In a recent interview, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney stated, "We feel very confident that in 2017 you'll be able to have a SoFi bank account with a debit and/or credit card."; further details are not known on how SoFi plans to offer deposit accounts; Cagney stated the company is working on two or three initiatives; back in July Cagney told investors that getting a traditional bank license was not a viable solution; the company may be able to leverage the OCC's recently announced nonbank fintech charter. Source
A report from Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions, titled "Education: Back to Basics" says student loan default and delinquency rates are down from 14.7% in 2013 yet still high at approximately 11% which is comparable to peak mortgage crisis delinquency rates of 11.5%; report also provides additional comparisons of the current state of the student loan market to the mortgage market crisis; notes that the student loan market overall is $1.41 trillion compared to $8.6 trillion for mortgages, making high student loan defaults less significant than a mortgage market crisis. Source
Unison has reported new funding that brings its total capital raised to $300 million also announcing new leadership appointments; the new capital will help the company continue its focus on providing more affordable home ownership for US consumers; the funding round included Ron Suber of Prosper Marketplace who will also join the firm as a strategic advisor; the firm has recently added several new executives focused on sales and marketing. Source
The SME Loan Fund has a new fund manager, SQN Capital Management, and is changing its name to the SQN Secured Income Fund; it is planning to issue up to 250 million new shares to increase assets under management and improve liquidity; it will continue to invest in loans from origination platforms and finance companies however its investment policy will divert from investing in GLI Finance affiliated platforms and will now focus its investments primarily on a range of secured wholesale loans. Source
CNBC reports on institutional developments in the marketplace lending industry with statistics on the growing securitization market for marketplace loans; in 2016 securitizations backed by marketplace loans totaled $7.62 billion, a 300% increase from introduction in 2013; securitizations are expected to continue at a strong pace with SoFi dominating the 2016 securitization market with 58% of issuance and leading in 2017 with a $564 million securitization portfolio; other institutional investors are also reporting interest including Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital, Zurich Insurance Group, and property and casualty insurer Chubb. Source
SoFi has securitized another portfolio which was priced on February 2; Moody's provided ratings ranging from Aaa to Baa2 for the portfolio; the portfolio includes private student loans from SoFi; the value of rated loans was $561 million. Source
P2PGI will be increasing its allocation to asset-backed loans in its investment trust; the firm will primarily focus on secured real estate loans however it will also be increasing its allocation to invoice credit lending and other secured lending investments; the increased focus on secured loans follows a previous announcement on targeting UK originated loans. Source
PeerIQ covered earnings season for the banking sector, the reported deal of JPMorgan's student loan portfolio to Navient and the plans of China Rapid Finance to go public on the NYSE; they also dug deep into credit card receivable securitization deals; they compared delinquency and loss levels of credit card deals to that of installment loan deals; comparing MPL ABS and credit card ABS is not exact, credit card deals are revolving that re-invest principal and interest over time; delinquencies for credit cards reached all time lows in 2016 while the unsecured installment loans have had a pattern of higher losses; peak delinquencies in a stress period for credit cards is around 8% while the installment loans are around 12%; now that PeerIQ has partnered with TransUnion look for more comparable data trends in future updates. Source
A report from marketplace lender Funding Options says UK SMEs owe $3.25 billion in value added taxes (VAT); a leading factor affecting tax payments is late B2B payments creating an even greater opportunity for alternative financing in the region; Funding Options is promoting alternative solutions to help SMEs better manage their business taxes. Source
Abundance sold 72% of all Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) products in the last year; this represented 62% of investment into the new product overall; while the P2P lender is happy with their success they realize their market lead will diminish as they were one of a few platforms approved in the last year; a host of other platforms, including top lender Zopa, have been approved recently and the numbers are sure to be more widely spread out among a larger group of platforms; Bruce Davis, co-founder and joint managing director of Abundance, tells AltFi, "Abundance's success is very much the good news part of the Innovative Finance ISA story to date." Source