Finbee currently offers consumer loans and has announced expansion into business loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); the expansion follows a new law enacted by the government to support online lending and a license obtained by Finbee for the service; the SME loans will be sourced from a separate website; Finbee will offer SME loans for up to 15,000 euros ($15,911) with a 12 month duration; different from the consumer loans, Finbee will not be covering defaults from SME loans with its compensation fund. Source
Lloyd’s Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland announce the closure of more than 100 branches; this is part of a wider trend for both banks who will now have closed more than 1,000 in the last few years; reasons for the closings include more UK consumers using mobile banking and the branch closures help to save significant costs. Source.
loanDepot is the second largest non-bank consumer lender; OfferPad purchases homes from homeowners, allowing them to sell their house easily; the JV called OfferPad Home Loans is a stand-alone mortgage broker where loanDepot will act as the wholesale lender; OfferPad will be using loanDepot’s platform called Mello to provide the bridge financing. Source
loanDepot has been steadily becoming one of the US's top mortgage lenders, rivaling both online businesses and traditional institutions; Anthony Hsieh talked with Forbes at LendIt USA about the growth of the business; the company has funded over $100 billion in mortgage loans and is building out a fintech ecosystem that will empower future market growth and product expansion; loanDepot is the third online mortgage company founded by Anthony Hsieh and the company is in its eighth year of operations; Hsieh says the firm is potentially considering an IPO. Source
loanDepot has invested approximately $80 million in technology over the last 18 months and is announcing the launch of its proprietary digital lending platform, mello™; seeking to develop the fintech ecosystem of the future, the platform is beginning with three solutions: an intuitive web-based consumer portal, a state-of-the-art mobile point of sale system and a fully digital mortgage loan application experience; overall mello™ will be one of the fastest and most accurate lending systems in the industry; the firm has also opened a new 65,000 square foot mello™ tech campus in Irvine, CA to support the new platform. Source
Lloyds Bank is testing biometric authentication technology for its online banking customers; the development is centered around the use of Microsoft's Windows Hello which has fingerprint and facial recognition capabilities and can be used with Windows 10 devices. Source
A new study has found that borrowers in China are taking out loans from multiple platforms; of 61 online lenders in the study, 44% of their customers borrowed from multiple sources; it is difficult to prevent against this since p2p lenders don’t have access to all of the credit data of their borrowers and there is no centralized place for platforms to share data; the study was done by the Beijing Internet Finance Industry Association. Source
loanDepot has originated $100 billion in loans since launching seven years ago; firm provides home, personal and home equity loans online and through local branch offices; the company has serviced over 15 million consumers nationwide and its platform is acquiring approximately 500,000 potential borrowers per month; in 2016 it opened three new campuses to expand its direct, retail and wholesale businesses and it also has plans to open a new 65,000 square foot business campus in Irvine, California that will help to increase its employee base to over 6,000. Source
Anthony Hsieh of loanDepot shared his insights on the marketplace lending industry at the Marketplace Lending and Alternative Financing Summit; said technology would be the industry's main barrier to entry, an even greater factor than regulation; according to Hsieh, tech-enabled platforms with scale in the market will have an advantage as the outlook for new capital is uncertain. Source
Leading non bank lender loanDepot opened the mello™ Innovation Lab where the tech team will continue working to expand their proprietary mello technology; in comments regarding the innovation lab, loanDepot CEO and Chairman Anthony Hsieh said: "Our lending professionals and LD tech team have combined strengths to create an unstoppable force in next-gen lending. Our never-ending, iterative innovation process is the basis of our business strategy and our true competitive advantage."; the mello technology is designed to make loan origination faster, easier and more accurate by integrating marketing tools and third party data; the digital experience is available to consumers, referral partners and lending professionals; this new lab is meant to foster innovation and allow the technology team to work in a unique environment that includes fun activities and nice weather. Source