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.
AI may just create the illusion of good credit decisions from American Banker – Loren Picard in American Banker sifts through the AI hype and ponders its application in credit decisioning.
Weekly Industry Update – Alternative Return Metrics: Cash on Cash Return from PeerIQ – The weekly PeerIQ newsletter delves into return metrics amid the recent Prosper news.
On Deck Goes From Hot Tech Startup to Dull Lender from The Wall Street Journal – More from the Wall Street Journal on the latest quarterly results from OnDeck.
With an IPO on the shelf, SoFi lets employees sell 20 percent of vested stock from CNBC – SoFi employees were able to sell 20% of their stock in a recent secondary market transaction.
How Credit Karma CEO Kenneth Lin Built A Billion-Dollar Brand from Fast Company – Great piece by Ainsley Harris on Kenneth Lin and the first 10 years of Credit Karma.
Australia’s alternative lenders love the 2017 budget from AltFi – The Aussie government has released their 2017 budget with bad news for big banks, good news for online lending platforms.
More Than a Quarter of Upstart’s Loans Are Now Fully Automated from Bank Innovation – Upstart has always been one of the most tech-focused online lending platforms, they are making big strides with AI.
Consumer Privacy Should Be Top-of-Mind for FinTech Firms to Avoid Scrutiny from Bloomberg – A good reminder that the use of alternative data in online lending could bring up privacy issues.
Zopa gains full FCA approval from Peer2Peer Finance News – Finally one of the big three in the UK has full FCA authorization. Congrats to Zopa.
Leading marketplace lender shifts focus to sophisticated investors, nears £1bn in lending from AltFi – UK real estate platform LendInvest is adding a qualification test for retail investors.
SoFi plans to apply for a bank charter in the next month from TechCrunch – Big news from SoFi last night. Mike Cagney says they are going to apply for an industrial bank charter very soon.
Lending Club and Uber: A Tale of Two Unicorns from LendingRobot – Interesting comparison of Silicon Valley sharing economy companies Uber and Lending Club.
Funding Circle Error Exposes 6,000 SSNs Of American Clients from Forbes – No security breach but Forbes is reporting this week that Funding Circle left private client information exposed.
What You Need to Know About The CFPB and Small Business Lending from deBanked – Highlights of this week’s CFPB hearing on small business lending.
In largest ever equity investment in a German fintech company, Kreditech receives EUR 110 million investment from PayU and expands strategic partnership from Kreditech – One of the leading fintech companies in Germany Kreditech just received a huge €110 million equity investment.
Why banks are important to the alternative finance industry from AltFi – Great op-ed in AltFi by Geoff Miller on why only banks can solve online lending platforms’ major problem.
FinTech Alternatives to Short-Term Small-Dollar Credit: Helping Low-Income Working Families Escape the High-Cost Lending Trap from Harvard Kennedy School – The only real alternative to payday loans will be from fintech writes Todd H. Baker in his new research paper.
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 new interest rates as of 5/4/2017 (only slight changes) – An interesting look at Lending Club interest rates over time.
Fred93 returns – Lendingclub vs Prosper – Two investors share their monthly returns at Lending Club and Prosper.
Offering Hardship Plans for Borrowers and Protecting Returns for Investors – An investor shares a loan where the borrower has entered Lending Club’s hardship plan.
2015 & recent loan quality – Lending Club’s delinquency curve with updated data.
