SoFi has announced the addition of Mike Bingle, Steven Freiberg, and Robert Joss to its board of directors; Bingle is a managing partner and managing director at Silver Lake, the company which recently partnered with SoFi for a $500 million funding round; Freiberg is joining the board after previously servicing as the CEO of E*TRADE Financial Corporation; Joss is currently a professor at Stanford and previously worked at Westpac Banking Corporation and Wells Fargo; Mike Cagney says the experience from the new board members will be helpful in supporting the firm's product and geographic expansions. Source
SoFi has announced details of its latest fundraising round which now adds $500 million in new equity capital for the firm; the financing was led by Silver Lake and included SoftBank and GPI Capital; the fundraising will support the continued expansion for the firm; it now offers student loan refinancing, personal loans, mortgage loans, life insurance, wealth management and banking; it also plans to expand its services to Australia and Canada. Source
SoFi has received preliminary ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency for a securitization portfolio including prime jumbo residential mortgage loans; the securitization includes 36 classes with 270 mortgage loans; 31 classes are rated AAA; the remaining classes are rated AA to B with one unrated class accounting for $1 million of the portfolio; the portfolio includes high quality mortgage loans with a comprehensive weighted average credit score of 777; the total principal balance of the portfolio is $168,790,946. Source
SoFi has acquired Zenbanx which will expand its offerings for clients to digital banking; Zenbanx offers online and mobile banking with international money transfer services and deposits available in multiple currencies; SoFi's CEO Mike Cagney says he expects SoFi to begin offering customers digital banking accounts in the first quarter of 2017; according to a Wall Street Journal source the Zenbanx acquisition was valued at approximately $100 million. Source
Online lender SoFi closed their 12th securities for $769mn of private student loan notes; total issuance in 2017 reached $6.9bn which was up from $4.2bn in 2016; the deal featured 38 investors and joint lead managers were Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs; SoFi is in the top ten of ABS issuance in 2017 as they continue to utilize the markets better than any other online lender. Source.
In a press release this week, marketplace lender, SoFi, provided more details on its partnership with Protective and announced the launch of a new term life insurance offering for millennials; product provides life insurance for up to $1 million and features a 20 minute application and approval process. Source
The online lender is now able to originate mortgages in 27 states, with hopes of expanding to all 50 soon; included in their announcement about the New York license was overall originations reached $1 billion in December, $100 million of which were mortgages; SoFi Chief Revenue Officer Michael Tannenbaum said, "The plan is to continue to roll out a state licensing strategy, our licensing strategy mirrored places where there were large jumbo balances."; SoFi also believes their cross buying strategy and the $1 billion infusion from SoftBank has helped them weather the storm of the last year; in a separate announcement, the online lender has moved their office to 860 Washington Street in New York's Meatpacking District. Source
In a recent interview, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney stated, "We feel very confident that in 2017 you'll be able to have a SoFi bank account with a debit and/or credit card."; further details are not known on how SoFi plans to offer deposit accounts; Cagney stated the company is working on two or three initiatives; back in July Cagney told investors that getting a traditional bank license was not a viable solution; the company may be able to leverage the OCC's recently announced nonbank fintech charter. Source
WSFS Financial is working with SoFi to offer the new accounts early next year; the bank will process payments and provide debit card sponsorship services for SoFi Money. Source
SoFi completed a $727mn issuance, entitled SCLP 2017-6, which makes it the largest consumer ABS deal; this is SoFi’s 11th ABD deal in 2017 worth over $6bn; SoFi said the joint lead managers on SCLP 2017-6 were J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Mizuho Securities. Source.