As part of their SoFi ReFi program, SoFi will now offer a six-month grace period for new graduates; typically refinancing student debt has meant that graduates must give up their grace period on loans. Source
- OnDeck Adds Former GE Capital and Sun Trust Executives to Finance Team
- Elastic Line of Credit Surpasses $1 Billion in Total Funding
- SenseTime Raises US$410M Series B Financing
- BitGo Raises $42.5M in Series B Funding
- Creditas Raises $50M in Series C Funding
- CAN Capital Makes Three Strategic Hires to Strengthen Sales and Technology Teams
- How asset managers like FinEx Asia are using AI to disrupt traditional bank lending
- Digital challenger Starling to hit profit in 2019 says founder Anne Boden as European expansion takes crucial step
- Compass gets $450M from SoftBank; real estate portal now valued at $2.2B
- Finance teams are ‘bottlenecking’ banks’ digital transformations
- Prosper Appoints Claire Huang to Board of Directors
The Telegraph explores performance on Lendy Finance, previously known as Saving Stream; outlines specific properties that have struggled and that almost 25% of loans are outside original terms; Lendy states that just 14.5% of its loan book is in default and is in line with the wider bridging and development finance market; the property lender’s loan book now totals £300 million. Source
The deal will allow Mosaic to free up room on their own balance sheet and finance more loans; the company operates as a hybrid lender and completed a $139 million securitization in February; the move shows the willingness for a big bank to buy and own solar loans. Source
Crowdfund Insider reports on regulatory developments in China's financial services sector; provides some additional insight on the CBRC's newly released document outlining ten high priority risks; according to Crowdfund Insider the chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), Xian Junbo, has now been placed under investigation as the country seeks to regulate the financial services industry overall. Source
Finnovista is a leading market advocate for fintech in Latin America and Spain; looking ahead to 2017 the organization thinks fintech will be important in promoting financial inclusion specifically with 40% of the fintech services in Latin America focused on unbanked and underbanked consumers and businesses; Finnovista's Fermin Bueno says Latin America has the ecosystem, venture capital and government support for fintech growth and financial inclusion improvements; Bueno also predicts growth in fintech will increase competition for traditional providers with 30% of traditional industry income at risk from fintech companies. Source
JPMorgan asset-backed securities (ABS) analysts have highlighted marketplace lending securitizations, noting their growth and trending performance; cite marketplace lending ABS as one of the fastest growing securitization categories, increasing from $3.3 billion in 2013 to $9 billion in 2016; also say performance is better or similar to the broad market's ABS consumer loan securitizations overall with higher returns and lower default rates; additionally, the analysts report that credit characteristics on Avant's securitizations have improved. Source
A wide range of loan options for small business funding are available; Lend Academy provides an overview of the market's credit products for small businesses in their article; loans from the Small Business Administration and large lenders have traditionally been the main focus for many borrowers however online marketplace lenders and innovative credit products such as invoice financing have greatly evolved the options for credit funding in the market. Source
The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target for the federal funds rate to 0.50% to 0.75% at its December meeting; Fed officials also signaled a more aggressive approach for rate increases in 2017 with projections showing the potential for three more rate increases next year; improvements in the labor market, positive GDP growth and stable inflation were key market factors for the rate increase. Source
US legislators have proposed that student loan debt be discharged in the case of bankruptcy; the current law gives added protection to student loan lenders by requiring the debt to be repaid in bankruptcy; lawmakers and lobbyists are also considering other provisions that would provide debt relief to student loan borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy; while the debt relief initiatives will benefit borrowers, the effects will add increased default risk for investors in private student loans and private student loan securitizations. Source