A quarterly report from the New York Federal Reserve says household debt has reached its highest level since 2008 at $12.58 trillion; household debt increased $226 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016; home and auto loans represent the majority of the debt; despite the increase, bankruptcies and foreclosures for the fourth quarter reached an 18-year low indicating consumers are capable of managing the added debt. Source
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A 2015 McKinsey report says today's technology is ready to replace approximately 45% of US jobs across a wide range of industries; federal and state governments have been receiving numerous inquiries about the effects of robot automation on the labor market however little has been done by legislators on the topic; Bill Gates has one suggestion for the economy; he suggests a tax for robot automation; a number of scenarios have come from Gates' robot tax suggestions, including: a company tax for robot automation that would contribute to social programs, designating government funds for salaried workers affected by robots, using taxes to provide a universal income for all citizens and a negative income tax. Source
The current market perspective is that banks aren't lending because of regulatory constraints; President Donald Trump even says that many of his friends in the business world would like to borrow money but can't because of regulatory restrictions; while market statistics show that banks are lending and have been doing so at an increasingly higher rate, it is true that there are constraints; however insight from the New York Times suggests that efforts to deregulate could be futile and that with lower capital requirements banks would instead prefer to use capital for increasing dividends and stock buybacks. Source
Student loan trader Nate Huebscher reports on the simplicity and benefits of marketplace loans versus the traditional lending sources: Sallie Mae, Discover, and the US Government; interviews Jason Jones of LendIt and Karan Mehta of Marlette Funding; Huebscher discusses the wide variation in marketplace lending models; also reports on some of the market challenges ahead that could dramatically affect the next cycle of platform results. Source
Jason talks about this year's LendIt USA event which will take place on March 6-7; while initially focusing just on online lending at its first event, LendIt USA has evolved to include a much broader agenda of fintech topics; IBM Watson will be giving a keynote on artificial intelligence this year and beyond just lending other featured topics will include blockchain, financial inclusion, wealth management and biometrics; PitchIt@LendIt has gained increased interest across the industry and this year had over 250 entries; attendees will also hear from asset allocators and learn about bank partnerships; LendIt has expanded networking within the LendIt mobile app to include 1-1 meeting functionality. Source
Keogh founded Finova Financial to offer a more affordable alternative for borrowers seeking title loans; Finova offers car equity lines of credit with 12 months to pay versus the 30 days currently required by most title lenders; managed through a cloud-based system it offers easy payments and its payment terms also include early payment incentives and no late fees; the firm has now raised $52.5 million. Source
UK digital bank Monzo is nearing completion of a new funding round that will add 20 to 30 million British pounds in capital for the firm; the investment round is being led by Thrive Capital; sources also report that the firm is planning an equity crowdfunding campaign later in the year; Monzo is led by CEO Tom Blomfield and the firm was granted a UK banking license in August 2016; it currently has 100,000 users with activity driven by pre-paid Mastercards and mobile applications; the firm recently declined an acquisition offer from an incumbent bank and says it still has a lot it plans to accomplish. Source
The construction sector accounts for approximately 16% of invoices financed on the MarketInvoice platform and issues from construction company Elimco UK have uncovered some new potential risks for the sector; Elimco UK has stopped making payments to the platform; in most cases MarketInvoice as the lender would receive preferred rights to the company's payments however in the construction sector set off rights give the customer preference of payment which has caused the construction company to default with MarketInvoice; the total amount of losses reported for MarketInvoice has not been disclosed; the company says its overall loss rate is 2.4% after recoveries; the firm also says it does not have plans for data filtering by industry category since it would lead to cherry picking loans. Source
Lending Club's fourth quarter earnings release showed a decrease in investment from retail investors; the decrease follows an increased focus from the company on banks and institutional investors as the company seeks to regain credibility following issues in 2016; while originations have remained fairly steady over the past three quarters, the percentage of investment from institutional investors increased to 74% in the fourth quarter. Source
Funding Circle has reported cumulative originations of over 2 billion British pounds in P2P loans since its launch in 2010; it is the largest online marketplace for small business loans and has been originating approximately 100 million British pounds a month since November; its cumulative loan originations are currently just slightly less than Zopa which surpassed 2 billion British pounds in January and was the industry's first platform to launch in 2005. Source