A new bill has been introduced in Congress that would mandate the IRS to make their data available via API; the current process for lenders requires borrowers to fill out a form known as IRS 4506-T: Request for Transcript of Tax Return; Lend Academy provides additional information on the bill with thoughts from Congressman McHenry and Nat Hoopes, Executive Director of the Marketplace Lending Association. Source
All P2P lenders will now be known as non-banking financial companies (NBFC-P2P); all p2p lenders will also have to receive a certificate of registration; companies will go through a 12 month period before getting final approval; under the rules a p2p firm can’t raise deposits or lend on its own; other details of the guidelines including loan caps for borrowers are outlined in the article. Source
Finastra, R3 and seven global banks are teaming up to build a blockchain based marketplace for syndicated loans; banks include BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, HSBC, ING and State Street; Fusion LenderComm, which uses R3's Corda platform, will be able to handle real-time credit agreements, accrual balances, position information and transaction data. Source.
Student loan servicer Navient has acquired fintech firm Earnest for $155mn; the motivation behind the deal will pave the way for Navient to enter the lending business; “We’re looking to be the major player in the student loan refi space,” said Navient CEO Jack Remondi in an interview with the WSJ. Source.
The LendIt content team that created the agenda for our upcoming European event on October 9 & 10 share:
- The main trends that are happening in European fintech today.
- What is different and similar when it comes to fintech in Europe, USA and China.
- How LendIt Europe is going to work and what attendees can expect.
- The networking opportunities for attendees at LendIt Europe.
- How Brella, our 1-to-1 networking tool, works.
- Some of the highlighted sessions at the show.
- How attendees will be able to get the most out of their two days at LendIt Europe.
Carey Olsen discusses offshore corporate structures for fintech companies; these smaller jurisdictions offer many benefits including allowing regulators to be more agile and a broader toolbox of corporate vehicles; Carey Olsen has expertise in advising fintech businesses in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Guernsey and Jersey; shares the variations in regulation across these jurisdictions in their blog post. Source
An opinion piece in American Banker highlights the challenges the marketplace lending industry faced in 2016; Alenka Grealish, a senior analyst at Celent believes that we will see consolidation and more partnerships in the remainder of 2017 and into 2018; discusses the advantages and challenges both fintechs and banks have and what may happen in a downturn. Source
FinLab aims to help fintech startups that are helping American consumers; it is funded through a five-year grant from JPMorgan; in total 26 companies have worked or are working with Finlab; TechCrunch profiles how the innovation lab works which includes programs to help startups understand how the banking industry works and meetings in Washington with regulators. Source
LendInvest Co-Founder & CEO Christian Faes challenged the UK government to put more support behind small scale developers at the Conservative Party Conference; “There is a clear monopoly in the sector,” says Mr. Faes; to even the playing field LendInvest and others say more regulatory action can help to tip the scales in favor of property entrepreneurs. Source
In a recently recorded speech, Rhydian Lewis said that the company expects to be profitable in 2018; the p2p lender was previously profitable in financial years 2014 and 2015; the company is also celebrating its seventh birthday and has facilitated £2.1bn in loans, connecting 57,000 lenders with 388,000 borrowers. Source