SoFi was among Super Bowl advertisers with another commercial this year; this year's commercial reflected their expanding services by advertising the firm's support for owning a home, starting a family and seeing the world; with the firm's recent acquisition of online bank, Zenbanx, customers will now be able to use SoFi for a comprehensive suite of banking services, expanding beyond just the firm's core student loan offering. Source
A number of new smartphone apps are now available with varying methods for inspiring consumers to save; apps such as Stash, Acorns, Digit, Qapital and Long Game are making it simpler and easier to make incremental savings deposits and investments through automated technology; with these new apps, investors can automate the investment of unused cash and round up purchases, saving extra pennies. Source
The focus of the weekly update centered around how the Trump administration will try to ease the regulatory environment for banks and an explanation of the risk retention rule that recently went into effect; banks welcomed the executive orders signed by Trump, the regulatory burden has been high and cost of capital has continued to rise to meet the demands of Dodd-Frank; as of December 24, 2016 all asset types are required to adhere to a 5% risk retention requirement or skin in the game; this is meant to align investor interests with sponsor interests and make the securitization deal safer; PeerIQ goes into a detailed explanation and helps to provide answers to some of the questions surrounding the rule's implementation. Source
UK consumer lending platforms reported originations of 154 million British pounds ($191.81 million) in January which topped a previous high in September 2016; Zopa led UK consumer lenders in January with originations of 80 million British pounds ($99.64 million); other consumer lenders contributing to the January record included RateSetter, Lending Works, Funding Secure and Lendable. Source
RateSetter has announced new terms for its lenders which will go into effect on March 1; the new terms provide increased transparency for lending activities; they also give greater flexibility to the Provision Fund through a new stabilization period; changes made to the lender terms since October 2015 can be found here. Source
Former Goldman Sachs banker Mona El Isa has founded an asset management services company that will provide blockchain solutions for hedge funds; El Isa launched Melonport in February 2016 with co-founder Reto Trinkler and has now hired George Hallam, former head of external communications at the Ethereum Foundation; El Isa's hedge fund services will use smart contracts to automate various aspects of portfolio management for hedge fund managers which will lower the costs of building a hedge fund. Source
Fundrise began its crowdfunded initial public offering (IPO) on February 1; the investment has been oversubscribed and the company has paused the offering due to high demand; it has reported it will increase the available shares to three million from two million; in an updated offering circular the firm says it will offer three million shares at a price of $5.00 which brings the total expected fundraising to $15 million. Source
UK firm Populous is seeking to provide a new innovative approach to invoice financing using blockchain technology; the firm plans to utilize smart contracts for invoice financing operations which will lower costs and also provide safer and more secured investments with competitive yields; the platform has been in development for 24 months and plans to launch in May 2017. Source
LendFoundry provides insights on the global fintech market opportunity in their featured blog post; the firm launched its fintech lending operating system at LendIt USA 2016; provides marketplace lenders with a comprehensive solution for loan originations, marketing, acquisition, underwriting and servicing. Sponsored Blog Post
Property crowdfunding platform Brickowner has completed its first investment for a real estate property in Abbeygate, Chester; their second listing will offer investment in a new housing development; the platform is open to all investors and requires a minimum investment of 100 British pounds ($124.46); it seeks to offer low-risk alternative investments with targeted returns of 8%. Source