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
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman is committed to helping support and promote financial inclusion by democratizing financial services and making banking activities more broadly available to everyone; the company is well positioned to support this initiative with more than six billion transactions occurring on its platform annually; Schulman provides some metrics around the benefits of digital transactions noting that the typical underserved population spends 10% of its disposable income on unnecessary fees and interest rates and with technology the cost of basic transactions can be lowered by as much as 80% to 90%.
Zane Wang concluded the LendIt USA keynote speeches with a presentation on China Rapid Finance's business growth in China; the firm's online lending business has grown steadily as a leading provider of online loans for consumers; Wang discussed China's credit market infrastructure and credit bureau development; Wang also noted the market opportunity from emerging middle-class mobile active consumers (EMMAs) which are a primary target market for China Rapid Finance; also of high importance in China is the use of big data; Wang reported that China Rapid Finance has been able to achieve its success by using predictive selection technology solutions derived from machine learning and big data algorithms. Source
LendingHome will now offer an online mortgage product for consumers; LendingHome was launched in 2014 and has been funding short-term bridge and rental loans for property investors; the platform has funded over $1 billion in loans; features of the product include: an automated process, real time rates, loan guidance and real estate agent connectivity. Source
PeerStreet has partnered with Betterment to provide increased access to its platform data for investors through the Betterment service; with the new partnership investors can now view their PeerStreet positions on the Betterment dashboard; the partnership is facilitated by data integration from Quovo. Source
Chancellor Hammond has reported the UK Spring Budget which provides insight for the region on the UK's economy as it separates from the European Union; the Spring Budget included a 270 million British pound ($328 million) investment by Industrial Strategy challenge fund for development of innovative technologies; Crowdfund Insider provides comments on the Spring Budget from a few executives in alternative finance; of note is the Budget's continued provision that prevents investors from diversifying across innovative finance individual savings accounts and a change in the tax on dividend income. Source
Deloitte has released its second marketplace lending report; discusses the convergence of digitization across all types of banking services; covers all aspects of lending including varying loan funding sources, securitization and regulations; also reports on credit markets and how different lending categories will scale at varying rates. Source
The US marketplace lending industry has matured with a number of self-regulating industry associations however the evolution of the industry and its integration into mainstream financial services has brought about increased regulatory attention which was one prominent topic for discussion at LendIt USA; HousingWire details the keynote speeches from Thomas Curry and Patrick McHenry also discussing insight from Amias Gerety; Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was also a featured keynote speaker discussing government regulatory efforts pertaining to the industry. Source
Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial has reported an investment in payment provider Mynt which has its business focus in the Philippines; Mynt currently has three million registered customers and reports one billion pesos ($19.9 million) worth of transactions per week; it provides services for consumers, merchants, and organizations primarily through its GCash and Fuse Lending businesses; GCash serves as its micropayment service provider and Fuse Lending offers online personal and business loans. Source
Atom Bank has raised $102 million in new capital from Spanish bank BBVA who also led a previous funding round in 2015; the company plans to use the funding for business and product development including lending services; the digital bank's current products include: Fixed Saver accounts, mortgages, and secured loans for small and medium-sized businesses; the company is also reportedly working on another funding round and is currently valued at approximately $320 million. Source