China Rapid Finance currently has 1.2 million borrowers on its platform and is seeking to triple its users; it recently received $70 million in funding which will help to support the growth; also wants to increase its users to 10 million over the next two to three years; the firm says it is well positioned to manage new regulations from the Chinese government and it is developing its platform to more broadly target the needs of the country's 500 million residents. 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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Securitization continues to be a key source of capital for many marketplace lenders; LendIt, in association with Cadwalader and Lending Times, will host a forum on Wednesday, January 11th at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will focus on key factors to consider in choosing the optimal risk retention structure, commercial considerations related to sponsors including brand and investor relationships, requirements to establish a majority owned-affiliate including the amount of equity that must be retained by the sponsor versus an investor and more; register today.
NYC-based, insurance software provider Namely has obtained $50 million in Series D funding; the company offers software services for human resources, payroll and benefits; its services are targeted for small to medium-sized businesses with 50 to 2,000 employees; they have recently been enhancing their software services to offer new features including daily employee interactions and company news feeds. Source
Liberty Mutual has announced new personalized offerings within its usage-based insurance strategy; HighwayHero is a driving app launched to track driving and offer driving score discounts; it will be expanding its pay as you drive, ByMile, program to additional states; its usage-based insurance app, RightTrack, is also being expanded to additional states. Source
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
Unison offers funds for a down payment in exchange for a home ownership stake; in the case of one California homebuyer, the company matched their 10% down payment and required no monthly payments; instead the borrower must repay Unison with the sale of their house plus 35% of any real estate gains incurred from the sale; a handful of companies are offering similar real estate products including Point which offers cash-for-equity arrangements for existing homeowners. Source
Real estate P2P lending platform Octopus Choice has received full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK; the FCA approval now allows it to begin the process for offering innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs) for investors; the firm has been in business for nine months; it currently provides secured loans to residential property borrowers. Source
UK challenger bank OakNorth has hired three new senior executives in anticipation of higher lending demand post-Brexit; Georgy Naydenov and Stuart Blair will join OakNorth as debt finance directors and David Webley was hired as a credit director; the bank's loan book has grown by 300% since the June referendum vote with loans of 300 million British pounds ($368.85 million); for 2017 it anticipates lending over 500 million British pounds ($614.75 million). Source
In Orchard's January 6 Weekly Snapshot it notes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's actions against Equifax and TransUnion and its new updates to the Orchard Lendscape; data on publicly traded online lenders shows OnDeck with a monthly gain of 11.21% and Square continuing to report gains with a monthly return of 9.72%; in UK listed funds the VPC Specialty Lending Fund led gains with a monthly return of 10.07% followed by P2P Global Investments with a monthly gain of 8.84%; in the US the River North Marketplace Lending Fund reported a monthly return of -0.94%. Source
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