Rated: B

And Singapore-based exchange Bitrue has announced the launch of a low-interest crypto lending platform, which goes live on September 30.

MENA

Qatar Boosts FinTech Focus (PYMNTS), Rated: A

As reported by Crowdfund Insider, the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has expanded the number FinTech-related activities that will be awarded licenses. The additional support will come from the QFC platform.

The seven firms include DecisionLogic, which focuses on advanced bank verification that lets lenders qualify borrowers.

Africa

Proven ways you can make money in real estate (Daily Monitor), Rated: A

You can utilise a variety of methods that includes any of the following:
•Seller financing through lease options
•Trading fixed assets such as cars, jewellery and more
•Taking over someone else’s mortgage payments who might be in a distressed situation
•Bringing in an investment partner with cash
•Borrowing from a bank or getting a hard money loan
•Taking out a home equity line of credit
•Utilising a peer-to-peer lending network

Caribbean

Victoria Mutual acquires shares in Barbados-based FinTech Carilend (Jamaica Observer), Rated: AAA

Victoria Mutual Investment Limited (VMIL) has acquired a 30 per cent stake in Carilend, a Barbados-based financial technologies (FinTech) company, that is said to have revolutionised borrowing and lending in the Caribbean.

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

The post Thursday September 26 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday September 19 2019, Weekly News Digest

MAS Singapore

News Comments Today’s main news: SoFi to get its name on a football stadium. Petal raises $300M. Funding Circle closing in on 1-year anniversary of float. Zopa sends warning of imitation scams. Cumulative UK alt lending hits 11.3B GBP. Companies to get social credit in China. Today’s main analysis: Student loan refinancing rates are down. […]

The post Thursday September 19 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

MAS Singapore

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

China/Hong Kong

International

Other

News Summary

United States

Sundays at SoFi: NFL Stadium in Inglewood Lands a Corporate Name (Commercial Observer), Rated: AAA

Online lender SoFi Lending Corp. has secured the naming rights and a 20-year deal with the Rams and Chargers, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The firm agreed to pay around $20 million per year, reports say.

SoFi Stadium, which will be the largest in the NFL, is the centerpiece to the much larger $5-billion Hollywood Park project developed by Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke. Construction is 75 percent complete, and the stadium is expected to open next summer for other events before the NFL preseason begins in August.

Taylor Swift to Open SoFi Stadium Next Summer (KFI AM 640), Rated: B

The opening of the $2.6 billion SoFi Stadium will happen next summer on July 25th. However it’s not for a Rams or Chargers game. Swift announced that she will play two shows (July 25th and July 26th) at the stadium as a part in her much-anticipated 2020 world tour.

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

Key Findings from the OnDeck Small Business Survey:

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

President Donald Trump was the choice of 37% of small businesses surveyed, followed by Joe Biden at 18%. When combined, the top five Democratic candidates were the preference of 44% of respondents.

Student Loan Refinancing Rates Down Sharply (Credible), Rated: AAA

During August:

  • Rates on 10-year fixed-rate loans averaged 4.70%, down 22% from a July 2018 peak of 6.05%
  • Rates on 5-year variable-rate loans averaged 4.03%, down 14% from September

A borrower repaying the average graduate school debt of $84,300 over 10 years at 6.36% interest — the average rate for grad school loans in recent years — could save:

  • $20,927 by refinancing into a 5-year variable rate loan
  • $8,327 by refinancing into a 10-year fixed-rate loan

Credit card start-up Petal raises $ 300 million debt round from Jefferies (CNBC), Rated: AAA

The New York City-based company announced a $300 million debt round from Jefferies on Tuesday, adding to existing venture capital investments from names like Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

Plaid adds credit card data to Liabilities product (Tearsheet), Rated: A

In July, Plaid launched its Liabilities product that gives developers access to real time information about what consumers owe. Expanding beyond student loan data, the company has added support for credit card information, so firms can build better debt management solutions.

GoCardless launches US debit payments solution and opens San Francisco office (TechCrunch), Rated: A

GoCardless, the London fintech that aims to become the one-stop shop globally for businesses that want to let customers pay via recurring bank payments, has launched a U.S. debit solution.

Specifically, GoCardless’  new U.S. product supports debit payments on the ACH (Automated Clearing House) network.

The company has also opened an office across the pond in San Francisco’s financial district, headed up by Andrew Gilboy, general manager, North America, who was previously the company’s chief revenue officer.

Nav Launches New Feature to Help Business Owners Boost Business Credit (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Today Nav, a fintech company that matches business owners with their best financing options for free, announced new offerings to help small business owners boost their business credit scores, giving an easy solution to developing a strong business credit profile that alternative and traditional lenders can trust and finance.

Why would HUD gut its own disparate impact rule? (The Times Weekly), Rated: AAA

Since 2013, the disparate impact rule has objectively examined the effects of business practices with lenders, landlords, insurers, and real estate professionals against the provisions of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The rule required that first a plaintiff must establish a discriminatory effect in policies and/or practices, before the defendant(s) would bear the responsibility of proving their own practices were nondiscriminatory.

During delivery of Capitol Hill testimony earlier this spring, Nikitra Bailey, an EVP with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) also underscored the importance of disparate impact in fair housing.

“Disparate impact analysis encourages creative approaches that both increase effectiveness and inclusion,” testified Bailey. “This process and the value of disparate impact analysis was recently pointed out and endorsed by the largest personal loan company in the country, Lending Club.”

BlueVine Appoints Dosh & PayPal Vet Brad Brodigan As New Chief Commercial Officer (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Online lender BlueVine announced on Wednesday it has appointed Brad Brodigan as its new Chief Commercial Officer. BlueVine reported that through this role, Brodigan will be responsible for overseeing revenue-generating functions including sales, customer service, and partner management.

Money360 Closes $ 170 Million in Commercial Real Estate Loans in July and August (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A

Money360, a technology-enabled direct lender specializing in commercial real estate (CRE) loans, announced today it closed approximately $170 million in loans during July and August. This benchmark brings Money360 close to $500 million in loans closed this year.

Groundfloor Now Allows Real Estate Developers to Gain Pre Approval on Loans (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Groundfloor, a real estate lending and investing platform that allows anyone to participate directly in real estate investments, has launched a new product to make the lending process more easier for real estate investors. Groundfloor now allows certain developers to gain pre-approval on loans with a new program called “QC Maxx.”

