eOriginal surveyed participants at the LendIt USA 2017 conference to gain insight on drivers of industry growth and market challenges; according to the survey report 90% of participants expect an increase in partnerships between traditional banks and marketplace lenders in 2017; when asked about challenges for the industry overall, 47% reported regulation as the top challenge followed by access to capital at 25%; respondents also reported a number of challenges in end-to-end digital transaction management solutions including: full adoption by partners, lack of infrastructure, security and privacy concerns, and cost. Source
Groundfloor has partnered with IRA Services to offer clients investment through tax-deferred retirement accounts; Groundfloor is the US market's first and only real estate platform with all of its investments open to non-accredited investors; through IRA Services, which provides a unique platform for facilitating investment in alternative finance, investors can now invest in Groundfloor's range of real estate offerings, achieving returns of 5% to over 20% in tax deferred retirement accounts; Groundfloor's P2P real estate lending platform has been growing substantially with $16.5 million in loans originated in 2016, an increase of 621% from 2015. Source
Brickell Capital Finance will now offer its healthcare clients Liquid FSI Convert2Pay services through its sales representatives; Liquid FSI Convert2Pay allows healthcare professionals to upload healthcare claims and receive payouts; the firm has a range of solutions for healthcare claim payouts and also offers healthcare industry lending services. Source
LendIt held its first conference event in June 2013 with 340 people gathering at the Convene Conference Center in New York City; Renaud LaPlanche gave the opening keynote speech discussing how marketplace lending technology was quickly being adopted with potential for disrupting incumbents; LendIt's Jason Jones followed with a global market overview identifying the significant market opportunities in the US, China and the UK; the one-day event included multiple panel sessions, networking and a closing presentation from Prosper's Ron Suber who discussed the importance of the ecosystem for the industry's success. Source
Brett King interviewed Antony Jenkins for a LendIt USA 2017 keynote presentation titled, "The End of the Beginning: Accelerating Transformation in Financial Services"; King also talked with a number of conference participants in a Breaking Banks podcast titled, "Innovations in Lending at LendIt 2017"; the podcast provides insight from Brock Blake of Lendio, Christoph Rieche of iwoca, Ohad Samet from TrueAccord, Peter Renton from LendIt, John Owens and Emmanuel Daniel of The Asian Banker. Source
Scott Sanborn gave a recap of his LendIt USA 2017 keynote presentation and reiterated his excitement and positive outlook for the marketplace lending industry in a blog post; Sanborn identified three key areas of importance: evolving the customer experience, unleashing the platform potential and amplifying core innovations; with a focus on these three things Lending Club plans to see more borrowers and investors as well as a number of new and innovative partnerships fueling its future business growth. Source
The service from Whitepages Pro can add another layer to identity verification for online lenders; it provides lenders with analysis of a potential borrower's associated phone number, email, mailing address and business name; Whitepages CEO Rob Eleveld says the service gives lenders a broad profile of the borrower which in most cases is difficult to fraudulently create; it can also be accessed through APIs which makes connecting to the service easy for lenders. Source
LendingHome was founded in 2013 and is the second startup business founded by Matt Humphrey; the firm announced its new consumer loan mortgage product at LendIt USA 2017; since its initial launch, the business has originated over $1 billion in mortgage loans with a focus specifically on fix and flip property owners; the new product will expand the capabilities of the firm's technology by offering consumer mortgage loans to first time homebuyers; the product expansion is a natural extension of the business and talking with Forbes, Humphrey says it has been a part of the firm's plan since founding the company. Source
The Federal Reserve increased its federal funds rate by 0.25% following its March Federal Open Market Committee meeting; the rate is now at 0.75% to 1.00%; the Fed also alluded to plans for two more rate increases in 2017. Source
Big banks reported their seventh consecutive month of increased approval rates at 24.1%; small bank lending approvals decreased in February to 48.8% from 48.9%; institutional lending approvals reached a new high of 63.5%; the approval rate for credit unions remained at 40.8%; the loan approval rate for alternative lenders decreased to 58.4% from 58.5% in January and has been trending lower over the past twelve months with February 2016 reporting an approval rate of 60.8%. Source
