During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
European Challenger Banks Launch U.S. Invasion – Is America Ready? from The Financial Brand – Interesting piece about leading European digital banks Monzo and n26 and what they need to do to succeed in the US.
Credit Card Statistics from CompareCards – Despite the rapid growth of the personal loan space credit card debt keeps rising, it now stands at a total of $1.072 trillion, an all time high.
Lendbuzz, AI Auto Startup That Steps in When FICO Fails, Raises $150M from Xconomy – Auto lender LendBuzz has raised $150 million, including $20 million in equity from 83NorthVC, as they focus on bringing better auto lending deals to thin file consumers.
UK FinTech Investment Flying High in H1 2019 from Innovate Finance – The UK fintech sector keep rocking along. They had a record $2.9 billion in venture capital raises in the first six months of 2019.
Goldman Sachs paid price for expansion into consumer banking from American Banker – Digging in to Goldman Sachs earnings reveals that the company has suffered $1.3 billion in losses in its consumer facing business (Marcus) along with a new transaction banking platform that is designed for corporate customers.
Challenger bank Varo, which has raised $179 million from Warburg Pincus and TPG, just took a big step that might separate it from competitors like Chime and Monzo from Business Insider – Digital bank Varo filed an application with the FDIC on Monday, one of the final steps it has to take before it can receive a national banking charter from the OCC.
First Associates Closes Investment Round with Stone Point Capital & Combines Operations with PFSC from First Associates – There was some action in the loan servicing business this week. First Associates has closed an investment round with Stone Point Capital and combined operations with PFSC.
Real Estate Fintech Roofstock Doubles Its Investor Base of Newbies from Forbes – Real estate fintech Roofstock is crushing it. I think their new Roofstock One product is one of the most innovative approaches to real estate investing ever created.
Banking startup N26 raises another $170 million at $3.5 billion valuation from Techcrunch – It was back in January that German digital bank N26 raised $300 million. Barely six months later they are back with another $170 million round, valuing the company at $3.5 billion, as they get ready to take on the US market.
Ping An-backed Lufax to ditch P2P lending on regulatory woes from Reuters – The Chinese p2p lending market just lost one of its biggest players. Lufax is exiting P2P due to the regulatory hurdles. They will still offer consumer financing, just not P2P, and will continue to focus on their wealth management products.
Robinhood Plans Relaunch of High Yield Cash Account from Fortune – Maybe they have learned their lesson. Robinhood is “going to come out with a cash management account soon” but they are not calling it a bank account.
Consumer lender Oportun lays groundwork for IPO from American Banker – Looks like the next online lender to go public will be Oportun. They filed a registration statement with the SEC this past Wednesday, they plan to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol OPRT.