ABS East; Stripe’s Lending Arm; Madden Decision (PeerIQ), Rated: A

In financing news, student loan fintech “College Ave” locked down a $300MM securitization and a AAA rating this week. The securitization was co-led by both Barclays and Goldman Sachs. Affirm, led by Max Levchin, is reportedly close to wrapping up a $1.5 Bn debt and equity financing with Thrive Capital and Spark Capital leading.

Stripe is mirroring other payments companies that have since built lending capabilities – notably, Square and PayPal. Stripe believes it can compete in an already crowded small business lending market (OnDeck, Kabbage, Fundera, Funding Circle, etc.) due to its data & channel advantages stemming from its payments business.

Fintech Firm OppLoans Announces Its First Bank-Led Credit Facility (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A

OppLoans, a growing fintech and top rated direct-to-consumer online lending platform, announced today that it has secured its first bank-led asset-backed revolving credit facility. This facility structure will enable OppLoans to further its mission by broadening access to online personal lending products for more middle-income consumers with credit challenges.

Aura Completes Three Social Bond Issuances Totaling 5 million Over Last 4 Months (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

M&G Investments and Community Capital Management, a mutual fund that specializes in impact and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) related investments, have joined with U.S. and international banks to invest $145 million in Aura’s social bonds to finance the origination of affordable, small dollar installment loans to working families in the United States.

Challenger banks insist they’re equal to the task of lending (American Banker), Rated: A

Almost all U.S. challenger banks offer no-fee checking, savings accounts and enhanced personal financial management tools. Now some of the most popular have taken, or are poised to take, their next step: making loans.

Personal loans and credit cards are lucrative but inherently risky, and these young companies — like MoneyLion, Varo and others — will have to prove to regulators, investors and the public that they have the wherewithal to weather downturns in the credit cycle.

Cash-flow data shows promise as predictor of credit risk (American Banker), Rated: A

Melissa Koide, co-founder and CEO of FinRegLab, analyzed loan data from six lenders that use cash-flow data in their underwriting. She shares what she found.

Prevu Raises $ 2 Million in Seed Funding to Grow its Digital Home Buying Platform (Digital Journal), Rated: A

Prevu, a customer-focused digital home buying platform delivering industry-leading efficiency and savings, announced today the closing of its $2 million seed funding round. The round was led by Corigin Ventures, a prominent seed-stage venture capital firm with expertise in the real estate technology and consumer industries as well as a history of backing startups disrupting residential brokerage business models.

Embattled Prodigy Network CEO Rodrigo Niño to step down (The Real Deal), Rated: A

Prodigy Network founder Rodrigo Niño is stepping down from his position as CEO amid mounting financial and legal issues, The Real Deal has learned.

Prodigy, a real estate crowdfunding platform, has faced criticism from investors in recent months over underperforming investment properties and unpaid distributions. On Monday, an investor in one of Prodigy’s newest projects — the 13-story Standard Hotel in Chicago — filed a lawsuit alleging the firm was “insolvent” and had used investments “for purposes other than those relating to the project.”

EquityMultiple Provides Investors with Options to Take Advantage of Unique Tax Benefits (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Opportunity Zones are new, tax-advantaged vehicles for investors to earn more on their money. Created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the first qualified opportunity zones (QOZs) first hit the market in early 2018. Designated by state authorities, there are now thousands of QOZs in the US designed to boost development in selected communities. Investors receive a break on capital gains taxes which can be significant. Local officials can spur economic development which leads to more jobs. Online investment platforms immediately saw the opportunity intrinsic to QOZs with multiple platforms now offering investments in developments that benefit from these tax breaks.

Why are your Opportunity Zone Offerings better than some others available on competing investment platforms?

Soren Godbersen: There are a number of firms out there now marketing Opportunity Zone offerings to investors. We’re proud of what we have been able to offer to our investor network and there are a few things about our Opportunity Zone investments that are unique:

How to Recession-Proof Your Investments (U.S. News), Rated: A

AFTER A DECADE OF steady growth, the economic cycle is due for a reversal, with concerns of a recession.

  • Consider other types of investments outside of stocks and bonds.
  • Know that timing the market is difficult.

What to Invest in During a Recession?

Other less correlated assets include the real estate niche. With real estate crowdfunding, hypermarket segmentation is available. Investors can choose their property type and geographic region when investing in real estate. Two real estate crowdfunding platforms for accredited investors are CrowdFund and EquityMultiple. Fundrise and Groundfloor open targeted real estate investing to nonaccredited investors as well.

Litecoin Non-Profit to Hold Undisclosed Treasury Sum with Crypto Lender (CoinDesk), Rated: A

The Litecoin Foundation is putting its capital to work, lending at interest through another cryptocurrency program.

The Foundation has tapped the Celsius Network, a blockchain-based crypto lending program, to become its preferred crypto wallet, Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky told CoinDesk.

As part of the deal, the Foundation will allocate an undisclosed portion of its treasury to the Network. LTC holders can receive up to 10.53% annually back on their crypto holdings and dollar loans as low as 4.95 percent as well.

Fintechs give small business more choice for credit than just banks (PaymentsSource), Rated: AAA

It’s no secret working capital is the lifeblood of all small businesses. It’s the fuel that keeps them running, helps them grow and take on new opportunities.

And yet, so many small businesses struggle with cash flow. In fact, according to a recent study from Intuit QuickBooks, 61% of small businesses have had cash flow issues in the past year.

Source: FIS

Walmart’s New Credit Cards Have One Big Goal: Boost E-Commerce (Bloomberg), Rated: A

In a sign of how much Walmart Inc. is betting on e-commerce, the retailer’s revamped credit-card program with Capital One Financial Corp. offers better rewards for online shopping and checking out with its mobile app.

The new options, which become available Sept. 24 and use Mastercard Inc.’s network, offer 5% cash back for purchases made at Walmart’s website, including groceries. At the chain’s physical stores, shoppers only get that rate for a year and have to check out with Walmart Pay at the cashier. Otherwise, store customers get 2% back.

Finicity Releases New Verification of Income and Employment Solution for Lenders (PR Web), Rated: B

Finicity, a provider of real-time financial data access and insights, announced today the release of its new Verification of Income and Employment (VOIE) solution using patent-pending TXVerify technology that will speed up borrower verifications and further advance the industry shift toward a fully digital experience.

