The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was approved to investigate the activities of Indian tribe lenders; the online lenders under investigation will be Great Plains Lending, MobiLoans and Plain Green; the lenders are providing credit to a range of borrowers outside of their Indian tribes; they are claiming sovereign immunity because of their status as Indian tribes. Source
Blockchain has been becoming increasingly utilized across a range of industries; speculators believe 2017 could be blockchain's biggest year ever with a number of factors supporting the technology; bitcoin's price has been increasing, reaching a three-year high in January; market participants have been strengthening led by the Hyperledger Project; investment has also been increasing, specifically investment in patented blockchain technology. Source
Wilmington Trust provides insight on the marketplace lending industry in their featured blog post; the blog post includes an edited version of a panel discussion on the growing opportunity for institutional investment in the industry; discussion includes how the industry is defined, its borrowers and lenders, and its outlook. Sponsored Blog Post
Investors in the UK are anxious for new innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA) options with P2P lenders as the new tax year begins; the IFISAs were launched for P2P investing nine months ago however limited options still remain due to the authorizations given by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); it is expected that the largest providers, Zopa, Funding Circle, Ratesetter and LendInvest, will receive authorization however it has not been granted yet from the FCA; platforms currently offering IFISAs include Abundance, CrowdStacker and Crowd2Fund; Folk2Folk is currently the largest lender authorized with plans for also launching an IFISA. Source
While the passage of the JOBS Act in 2012 helped to spur crowdfunding into an exciting industry, questions have continued surrounding investor protections and the legitimacy of companies using this method to raise capital; SeedInvest CEO Ryan Feit recently told the New York Times: "I'm legitimately concerned that a lot of people are going to be losing money; investing in startups is really risky, and it's very different than buying a used couch. We definitely do not think you should treat it like Craigslist."; investors don't necessarily understand the investment and companies are not following the rules fully, causing many in the industry to legitimately worry about the way forward. Source
Koubei was founded in 2015 with investment from Alibaba and Ant Financial; the firm offers online e-commerce services for merchants and is part of a diversified group of Alibaba affiliates; in January the firm reported new capital of $1.1 billion from external investors; investors now supporting the firm include Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital and Primavera Capital. Source
Diagram has raised $25 million (USD$19.13 million) for a new fintech venture capital fund that will be led by Paul Desmarais III; Paul Desmarais is part of Quebec's Desmarais family which has built a $7 billion (USD$5.36 billion) fortune through investment in the insurance business; the new fund's initial fundraising effort has come from Portag3 Ventures LP and over 50 individual angel investors; the fund will invest in a variety of Canadian fintech companies. Source
Online lender Elevate has released customer progression milestones showing improved credit scores and rate eligibility; 55,000 customers on the platform have improved their credit scores and 20,000 customers can now receive a lower borrowing rate; Elevate's unique RISE credit product facilitates credit scoring improvement by educating customers on their personal financial credit and offering subsequent loans at reduced rates of up to 50% for qualified borrowers. Source
Crowdfund Insider talked with Zopa about 2016 and 2017; the firm had a successful year in 2016 despite the industry's challenges; highlights from the year included lending over 680 million British pounds ($855.02 million) to nearly 100,000 customers, becoming profitable, securitizing its first loan portfolio and announcing plans to launch a bank; in 2017 the firm plans to build on its success while also beginning plans for launching a bank with deposit accounts and overdraft alternatives by 2018; in its core business products, Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana says the firm will be looking for new partnerships that support its auto finance, point of sale and personal loan businesses. Source