Marcus has originated more than $3bn of loans since inception, recently it has become know that more than 10 percent of the loans were sub prime; they have said this is a natural evolution of the loan business and they are being very selective in approving of applications. Source.
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
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One of Umpqua Bank’s selling points is they are a people first...
The London-based startup that focuses on millennials raised 450,000 British pounds in seed funding from Passion Capital, with participation from Jason Butler; the funds will be used to build out the team and continue product development on Finimize MyLife; the company's Finimize MyLife product is a free online financial advice platform for millennials that provides anyone with a detailed and personalized financial plan guided by research and algorithms. Source
During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter...
UK online lender Funding Circle has announced it will be slowing its property lending with plans to fully end the product by mid 2018; the firm is primarily focused on SME lending and says the refocused strategy will help it to increase SME lending and shift its resources for international expansion; property loans have previously only been available to UK borrowers and the product has accounted for approximately 5% of the company's revenue. Source
One of the challenges for the challenger banks like Monzo, Starling and...
Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, told CNBC that the price of bitcoin was too high but that virtual currencies should be taken seriously; “Not so long ago, some experts argued that personal computers would never be adopted, and that tablets would only be used as expensive coffee trays," she said. "So I think it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies.”; the interview also touches on the recent regulatory trend to crackdown on the new currencies. Source.
The Debt Exchange notes how US regulators are flagging some concern with commercial real estate investment concentrations, even as pricing shows steady demand for properties; regulators are finding bank ratios of commercial real estate loans to total risk-based-capital are approaching 300% in certain property markets (300% is possible through leverage) and loan-to-deposit ratios are approaching 100%, both flags on the risk side; the article notes that loan sales, to private investors as well as through securitizations, are an effective way to reduce these ratios. Source
Gabriella Kinder, head of alternative credit at NN Investment Partners, writes a piece in AltFi focusing on where the lending gap is since the end of the financial crisis; she explains that the lending gap has been reduced and alternative lending has opened up opportunities; while banks are in better shape they still face challenges on the digital front and credit has been increasing since the start of 2015; overall the gap has reduced and new opportunities have opened up as finance has become more diversified and digital in recent years. Source.
Freddy Kelly is the CEO and co-founder of Credit Kudos; Credit Kudos...