A blog post from Frank Rotman of QED Investors says fintech companies should keep in mind growth strategies from the previous generation; outlines three important phases for business growth, 1) testing 2) scaling and 3) cost efficiency; says growing exponentially in the early phases is not always the best approach and that building a lending business with land grab as a justification for growth is not necessarily the best strategy. 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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In Orchard's Weekly Online Lending Snapshot they provide some insight on the Marketplace Lending and Alternative Financing Summit, noting industry performance and data transparency as key themes; data points show gains from publicly traded companies in the industry led by LendingTree with a monthly gain of 19.93% and Square with a monthly gain of 16.17%; in the UK listed marketplace lending funds Ranger Direct Lending led monthly returns with a gain of 24%; the US listed River North Marketplace Lending Fund reported a monthly gain of 0.59%; the LendingClub Issuance Trust LCIT-2016-NP2 was listed as the most recent securitization issuance with a pricing date of December 1. Source
Polychain Capital, a hedge fund that focuses on investing in digital assets such as bitcoin and ether has raised $10 million; the funding comes from venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures; the company launched in September with $5 million from 30 investors and is led by Olaf Carlson-Wee who was also the first employee of Coinbase; according to Olaf: "There will be many types of assets codified into the blockchain, and they are all not just going to be on the bitcoin blockchain — it's going to be a number of different assets here. And the best way to invest in that is a diversified portfolio." Source
In their recently completed review, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was particularly worried about some platforms using customer money to buy loans from rival platforms; FCA CEO Andrew Bailey explained that platforms don't have enough loans to present so in turn they use investor money to buy up loans from a rival platform; this is worrisome as investors are not being told the correct risks; Mr. Bailey did not disclose any platforms by name and said the issue was not widespread but worth keeping an eye on. Source
The Financial Conduct Authority released its interim update on crowdfunding rules last week; the update reported that the regulator would be scrutinizing numerous factors pertaining to P2P lending in the UK; one such factor, discussed by the Financial Times, includes the disclosure of loan performance; the introduction of provision funds has caused this disclosure to potentially be misleading for investors; in some cases platforms use provision funds to cover defaults for borrowers; this action could potentially lead to better than actual loan performance on the loans. Source
A report from WDZJ and yingcanzixun.com titled, "2016 China Online Lending Monthly Report (Nov.)" provides insight on China's online lending market in November; says online lending originations reached a new monthly high of CNY 200 billion in November; total historical origination volume of over CNY 3 trillion; 2,454 platforms with eight new businesses and 98 entering suspension or closing down. Source
Able Lending has one of the industry's most unique business models, allowing small business lenders to source loans from their personal network to lower lending costs; Lend Academy interviews Will Davis of Able Lending for more insight on the platform's business; at Able Lending, personal network backers take a subordinated position, allowing the lead lender to get paid back first while offering a lower cost of borrowing overall; the firm has been successful with this lending model, reporting over 80% of loans utilizing backers; it has also seen steady origination growth, with volume growing from $3 million in the first year to $30 million in the second year and an expected $100 million in its third year. Source
Bank and non-bank mortgage lenders are currently having a debate seen across the financial landscape on whether to build, buy or partner with new technology; mortgage lending in particular is seen as archaic and overly reliant on paper applications; companies like Better Mortgage are trying to change this through innovative technology; other firms like Finance of America Holdings, a portfolio company of Blackstone Group, are still weighing their options as more fintech firms are beginning to disrupt the mortgage business. Source
Payday lender, Advance America, and its representative association, the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), have filed a motion with the court to halt regulatory pressure on banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the motion follows the decision by U.S. Bancorp and four other banks to end their relationship with Advance America citing regulatory pressure as a factor; regulators say they have done nothing to pressure banks to end relationships with payday lenders; the court motion is part of an ongoing litigation process involved with a court case filed by Advance America and the CFSA in 2014. Source
Moody's has issued comments on the OCC's announcement to offer a fintech charter; says the fintech charter would help reduce legal risks from partner bank funding; focuses on the effects from the charter on partner bank funding relationships; says banks could stop relying on partner banks to fund loan originations. Source