Canada reported significant growth in online and marketplace lending in 2016; fintech growth in the country was also substantial with Canada reporting a 74% increase in fintech investment; a blog post from Aspire gives a roundup of online and marketplace lending activity in 2016 which included many partnerships and equity rounds; also provides predictions for the market in 2017; among its seven predictions are more bank partnerships and increased institutional investment. Source
Online lending platform Marcus by Goldman Sachs is now open to all borrowers; the bank launched its lending platform in October 2016 for borrowers receiving an email code; like other marketplace lending platforms it offers low borrower interest rates; one of its leading advantages is that it offers no fees; Goldman Sachs will announce its fourth quarter earnings in January with insight expected on the new platform's business. Source
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced development of a new distributed ledger technology solution for processing credit derivatives; DTCC has selected IBM, Axoni and R3 to lead the integration of the solution; IBM will manage the solution-as-a-service with Axoni providing infrastructure and smart contract applications and R3 participating as a solution advisor; the solution will be one of the first comprehensive financial services trade processing solutions used globally; its goal is to streamline, automate and reduce the cost of derivatives processing; the solution is anticipated for completion in 2018. Source
According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal and bitcoin have been used for funding Islamic terrorist attacks in Indonesia; the virtual payments were reported to be more difficult to track; the Indonesian Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center says terrorism financing cases have increased in the country from 12 in 2015 to 25 in 2016. Source
PeerIQ has released its fourth quarter "Marketplace Lending Securitization Tracker" with details on the marketplace lending securitization market; the chart below shows the marketplace lending securitization issuance for the top 10 originators; SoFi leads the list with $6.85 billion in securitized loans, followed by Prosper and Avant. Source
LQD Business Finance is an alternative lender in small business lending; 2016 was the company's first year in business; it reported closed loans of $33 million and also closed its Series A round; CEO George Souri expects growing its origination run rate to $80 million by the end of 2017 and to $200 million over the next 24 months. Source
IBM is now moving into banking compliance, by purchasing Promontory Financial Group they hope they can use the compliance company's expertise to teach Watson about banking compliance; "Part of why we bought Promontory was, these systems (meaning Watson), they do have to be trained," explained IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; IBM believes artificial intelligence can help across the banking industry and ease the burden on specific firms. Source
P2P lender China Rapid Finance has announced a partnership with Tencent's wealth management group, Licaitong; China Rapid Finance will list investments on the Licaitong platform; the product listings will include fixed-term investments ranging from nine months to 18 months with expected annualized returns ranging from 4.65% to 6.19%; the investment products reached capacity of RMB 27 million ($3.89 million) within two hours of the launch; China Rapid Finance will continue to offer investments through the Licaitong partnership; in a statement regarding the partnership, Dr. Zang Wang, CEO of China Rapid Finance, said, "This collaboration between CRF and Tencent's Licaitong platform will support the development of inclusive finance in China." Source
Raisin has reported over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in investment through its platform; the company offers investors a range of savings account investments across the European Union and facilitates the account funding for the investors; the platform has gained investment of 300 million euros ($318 million) in the past three months and expects to reach the 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) mark in the first half of 2017. Source
Regulators are inspecting Chinese P2P lenders for compliance with new rules issued last year; specifically lenders must partner with a custodian and limit loans to RMB 1 million ($144,200) for individuals and RMB 5 million ($721,001) for companies; they are also not permitted to guarantee principal or interest; the country currently has more than 2,400 P2P lenders; experts expect the new rules will likely change the nation's P2P lending landscape significantly; Roger Ying, founder and chief executive of P2P lender Pandai stated: "[There] will be shakeouts, though good for those which are compliant. It will take time for P2Ps to move to custodian banks. Presumably the most risk for investors is with P2Ps who do not have escrow [or] custodian bank accounts as retail investor sentiment is low." Source