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.
Fed Preparing to Finance New Small-Business Payroll Loans by The Wall Street Journal – One of the big constraints for small banks and fintech lenders to ramp up PPP lending is access to enough capital. Today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Fed will create a facility to purchase these loans thereby freeing up more capital to lend.
Plaid gives lenders access to small business payroll data to speed emergency loan approval by CNBC – For small business owners looking to file a PPP loan application speed is of the essence. So, it is good to see Plaid creating a tool that gives lenders access to small business payroll data.
Treasury’s Mnuchin seeks additional $250 billion to replenish small-business coronavirus program by The Washington Post – While this is a good start I think we are going to need a lot more than another $200b to satisfy the demand for the PPP loan program. But at least US Treasury recognizes that more is needed soon.
Microsoft And Plaid Should Target Small Businesses (Not Consumers) With Money In Excel by Forbes – While the Plaid and Microsoft partnership is innovative Ron Shevlin thinks it will struggle to get traction as a consumer offering. But it could be reborn as a small business tool and be successful.
After opening-day fiasco, SBA upgrades lender portal with Amazon assist by American Banker – The SBA may finally be getting its act together. Good news for fintech lenders (and about time too): “The SBA is also expected to provide the application forms necessary for fintech lenders to join the program by the end of this week”
Exclusive: Eyeing defaults, U.S. direct lender Colchis Capital to shut funds by Reuters – This is sad news for the Marketplace Lending space. I remember back in 2011 when a mysterious investor pledged to invest $150m in Prosper Loans. It was Colchis Capital and they helped build the industry.
After opening-day fiasco, SBA upgrades lender portal with Amazon assist by American Banker – The SBA E-Trans system has been a bottleneck (it went down for several hours on Monday) in getting PPP loans processed. Hopefully, the Amazon improvements will help, particularly for new lenders.
Upgrade accelerates launch of contactless card amid COVID-19 pandemic by Banking Dive – News from Upgrade Credit as they launch the first contactless version of the Upgrade Card and it is also now available in digital form on Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Enlisted Late, Online Lenders Still Must Wait to Help Speed Up Stimulus by The New York Times – While it will not exactly be a financial windfall for #fintech lenders they are more than willing to help fund PPP loans. But they must continue to wait…
Goldman Sachs Enters The Point-Of-Sale Financing Space With Marcus Pay by Forbes – So this is interesting. Marcus is launching MarcusPay, a buy now pay later financing option for point of sale with JetBlue as their launch customer.
PayPal, Intuit QuickBooks approved to hand out emergency funds to small businesses in coronavirus program by CNBC – We finally have the first two non-banks out of the gate on the PPP. Not surprisingly these are the fintech giants PayPal and Quickbooks Capital.
