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
Lending Club announces Q3 earnings on November 7th; LendingRobot provides a review of past quarters including comments on regulation, revenue and loan performance; shares three things they are looking for in the next release including results from corrective actions, a clear path forward for 2017 and a hint of something new. Source
Funding Circle has revised its credit underwriting model for its secured property loans offered to SMEs; the new credit underwriting model has been adjusted based on three years of secured property loan data from the platform; the new secured property loan underwriting model will increase rates for certain secured property loans and also expand the firm's secured property loan risk bands beyond A+ and A. Source

Goldman Sachs is estimating a 500% return on its initial investment of $550 million in credit data provider TransUnion; the investment began in 2012 when Goldman Sachs bought TransUnion; since then TransUnion has gone public with shares opening at $22.50 on June 25, 2015 and currently trading at $38.23; Goldman Sachs has also earned $50 million from TransUnion's IPO and debt underwriting; additionally, Goldman Sachs is reporting a number of other advantages from the investment including support for its newly launched consumer lending platform Marcus which is a client of TransUnion. Source
Firm was given full FCA authorization at the beginning of 2017 and expects the IFISA launch to add to high current demand on the platform; says it will target financial advisers with the new offering; the lender has originated over GBP130 million ($169 million) since launching in April 2016; it focuses on secured property loans with conservative loan to value ratios of approximately 60%. Source
Lending Club is offering a bonus for IRA investors; Lend Academy provides details in their article; any investor who opens or adds to an IRA account with at least a $5,000 investment by April 30, 2017 will receive a bonus; bonuses range from $150 to $3,000 for investments from $5,000 to $100,000 and over. Source
The Lendit Forum will feature Aaron Peck from Monroe Capital and Tim Ranney from Clarity Services; the speakers will discuss the profile of non-prime borrowers and where the best investments are in the non-prime space; other topics will include how alternative data can be used to better assess the borrower's risk, interest rates for non-prime borrowers and the types of return investors can get when making this investment. Source
PitchBook provides its insight on the fintech market in 2017; cites securitization as a positive factor for the online lending market with marketplace lending securitizations at $5.4 billion through the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 86% from 2015; also notes robust data providers including Orchard, DV01, MonJa and PeerIQ as another positive factor for the marketplace lending industry's growth. Source
In an opinion article, one investor shares emails that have been leaked at Chinese marketplace lender Yirendai (NYSE: YRD); leaked emails show the company's chairman requiring parent company employees at CreditEase to invest in a fund to purchase undisclosed US equities; the author states the fund is likely purchasing shares of YRD and presents his case for shorting the stock; the stock recently saw volatility following China's new regulatory guidance for P2P lenders. 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