The Finicity VOIE solution digitally extracts a borrower’s pay statement data from the paystub and then cross-verifies that key data with their income transactions from their financial institutions. Enabled by its TXVerify technology, this detailed vetting process creates a real-time picture of an applicant’s income and employment for fast, accurate reports. The solution does this by leveraging the highest value data – direct from banks – along with a scan, photo or PDF of a borrower’s paystubs. This process significantly shifts the current paradigm from a mostly manual process to one that is fully digital, all while reducing fraud and increasing confidence in the underwriting process.

Sallie Krawcheck: Why ‘don’t buy daily coffee’ is terrible advice (CNBC), Rated: B

“Don’t buy daily coffee” is the go-to financial advice. Co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, Sallie Krawcheck, says that advice is misleading and just enjoy your latte.

Ethereum Development Studio ConsenSys Announces Codefi, A New DeFi Software Suite (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin announced at the Ethereal Tel Aviv press conference (on September 15) that his New York-based venture studio is launching a new product, Codefi, for the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Despite not having invested in emerging DeFi platforms, Lubin described P2P lending systems such as Uniswap and MakerDAO as some of the blockchain industry’s most promising projects.

ApplePie Capital Partners with LSQ Funding on A/R Franchise Financing (Monitor Daily), Rated: B

Online lender ApplePie Capital entered into a new strategic partnership with LSQ Funding Group, a technology-enabled provider of accounts receivable financing for small and mid-sized businesses.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle nears one-year anniversary of London float (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

The peer-to-peer business lender began conditional dealings on the London Stock Exchange on 28 September before being officially admitted to the bourse on 3 October. It launched with an offer price of 440p per share, giving the firm a valuation of £1.5bn.

However, its market capitalisation as of 17 September has since dropped to £348.7m, with its shares now trading at just over 100p.

Zopa warns over imitation scam firms (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

ZOPA has warned over a growing number of scam operators targeting UK customers using the peer-to-peer lender’s name to dupe investors.

They include: asking customers directly for their Zopa login details; claiming to work with companies investing money in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies; or working with companies who would ask them to take out a Zopa loan to fund an investment.

Record numbers of investors and borrowers as cumulative lending hits £11.3bn (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

MORE than 150,000 lenders were invested in 321,483 loans facilitated by Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) platforms at the end of the second quarter, which the trade body deemed “a record level of involvement in the sector”.

Funding Circle is the largest P2P lender among the P2PFA platform members, having lent out a cumulative total of £5.4bn as of the end of the second quarter. It is followed by Zopa at £4.5bn, with ThinCats in third place with just over £491m.

£814m of new loans were made in the second quarter, compared to £866m in the first three months of 2019.

Monzo halts cash referrals as it hits three million users (AltFi), Rated: A

Monzo has ended its cash incentivised referral system as the firm continues to grow users at a rapid pace.

Monzo now has passed the 3 million ‘users’ number, hitting the milestone late on yesterday and is now onboarding 55,000 people to Monzo every week.

Transferwise Books Its Third Consecutive Year of Profits (Lendit), Rated: A

European fintech company Transferwise has recorded its third year in a row of profits; the company reported its net profit after tax climbed to £10.3 million in the fiscal year ending March 2019, up 66% from the previous year on revenue of £179 million;

Payment provider Klarna appearing at London Fashion Week has everybody talking (MyLondon), Rated: A

UK fashion Designer Henry Holland decided to take things up a notch in Saturdays catwalk show with a T Shirt design in collaboration with Klarna.

Klarna expands partnership with Mothercare (The Paypers), Rated: B

Klarna and Mothercare have announced an extension to their partnership, which will see Klarna’s Pay later, Pay in 3, and Slice it products available online and in-store across the UK.

OakNorth Bank provides £3.7m loan to Clearview Developments (London Loves Property), Rated: A

OakNorth Bank the UK bank powered by OakNorth has provided a £3.7m loan to Clearview Developments for a new residential development in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Smarterly and OakNorth Bank partner to offer new Notice Cash ISA range to Smarterly customers (Fintech Finance), Rated: B

The product range includes five Cash ISA Notice accounts, exclusive to Smarterly, ranging from 35 days at 1.05% to one year at 1.25%; Customers will not be able to apply for these products with OakNorth directly;

These five Cash ISAs Notice Accounts are:

  • 35 days – 1.05%
  • Three months – 1.10%
  • Six months – 1.15%
  • Nine months – 1.20%
  • One year – 1.25%
China/Hong Kong

Coming Soon: ‘Social Credit’ for Companies, Too (WSJ), Rated: AAA

A key target of China’s coming “social credit” system, which among Westerners usually triggers visions of “1984”-style monitoring of people, is actually misbehaving businesses.

Corporate America needs to prepare.

About 80% of information on the main data-sharing platform relates to companies rather than individuals, according to China consulting…

Hexindai Reports Unaudited First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2020 Financial Results (PR Newswire), Rated: A

First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2020 Operational Highlights

  • Total loan volume facilitated[1] was US$ 28.2 million (RMB192.3 million) during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 93.5% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Gross billing amount (net of VAT)[2] was US$4.7 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 90.7% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Gross billing ratio (net of VAT)[3] for credit loans was 16.7% during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, an increase from 11.7% during the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Number of borrowers[4] was 18,546 during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 36.0% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Number of investors[5] was 9,534 during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 85.9% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.

First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2020 Unaudited Financial Highlights

  • Net revenue was US$4.9 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 90.5% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Operating costs and expenses were US$12.6 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, a decrease of 18.9% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Net loss was US$7.2 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, compared to net income of US$29.7 million in first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Basic loss per ordinary shares in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was US$0.15, compared to basic earnings per ordinary shares (“EPS”) of US$0.62 in first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Diluted loss per ordinary shares in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was US$0.15, compared to diluted EPS of US$0.56 in first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Adjusted net loss attributable to Hexindai Inc.’s shareholders (Non-GAAP) in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was US$7.0 million, compared to adjusted net income attributable to Hexindai Inc.’s shareholders (Non-GAAP) of US$29.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
  • Adjusted EBIT (Non-GAAP) in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was (US$5.8) million, compared to US$36.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.

CreditEase’s Zhang Sees China’s Credit Demand Rising (Bloomberg), Rated: A

Zhang Yue, senior vice president at CreditEase, discusses the demand for credit in China, write downs in her portfolio, P2P lending, their wealth management business and their expansion plans.

