Chinese regulators have mandated that P2P lenders work with custody banks for depository services; Ping An Bank has announced a third party depository service and provides details in a document titled, "Measures for Third Party Depository of P2P Online Lending Platforms"; the document provides access criteria for lenders and the bank appears to be setting the industry standard for P2P custody services. Source
OnDeck is one of the market's leading small business online lenders and they have taken an active role in industry self-regulation specifically around improved transparency for business borrowers; in their featured blog post they discuss the market's landscape and their lending technology partnership integration efforts; they also provide details on their involvement in developing industry best practices through development of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Innovation Lending Platform Association; this involvement has resulted in the creation of the SMART Box which they also detail in their blog post. Sponsored Blog Post
Wangdaizhijia has released two market reports providing insight and projections on P2P lending and crowdfunding in China; report finds 2,235 P2P platforms with total loans of $385 billion, including $181 billion in loans originated in January through August of 2016; predicting originations of $300 billion for online lending in 2016; nonlending crowdfunding market is smaller with 380 platforms as of August and crowdfunded investments of $1.57 billion for January to August of 2016. Source
Orchard provides insight on monthly trends in P2P lending originations; uses Lending Club's publicly available standard program data for the analysis; finds October has historically been the peak month for P2P loan originations; identifies loan purpose trends for 2015 with debt consolidation notably highest in January; categories with peak lending originations in December in 2015 included major purchase, other and small business. Source
UK marketplace lender Landbay has been granted full authorization by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); the platform primarily lends to borrowers seeking rental property mortgage loans; with the FCA authorization the Landbay platform can now seek to offer innovative finance individual savings accounts to its investors. Source
Real estate P2P lending platform Octopus Choice has received full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK; the FCA approval now allows it to begin the process for offering innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs) for investors; the firm has been in business for nine months; it currently provides secured loans to residential property borrowers. Source
RiverNorth's total portfolio consisted of 10,173 loans with an average loan size of $10,176 at the end of July; in the note to investors RiverNorth shared that investors are becoming more comfortable with online lending assets with more awareness likely to drive further growth; highlights two recent positive events in the industry including Prosper's recent securitization and Lending Club's Q2 2017 results. Source
Flender, a marketplace lending platform in the UK, is seeking to raise 500,009 british pounds from an equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs; the company offers P2P loans through a mobile application; the firm's business model seeks to connect borrowers with lenders in their social network helping to facilitate social network lending. Source
The marketplace lending industry's first peer-to-peer lender has created a waiting list for new investors and is currently only accepting funds from existing investors; the investor waiting list began on March 9 and follows the previous halting of new money from all investors on its platform in December; the waiting list is another effort to keep processing times down; demand for loans on the platform was higher in February as more investors identified the loan investments for their high yields among other regional alternatives; Zopa has reported plans for expansion to secured car loans and is also continuing with its plans for launching a digital bank. Source
Lend Academy provides 2017 predictions for the industry and analyzes last year's predictions in their article; predictions for 2016 that did occur included a new auto lending product at Lending Club, online lending platform launches from banks, an increased focus on retail investors and a new industry trade association; in 2017 predictions include at least a dozen new bank partnerships, positive reception for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's fintech charter, lending platforms offering banking products, increased use of artificial intelligence and significant foreign investment from China in US platforms. Source