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.
Hard Lessons From the Federal Student-Loan Program’s Coming $36 Billion Shortfall from The Wall Street Journal – The shortfall in the federal student loan program has gone from a projected $8.4 billion to a $36 billion deficit. Something needs to be done here.
Alternative Finance at #PFF18: 16 Fintech Startups Deliver $12 Billion Financing to Consumers and SMEs in 32 countries from Crowdfund Insider – Great review of the Alternative Finance track at last week’s Paris Fintech Forum.
Banco BNI Europe Starts to Lend on Multiple P2P Lending Platforms from P2P-Banking – The Portuguese digital bank Banco BNI Europa is making a name for themselves in marketplace lending. Their latest addition is Finnish platform Fellow Finance.
State regulators launch joint multistate licensing process for fintechs, MSBs from American Banker – The burden of 50 different state regulations for fintech may be getting easier with a pilot program across multiple states.
Goldman Sachs in Talks With Apple to Finance iPhone Sales from The Wall Street Journal – This would be a coup if the deal closes. Marcus in talks with Apple to provide financing for iPhones.
Why point-of-sale lending is hot right now from American Banker – Great in depth article on the state of point of sale lending, who the major players are today and why it is booming.
Fintech partnerships can work (see: Radius Bank) from American Banker – Boston based community bank Radius Bank has become a leader when it comes to partnering with fintech platforms.
A Tale of Two Cities: SEC & CFTC Heads Testify Before the Senate Banking Committee from Crowdfund Insider – Good coverage of the testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee on ICOs and cryptocurrencies featuring comments from the heads of the SEC and CFTC.
UK fintech beats the Brexit blues to take second place globally from AltFi – The UK fintech sector had a good year when it comes to capital raising, behind only the USA in 2017.
Budgeting app Moven wants to buy a bank from Tearsheet – Another fintech leader is looking to become a bank. Moven has been a mobile first budgeting app with a debit card and now they are looking to buy a bank.
Goldman Is Close to Buying Personal-Finance Startup Clarity from Bloomberg – Goldman Sachs continues their acquisition spree to build Marcus. Now, they are looking to buy personal finance startup Clarity Money.
Zopa launches income verification tool using Open Banking data from Peer2Peer Finance News – In the UK Zopa has launched an income verification tool through an API made possible by open banking.
Lenders to allow Airbnb income on mortgage forms from MarketWatch – This is a logical and overdue step. Airbnb hosts will now be able to include their Airbnb income when they look to refinance their home.
New Retail P2P Investment: The Worthy Bond from P2P Lending Expert – Here is a new platform offering a 5% return using a Reg A+ offering.
Taking a cut of student’s future paychecks has Silicon Valley investors funding education from Quartz – Income Sharing Agreements are making something of a comeback today with several schools looking to play a role in helping student finance their debt responsibly.
Big data vs. the credit gap from Politico – Good analysis of the new of alternative data in underwriting in particular looking at Upstart and Petal.
Exclusive: China’s Ant plans equity fundraising at potential $100 billion valuation – sources from Reuters – China’s Ant Financial is by far the most valuable fintech company on the planet. Even more so with this latest capital raise.
SoFi Reports Disappointing Earnings as Loan Performance Suffers from The Wall Street Journal – In 2017 SoFi earned $126 million in profit on revenue of $547 million but incurred higher than expected credit losses according to the WSJ.
From the Lend Academy Forum
The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.
Cumulative ROI by Vintage Beginning 14Q1 – An investor looks at 2016 and 2017 data courtesy of Insikt to get a sense of recent performance trends.
Available now: 2017 – 1099 Consolidated Package – Tax documents are now available for download for LendingClub and Prosper investors.
Worst Month Yet – An investor continues to share his LendingClub account performance as he winds down his account.
