Orchard has updated its Lendscape with three new categories; the three new buckets include law firms, verification and auto; law firms and verification providers have been significantly contributing to the ecosystem; in auto lending, platforms that have emerged include AutoFi, DriverUp, Drive Sally, Lending Club and MotorEnvy; other categories with new companies include loan servicing, education and institutional investors. Source
Securitization continues to be a key source of capital for many marketplace lenders; LendIt, in association with Cadwalader and Lending Times, will host a forum on Wednesday, January 11th at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will focus on key factors to consider in choosing the optimal risk retention structure, commercial considerations related to sponsors including brand and investor relationships, requirements to establish a majority owned-affiliate including the amount of equity that must be retained by the sponsor versus an investor and more; register today.
China Rapid Finance currently has 1.2 million borrowers on its platform and is seeking to triple its users; it recently received $70 million in funding which will help to support the growth; also wants to increase its users to 10 million over the next two to three years; the firm says it is well positioned to manage new regulations from the Chinese government and it is developing its platform to more broadly target the needs of the country's 500 million residents. Source
Small Business Administration (SBA) loans are a popular source of funding for small businesses in the US; SmartBiz Loans is one of the online market's leading providers of these loans; Lend Academy talks with Evan Singer, CEO of SmartBiz, in their podcast; SmartBiz recently became the number one provider of SBA loans under $350,000, beating out big banks such as Wells Fargo for smaller dollar loans; Evan Singer talks about the firm's business and the origination process which involves a network of bank lenders. Source
Commercial real estate marketplace lending platform Money 360 originated loans of $35.6 million in December; the bridge loans ranged from $2.5 million to $12.5 million with durations between one and two years; according to Founder and CEO Evan Gentry, the firm expects momentum to continue in 2017 with performance from the platform a factor of increased demand from borrowers and investors for commercial real estate financing. Source
LendIt, in conjunction with Cadwalader and Lending Times, will host a forum on securitization this Wednesday, January 11th at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will focus on key factors to consider in choosing the optimal risk retention structure, commercial considerations related to sponsors including brand and investor relationships, requirements necessary to establish a majority owned-affiliate including the amount of equity that must be retained by the sponsor versus an investor and other related topics; speakers include Philip Bartow of River North, Bruce Bloomingdale from Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, Rupert Chisholm from One William Street Capital, Abe Kahan of CommonBond, Dylan Schuler of CommonBond and Gregg Jubin from Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft; learn more by registering here today.
OneMain has rejected an unsolicited exchange offer from IEG Holdings; on January 6, 2017, IEG submitted an offer to buy shares of OneMain, a consumer finance company offering personal loans; IEG is an online consumer loan provider with stock trading on an over the counter market exchange; OneMain says the offer does not reflect the value of the company or the best interests of its shareholders. Source
UK bank Barclays has launched a new service for its small and medium-sized business customers; it will now offer the business customers mobile credit applications for loans and overdraft products; loan approvals and funding can be received in an hour. Source
Regulators are inspecting Chinese P2P lenders for compliance with new rules issued last year; specifically lenders must partner with a custodian and limit loans to RMB 1 million ($144,200) for individuals and RMB 5 million ($721,001) for companies; they are also not permitted to guarantee principal or interest; the country currently has more than 2,400 P2P lenders; experts expect the new rules will likely change the nation's P2P lending landscape significantly; Roger Ying, founder and chief executive of P2P lender Pandai stated: "[There] will be shakeouts, though good for those which are compliant. It will take time for P2Ps to move to custodian banks. Presumably the most risk for investors is with P2Ps who do not have escrow [or] custodian bank accounts as retail investor sentiment is low." Source
PeerIQ has released its fourth quarter "Marketplace Lending Securitization Tracker" with details on the marketplace lending securitization market; the chart below shows the marketplace lending securitization issuance for the top 10 originators; SoFi leads the list with $6.85 billion in securitized loans, followed by Prosper and Avant. Source