Securing privacy concerns in FinTech in Hong Kong (Lexology), Rated: A

Hong Kong has built a strong environment for fostering innovation and financial technology or FinTech. With its large financial sector and its strategic role with Mainland China and gateway to the rest of Asia and the world, Hong Kong has the potential to take on an important role in being a leader in FinTech. In March 2019, for example, Hong Kong issued its first virtual banking licences, which will likely increase adoption of FinTech in the financial services sector.

Emerging technologies used in Fintech services and operations come in different forms, and include:

  • data analytics that support the operations of financial institutions (for example, credit scoring, loan processing);
  • peer-to-peer (P2P) financing (such as P2P lending and crowdfunding platforms);
  • distributed ledger technology, such as cryptocurrency, bitcoin transactions and smart contract applications, as well as blockchain services to help reduce fraud by keeping provenance data on the blockchain; and
  • financial investments, such as stock trading apps, robo-advisors and algorithmic trading and budgeting apps.
European Union

Binance Announces Phase Five of Crypto Lending Featuring Privacy Coins XMR, ZEC, and DASH (Crypto-Economy), Rated: AAA

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced its launch of the fifth phase of its cryptocurrency lending product in which it customers subscribe to an allocation to lend other users their funds for interest rates as high as 15% Apr.

the 15% interest rate was only available to Binance’s native coin lenders in the first phase. On Tuesday, the exchange revealed three coins that will be included in the crypto lending product including only privacy-centric coins Monero [XMR], Zcash [ZEC] and Dash [DASH]. Their annualized interest rates will be a constant 3.5% but the lending period is only two weeks starting from this Friday September 20th through October 4th.

P2P Lender creditshelf to Acquire SME Finance Provider Valendo (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

creditshelf Aktiengesellschaft has signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of all shares in Valendo – part of the finleap Fintech ecosystem.

According to a company release, the purchase price was in the “low seven-digit amount.” Payment will take place in two separate tranches. creditshelf has the option of settling both tranches in the course of two capital increases via a contribution in kind.

International

How MAS propelled Singapore to the top of the class (Euromoney), Rated: AAA

Today, Singapore sits proudly atop the Euromoney Country Risk (ECR) rankings. Based on ECR’s blend of financial and economic data, combined with the views of leading economists, no country in the world today has a stronger financial position.

When MAS said in July 2019 that it planned to issue five new digital banking licences, analysts soon spotted that three of them were wholesale licences, open to banks and non-banks alike.

Winners will be encouraged to lend, using digital means, to small and medium-sized enterprises and other non-retail segments – further evidence that corporate banking will be the next segment to feel the hot breath of disruption on its neck.

Source: Euromoney County Risk

Goldman Leads Trulioo’s $ 70M Raise To Expand Global Digital ID (PYMNTS), Rated: A

Trulioo, the global identity verification provider, has raised $70 million in new funding, eyeing growth in its core digital identification efforts, the company announced Tuesday (Sept. 17).

The company said in a release that the funding includes $60 million in a Series C round that was led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. Other participants included Citi Ventures, Santander InnoVentures and existing investor American Express Ventures. The remaining $10 million came as unannounced follow-on financing from early investors, including BDC Capital and Blumberg Capital.

Equifax Continues Leadership In Alternative Data With Worldwide Urjanet Partnership (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) and Urjanet today announced a global partnership that empowers consumers and businesses to share their payment data from thousands of utility, telecom and cable providers worldwide for a more complete picture of individual payment history, easier identity verification and the potential for better access to credit. This partnership builds on Equifax’s leadership in alternative data, using the Urjanet Utility Data Platform to incorporate consumer-permissioned data into the Equifax differentiated data approach.

5 Reasons Investors Should Consider Tokenized Assets (Benzinga), Rated: A

According to Deloitte, we shouldn’t view DLT as just a new type of “database ” but rather as a new way to organize the security value chain from issuance to custody. But what exactly can be transmitted through this chain?

Fractional ownership – take as much as you want

Digitizing shares makes them highly divisible, meaning that investors can buy very small percentages of tokenized assets.

So long, intermediaries! 

Security tokens have a simpler investment structure and lower fees.

On the way to maximum liquidity

Cherry on top

A security token is basically a digital signature connected with a smart contract responsible for facilitation and verification of ownership rights transactions.

India

Ribbit leads Series B funding in online investment platform Groww (VC Circle), Rated: AAA

Groww, an online investment platform that sells mutual fund products, has raised $21.4 million (Rs 152.5 crore at current exchange rate) in a Series B funding round led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Ribbit Capital.

Groww said existing investors Sequoia India and Y Combinator also participated in the funding round.

RBI looking at how NBFCs, HFCs set their lending rates (livemint), Rated: AAA

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is studying how non-bank lenders and home financiers price their loans, close on the heels of directing commercial banks to link their loan rates to external benchmarks.

Source: livemint

RBI restricts access to credit data of consumers (Economic Times), Rated: A

The Reserve Bank of India has ordered commercial banks and non-banking lenders to stop providing unregulated entities access to consumer data held by credit bureaus, dealing a blow to scores of fintech startups that have based their business models on such information.

Source: India Times

RBI not in favour of ‘teaser’ loans, examines rate-setting mechanism of NBFCs, HFCs (CNBCTV18), Rated: B

The banking regulator is not in favour of hybrid loan products or ‘teaser loans’, a senior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official today clarified. The remark gains significance in the light of State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar’s recent comment that SBI would seek the regulator’s view on whether banks can introduce fixed-cum-floating rate products.

No dearth of demand on credit side, disbursed credit worth INR 5 billion: Flexiloans Co-founder (IBS Intelligence), Rated: A

FlexiLoans.com, an online lender for MSMEs in India, said that it has crossed a milestone number of disbursing over INR 5 billion of unsecured business loans across the country with its unique digital-only model. The Mumbai-based company, which has disbursed over 16000 loans across 1000 cities and towns in the country, says that there is no dearth of demand on the credit side. The company caters primarily to micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

How has the online lending market shaped up in the last few years?

Digital Lending market is currently at about USD 2 billion, up from about USD 1 billion in 2016. Significant traction and market niches discovered by various FinTech startups across the country have made this space very exciting, holistic and game-changing.

Online SME lender Cash Suvidha plans to raise upto $ 10 million (IBS Intelligence), Rated: B

The online lender for business and personal loans, Cash Suvidha, is planning to raise $5 million -$10 million equity funds in the next six months.

