Orchard provides insight on monthly trends in P2P lending originations; uses Lending Club's publicly available standard program data for the analysis; finds October has historically been the peak month for P2P loan originations; identifies loan purpose trends for 2015 with debt consolidation notably highest in January; categories with peak lending originations in December in 2015 included major purchase, other and small business. Source
A survey from TWINO and KPMG provides statistics on alternative lending market trends in Europe; says UK alternative lending volumes are four times higher than the rest of Europe; consumer loans account for 72% of online lending in Europe; the European online alternative lending market has grown by 23% since the end of 2015, reaching lending volume of 600 million euros ($623.39 million) as of September 30, 2016; UK has 81% of market share; geographic location across Europe is becoming less of a factor as advanced technologies are the main driver for platform success. Source
Chirag Shah, CEO of Nucleus Commercial Finance, believes poor underwriting standards by UK P2P platforms will begin manifesting itself in 2017 and more platforms will begin to fail; in an interview with Business Insider he says: "Everyone's done the easy part of building the loan books. Now let's see who can get the money back."; Shah also points out that the big platforms in the UK own most of the quality loan volume, second and third tier platforms are underwriting borrowers who were rejected by banks or the large platforms; Conrad Ford of Funding Options thinks Shah makes good points though he doesn't think there is a systemic underwriting problem across the market. Source
A wide range of loan options for small business funding are available; Lend Academy provides an overview of the market's credit products for small businesses in their article; loans from the Small Business Administration and large lenders have traditionally been the main focus for many borrowers however online marketplace lenders and innovative credit products such as invoice financing have greatly evolved the options for credit funding in the market. Source
According to data from AltFi, the UK has reported a new record high for alternative loan origination volume; loan origination volume in the UK surpassed 100 million British pounds ($123.53 million) in November; previous high was in November 2015; numerous UK marketplace lending platforms have reported record high origination volume in November including Assetz Capital and Funding Circle. Source
In May 2015 SoFi's CEO, Mike Cagney, said the company planned to go public within the next 12 months; current plans have changed and the CEO now says it has no plans for an IPO anytime soon; the market for online lending IPOs has been volatile in recent months; SoFi has also been significantly focused on expanding its products beyond just student loans to meet broader needs for its customers; the CEO says its business and expanding business lines subject it to quarterly fluctuations in reporting metrics which could be detrimental under public investor scrutiny; given the firm's positioning it could be one of the industry's leading beneficiaries of the OCC's new fintech charter which will allow for national standards; as of last year SoFi had a valuation of approximately $4 billion and currently it's involved in a $500 million funding round to increase loan purchases and potentially equity. 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
Rob Pfeifer has been appointed to chief risk officer at Affirm; was previously chief financial officer; Pfeifer has been with Affirm since March 2013; prior to Affirm, Pfeifer worked in various financial analysis roles; he has extensive experience in forecasting, reporting and deal transactions.
CoinTribe is using advanced credit modeling to provide online lending to small and medium-sized businesses in India; it also offers personal loans; its services are leading the marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses; company provides an online marketplace for loans and also offers platform as a service digital technology to banks; CoinTribe has been originating loans since March 2016; has raised $3 million in funding and has plans to raise another $10 million to $15 million in the near-term. Source
A blog post from MonJa provides details on the "Liquidity Outlook: Establishing a Secondary Loan Market" panel discussion which took place on December 1 at the 2nd Annual Investors' Conference on Marketplace Lending; Orchard Platform has made building a comprehensive secondary market for marketplace loans a firm priority and has the lead on an industry wide trading platform; interactive data technology and advanced market pricing technology are some of the barriers; until broader secondary market trading becomes available, innovative industry funds and securitization portfolios are the leading secondary market options available for investors. Source