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
P2P Finance News breaks down the projected returns of marketplace lending platforms in the UK; notes that business and property lending platforms offer the highest projected returns. Source
Fox Fintech, an affiliate of Sohu.com, was able to obtain the first micro-credit license by the Ningbo City Government in China; Alex Ho, Fox Fintech Group's founder and CEO, commented, "We are applying advanced technologies in big data, facial recognition, machine learning and self-developed algorithms to bring efficient, convenient and inclusive credit service to China."; the internet micro-credit license allows for Fox Fintech to lend across the country, traditional micro-credit licenses are limited to the city where they are approved. Source
China Rapid Finance (CRF) reports Q2 EPS of $1.93; revenue for the quarter came in at $15.15 million versus the consensus estimate of $10.46 million; for the full year ending December 31, 2017, CRF expects to add between 2.5 to 3.0 million new borrowers, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 350% to 400%; CRF also expects total gross billings on transactions and service fees to be in the range of $110 to $120 million in 2017, as compared with $67.9 million in the prior year. Source
Orchard reports on the diversity of business lending, breaking lending down by industry and state using data from Orchard; reports that they have the most data on retail trade followed by health care and social assistance, and construction; shares the concentration of lending of several industries by state. Source
Gellman is the firm's first chief marketing officer; he joins the firm from Esurance and also has experience at Wells Fargo; Credible is a personal finance marketplace that provides offers for student loans and personal loans; in July it also announced a credit card marketplace; Gellman will help the platform expand its business and continue to focus on supporting its customers. Source
TruePillars, an Australian SME lender that focuses on individual investors, raised $3.9 million in a series A round; the round was led by a Melbourne-based private investor; "This investment will give us the means to further innovate and build on our service, including our ground-breaking secondary marketplace which allows investors to liquidate their investments ahead of schedule by selling to another investor in real time," says John Baini, TruePillars co-founder and CEO; the company allows for individual investors to fund loans with a $50 minimum commitment per loan. Source
Funding Societies is the first P2P lender to join the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers (IACPM); the IACPM was established in 2001 and is focused on supporting a community of members in the practice of credit portfolio management; the Association currently has approximately 100 financial institution members. Source
Prosper's originations were $775 million in the second quarter of 2017, up from $586 million in the first quarter; adjusted EBITDA was $6.7 million in the second quarter and the company was cash flow positive; Prosper had their first profitable quarter in Q3 of 2014 before growing significantly and subsequently falling back into the red; whole loan sales represented 94% of total volume in Q2; Prosper has originated a total of $9.7 billion in loans; Prosper also announced closing a $500 million securitization; PMIT 2017-2 was rated by Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. and Fitch Ratings with the Class A pool receiving an A rating. Source
Multi-lending platform Alternative Business Funding (ABF) will become the fourth alternative finance business to be involved in the UK's bank referral scheme; the bank referral scheme began in November 2016 and has been reporting success with over 8,000 SMEs being referred to alternative funding sources; the other three businesses in the referral scheme network include Funding Options, Funding Xchange and Bizfitech. Source