Real estate P2P lending platform Octopus Choice has received full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK; the FCA approval now allows it to begin the process for offering innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs) for investors; the firm has been in business for nine months; it currently provides secured loans to residential property borrowers. Source
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UK challenger bank OakNorth has hired three new senior executives in anticipation of higher lending demand post-Brexit; Georgy Naydenov and Stuart Blair will join OakNorth as debt finance directors and David Webley was hired as a credit director; the bank's loan book has grown by 300% since the June referendum vote with loans of 300 million British pounds ($368.85 million); for 2017 it anticipates lending over 500 million British pounds ($614.75 million). Source
In Orchard's January 6 Weekly Snapshot it notes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's actions against Equifax and TransUnion and its new updates to the Orchard Lendscape; data on publicly traded online lenders shows OnDeck with a monthly gain of 11.21% and Square continuing to report gains with a monthly return of 9.72%; in UK listed funds the VPC Specialty Lending Fund led gains with a monthly return of 10.07% followed by P2P Global Investments with a monthly gain of 8.84%; in the US the River North Marketplace Lending Fund reported a monthly return of -0.94%. Source
New regulations slowed the growth of P2P lending in China in 2016; data from P2P001 reports that transaction volume in P2P lending increased by 138% in 2016 to over 2.8 trillion yuan ($403 billion) however that was only half of the transaction volume growth reported in 2014 and 2015; on August 24, 2016 the government issued new requirements for the industry, one of which requires that lenders partner with banks for custodian services; this adds additional costs for lenders and as of the end of 2016 only 7.98% had partnered with a custodian bank. Source
Recent news on consumer lending players IEG Holdings Corporation, OneMain Holdings, Lending Club, Ally Financial and TransUnion is outlined in a press release; of interest is IEG's announcement and offer to purchase all outstanding shares of OneMain and Ally's recent agreement to support contracts from Carvana, an online auto retailer that also operates vehicle vending machines; according to the press release, "Ally will make up to $600 million available to Carvana over the next 12 months through financing and bulk purchases of contracts." Source
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) had meetings with various bitcoin exchanges this week including BTCC, OKCoin and Huobi; along with the meetings two press releases were issued; according to a translation from Coindesk, the document reads, "Bitcoin is not a currency and shouldn't be viewed as such. Those who invest in bitcoin should accordingly be aware of the risks it poses and protect their investment"; officials also reminded exchanges about complying with local state laws and other regulations. Source
CAN Capital has deep roots in the credit industry, evolving from one of the industry's leading merchant cash advance services in the 90s; as AdvanceMe, its direct competition with AmeriMerchant was influential in the merchant cash advance industry with AmeriMerchant winning a patent case that invalidated AdvanceMe's patent on merchant cash advance technology, also opening the market to increased entrants in the merchant cash advance business; both companies have now simultaneously reached new junctures; CAN Capital suspended funding in November 2016 and AmeriMerchant, now Capify, has been partially acquired by Strategic Funding Source; Strategic Funding Source has acquired the US operations of Capify in one of 2017's first acquisitions; international businesses of Capify were not acquired and will continue to be led by Capify executives. Source
PitchBook provides its insight on the fintech market in 2017; cites securitization as a positive factor for the online lending market with marketplace lending securitizations at $5.4 billion through the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 86% from 2015; also notes robust data providers including Orchard, DV01, MonJa and PeerIQ as another positive factor for the marketplace lending industry's growth. Source
Lend Academy recently highlighted the trends in interest rates at Lending Club in their recent article; Lending Club has changed interest rates five times since late 2015; the recent trend of increasing rates can be seen in the below chart taken from Lending Club's statistics page which tracks average interest rates across loan grades since 2008; higher risk loans have seen the most impact from recent changes in interest rates. Source
Artificial intelligence innovation is an important focus for many companies in 2017. Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Company has taken a lead in the insurance market with its announcement to replace 34 workers in its payment assessment department with an IBM Watson artificial intelligence solution. The firm says the Watson system will improve productivity and save approximately 140 million yen ($1.21 million) per year. This is one of the first times we've seen a public announcement of how employees have been replaced as a direct result of artificial intelligence. Source