As with past conferences LendIt aims to bring new speakers to the conference; this year LendIt has confirmed Ash Gupta (President of American Express), Harit Talwar (CEO of Marcus) and Thomas Curry (Head of the OCC) among many others who are new to LendIt; the agenda will also include the leaders in online lending with representation from companies such as Lending Club, Prosper, OnDeck and loanDepot; the conference will be the largest for the industry to date with a 100,000 square foot exhibit hall, featuring over 200 companies; LendIt will end the conference with the first ever industry awards dinner. Source
American Express has joined the Hyperledger Project; the Hyperledger Project which is hosted by the Linux Foundation and supported by IBM, now includes over 100 members from various industries; in regards to joining the Hyperledger Project, Marc Gordon, executive vice president and chief information officer at American Express said, "We're excited to join Hyperledger, as we're looking to take full advantage of blockchain to deliver new and innovative products for our customers and partners, while transforming existing business processes and applications."; with the firm's membership, senior executive Sastry Durvasula, who is responsible for leading enterprise-wide big data, blockchain, digital payments and partnerships at American Express will join the Hyperledger Project's governing board. Source
A new consortium has been developed for internet of things (IoT) blockchain technology; the consortium includes established companies and blockchain startups targeting various industries; overall the consortium will focus on setting blockchain industry standards and developing new solutions for IoT technology. Source
Stéphane Blanchoz from BNP Paribas says market factors should help increase investment in alternative credit and specifically non-bank lending; bank disintermediation, regulatory support from policymakers, volatile fixed income markets, a low interest rate environment, and significant differentiation between fixed income and equity returns are all near-term factors increasing investment interest in non-bank lending investments; Blanchoz expects these factors to attract both retail and institutional investors with SME credit investments emerging as a leading investment. Source
The UK's Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) has the potential to significantly change banking for consumers with access to open APIs; the article notes that banks that have only done the minimum to comply with PSD2 may run into issues if we ever see a PSD3; fully embracing PSD2 may save headaches for banks down the road; the trend of open APIs and data sharing is likely to make its way to the US; Japan is also leading the way in this area having explored domestic ACH on blockchain. Source
Prosper has reported the loss of another company executive a few months after the resignation of its former CEO Aaron Vermut; Eric Thaller, executive vice president of capital markets, has left the firm to join Sunbit, a consumer lending startup offering point of sale credit solutions for retail businesses; Thaller was a lead advocate for institutional investment in marketplace loans and directed the firm's institutional investment business. Source
The acquisition of Lawnmower comes at a time when CoinDesk has been expanding their research division, this will only help to enhance that strategy; Ryan Selkis, CoinDesk's managing director said, "The tools and expertise the Lawnmower team has built over the past two years will accelerate the growth of our new research division, and add critical depth to our product team."; Lawnmower first launched in April of 2015 with their micro-investment application for bitcoin's retail investor, from there they built out a research and analysis team to produce insight into digital currencies; "We're thoroughly excited to come onboard and help shape the future of digital currency," said Pieter Gorsira, co-founder and CEO of Lawnmower. Source
A white paper from Juniper Research projects mobile wallet transactions to increase to $1.35 trillion globally in 2017, an annual increase of 32%; the data shows that the Far East and China are currently accounting for most of the market transactions with growth specifically from Alipay and WeChat; PayPal and Apple are also noted as leading market providers; in the European market the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is also expected to be a factor supporting near-term growth in mobile wallet transactions. Source
The below chart was taken from a Business Insider article discussing subprime auto lending. Since 2010, auto originations have been increasing steadily, topping $465.6 billion in 2016. This increase has been in part due to the low interest rate environment. Many people have speculated that the increase in subprime auto loans should be cause for concern. The subprime share of auto loans currently sits at around 17% as shown below. Data from Equifax and VantageScore from 2015 to 2016 shows auto loan delinquencies have increased from historical lows. In 2015, severe delinquencies (60 days+ past due) were 1.24% compared to 1.35% today. As of December 2016, 13.1% of the portfolios at banks and credit unions were considered subprime, defined as having a credit score less than 620, compared to 34.8% of other finance companies. Source
European online lender Spotcap has received A$20 million (USD$15.15 million) from New Zealand Bank, Heartland; Spotcap has also launched its platform in New Zealand and will be accelerating growth in Australia, helping to expand its business in the Asia Pacific region; Spotcap's lending targets small and medium enterprises with credit lines and loans of up to $250,000. Source