Denise Thomas was named one of the tech industry's top female founders in 2016 by TechCrunch; Denise Thomas and Stephen Pelletier formed ApplePie Capital in 2013 after previously working together at online investment platform OffRoad Capital; Denise Thomas is currently the CEO of ApplePie Capital which specializes in providing online loans to franchise businesses. Source
This year's top financial professionals are from a broad range of businesses; Matt Humphrey, CEO of LendingHome which provides real estate loans for homebuyers and fix and flip investors made the list; LendingHome has originated $1 billion in real estate loans; also on the list is Eugene Marinelli, chief technology officer of mortgage tech company, Blend. Source
Rohit Arora of Biz2Credit outlines three fintech trends affecting small business lending; highlights artificial intelligence, convergence in marketplace lending and bank partnerships and financial inclusion initiatives for underserved banking consumers; Arora also says market conditions are positive for small business lenders with new job creation measures and technological advances broadly across the financial industry. Source
LendIt provides details on LendIt USA 2017 training sessions in their blog post; the training sessions will be focused on sales and marketing, and technology and operations; the two sessions will be held on March 6 and will include interactive discussion; the sales and marketing training session will be in the morning and will include discussion on digital marketing channels, and lead generation, retention and engagement; the technology and operations session will be in the afternoon and will include discussion on artificial intelligence and the importance of mobile. Source
Morgan Edwards, chief financial officer at CommonBond gives an overview of the company and the student lending opportunity in this video from LendIt USA 2016. CommonBond provides student loan refinancing but one thing that makes them unique is their "1-for-1" model where they fund an education of a student in Africa for each student loan refinancing. As of April, the company had $625 million in capital committed with zero defaults and zero 30+ day delinquencies.
Morgan believes we are in a growth cycle and capital is here to stay although we may experience some ebb and flows through the cycle. He stated, "Capital flows where there is understanding and there is a return," and highlights several aspects that make this a favorable environment for student lending and marketplace lending broadly.
You can view the full video below:
P2P-Banking.com has released its monthly report on marketplace lending originations; Funding Circle, RateSetter and Zopa led in December however loan volume for the UK lenders was down from November; Funding Circle originated €114.1 million ($118.92 million), RateSetter originated €68.2 million ($71.08 million) and Zopa originated €60.2 million ($62.74 million); in December Funding Circle's loan volume decreased -14% from November, RateSetter's originations decreased -1% and Zopa's originations decreased -25%.
India's demonetization of the Rs 500 ($7.32) and Rs 1,000 ($14.65) continues to help online alternative finance lenders; uncertain investors are increasingly utilizing alternative finance platforms as a safer investment over gold, real estate and the stock market; invoice financing platform KredX has reported investment increases of 400% to 500%; with less of a cash focused society, P2P lenders Capital Float, Faircent, i-lend and AnyTimeLoan.in have also reported significantly higher platform investments. Source
AltFi highlights four main factors influencing alternative finance in 2017; UK regulatory developments continue to influence the market with new authorizations from the Financial Conduct Authority and ongoing consultation on the crowdfunding market; the small business lending referral scheme began in November with high expectations for increasing alternative lending originations; the launch of Marcus by Goldman Sachs is expected to affect competition and potentially set a precedent for online lending platforms lending from deposit capital; the Article 50 clause, which begins the process for the UK leaving the European Union, is still open for debate with the final action occurring in March; the March results will significantly influence the economic environment in 2017. Source
CreditEase was China's first P2P lender, founded in 2006; since its founding the firm has been expanding its services to wealth management and robo advice; Ning Tang, CreditEase founder and CEO, provides his insight on the business and the online lending industry in an interview; highlights how the company plans to expand its business lines through partnerships while also managing regulatory controls. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has fined TransUnion and Equifax over $23.2 million for deceptively advertising services; the agencies reportedly advertised credit services costing customers over $200 as free and misled customers about the use of credit reports they obtained; according to the CFPB, TransUnion will pay $13.93 million to consumers and a $3 million fine while Equifax will pay $3.8 million to consumers and a $2.5 million fine. Source