Online mortgage broker Trussle is currently in the early stages of talks with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to potentially overhaul the mortgage application process; the plan that Trussle is pitching to the FCA is to help standardize documents needed in a format that they are needed in; Mr. Mahli told FTAdviser: "There's an unnecessary inefficiency in the way mortgage applications are packaged and submitted, which varies wildly from lender to lender. Uncertainty is the last thing a buyer wants when making what's often the biggest financial decision of their life."; currently the FCA will not comment on talks that are in such a nascent stage. Source
RateSetter's Provision Fund is a capital reserve that helps ensure investors get paid principal and interest even if loans default; currently the fund is valued at £22 million; with the company projecting future losses via default of £18 million, the "Provision Fund coverage" ratio is roughly 120%; now, the firm has begun publishing a "capital coverage ratio" that combines the reserve funds with the expected interest payments on the loans, then divides by expected losses; with £30 million in interest payments expected, added to the £22 million reserves, the capital coverage ratio is nearly 3x; RateSetter said the newly published ratio is more fair when comparing RateSetter's assurances against other online lenders that don't hold a reserve fund but that still calculate coverage of potential losses. Source
The panel explores consumer litigation funding also known as pre-settlement funding, non-recourse funding or lawsuit lending; provides funding to plaintiffs who commonly have a personal injury case; money is used for life needs such as rent, mortgage, tuition, food, etc. and is not a loan; LawCash has provided funding for around 100,000 cases and has been in operation since 2000; YieldStreet is an investment platform for investors to access these types of investments; other topics discussed are how litigation funding is uncorrelated, how deals are underwritten, transparency of companies in the industry and the evolution of litigation finance. Source
The company has now increased its total capital raised to $300 million; Unison helps make homeownership affordable by providing capital in the form of equity in the home that tracks with the value of a home and is payable upon its sale; firm has added Ron Suber from Prosper Marketplace as an investor and strategic advisor; also announced several new leadership appointments and promotions. 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
Unison has reported new funding that brings its total capital raised to $300 million also announcing new leadership appointments; the new capital will help the company continue its focus on providing more affordable home ownership for US consumers; the funding round included Ron Suber of Prosper Marketplace who will also join the firm as a strategic advisor; the firm has recently added several new executives focused on sales and marketing. Source
2016 was a year filled with shaky investor confidence, compliance issues and bad credit performance in online lending; OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow's 2017 LendIt USA keynote focused on the challenges posed by 2016 and the trends for 2017 and beyond; after seeing how the industry reacted to these challenges he stated that he is now more optimistic than ever before; the industry is maturing and measures of success have shifted; the unstoppable trends include: customer awareness, trust and adoption of online lending, bank partnerships, constructive engagement between the public and private sector, and the global growth of online lending; he also predicts that by the mid 2020's nearly all small business loans will be made online. Source
Renaud Laplanche's new consumer lending platform, Upgrade, has announced a new executive hire; John Dye will be joining the executive team as general counsel; John brings experience from Western Union and has also worked at Freddie Mac, Citigroup and Salomon Smith Barney; John Dye will support the firm's legal, compliance and regulatory operations; he is joined by Louis Shansky who has also been hired as deputy counsel. Source
Online lender Upgrade is opening an office in Phoenix; founded by former Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche, the firm launched in April with a fundraising of $60 million; the Phoenix office will be its first expansion from its San Francisco headquarters and the firm plans to hire 100 employees this year. Source
Upstart has been steadily growing its online lending business and has now announced a new fundraising as well as the launch of a white label software as a service (SaaS) product; the fundraising will add $32.5 million in new capital from investors including: Rakuten, a large US-based asset manager, Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital; Upstart has emerged with many significant developments in the online loan business including next-day funding and a robust proprietary credit underwriting platform built on machine learning and modern technology; with the evolution of the business, the firm has developed a new white label SaaS product called by Powered by Upstart which it is launching at LendIt USA; the service is an extension of the firm's proprietary credit underwriting system driven by machine learning and modern data science. Source