The chart below shows the stock performance for Lending Club versus OnDeck since May 16, 2016, which is the day Lending Club's stock bottomed out after their CEO resigned; Lending Club is up 64% and OnDeck is up 8%; both companies have taken a hit this week after earnings, largely due to profit taking.
News Roundup
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In January, Prosper began using its new PMI7 credit underwriting model; Prosper expects PMI7 to help improve returns and credit scoring metrics; the estimated return on loans issued for January is 7.86%; post-charge off recoveries have been higher than estimated which is expected to increase IRR calculations; delinquencies and pre-payments are also improving; the average coupon increased 300 bps in January to 15.99% as PMI7 caused an increase in higher risk loans. Source
The industry wide thinking is that most people who use check cashing or pre-paid cards were making a big mistake; banking executives believe check cashing and pre-paid cards are a lot more expensive than bank accounts, but the reality shows a different picture altogether; University of Pennsylvania Professor Lisa Servon wanted to understand why the check cashing industry was such big business and why people were using these services instead of banks; what she found was, if you factor in account fees and overdraft charges, banking was more expensive for people living paycheck to paycheck; these individuals were consciously making the choice to not use banks and she found that there were three main reasons for this trend: cost, transparency and service. Source
Hexindai sees credit market opportunity in China worth 10 trillion RMB ($1.46 trillion); provides insight on the market in their featured blog post; with high net worth clients primarily served by traditional channels the firm is targeting the country's underserved population; says new and evolving technologies will be a factor helping emerging service platforms like P2P online lending gain market share. Sponsored Blog Post
The Royal Bank of Scotland's NatWest Brand has announced the launch of direct lending platform Esme; the platform will offer loans up to £150,000 ($187,257) for small and medium-sized businesses with approvals in one hour; NatWest developed the Esme platform internally through an innovation lab; the platform was developed to provide a more competitive loan offering and will also support initiatives for cost reduction. Source
UK robo advisor Moola has hired Simon Moore, former chief investment officer of BlackRock's FutureAdvisor; Moola offers BlackRock's products to its clients for a minimum investment of £200 ($249.68); Moore will help the firm expand its investment capabilities and meet the evolving needs of the platform's customers. Source
Wells Fargo has been active in biometrics; in 2014 it launched a startup accelerator led by EyeVerify which it now uses for eyeprint verification with its commercial banking customers; it is also working with Kasisto in its startup accelerator and plans to launch some virtual assistant offerings for employees and customers; it has also now announced a refocused effort in its Innovation Group that will be dedicated to AI, payments and application platform interfaces; Wells Fargo's management is committed to biometrics and the firm wants to be a leader in the technology with a specific focus currently on voice recognition. Source
OnDeck released its fourth quarter and full year earnings before the market's open on Thursday; the firm reported a net loss of $67.0 million for 2016 compared to a net profit of $10.3 million in 2015; originations were $2.4 billion in 2016 compared to $1.9 billion in 2015; revenue for the year increased to $264.8 million from $195.1 million; loan loss provisions were a factor contributing to the net loss with provisions increasing to $149.96 million in 2016 from $74.86 million in 2015. Sources
Representatives Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) have announced the creation of a Congressional Blockchain Caucus; in comments regarding the Caucus, Jared Polis said, "Lawmakers need to understand that as the world rapidly changes, it's our responsibility to ensure that we craft policies and adapt laws that match our ingenuity."; the Caucus has already gained considerable support and will seek to educate, engage and provide research on blockchain innovation and issues that could require regulatory guidelines and laws. Source
Online mortgage lending has helped to revive the market for mortgage loan securitizations; new online mortgage lenders are providing a new wave of mortgage loan securitizations for the market specifically with fix and flips; these loans are attractive to investors because of the high yields and offer investors shorter duration investments because of the fix and flip focus; despite defaults and structuring inefficiencies created from the 2008 financial crisis, institutional investors are placing confidence in these investments; LendingHome has been leading the market with steady issuance of fix and flip loan securitizations and the products have been performing successfully for investors indicating the niche investments could begin to scale more broadly. Source