During the week I share the latest marketplace lending 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.
The LendIt Story from deBanked – Nice feature in deBanked with comments from my partner Jason Jones on the LendIt story.
Bank of America is testing employee-less branches to serve digital-first customers from Tradestreaming – Bank of America is experimenting with a new kind of digital strategy.
An Ivy League professor who spent 4 months working in a South Bronx check-cashing store says we’re getting it all wrong from Business Insider – Fascinating account by Lisa Servon of her time spent working at a check cashing store.
Investing in the Next Phase of LC Advisors from Lending Club – I received this email from Lending Club this week. A new diversified fund is coming from LC Advisors.
Investors sneeze at P2P trust’s ‘seasoning’ from Citywire – Simon Champ explains the poor performance of his P2PGI fund in 2016.
Weekly Industry Update: February 12, 2017 from PeerIQ – The latest PeerIQ newsletter focuses on the recent Trump administration Executive Order on fintech regulation.
A US online lender keeps its millennial customers by helping them find jobs (and friends and life partners) from Quartz – Good rundown on what makes SoFi different and why their members love them.
California regulator acknowledges ‘legitimate criticisms’ of state licensing from American Banker – I have been saying this for years. The states licensing system is horrible. CA regulator agrees.
Houses as ATMs No Longer from Liberty Street Economics – Home equity has rebounded to pre-crisis levels. But homeowners are not tapping equity like before.
Fintech firms form new research group from American Banker – The Online Lending Policy Institute is a new research group. They are sponsoring the Policy track at LendIt USA.
Money360 Affiliate M360 Advisors Registers Fund with South Korea Financial Supervisory Service from Crowdfund Insider – Commercial real estate platform Money360 is soon going to be open to institutional investors in South Korea.
How software is eating the banking industry from CNBC – Great piece by Ari Levy on how technology is taking over all aspects of financial services.
Daimler Invests In Phone-Based Financing App AutoGravity from PYMNTS – German automaker Daimler has invested in car finance startup AutoGravity.
New York online lender secures $300M loan commitment from Jefferies from American Banker – Small business lender Bond Street has just received a $300M funding commitment from Jefferies.
Innovation in Digital Finance from Goldman Sachs – Short video featuring Harit Talwar CEO of Marcus about how their loan offering is different.
P2PFA adds branch-based lender to its ranks from AltFi – In the UK the P2P Finance Association has added a new member, small business lender Folk2Folk.
Fintech deal sizes are shrinking from Business Insider – Globally VC investment in fintech was down 13% in 2016 although number of deals was steady.
OCC fintech charter: Something Ds and Rs can both love from American Banker – Op-Ed in American Banker by former US Senator Bob Kerrey (an Upstart advisor) coming out for the OCC fintech charter.
Ram Ahluwalia of PeerIQ Shares the Future of Online Lending from Crowdfund Insider – In depth interview with Ram Ahluwalia of PeerIQ on the state of online lending.
Amazon looking to buy Capital One? from Banking Technology – The latest on the rumor mill, this would be huge if true. Amazon to buy Capital One?
Defaults Slash Returns for Online Loan Investors from The Wall Street Journal – Returns were down in 2016 for large online lending funds. Not really news to most investors.
SoFi Is in Talks for $500 Million Funding Led by Silver Lake from Bloomberg – Looks like SoFi is getting ready to close their $500M funding round at a nicely higher valuation.
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.
LC Fourth Quarter 2016 Earnings Release and Conference Call – Forum members comment on Lending Club’s recent earnings report.
Groundfloor – Investors discuss Groundfloor, one of the few options available to retail investors.
Roth IRA with P2P Lending – A discussion on opening an IRA with Lending Club.
I’m thinking of pulling the plug on this experiment – An investor shares their Lending Club performance after 4 years of investing. The discussion turns to current performance and chasing returns.