Asia

Terafunding Closes US$ 18M Series B Financing Round (FINSMES), Rated: AAA

Terafunding, a Seoul, South Korea-based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platform, raised US$18M in Series B funding.

Backers included KB Investment, Hana Ventures, IBK Industrial Bank and Woomi Construction.

Julo raises $ 10M to expand its P2P lending platform (TechCrunch), Rated: A

Julo, a peer-to-peer lending platform in Indonesia, said on Wednesday it has extended its $5 million Series A raise to $15 million as it looks to scale its business in the key Southeast Asian market.

The $10 million Series A2 round for the Jakarta-headquartered startup was led by Quona Capital,  with Skystar, East Ventures,  Provident, Gobi Partners and Convergence participating.

Chinese P2P Firms Seeks Business in Vietnamese Market (W7 News), Rated: A

The declining demand for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in China has prompted firms to find business elsewhere. LearnBonds report that Chinese P2P companies are eyeing Vietnam, which alarmed local lending companies.

MENA

Now Money offers alternative for Gulf’s unbanked expats (Financial Times), Rated: AAA

About 70 per cent of the population in the Middle East and north Africa do not have access to banking services, says Ian Dillon, co-founder of Now Money, a Dubai-based financial technology group.

The GCC recorded outbound remittances of $120bn in 2017, according to World Bank data. However, Gulf banks tend to exclude workers earning less than $1,400 a month, leaving most of them reliant on exchange houses to remit cash home.

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

The post Thursday September 19 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

Thursday September 12 2019, Weekly News Digest

bank technology

News Comments Today’s main news: KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to SoFi Consumer Loan Program 2019-4 Trust. Stripe debuts corporate credit cards. College Ave completes $300M securitization of private student loans. Yirendai issues earnings results. Today’s main analysis: Deregulating Fannie and Freddie (A MUST-READ REPORT FROM THE U.S. TREASURY). Today’s thought-provoking articles: Average FICO scores hit […]

The post Thursday September 12 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

bank technology

News Comments

United States

United Kingdom

China

International

Other

News Summary

United States

KBRA Assigns Preliminary Ratings to SoFi Consumer Loan Program 2019-4 Trust (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: AAA

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to four classes of notes issued by SoFi Consumer Loan Program 2019-4 Trust (“SCLP 2019-4”). This is a $465 million consumer loan ABS transaction.

Preliminary Ratings Assigned: SoFi Consumer Loan Program 2019-4

Class

Preliminary Rating

Class Principal

A

AAA (sf)

$360,000,000

B

AA+ (sf)

$29,500,000

C

A+ (sf)

$47,500,000

D

BBB+ (sf)

$28,000,000

OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow to Deliver Keynote Address at 2019 LEND360 Conference (GuruFocus), Rated: A

OnDeck today announced that Chairman and CEO Noah Breslow will be a keynote speaker at the LEND360 Conference in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, September 26, 2019. Mr. Breslow will discuss industry trends in alternative data and how they are improving many aspects of online lending to small businesses.

Case activity for On Deck Capital, Inc. vs Beautyshea, LLC on Sept. 9 (Pennsylvania Record), Rated: B

‘Judgment Entered For $6,593.50 On 09-09-2019 236 Notice Of Judgment Sent 09-09-2019’

Payments giant Stripe debuts a credit card in its latest step into the financing fray (TechCrunch), Rated: AAA

Last week, when the popular payments startup Stripe made some waves with its first move into money lending through the launch of Stripe Capital, we reported that the company was also soon going to be launching a credit card. Now, that news is official. Today, the company is doubling down on financing with the launch of corporate cards for business customers.

College Ave Student Loans Completes $ 300 Million Securitization of Private Student Loans (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Student loan marketplace, College Ave Student Loans, announced on Tuesday it has completed a $300 million securitization of private student loans, its third securitization and largest to date. According to College Ave, the transaction was oversubscribed attracting a broad and diverse group of repeat investors and new participants. Barclays and Goldman Sachs were joint lead underwriters on the transaction with Barclays serving as structuring agent and sole bookrunner.

The Deregulation of Fannie and Freddie; Rate Cuts; “Full Stack” Banks (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

This week, the Trump administration released their long awaited housing finance plan that will privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The plan would require a significant recapitalization – up to $180 Bn.

Read the full report here.

Source: Federal Reserve, PeerIQ

Average FICO score hits all-time high (CNBC), Rated: AAA

For the first time, the average national credit score has reached 706, according to FICO, the developer of one of the most commonly used scores by lenders.

Source: CNBC

U.S. Consumer Debt Surges on Jump in Credit-Card Balances (Bloomberg), Rated: A

U.S. consumer borrowing swelled in July by the most since late 2017 as Americans carried larger credit-card balances to fund both everyday and online purchases.

Total credit rose by $23.3 billion from the prior month, exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, Federal Reserve figures showed Monday. Revolving debt outstanding increased by $10 billion, also the most since November 2017, while the growth of non-revolving credit was little changed from a month earlier.

Kabbage Launches New Small Business Revenue Index (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Global financial service platform Kabbage announced this week the launch of its new Small Business Revenue Index. According to Kabbage, the index has two million live data connections the platform maintains across its customer base of more than 200,000 small businesses.

The Current State of the Small Business Lending Sector (Lend Academy), Rated: AAA

The companies that I view as pioneers in this space are Kabbage and OnDeck.

Although Kabbage and OnDeck were early to small business lending there are many other names in this space with varying models and scale including Funding Circle, Streetshares, Fundbox, BlueVine, Biz2Credit, Fundation and Credibly to name a few. LendingClub also has a small business lending operation but they primarily work with partners Funding Circle and Opportunity Fund today to originate these loans.

The Challengers of Small Business Lending

Probably the most recognizable name is PayPal and the Working Capital product which, according to deBanked, has surpassed OnDeck in small business lending volume.

Patriot Financial leads $ 15 million round for Numerated (American Banker), Rated: A

Numerated, the loan technology company that incubated inside Eastern Bank and spun off on its own in May 2017, has raised $15 million from bank investment fund Patriot Financial Partners. Existing investors Venrock, Fintop Capital and Hyperplane also joined the round.

TBF Financial Buys $ 60 Million in Commercial Debt from Major Online Lender (PR Newswire), Rated: A

TBF Financial purchased nearly $60 million in non-performing loans from a major online small business lender in recent transactions, CEO Brett Boehm announced today.

