The Fed made one increase to the federal funds rate in December 2016 and economic market activity appears to be improving with the election of President-Elect Donald Trump; Rohit Arora of Biz2Credit says the outlook is optimistic for small business owners in 2017; with only one rate increase, borrowing rates are still low for small business owners and lenders are approving a higher percentage of loans; Donald Trump's plans to alleviate some of the burdens from Dodd-Frank on banks is also likely to help approval rates for small business owners. Source
StreetShares has announced a $10.3 million fundraising; the US marketplace lender specializes in funding business loans to companies managed by veterans; the platform has a range of product offerings with loans issued for $2,000 to $100,000. Source
PeerIQ's Weekly Industry Update notes this week's SFIG Vegas 2017 conference on structured finance; PeerIQ's Ram Ahluwalia will be moderating a panel titled, "The Outlook for Securitization and Marketplace Lending"; on February 26, PeerIQ also released an industry white paper titled, "Data Standards and Best Practices" which details industry standardization of data and discusses the importance of data transparency; at the SFIG 2017 event on Monday the firm announced a new data partnership with 1010data. Source
Citing increasing demand Orca has launched a new standardized investment platform that will be focused to financial advisers and broader P2P investors; Iain Niblock, CEO of Orca, stated, "Although P2P investments offer stable, predictable risk-adjusted returns and great diversification for investors, there has been virtually no uptake since financial advisers were permitted to suggest their clients consider P2P products last year."; the platform will focus on interest rates, default rates, subprime rates and a proprietary Orca scoring methodology. Source
Keogh founded Finova Financial to offer a more affordable alternative for borrowers seeking title loans; Finova offers car equity lines of credit with 12 months to pay versus the 30 days currently required by most title lenders; managed through a cloud-based system it offers easy payments and its payment terms also include early payment incentives and no late fees; the firm has now raised $52.5 million. Source
Raleigh-based HCG has raised $5.4 million from 12 investors for a fintech fund; firm specializes in digital finance investments and has previously invested in online lenders including Lending Club; firm is led by Chief Executive Officer Hadi Habal and Chief Investment Officer Jose Penabad. Source
Indian venture capitalist Unicorn India Ventures has invested in online lender SmartCoin; SmartCoin has developed a mobile lending app targeting Indian consumers with limited credit history; the platform offers unsecured loans of up to 50,000 rupees ($775). Source
CredEx has developed a mobile app for loans in China; allows for borrowing of as much as RMB 300,000 (USD 43,000); the firm's business has been built around a focus on five factors including: mobile apps for loans, anytime access to borrowing and repayment, personalized interest rates, mobile internet risk control and uniquely connecting financial institutions with borrowers. Source
PeerIQ has released its fourth quarter "Marketplace Lending Securitization Tracker" with details on the marketplace lending securitization market; the chart below shows the marketplace lending securitization issuance for the top 10 originators; SoFi leads the list with $6.85 billion in securitized loans, followed by Prosper and Avant. Source
In a recent interview, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney stated, "We feel very confident that in 2017 you'll be able to have a SoFi bank account with a debit and/or credit card."; further details are not known on how SoFi plans to offer deposit accounts; Cagney stated the company is working on two or three initiatives; back in July Cagney told investors that getting a traditional bank license was not a viable solution; the company may be able to leverage the OCC's recently announced nonbank fintech charter. Source