The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted full authorization to Proplend; the FCA continues to review authorization applications, primarily focusing on secured lending platforms; Proplend is a secured commercial real estate property P2P lender offering three tranches for investors; returns on the platform range from 5% to 12% with loans of 250,000 British pounds ($307,718) to 5,000,000 British pounds ($6,154,350); the platform has funded 11.5 million British pounds ($14.16 million) of loans since inception with zero defaults; it has plans to offer clients an innovative finance individual savings account however it will likely not be available until 2018. Source
News Roundup
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Prosper has announced a funding deal which has been in development since August; the firm has received an investment commitment for $5 billion over the next two years from a consortium of investors including affiliates of New Residential Investment Corp., Jefferies Group LLC, Third Point LLC and an entity of which Soros Fund Management LLC is the principal investment manager; the consortium is also being offered an equity stake which could account for as much as 35% ownership in the company and is expected to help promote a long term business relationship; the committed investment will represent a substantial increase for the firm which is likely to report approximately $2.2 billion in loan originations for 2016. Source
Former founder of Capital One and current managing partner at QED Investors, Nigel Morris has expertise in connecting banks and fintech companies; in an interview with American Banker he talks about his career experience and current market influence at QED Investors; also discusses the investment strategy at QED Investors and some of the fintech market's leading investment opportunities. Source
A new consortium for blockchain solutions in financial services has been announced called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance; the consortium includes JPMorgan, Microsoft, Bank of New York Mellon, Intel and Banco Santander S.A.; it will focus on building out an open-source platform started by JPMorgan called Quorum; the platform will seek to develop solutions for realizing cost savings in financial transactions with blockchain technology; the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance plans to launch a working version of its protocol later this year. Source
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is testing digital currency in efforts to become one of the first central banks to issue digital money; China's population has been increasingly using digital forms of payment with approximately 450 billion mobile users reported in 2016; a cryptocurrency would likely be popular among consumers and is also expected to lower transaction costs for sellers; a digital currency could also help the PBOC to more efficiently manage risks in the financial system and economy with a better way for tracking transactions; the PBOC has outlined how a digital currency would work but it has not announced a specific timeline for implementation. Source
China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange continues to closely monitor foreign investment with no change reported to the limit for its qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII) scheme following its most recent meeting; the outstanding investment quota under the QDII scheme, which allows investment managers to raise funds and convert them internationally, was US$89.99 billion at the end of February; the country continues to seek to protect its currency from depreciating with the foreign investment quota. Source
LendIt has partnered with Sharestates to provide a list of LendIt USA 2017 speakers to follow on Twitter; the list includes over 300 speakers with company and personal twitter handles; you can also follow @LendIt and #LendItUSA for details about the event. Source
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has requested that P2P lenders not lend to each other through industry network lending; the request comes as the regulator continues to increase its oversight and understanding of the industry; in the FCA's report it says that the industry network lending could be in violation of rules that require deposits for such transactions. Source
Nick Ogden has launched ClearBank after three years of development on the multi-million-pound project; the bank is marketed as a "bank for banks," targeting fintech startups, credit unions, building societies and other challenger banks; it will focus on payment processing, which it plans to offer at cheaper and faster rates than competitors, and also an "off the shelf core banking service." Source
Zopa, who specializes in unsecured consumer loans may be looking to expand into secured loans, specifically the auto segment; the company sees a healthy level of demand but a generally poor consumer experience; Zopa's Chief Marketing Officer Amy Miller stated, "People are getting poor deals in that area and end up paying significantly higher annual percentage rates than they would if they arranged their financing before going into a dealership."; the company is also reportedly considering other loan terms, such as 18 month loans as well as a balloon payment loan. Source