loanDepot has been steadily becoming one of the US's top mortgage lenders, rivaling both online businesses and traditional institutions; Anthony Hsieh talked with Forbes at LendIt USA about the growth of the business; the company has funded over $100 billion in mortgage loans and is building out a fintech ecosystem that will empower future market growth and product expansion; loanDepot is the third online mortgage company founded by Anthony Hsieh and the company is in its eighth year of operations; Hsieh says the firm is potentially considering an IPO. Source
In an interview with CNBC, Ning Tang, CEO of CreditEase, provides insight on the China Banking Regulatory Commission’s regulation for China’s P2P lending industry; says the regulation will have positive long-term affects; focuses on the requirement of P2P lenders to work with banks as a custodian and says CreditEase has complied with this requirement for many years. Source
Bond Street is partnering with NerdWallet to develop small business lending resources to educate small businesses on its loans; resources will include service from NerdWallet's Small Business Loan Tool as well as guides and webinars on marketplace lending and small business planning; with the partnership, Bond Street intends to more broadly market and service small business lenders with its loan offerings which range from $10,000 to $1 million. Source
P2P commercial real estate lender Relendex has received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority; the platform provides secured commercial property loans through its P2P marketplace lending platform and now plans to seek the offering of innovative finance individual savings accounts for its investors; in comments regarding the authorization, Michael Lynn, the firm's founder and chief executive officer said, "FCA full authorization marks a fantastic start to 2017 for the Relendex team and platform which will further encourage and facilitate investment in commercial property from both our UK and foreign investors." Source
P2Binvestor has raised $7.7 million in a Series A1 funding led by Rockies Venture Club, an angel investor network in Colorado, and Future Venture Capital Co., a Japanese venture capital firm; according to CEO and Co-Founder Krista Morgan, funds will be used to grow operations, sales and marketing departments; improvements to the platform will also be made; Morgan stated, "We're seeing more interest in our model as venture funding hits a two-year low and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to grow their business while preserving their equity using good-quality, flexible debt." Source
South East Asia SME marketplace lender First Circle has announced new funding that will help it further develop its business in South East Asia; the firm was the first to begin lending to SMEs in South East Asia offering its loans in the Philippines; it provides loans for underserved businesses through use of a proprietary underwriting system; the firm says it will use the new investment funding to further develop its technology platform and lending business in the Philippines. Source
Consumer borrowing increased by $15.2 billion in February, according to a report from the Federal Reserve; credit card borrowing increased by $2.9 billion helping total credit card debt outstanding to increase to $1 trillion; auto loan and student loan borrowing also increased in February by $12.3 billion. Source
In a press release SoFi shared that members have cumulatively paid off over $5 billion in credit card debt; members reduced their effective interest rate by 42% and saw credit scores rise by 17 points on average; SoFi borrowers can borrow up to $100,000 and choose a term of three, five or seven years; over 70% of borrowers report using funds for credit card refinancing and loan consolidation. Source
PeerStreet is a platform founded by Brew Johnson? and Brett Crosby; initially launched to take advantage of inefficiencies in the real estate market, the platform has grown to service a wide range of accredited investors; the platform has originated over $200 million in real estate loans; it attributes its success to the platform's focus on short-term, first position lien loans, and a robust legal and compliance team; Brew Johnson will be speaking at LendIt USA 2017 on a panel discussing "Residential & Commercial Real Estate: What's next for real estate crowdfunding?" Source
London-based technology company Misys has plans for an IPO; the company had planned to offer its stock in 2016 but decided against its IPO and now says it could still be a possibility; the firm's CEO Nadeem Syed said it is currently focusing on its new machine learning and P2P lending products; earlier in January it announced a new P2P lending solution for banks, FusionBanking Crowdlending; currently it offers its clients a broad range of solutions through its FusionBanking products and its targeting existing clients with its new products. Source