TBF bought the pools of post-charge-off loans as the highest bidder in transactions arranged through multiple brokers. In most cases, the company purchases directly from alternative lenders, equipment leasing companies and banks.

LendingTree Ranks the 50 Most Expensive Towns in America (NewKerala), Rated: A

No. 1 Vineyard Haven, Mass.

Total population 17,321
Median individual income $39,045
Median home value $674,600
Affordable housing costs for a median income earner $911
Calculated mortgage payment for a median priced home $2,767
Median rent payment $1,441
Home affordability deficit -$1,856
Rent affordability deficit -$530

Coinbase Joins DeFi Trend With 2M USDC Investment (Cryptovest), Rated: A

The DeFi trend is accelerating and gaining acceptance, with Coinbase joining the fray. The leading brokerage has created the Coinbase Bootstrap Fund, to boost DeFi projects. Coinbase will invest in two projects, the Compound crypto lending scheme, and the dy/dx crypto derivative exchange.

The 30-somethings guide to creating passive income (Ladders), Rated: A

You might not have $30,000 saved up to buy a rental property right now, but do you have $500? The beauty of REITs like DiversyFund is you can start investing for the amount of money you might drop on a new pair of shoes.

There are public and private REITS as well as funds classified as real estate crowdfunding. Compare your options and find the best one that works for you.

PeerStreet Named CRETech 2019 Real Estate Tech Award Winner (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B

Real estate investment platform PeerStreet announced on Tuesday it won first place in CRETech’s 2019 Real Estate Tech Awards (RETAs for the Information & Intelligence – Crowdfunding category.

Zillow chooses Impac Mortgage COO Rian Furey to lead mortgage expansion (Housingwire), Rated: B

Zillow announced Monday that it is naming Rian Furey president of Zillow Home Loans.

Balboa Capital Continues Accelerated Growth, Adds 125 New Employees in First Half of 2019 (Yahoo! Finance), Raated: A

Balboa Capital, an online lender that specializes in equipment financing and small business loans, hired 125 new employees during the first six months of 2019 to accommodate the company’s rapid increase in new business and acquisition of several new strategic partners.

United Kingdom

Why crowdfunding may not be the great democratising force in investment after all (The Conversation), Rated: AAA

The digital revolution has had a huge impact on the way new and small companies are financed – and crowdfunding has been at the forefront.

Initially, crowdfunding brought great optimism that it would have a “democratising effect” on finance. On the one hand it would enable entrepreneurs excluded from traditional sources of finance to attract funding. And, on the other, it would provide new opportunities for people with even relatively modest amounts of money to invest. For example, private investors looking for higher returns than those available with high street banks have been attracted to various lending platforms – also known as peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms.

Sonovate raises £110m to drive invoice finance (Fintech Futures), Rated: A

Finance tech provider Sonovate is looking to expand internationally and deploy more working capital to SMEs and mid-market businesses after raising £110 million, reports Jane Connolly.

Spotcap find 77% of SME brokers are upbeat about Brexit (AltFi), Rated: A

Over three-quarters of commercial finance intermediaries in the UK expect the number of loans they broker to increase after Brexit, with more than half saying the number will rise “by a lot”.

In July Berlin-based online lender Spotcap asked 132 UK brokers, accountants and advisers about the future of SME finance in the UK, the results of which it published today as part of a report entitled The State of Commercial Finance in the UK.

FCA urges firms to prepare for no-deal Brexit and launches helpline (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

FIRMS should prepare for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, says the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as it launches a dedicated helpline for businesses.

The City watchdog, which oversees the peer-to-peer lending market as well as the rest of the financial servcies sector, says firms who have not prepared appropriately for the UK leaving the EU without a deal may see an impact on their business.

Foreign firms eyeing P2P market entry (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

REGULATORY consultancy Bovill has reported a steady stream of interest from new entrants to the peer-to-peer lending market, particularly from overseas firms.

Brown attributed the slowdown to the fact that P2P is a more mature market, meaning there was “less of a gold rush” for new players.

H&M extends Klarna ‘buy now, pay later’ service to the UK (Fashion United), Rated: B

Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M has extended its partnership with payment provider Klarna to the UK market, offering Brit shoppers the option to ‘buy now, pay later’.

New SME services added to Starling Bank’s marketplace (AltFi), Rated: B

Digital Risks is an insurance provider for small and medium-sized digital businesses, including cover for specific threats like commercial legal protection, cyber security, management liability, employers liability, public liability and professional indemnity.

While CyberSmart is a platform for SMEs to identify digital weaknesses and achieve their Cyber Essentials Certification, the government-backed accreditation for companies looking to protect against cyber threats.

China

Yirendai (NYSE:YRD) Issues Earnings Results (Mayfield Recorder), Rated: AAA

Yirendai posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The technology company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.24), Morningstar.com reports. Yirendai had a return on equity of 32.93% and a net margin of 15.30%. The firm had revenue of $322.89 million for the quarter.

LexinFintech Secures $ 300 Million Private Placement of Convertible Notes with PAG (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Chinese consumer financing platform LexinFintech announced on Wednesday it has entered into a convertible note purchase agreement with PAG issue and sell convertible notes in an aggregate principal amount of $300 million through a private placement. 

IceKredit Raises $ 47M in Pre-Series C Funding (FINSMES), Rated: A

IceKredit, Inc., a Los Angeles, CA and China-based credit risk and credit management company, raised $47m in pre-Series C funding.

These Chinese Online Lenders Are Not For the Weak at Heart (GuruFocus), Rated: A

Beijing-based online lender Yirendai (NYSE:YRD) and Shanghai-based Paipaidai, or PPDAI Group (NYSE:PPDF), shares have been pummeled down to their lowest levels in the past year. Yet aside from receiving credit lines from large Chinese institutions amid China’s crackdown on fraud lending in their industry, both lenders appear to remain in a healthy state.

PPDAI — the older and bigger of the two lenders — came out strong in its recent quarter, beating earnings expectations. The $1.2 billion online lender reported it had 29% year-over-year growth in loan origination volume to $3 billion, compared to just 1.6% growth a year earlier.

Hexindai Announces Support For Regulators’ Decision to Include P2P Platforms in Central Bank’s Credit System (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B

Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Hexindai (NASDAQ: HX) announced on Tuesday its support for the decision by industry regulators to include the country’s P2P platforms in the central bank’s credit system. The online lender reported that it believes this as a positive move for the P2P industry.

