The marketplace lending industry has evolved with investments coming from a range of market channels; to help marketplace loans integrate even further into the mainstream the industry needs involvement from 'gatekeepers' and needs to educate the asset allocator community; Lend Academy discusses the investment consultant process to bring new types of investments to asset allocators; to help facilitate this communication, LendIt is offering asset allocators free tickets to LendIt USA 2017 and is planning a special event at the conference for asset allocators, hosted by fund managers. Source
DealStruck, an online lender for small and medium-sized businesses, has stopped originating loans; the industry environment and slowdown in investor capital has affected the company; the firm's CEO Ethan Senturia said, "Although we are not currently originating new loans, we are continuing to provide our clients with the high-level of service they have come to expect from us."; he also noted, "we’ll be looking for strategic options to allow us to continue delivering on our mission to provide unique, appropriate and affordable financing to small businesses nationwide." Source
PeerIQ and Freedom Financial Network have signed an agreement that will allow new data access for Freedom Financial Asset Management and its clients; Freedom Financial Asset Management is a marketplace lending platform offering consumer loans; the data access will include PeerIQ's full suite of tools which will also be available to the platform's institutional investors; Freedom Financial Asset Management will also utilize PeerIQ's fair valuation services which launched last year. Source
Allen Webb of RiverNorth talks about the firm's marketplace lending fund; gives an overview of the portfolio selection criteria; talks about the fund's structure and some of the liquidity challenges presented by marketplace loans; says the firm is planning future webinars to educate investors on the fixed income investment.
The P2PFA provides quarterly data on its eight member firms; as of the third quarter it seems to have simplified its reporting to provide only industry and platform origination totals; Kadhim Shubber of FT Alphaville is curious as to why the P2PFA has chosen the new disclosure format which no longer appears to include granular details such as principal outstanding, capital repaid, number of lenders and number of borrowers; he has petitioned the P2PFA for more disclosure and greater transparency, questioning the lack of consistency and transparency in its quarterly data reporting. Source
"Rocket Mortgage has forever changed the way people think about getting a mortgage," said Jay Farner, CEO of Quicken Loans; for 2016 Quicken Loans has reported record originations of $96 billion with $7 billion contributed by Rocket Mortgage which has been originating loans for 11 months; consumers have reported high demand for the Rocket Mortgage product which provides a much simpler process for homeowners by digitally verifying income, credit, assets and property valuations. Source
MoolahSense, a marketplace lender focused on small business loans, has received a full Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS); the MAS license allows the business to offer its loan investments in the country to a broad range of investors including retail investors, high net worth individuals and private funds. Source
Ernst & Young has written a white paper on alternative lending and its emergence in the financial services industry; provides details on the alternative lending industry's ecosystem, operating models, challenges, integration opportunities and future outlook; also provides insight on investor considerations for the emerging investment category. Source
RateSetter is ending its wholesale loan program after discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority; the Financial Conduct Authority has requested P2P lenders not undertake wholesale lending which provides loan capital to other businesses and financial institutions specifically for the purpose of lending; in 2016, RateSetter reported 114,347,646 British pounds ($142,591,515) in wholesale lending. Source
UK marketplace lender, Funding Circle, has reported a record month for loan originations in October; the platform originated £95 million worth of loans in October, reporting its highest ever monthly origination volume; the firm's previous loan origination volume record was set in September with £75.2 million in loans; the small business lender now has total loan originations of £1.62 billion. Source