SoFi has partnered with Promontory Interfinancial Network to help facilitate community bank investments in SoFi loans; Promontory Interfinancial Network will provide due diligence support for community banks; the Promontory Interfinancial Network includes a network of thousands of banks; for the partnership Promontory Interfinancial Network commissioned Promontory Financial Group (recently acquired by IBM) to provide a review and report on SoFi's underwriting, operations and systems to Promontory Interfinancial Network's banks for deal support; according to SoFi, the program will provide a gateway for small to mid-sized banks' participation in marketplace lending investment; Promontory Interfinancial Network will make SoFi's loan program information available for its bank network on its loan marketplace, Bank Assetpoint; network banks will not incur any additional charges for loan investment through the network and SoFi will pay Promontory Interfinancial Network a fee for each transaction. Source
Funding Circle and Zopa both discussed the rationale for becoming a bank at the AltFi Europe Summit; Funding Circle's Samir Desai talked about three ways online lenders are collaborating with banks and said, "We at Funding Circle have no plans to launch a bank."; comparatively, Zopa is taking the opposite approach and Jaidev Janardana discussed the firm's bank expansion, noting that the firm will be focusing on savings deposit accounts and will be using deposits to fund loans. Source
Alfa Finance Group has launched a new P2P lender in Latvia called DoFinance; the platform is available in all EU and EEA countries and will focus on consumer loans; it has over 150,000 registered clients and has originated over EUR16 million ($17 million) in loans. Source
Chen Wei accumulated losses of over 489,400 yuan ($71,154) from lending platform Jiedaibao, operated by Renrenxing; the Chinese platform facilitated transactions between borrowers and lenders, allowing lenders to set their own interest rates and manage their own credit lending strategies; Renrenxing managed oversight of the platform including responsibility for collections; Chen's strategy was to borrow from platform lenders at low rates and lend to borrowers at higher rates, benefiting from the difference; Chen initially reported success but then increased borrower defaults led to losses of over 489,400 yuan ($71,154); Chen was subpoenaed by Jiedaibao for the funds he owed; Jiedaibao later dropped the case but Chen is now suing Renrenxing for the money owed from borrowers; more than 30 users have now filed court cases against Renrenxing for payments totaling over 22.5 million yuan ($3.27 million); new regulations have now been instituted to stop intermediaries from offering protection against losses. Source
A replay is now available for LendIt's Marketplace Lending 101 forum which was held on Wednesday, January 18; Peter Renton from LendIt and Andrew Dix from Crowdfund Insider took questions from participants about the marketplace lending industry and discussed how to effectively invest in marketplace loans. You can view the webinar replay here:
Savings rates are low and markets have always been volatile, P2P platforms in the UK have consistently returned 4.5% to 6.5% according to the AltFi Data returns index and so the question remains why aren't financial advisors recommending the P2P asset class; there has been some movement on this front as firms like LendingWell and Octopus offer solutions to better help P2P firms become more attractive to financial advisors; obstacles remain as many financial advisors do not know much about P2P platforms and it will take time for this asset class to be more widely known to the broader advisor. Source
Chicago-based Westbon has launched an auto and consumer loan platform for international students in the US with limited or no credit history; Hao Liu, co-founder of the company, says, "Our mission is not only to provide them with convenient financing options at affordable rate, but also to help them build credit history at an early stage."; the company says it looks beyond a traditional credit score, they look at the borrower's financial and academic status as well; the auto product will be available in 23 states and the consumer products in eight states. Source
loanDepot has originated $100 billion in loans since launching seven years ago; firm provides home, personal and home equity loans online and through local branch offices; the company has serviced over 15 million consumers nationwide and its platform is acquiring approximately 500,000 potential borrowers per month; in 2016 it opened three new campuses to expand its direct, retail and wholesale businesses and it also has plans to open a new 65,000 square foot business campus in Irvine, California that will help to increase its employee base to over 6,000. Source
Business marketplace lender Loan Frame has announced a $2.25 million fundraise that will help the firm expand its business in India as demonetization and the Indian economy present new opportunities for growth; participants in the $2.25 million funding round included the co-founder of Vedanta Capital, the former chairman of Visa International and the co-chief executive of MIO Partners; the platform has stated it is seeking to build the largest small and medium-sized business lending marketplace in the sub-continent; expects to lend $150 million over the next two years with both secured and unsecured loans. Source