Sequoia-Backed P2P Lender Huobank Collapses As Beijing Mops Up Online Finance Risks (China Money Network), Rated: A

European Union

Banks raise concerns ahead of ECB meeting (Irish Examiner), Rated: A

The president of Germany’s powerful savings banks association, community lenders that dominate the country’s shopping streets, joined Dutch bank ING yesterday in criticising the ECB’s loose monetary policy.

Its 50 million customers have increased their savings by almost 5% since last year to €965bn which is roughly the size of the Dutch economy. With lending amounting to about €860bn, the banks are left with a chunky unused surplus.

Fintech Europe Selects Eight Startups for its Fourth Batch (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: B

Fintech Europe, Plug and Play’s fintech-focused innovation platform based out of Frankfurt, Germany, announced today the eight startups selected for its fourth batch. The platform has grown its partner base to 11 Financial Institutions since its inception in May 2018. Together with Deutsche Bank, TechQuartier, BNP Paribas, Nets Group, UniCredit, Aareal Bank, Abanca, Danske Bank, DZ Bank, Elo, and Finablr, it runs two 12-week innovation programs a year.

CashDirector 

CashDirector SA is a technology company providing SMEs and banks with a Digital CFO integrated with on-line banking, helping with SMEs manage cash flow and accessing financing.

Credit Kudos

Credit Kudos is a credit bureau that uses financial behaviour to measure creditworthiness.

International

Technology Is Banks’ New Battleground (WSJ), Rated: AAA

European banks are spending vast sums on technology—but it may not be enough to defend against the incursions of bigger, richer American rivals.

U.S. lenders already dominate investment banking in Europe. The big risk for the continent’s banks is that slicker tech could give their American rivals a platform to make gains in lending to companies—the Europeans’ traditional stronghold.

This year, Europe’s banks plan to make technology investments worth in aggregate $77 billion, according to consulting firm Celent. That compares with $105 billion for their U.S. rivals. Faster, more seamless trading systems have long been a priority, but tech spending has shifted across business lines and from back office to front office. It can cover everything from maintaining decades-old systems to cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

Source: Celent

Wirecard Teams Up With Credibly to Digitalize Funding Disbursements (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

Germany-based global provider of digital payments and commerce solutions Wirecard announced on Wednesday it is partnering with U.S. business funding fintech Credibly to digitalize funding disbursement. Wirecard claims to be one of the largest issuers of payout cards in the U.S. and is now offering fully digitalize solutions.

PwC to AM industry: disrupt yourself or face extinction (City Wire Selector), Rated: A

The European financial services industry is facing an ‘Amazonisation’ moment, in which those offering consumer-first solutions underpinned by sustainable finance will survive and the others will cease to compete.

That is the headline finding of 52-page report co-authored by PwC Luxembourg and Luxembourg for Finance, which investigated underlying industry trends and indicated that the European market is losing ground on its US and Asian peers when it comes to innovation and assets.

State of the Chain: Five Winning Use Cases for Blockchain in 2019 (U.today), Rated: A

Predictably it was Binance that stole the limelight, with the surprise launch of its eponymous lending platform, which was unveiled on Monday, August 26, and then proceeded to fill its initial lending quota of 200,000 BNB and 10 million USDT in a matter of seconds two days later.

Dharma and Compound have announced new products, while Coinbase has hinted that this will be the next vertical it expands into.

Lenders can enjoy annualized interest of up to 15%, which is significantly better than the negative rates they are currently offered on fiat savings and on negatively yielding government bonds.

Australia

Hopes fintech inquiry will ‘validate’ bank competitors (The Sydney Morning Herald), Rated: A

On Wednesday New South Wales senator Andrew Bragg successfully moved to secure a senate committee inquiry into the fintech and regulatory technology spaces, paving the way for a year-long review into how competitive Australia is in these sectors.

Chief executive of small business lender Lumi, Yanir Yakutiel, said the inquiry should focus on expanding the regulatory sandbox program, which is designed to help early stage fintechs test their ideas.

India

Five Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Instigating Paradigm Shift In Online Lending Space (Via.news), Rated: AAA

Currently, digital lending accounts for around 15% to 20% of the total lending market and could surpass 50% in coming years.

Asia

Chinese P2P Lending Companies Ventures to Vietnam (LearnBonds), Rated: AAA

This business model boomed in China, but following a regulatory clampdown by authorities on risky financial practices, the number of fintech and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in the country dropped from about 1,900 a year ago to just 900 in May.

It now appears that some of these Chinese P2P lending companies have not necessarily disappeared. They simple ventured into new markets and in particular Vietnam.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), there were 40 peer-to-peer lending companies operating in Vietnam as of March. Of these, 10 companies are from China.

MENA

The opportunity of peer-to-peer lending in Lebanon (Executive Magazine), Rated: AAA

Through conversations with Lebanese entrepreneurs, business owners, bankers, and politicians, I have had a number of eye-opening discussions into the challenges and opportunities faced by Lebanon’s SME ecosystem. Given the country’s long-standing tradition in financial services and its large banking sector, I believe fintech—with solutions such as peer-to-peer lending, machine learning to personalize insurance solutions, and the use of artificial intelligence for wealth management—stands as a serious contender to unlock the funding challenges faced by Lebanon’s SMEs.

Latin America

SoftBank in talks to invest in Latam venture capital funds (Reuters), Rated: AAA

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is in talks with venture capital firms in Latin America to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in their funds, a move likely to speed up spending of a $5 billion regional venture capital fund, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

So far, SoftBank has only announced direct investments using the fund’s resources, injecting capital into Colombian delivery app Rappi, Brazilian lender Creditas, gym membership app Gympass and Mexican payments firm Clip, for instance.

Proptech Flat raises US$ 4.5 million pre-seed round led by ALLVP (Contxto), Rated: A

Contxto – Not only is the Mexican real estate industry huge but also outdated with many inefficient processes. Counteracting this, a new Mexican startup, Flat, recently raised US$4.5 million in one of Mexico’s largest pre-seed rounds ever.

Africa

Nigerian online-only bank startup Kuda raises $ 1.6M (TechCrunch), Rated: AAA

Nigerian fintech startup Kuda — a digital-only retail bank — has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding.

Canada

Peer to Peer Lender Lending Loop Tops $ 50 Million in Loans (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

Canada’s first peer to peer lending platform for SMEs, Lending Loop, has topped CDN $50 million in loans, according to a post by Brendon Vlaar, co-founder and CTO of the company. Lending Loop provides investment opportunities in debt-based securities to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

PayBright Raises $ 34M in Growth Equity Financing (FINSMES), Rated: A

PayBright, a Toronto, Canada-based fintech company, received a $34m equity investment from goeasy.

