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.
Online lenders make case for cash-flow data while acknowledging pitfalls from American Banker – On the heels of the FinRegLab report users of cash flow data in underwriting give their perspective.
LendingClub: America Does Not Need Another Credit Card, Apple Card Spells Disaster for Consumers from Crowdfund Insider – Unsurprisingly LendingClub is not a fan of the new Apple Card by Goldman Sachs.
Swedish fintech Klarna valued at $5.5 billion in funding round from Reuters – The title of most valuable private fintech company in Europe keeps changing. Just this year it has been OakNorth, N26, Transferwise and now Klarna has taken over the title with a $460m round that values the firm at $5.5b.
An update on credit access and the Bureau’s first No-Action Letter from the CFPB – The CFPB provides an update on the use of alternative data in underwriting and the No Action Letter issued to Upstart in 2017.
What business does a crowdfunding fintech have with banks? from American Banker – Interesting Q&A with Krista Morgan of P2Binvestor about raising capital and bank partnerships.
Thiel-Backed Valar Leads Finance Round for Crypto Startup from Bloomberg – Crypto lender BlockFi just raised $18m in a Series A from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures as they look to expand their product mix. Congrats to Zac Prince and team on the funding round.
Blend’s CFO explains how the buzzy mortgage startup overshot its own expectations with a $130 million Series E — and the metrics that made investors salivate from Business Insider – A deep dive into the recent funding round by digital mortgage leader Blend with comments from the CFO.
‘We call it Dream Fuel’: Behind the growth of PayPal’s SMB lending business from Tearsheet – PayPal Working Capital has quietly passed $10 billion in total loans issued to small businesses. Tearsheet talks with their head of credit Darrell Esch.
State regulators scrutinize payroll advance firms from American Banker – There has been a lot of activity in the payroll advance space. Legislation is pending in CA while 11 states are scrutinizing this new industry.
Payday loans decline in Calif. as borrowers turn to installment products from American Banker – Last year Californians took out the fewest number of payday loans since 2006. At the same time the number of installment loans keep increasing & many are still very expensive. The state is looking at putting a 36% rate cap in place for loans up to $10K.
James Meekings to step down from Funding Circle from AltFi News – I was disappointed to read that James Meekings, co-founder of Funding Circle and head of the UK business is stepping away. Although I was happy to see Lisa Jacobs get the nod as his replacement.
Apple Card fortifies the digital model, and that’s trouble for banks from American Banker – Opinions are divided over whether the new Apple Card is just another credit card or a gamer changer. Here, American Banker looks at the impact it may have on banks.
