RealtyMogul has announced it will open its MogulREIT I Fund for self-directed IRA investing; the announcement will give non-accredited investors access to higher performing alternative credit investments for a minimum of $1,000; the Fund has also announced a new dividend reinvestment option and two new property investments. Source
As of January 2017 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fully authorized ten peer-to-peer lenders, according to AltFi, while the remainder of the industry operates with interim approvals; AltFi speculates on some of the characteristics of the authorized and interim lenders; of the authorized firms, Folk2Folk is the largest with originations of approximately 100 million British pounds ($120.44 million); the UK's largest platforms including Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle still have not been approved; loans from these lenders are primarily unsecured; characteristics identified by AltFi as issues for the FCA include: pre-funding, collective investment, auto-investing and institutional investment. Source
Elevate Credit has appointed Tony Leopold as its new general manager for the firm's Rise product; Leopold brings over 20 years of experience in strategy, business development, finance and operations from roles at United Rentals and Bain and Company; Rise is Elevate's flagship product offering unsecured consumer loans of $500 to $5,000. Source
Online mortgage lending has helped to revive the market for mortgage loan securitizations; new online mortgage lenders are providing a new wave of mortgage loan securitizations for the market specifically with fix and flips; these loans are attractive to investors because of the high yields and offer investors shorter duration investments because of the fix and flip focus; despite defaults and structuring inefficiencies created from the 2008 financial crisis, institutional investors are placing confidence in these investments; LendingHome has been leading the market with steady issuance of fix and flip loan securitizations and the products have been performing successfully for investors indicating the niche investments could begin to scale more broadly. Source
Online mortgage broker Trussle is currently in the early stages of talks with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to potentially overhaul the mortgage application process; the plan that Trussle is pitching to the FCA is to help standardize documents needed in a format that they are needed in; Mr. Mahli told FTAdviser: "There's an unnecessary inefficiency in the way mortgage applications are packaged and submitted, which varies wildly from lender to lender. Uncertainty is the last thing a buyer wants when making what's often the biggest financial decision of their life."; currently the FCA will not comment on talks that are in such a nascent stage. Source
Able Lending has one of the industry's most unique business models, allowing small business lenders to source loans from their personal network to lower lending costs; Lend Academy interviews Will Davis of Able Lending for more insight on the platform's business; at Able Lending, personal network backers take a subordinated position, allowing the lead lender to get paid back first while offering a lower cost of borrowing overall; the firm has been successful with this lending model, reporting over 80% of loans utilizing backers; it has also seen steady origination growth, with volume growing from $3 million in the first year to $30 million in the second year and an expected $100 million in its third year. Source
P2P-banking.com has reported international P2P lending originations for February; Funding Circle led originations with 121.4 million euros ($127.67 million) in loans originated; Funding Circle also surpassed 2 billion British pounds ($2.46 billion) in cumulative loan originations during the month; Zopa and RateSetter followed Funding Circle with Zopa reporting 89.8 million euros and RateSetter reporting originations of 72.3 million euros; the list does not include P2P lenders in the US. 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
Latvian marketplace lender Mintos and Creamfinance have partnered to list loans originated in Denmark and the Czech Republic; Creamfinance Financial Planning Director, Georgijs Ustinovs, said, "High investor demand for Creamfinance loans was our main motivation for adding a new market to the Mintos platform."; Mintos noted that the annual return to investors should reach 11%. Source
Chinese regulators have issued new guidance for P2P lenders in further efforts to regulate China's fintech industry; the new guidance requires P2P lenders to register with the government which will also help regulators to build an industry database for development of future regulation; regulators involved with the new guidance include the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Source