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

The post Thursday September 12 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Lending Times.

4 AI Underwriting Myths Debunked

data science

In 2017, HES designed GiniMachine, an AutoML platform for credit scoring. Since then, we have conducted more than 100 pilot projects for banks, credit unions, and financial companies. What follows is an overview of the top four misconceptions that bank managers have when approaching AI-based business solutions. An Unfathomable Volume of Data It is estimated […]

The post 4 AI Underwriting Myths Debunked appeared first on Lending Times.

data science

In 2017, HES designed GiniMachine, an AutoML platform for credit scoring. Since then, we have conducted more than 100 pilot projects for banks, credit unions, and financial companies.

What follows is an overview of the top four misconceptions that bank managers have when approaching AI-based business solutions.

An Unfathomable Volume of Data

It is estimated that humanity already produces 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day, and by 2020, this amount will increase approximately 20 times according to a PwC Technology Report.

Needless to say, the sheer quantity of data is growing at an astounding rate. This increase in scale has led to a rise in entropy in the system, which in turn requires a huge number of tasks to be automated and properly managed. This is where AI comes in.

Machine learning allows us to analyze enormous quantities of information at a much greater speed than a human being ever could while also minimizing the risk of errors that so often occur when mere mortals do the work.

Myth #1: AI is Always a Black Box

The black box challenge has been argued over and debated for years.

When lending algorithms arrive at a final decision, quite often it’s unclear why. We know that a loan application is denied, but we don’t know if it was because of a payment history issue, because the applicant is young, or something else entirely.

This ambiguity is the core reason for the rise in demand for Explainable AI (XAI).

“The more accurate the algorithm, the harder it is to interpret, especially with deep learning networks,” points out Sameer Singh, assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Irvine.

Today, different tools like feature and permutation importance, and methods like the SHARP method, can be used to make sense of black box AI models. For an in-depth look at the techniques for interpreting black box AI models, have a look at these two articles:

The easiest way to achieve interpretability is to use algorithms that create interpretable models, such as linear regression, logistic regression, tree-based models, rule-fits, Naive Bayes, and k-nearest neighbors.

Christoph Molnar’s book ‘Interpretable Machine Learning’ covers all the various algorithms.
AI-based dynamic systems are here to stay, however, the general public is highly unlikely to simply turn over their fate to an all-knowing black box system. Any institution that wants to retain its credibility will be forced to embrace XAI to make sure that it has the accountability and transparency necessary to maintain the public trust.

Myth #2: Datasets Must be Prepared by Data Scientists

As Andrew Ng points out in his Space Rocket Analogy, machine learning models that provide actionable results are fueled by data. Without data, the AI rocket just won’t fly.

The quality of the dataset will affect the quality of the predictive model. This means that machine learning algorithms require data to be prepared and formatted in a specific way.
Historical “raw” data is generally inaccurate as it may have missing values and outliers, or it might simply just have invalid data formats. That’s where a data scientist comes in.

The elements of data science pipeline

Data scientists usually engineer the data, spending weeks or months on this step. And data science is not a simple matter. It requires a blend of domain knowledge, math and statistics expertise, as well as code hacking skills.

But here’s the good news that nobody is telling you: You don’t need a data science team to get value from your data. The key to minimizing your data science needs is having the right technology: Technology that allows a data analyst to contribute in a meaningful way to data projects. Today, advanced ML platforms can perform perfectly with historical data without any preliminary analysis or data pre-processing.

Myth #3: AI Costs a Fortune

These days, AI is everywhere, and figuring out how to harness it is popular in any business.  Despite its ubiquity, many still believe that only massive enterprises have the budget to invest the supposed millions of dollars it takes to purchase AI-based technologies.

Why is AI now affordable?

  • As mentioned above, it is no longer necessary to hire a data scientist. The New York Times reported the cost of a “typical” AI specialist ranges from $300,000 to $500,000 a year between salary and stock options.
  • Ready-to-use developer tools are now widely available. In the past, AI-based solutions (i.e. Matlab, and SAS) were over-qualified and far too expensive. Now, feature-rich packages are available for Python — they offer almost identical functionality as their premium competition, but at a fraction of the cost.

The price of an AI-based system varies depending on the number of subsystems that a company chooses to implement. For example, if an enterprise needs a chatbot it can be as low as $15,000 depending on the complexity of the system. A subscription underwriting system for a SaaS platform can be purchased for only $1,000-$5,000 a month depending on the number of loan requests.

Myth #4: Risk Experts Don’t Need AI

The world is witnessing the biggest man-machine collaboration in history. The fear that AI will become smarter than humans and replace them is exaggerated in pop culture. Though some jobs will inevitably disappear, the remaining risk experts will find their work more fulfilling and stimulating than ever. It’s important to remember that AI is not the expert; it’s a tool for helping experts.

The benefits of AI for risk officers and data analysts.

  1. AI saves thousands of hours of manual processing, which means humans no longer need to perform tedious, repetitive tasks.
  2. At the enterprise level, AI means enhanced automation of administrative tasks, reduction of the overall workload, and a decrease in operational costs and labor.
  3. AI leads to better performance for risk experts. AI unlocks the ability to exploit hidden dependencies that are otherwise very difficult for humans to find on their own.

The purpose of AI is to provide a fast and secure backbone for risk management. But without experts, it’s nothing. It’s humans who train machines to perform tasks: Humans who understand the outcomes of those tasks, and humans who sustain the responsible use of machines for the benefit of other humans.

Redesign Risk Management

To get the most value from AI, companies must first discover and describe an operational area that can be improved. It might be a high churn rate, a balky credit scoring process, or half-powered historical data usage. AI can help to surface previously invisible problems and reduce current challenges.

Let’s not forget that issuing good loans is not just for enriching banks and lending institutions. Issuing loans helps recipients pursue their interests and enrich their lives. Risk officers have a duty to use all the tools at their disposal to this end, for the benefit of both parties.

Author:

Natalie Pavlovskaya is the chief marketing officer at HES (HiEnd Systems), a fintech company behind comprehensive lending and credit scoring solutions. She is a marketing executive with international business experience in CIS, EMEA, and US, working for more than seven years in digital marketing.

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