Chinese online consumer lender Yirendai has announced progression toward securitization of a portfolio of consumer loans; the firm has transferred an existing trust fund of RMB300 million ($43.6 million) used to fund loans on its platform to Bohai International Trust Co., Ltd., and the firm has completed the issuance of asset-backed securities in the amount of RMB300 million through private placements. Source
The new partnership aims to increase access to financial services for individuals and small businesses; according to a Chinese press release translated by TechNode, the "credit factory" (in Chinese) model is a business model mainly used for credit certification of small and micro-sized enterprises as well as individuals; loans lent to such groups are small, but are lent at high frequency; the adoption of the "credit factory" mode, thanks to its high efficiency and economies of scale in handling petty loans, can help big financial firms gain some ground lost to the country's mushrooming small loan companies in the microfinance market; an upgrade to the traditional "credit factory", Dianrong-Quark Credit Factory utilizes such fintech means as big data, anti-fraud management systems and decision engine; it can help lenders reduce manual operations, save costs and cut operational risks through its powerful quantitative system when they handle credit certification for individuals or small and micro-sized businesses. Source
Dianrong announced the hiring of former Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley banker Yawen Cui as the new CFO; now former CFO Xuxia Kuang has been named chief operating officer; Dianrong CEO Soul Htite praised Mr. Cui: "His extensive experience managing initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and financial reporting will also help Dianrong explore opportunities within the capital markets. We are thrilled to welcome Yawen to our executive leadership team."; Long Hsiang Loh, the previous COO, will remain on the executive leadership team and a new role will be announced soon. Source
Dianrong has obtained $220 million from a Series D funding round; this latest funding was led by GIC Private Limited (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund), CMIG Leasing, and Simone Investment Managers, among others. Source
P2P loan originations for Chinese online lender Dianrong more than doubled from 2015 to 2016; the platform reported 2016 originations of 16.2 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) and the firm plans to continue growing its market share as regulations help the success of established P2P lending firms in China; Dianrong's co-founder and co-CEO, Kevin Guo, talked with Reuters about the firm's growth and China's evolving market; says smaller firms will have difficulty staying in business and that Dianrong plans to grow significantly in the near-term with a new funding round and the goal to grow loan originations by 50% annually over the next three to five years. 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
Digital-only bank N26 has launched a new credit product for its customers as digital-only banks struggle for profits due to high operating costs; the new credit product will offer credit lines of up to 25,000 British pounds ($26,810) for 5 years with varying interest rates; the product launch occurs as many digital banks seek expanded offerings to offset some of the high costs associated with deposit accounts. Source
Harit Talwar discussed the new Goldman Sachs online lending platform, Marcus, and six ways the company is striving for a competitive edge in the market at LendIt USA; one of the platform's top marketing initiatives is direct mail marketing which Talwar say consumers are highly responsive to; the firm is also not charging any fees, allowing for one deferred payment and staffing its call center with human agents. Source
Clarity Services is one of the US market's alternative credit data providers; in their featured blog post they provide a white paper detailing the benefits of using alternative credit data from Clarity Services for direct mail screening and marketing campaigns; by using an expanded set of data, the company suggests lenders can reach more creditworthy consumers. Sponsored Blog Post
DirectMoney, an online lender in Australia, has received institutional funding to help it continue originating loans for the next 12-24 months; the funding follows the appointment of new CEO, Anthony Nantes on October 5; full terms of the deal and details on the institutional partnership were not disclosed by the source and appear to be available only to the platform's shareholders. Source