Orchard has updated its Lendscape with three new categories; the three new buckets include law firms, verification and auto; law firms and verification providers have been significantly contributing to the ecosystem; in auto lending, platforms that have emerged include AutoFi, DriverUp, Drive Sally, Lending Club and MotorEnvy; other categories with new companies include loan servicing, education and institutional investors.  Source

In Orchard's December 30 Weekly Snapshot it highlights reports from Even, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and American Banker; in online lending stocks, Square reported the highest monthly return, trading at $13.73 for a gain of 6.11%; in UK listed stocks, the VPC Specialty Lending Fund led monthly returns with a gain of 8.01%; in US listed marketplace lending funds, the River North Marketplace Lending Fund had a one month return of -0.87%.  Source

In a Q & A with Forbes, Matt Burton, CEO of Orchard discusses the early days of marketplace lending and how Orchard came to be; the company has raised $45 million and has institutional investors across the globe who utilize the platform; Burton also talks about their focus on the secondary market and what upcoming startups he thinks are interesting.  Source

Orchard's December 23 industry snapshot highlights interest from marketplace lenders Zopa and SoFi in providing banking deposit accounts; in publicly traded online lending stocks, Square led monthly gains with a return of 13.03% and Yirendai led losses with a monthly return of -19.40%; in P2P listed funds the VPC Specialty Lending Fund led gains with a monthly return of 10.18% and the Ranger Direct Lending Fund led losses with a monthly return of -5.49%.  Source

Orchard has released its "Quarterly Industry Report" for the third quarter; origination volume was lower in the third quarter, down approximately 21% from the previous quarter and 50% from peak origination volume in the fourth quarter of 2015; the third quarter is the third consecutive quarter of decreased origination volume; charge-offs have also increased; average borrowing rate has decreased 79 basis points from the previous quarter.  Source

Orchard's Weekly Online Lending Snapshot reports on an active week for online lending which began with the SEC's Fintech Forum and included industry news from Prosper, Renaud Laplanche and Zopa; Orchard also mentions the industry's four securitizations announced this week to be reaching default triggers and an industry wide increase in charge-offs overall in older, higher risk loan grades; highlights from the Snapshot's data indicators include a 23.42% increase in Lending Club's stock and a positive month of returns from all US publicly traded companies, lower monthly return for all UK listed marketplace lending funds with the VPC Specialty Lending Fund leading monthly losses with a return of -12.42%, and newly added River North Marketplace Lending Fund reporting a monthly increase of 0.83%.  Source