Estimated return on loan production in November 2016 was 6.58%, which is down from the previous three months; Prosper attributes its revised pricing and credit market trends overall to the month's weaker performance; the average FICO score in November was 714.2 which is approximately 10 points above the FICO scores in 2015 vintages; cumulative charge-offs are trending higher in 2015 and 2016 than 2013 and 2014; higher pricing is also a factor potentially affecting prepayment rates which are higher for loans originated in 2016. Source
Arbor Commercial Mortgage and its affiliates are private lenders for commercial and multi-family real estate as well as a REIT sponsor; they have launched the ArborCrowd real estate crowdfunding platform; their marketing emphasizes 30 years of experience in real estate, careful selection of sponsors, and individuals investing alongside institutional capital providers as well as the project sponsors themselves. Source
Understanding the products that work for you as a consumer is a key question all borrowers ask themselves; at LendIt USA 2017 the panel entitled Consumer Lending Leaders of Tomorrow discussed some of the up and coming platforms in the market today; LendingUSA focuses on point of sale financing to offer installment loans for expenses like a medical procedure, Uplift Financial uses 600 million pieces of data to tailor the best loan product to you from their network, MoneyLion provides financial wellness advice to help the consumer better understand the loan that fits their situation and BorrowersFirst uses their technology to offer a low cost product to their borrowers; these lenders have taken the time to understand consumers so they can provide the type of variety people are looking for in a market that continues to evolve. Source
On November 14 to 18 Singapore held its first Fintech Festival providing S$1.15 million to ten fintech firms; supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Association of Banks in Singapore, awards were given ranging from S$250,000 to S$50,000; the top prize of S$250,000 for the MAS FinTech Awards (Singapore Open) was given to fastacash Pte Ltd; the Fintech Festival follows significant expansion in Singapore which now has the largest fintech hub in the world and numerous subsidies available to attract fintech startup companies. Source
The CFPB asked for more details on which companies consumers use to obtain a free credit score; the agency is looking to help consumers better understand their credit scores and how to potentially improve them; they also want to understand how behavior changes after seeing a free credit score; comments are due by February 12, 2018. Source.
Consumers are increasingly relying on voice technology for messaging and also through services like the Amazon Echo Alexa and Apple Siri; in voice technology, innovators are now seeking new ways for systems to more broadly understand context and speak coherently in conversations; however as the technology evolves, privacy and security have become concerns; overall, demand from consumers for voice technology is likely to continue because of the convenience it offers. Source
Canadian securities regulators released what they call a staff notice on "cryptocurrency offerings"; Coindesk reports on the notice, "With the offerings that we have reviewed to date, we have in many instances found that the coins/tokens in question constitute securities for the purposes of securities laws, including because they are investment contracts."; this has now become a trend in the market as the US SEC released a report and Chinese regulators released a statement about how they view this emerging capital raising method; the statement also covers companies looking to set up funds and encourages a regulatory sandbox to be created. Source
In a recently recorded speech, Rhydian Lewis said that the company expects to be profitable in 2018; the p2p lender was previously profitable in financial years 2014 and 2015; the company is also celebrating its seventh birthday and has facilitated £2.1bn in loans, connecting 57,000 lenders with 388,000 borrowers. Source
India's CoinTribe has partnered with SMERA Ratings to incorporate a new rating system for its online business lending services; through the partnership CoinTribe will gain access to SMERA's ratings database for micro, small and medium size businesses; CoinTribe plans to integrate the ratings information with its current credit underwriting system for enhanced analytics on business credit loans. Source
In their weekly industry update PeerIQ covered the most recent securitization deals and the acquisitions by student loan servicers Nelnet and Navient; Avant filed AVNT 2017-B worth $232.648mn, a consumer loan ABS transaction; PeerIQ took a close look at Mosaic whose most recent ABS transaction was heavily oversubscribed, with over $1.7 Bn in orders for a $307.5mn deal. Source.

