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.
Investors should encourage a resurgence of local community banking from CNBC – In banking most investor dollars today are going into the digital challenger banks or neobanks. The author of this article argues some of it should be directed at new community banks.
Can Funding Circle crack the Canadian P2P market? from Peer2Peer Finance News – Small business lending leader Funding Circle is opening in Canada later this year. Here is a look at the challenges and opportunity for them north of the border.
SoftBank-backed unicorn OakNorth wants to be the Intel for banking from Yahoo Finance – One of the hottest UK fintech companies right now is OakNorth. Their CFO spoke today on plans to grow their loan book and expand their white label software.
Direct Lending Fund Founder Resigns Amid SEC Investigation from Bloomberg – The saga with Direct Lending Investments continues. Bloomberg is reporting today that Brendan Ross has resigned as CEO, there is an SEC investigation and a fund holding looks to have received an inflated valuation.
In AI era, CEOs must put people first from American Banker – In an American Banker op-ed the CEO of Synchrony puts forward a game plan on how to integrate AI into a financial services organization.
Fintech Point Raises $22 Million in Series B, Adds $100 Million in Platform Capital from Crowdfund Insider – Successful fintech funding rounds continues unabated. Today, we learn that Point Finance has closed a $22m Series B as well as $100m of platform capital.
Bitcoin Is in the Dumps, Spreading Gloom Over Crypto World from The Wall Street Journal – The heady days of late 2017 and early 2018 seem a long time ago for crypto investors. Bitcoin has now experienced the longest price slump in its 10-year history and trading volume is also way down.
Zopa Bank: No teaser rates, no hidden fees, no current accounts from AltFi News – Zopa was granted a preliminary banking license late last year and when they launch they will focus on savings account with a fixed interest rate as part of the core offering.
Fintech Point Raises $22 Million in Series B, Adds $100 Million in Platform Capital from Crowdfund Insider – Real estate fintech Point has closed a $22 million Series B led by Prudential Financial and DAG Ventures.
Revolut Is Testing the Limits of Finance from Bloomberg – Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky defends the fast pace of growth and innovation at his company, Revolut now has over 4 million customers and they grew their customer base three fold in 2018.
Marqeta files to raise $250m on a $1.9b valuation from Techcrunch – a new fintech unicorn is about to be crowned as digital payments leader Marqeta is looking to raise $250 million at a valuation of $1.875 billion.
Smaller institutions should embrace, not oppose, fintechs from American Banker – the executive director of the Marketplace Lending Association, Nat Hoopes, argues that small banks and credit unions should not oppose new fintech regulations.
China’s Weapons of Wealth Destruction from Bloomberg – Fascinating story of China’s demand for lending and how many people have ended up in a debt spiral.
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.
Parting gift for you all – An investor shares a tool they created with Excel using VBA and shares some of the other data sources they used for investing in notes.
Is LC no longer interested in retail investors? – Forum members discuss the number of loans made available to retail investors.
How to find old data on charged off loans now receiving recoveries? – An investor is looking to get further information on charged off loans.
