Orchard's weekly snapshot highlights some new securitization activity in the online lending market; SoFi has filed for its third securitization of 2017 (SCLP 2017-2); Kabbage has filed for their first securitization of the year; in its fourth quarter 2016 earnings report, Lending Club also reported a new securitization program with quarterly issuance of up to $100 million. Source
European online lender Spotcap has received A$20 million (USD$15.15 million) from New Zealand Bank, Heartland; Spotcap has also launched its platform in New Zealand and will be accelerating growth in Australia, helping to expand its business in the Asia Pacific region; Spotcap's lending targets small and medium enterprises with credit lines and loans of up to $250,000. Source
NewOak will invest up to $2 billion in loans originated by Canadian online lender LendingArch over the next three years; NewOak will also make a significant contribution to the strategy of the firm; the New York-based asset management and institutional advisory firm will take an advisory role with LendingArch supporting its business development and capital markets strategies. Source
CreditEase was China's first P2P lender, founded in 2006; since its founding the firm has been expanding its services to wealth management and robo advice; Ning Tang, CreditEase founder and CEO, provides his insight on the business and the online lending industry in an interview; highlights how the company plans to expand its business lines through partnerships while also managing regulatory controls. Source
Non-bank lenders in the Netherlands have been capitalizing on the global financial crisis and decreased lending from banks; Jeroen van Hessen's Dutch Mortgage Funding Company has been a leader in non-bank mortgage lending, a market that now attributes 20% of the 662 billion euros ($693 billion) mortgage market to non-bank lenders; Hessen was a market leader in the non-bank lending movement which has attracted interest from institutional investors willing to bypass traditional channels for higher returns; the effects from non-bank entrants have begun to show more significantly in the mortgage lending market where market share for mortgage originations from the region's top three banks fell below 50% for the first time in 2016; non-bank lending in the Netherlands has also increased interest from surrounding European investors familiar with non-bank platforms. Source
Company has closed their first investment in Lithuania last month; other countries of operation include Estonia and Latvia; CEO and Co-Founder Marek Partel stated: "Lithuanians are the third biggest community of investors at EstateGuru and now they have the chance to invest into loans closer to them and our international investor base have even more options for diversification. The burgeoning Lithuanian real estate market is stable and mature while small and medium sized businesses are still often underserved by the banking sector like in many other European countries. With businesses already familiar with the concept of P2P lending and have been utilizing this option for some time, this represents a ripe opportunity for EstateGuru to join." Source
The Norway Global Government Pension Fund is cited as the world's largest sovereign wealth fund by assets; Fund managers have proposed some new changes to the investment guidelines for the Fund which has total assets of £723 billion ($898.27 billion); they are planning to increase the equity allocation threshold to 70% from 60%; the change would increase access to investments with higher returns during a time when fixed income investment yields are extremely low. Source
Chirag Shah, CEO of Nucleus Commercial Finance, believes poor underwriting standards by UK P2P platforms will begin manifesting itself in 2017 and more platforms will begin to fail; in an interview with Business Insider he says: "Everyone's done the easy part of building the loan books. Now let's see who can get the money back."; Shah also points out that the big platforms in the UK own most of the quality loan volume, second and third tier platforms are underwriting borrowers who were rejected by banks or the large platforms; Conrad Ford of Funding Options thinks Shah makes good points though he doesn't think there is a systemic underwriting problem across the market. Source
Nucleus Commercial Finance has lent over 500 million British pounds ($624 million) to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and is planning to ramp up lending in 2017; firm's lending products include asset finance, construction finance, invoice finance and cash flow finance and they are planning to add new products as well as hire three new people for its asset-based lending team; the platform's lending has increased 100% since April 2016 and it is targeting 1 billion British pounds ($1.25 billion) in loans to SMEs in the next 12 months. Source
Landbay, UK Bond Network, Downing and Peer Funding will use Goji to offer investments in Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISA) in the UK; the offerings are anticipated to launch before the tax deadline; Jake Wombwell-Povey, Goji co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "We're signing up an increasing number of platforms who are keen to offer their investors a best of breed IFISA service. There is a great deal of complexity in bringing the IFISA to market and we are focused on ensuring that it is as easy as possible for investors to access this new opportunity to drive returns. Interest in this new and attractive investment vehicle is not surprising given the low yields available on traditional fixed income and savings and increasing inflation." Source