The CreditEase Wealth Management Offshore Private Credit Fund (OPCF) has announced new investments in OnDeck and LendingHome; in 2015 the fund raised $80 million from Chinese clients, including high net worth and mass affluent investors, which it expects to be fully invested by March 2017; a $30 million investment in OnDeck and LendingHome adds to previous investments in Avant and Prosper in 2016; the firm also says it is planning to fundraise for another offshore private credit fund, OPCF II; CreditEase is targeting $200 million for this fund and its investments will likely be similar with a different fund structure, varying durations, new geographies and new types of credit products. Source
Lend Academy talks with Andrea Jung of Grameen America in their podcast; Grameen America is a non-profit lender with a concept founded by Muhammad Yunus who has won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts; it provides small business loans to female entrepreneurs; Andrea talks about her career experience and the Grameen America business model, explaining how it has evolved from the original Grameen started by Muhammad Yunus; Grameen currently boasts a default rate of just 0.3% on $620 million of lending. 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
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing for March 28 with a panel of banking executives to gain greater insight into how Dodd-Frank has affected lending in the banking industry; the House Financial Services Committee works within the House of Representatives and is the main group governing regulation of the financial services industry; the hearing will help to gain insight into the effects on bank lending from Dodd-Frank which will help in directing Trump administration reform; the House Financial Services Committee is led by Jeb Hensarling who has previously reported the Financial CHOICE Act which is presented as a replacement for Dodd-Frank. Source
The G20 has released a new report titled, "The G20 Countries Should Engage with Blockchain Technologies to Build an Inclusive, Transparent, and Accountable Digital Economy for All"; report shares how the blockchain can play a role in strengthening the global economy and cross-border cooperation; according to the abstract, "The G20 must take decisive steps to harness this technology in service of its policy goals across the core focus areas of economic resilience, financial inclusion, taxation, trade and investment, employment, climate, health, sustainable development, and women's empowerment." Source
This week's industry update from PeerIQ focuses on some good fundraising news for the market; OnDeck extended their credit facility with Deutsche Bank to 2019 and increased the borrowing capacity to $214 million; SoFi is looking to launch a risk retention fund soon and their most recent securitization deal worth $461 million deal was rated by S&P, Moody's and DBRS; Marlette closed on their third securitization deal, MFT-2017 1, which was their largest transaction; the deal was originally set for $257 million but was oversubscribed and priced at $333 million on Friday; PeerIQ listed a few other interesting items of note on the deal; the deal pricing of this transaction is tighter than past Marlette securitizations and they are using a step function for cumulative net loss triggers. Source
Ant Financial is building a new platform for selling money market funds online; it is also introducing "Fortune Accounts" which will sell a broad range of investment products to Chinese consumers through its wealth management app; the first companies to partner for the Fortune Accounts are Bosera Funds, Aegon-Industrial Fund, Tianhong Fund, China Southern Fund and CCB Principal Fund with more companies to be added in June when the platform launches; Ant Financial says it plans to only develop technology to improve platforms for financial institutions, branding itself as a techfin company with no plans to develop its own financial services. Source
The P2P Global Investments Trust has reported February performance; NAV return of 0.38% was helped by the firm's current buyback program and is the 33rd consecutive month of positive NAV returns since inception; 12 month return is 3.92% and inception to date return is 14.20%; investment manager is actively diversifying to reduce exposure to US consumer loans and shift to European real estate and bonds. Source
Scott first looks back at 2016, how Lending Club was able to overcome adversity and highlights some of the leading lenders in the space like SoFi and OnDeck; he makes the comparison that online lending is a lot like online retail and there are many lessons to be learned; just like customers in retail the customers in banking do not want to go to the local branch to get a loan, they want to have a seamless digital experience like they already have with the likes of Amazon; Scott offers three ideas to define the next decade for a stronger industry, evolve the customer experience, unleash the platform's potential and amplify the core innovations that serve customers; he finishes up with a few questions from audience members. Source
The MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) has provided a research briefing on digital banking with Spanish bank BBVA as the focus of the study; the study, "Is Your Company a Digital Leader or Laggard" examines the success of BBVA's digital banking model, and reports on factors that are differentiating leaders and laggards in the digital banking business. Source