Flender, a marketplace lending platform in the UK, is seeking to raise 500,009 british pounds from an equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs; the company offers P2P loans through a mobile application; the firm's business model seeks to connect borrowers with lenders in their social network helping to facilitate social network lending. Source
Southern Cross Financial is seeking to take advantage of New Zealand's expanding real estate supply with challenges in traditional mortgage lending; on December 1, the firm will become a P2P mortgage lender, evolving from a mortgage brokerage business; the firm has been arranging loans between alternative credit consumers and approximately 150 investors as a mortgage broker; the new P2P structure will provide a more standardized process for borrowers and investors. Source
Borrowell, a marketplace lender focused on consumer loans, has been in business for approximately two years in Canada with a lot of growth in the small, developing Canadian P2P industry; Lend Academy interviews Borrowell's CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Graham in their podcast; discussion focuses primarily on Borrowell's business model and the company's announcement of the country's first marketplace lending partnership with a major bank; Borrowell has partnered with CIBC in a co-branded partnership that offers consumer loans to CIBC's customers. Source
The Victory Park Capital (VPC) Specialty Lending Fund will pay a dividend for the quarter ending September 30 of 1.5 pence; dividend payout continues to be lower than the dividend target of 2 pence; Fund has also been steadily trading at a discount to its NAV and the Fund's one year return is -12.42%; the VPC Specialty Lending Fund is shifting to more of a focus on balance sheet lenders and, similar to other funds, is also experiencing losses from currency hedging factors. Source
Online multi-lender, LendingTree, has acquired CompareCards, owned by Iron Horse Holdings; the acquisition will expand LendingTree's online credit card comparison offering also bringing new technology, issuer relationships and educational tools to the site; LendingTree's stock has gained 13.44% following the company's announcement. Source
Orchard's Weekly Online Lending Snapshot reports on an active week for online lending which began with the SEC's Fintech Forum and included industry news from Prosper, Renaud Laplanche and Zopa; Orchard also mentions the industry's four securitizations announced this week to be reaching default triggers and an industry wide increase in charge-offs overall in older, higher risk loan grades; highlights from the Snapshot's data indicators include a 23.42% increase in Lending Club's stock and a positive month of returns from all US publicly traded companies, lower monthly return for all UK listed marketplace lending funds with the VPC Specialty Lending Fund leading monthly losses with a return of -12.42%, and newly added River North Marketplace Lending Fund reporting a monthly increase of 0.83%. Source
ThinCats has received endorsements from the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) and Defaqto for its business operations in the P2P lending industry in the UK; the NACFB has recognized ThinCats for its best practices within commercial finance brokerage activities and ThinCats has joined the NACFB as a patron; ThinCats has also been recognized by Defaqto with a 5-star rating for product quality and comprehensiveness. Source
Dianrong.com was ranked among the top three lenders in the October 2016 Online Lending Platform Development Index Rating provided by Wdzj.com and Yingcan Consulting; compliance and transparency were two key factors helping the company's ranking; in compliance the company reported the highest score for all companies in October at 81.49. Source
Maples Fund Services has announced it will extend its fund administration services to include marketplace lending; seeks to capitalize on the growing number of funds emerging in the space; firm has made significant investment in technology to provide a leading market service which will include reconciliation, loan-level record keeping, third-party valuations, and risk and performance reports. Source
State Street and the Alternative Investment Management Association have released a report on decreased liquidity in the investment market; approximately half of respondents see less market liquidity as a long-term factor and three-fifths of respondents are considering less trading liquidity in their investment strategies; report cites new market entrants, electronic platforms and peer-to-peer lending as reasons for increased illiquidity in the market overall; report says investors are focusing on three areas to adapt to the shift in market liquidity including rationalizing risk, optimizing for liquidity, and implementing new rules and tools. Source