A new UK bank referral scheme began this week with a focus on nine of the region's largest banks; Lend Academy provides more details in their article; the referral scheme will require banks to refer small businesses to alternative lenders if they are denied credit; creates more opportunities for banks to partner with alternative lenders and also significantly expands credit access for businesses. Source
Bank holding company, CRB Group Inc., has received venture capital investment of $28 million from Battery Ventures LP, Andreessen Horowitz and Ribbit Capital; the large investment in a bank is unusual for venture capitalists which have mainly been known for early stage financing in new fintech startups; CRB Group however has been considerably growing its digital banking capabilities making the investment attractive for fintech venture capitalists; New Jersey-chartered, Cross River Bank, was founded in 2008 and has since partnered with numerous fintech startups to offer industry leading services for lending and payments; the bank is expected to use the investment to continue building on its industry leading fintech services; because the bank is FDIC regulated the VC investors will be limited in some of their investment activities. Source
Ripple has announced the appointment of a new CEO; Brad Garlinghouse, previously president and chief operating officer, will take over the role as of January 1, 2017; Garlinghouse will replace Chris Larsen who will become Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors; the fintech blockchain payments company has been significantly expanding in 2016 with its network now including 15 of the top 50 global banks; much of the company's growth has been attributed to Larsen who will now take more of a strategic adviser role. Source
The Wall Street Journal reports on publicly listed funds that will purchase marketplace lending loans; the new funds are setup as interval funds and will open access to investors who might not otherwise consider investing in loans made by marketplace lenders; article highlights fees and minimums of offerings by RiverNorth and Stone Ridge. Source
The UK Treasury has announced it will allow crowd bonds in innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs); crowd bond investors will invest in bonds of companies through crowdfunded platforms with their investments held in a tax sheltered account facilitated by the crowdfunding platform; the expansion of crowd bonds in IFISAs makes the crowdfunded investments more attractive because of the tax shelter, also providing greater benefits for an investment that's not secured by the government's FSCS protection. Source
UK marketplace lender, Funding Circle, has reported a record month for loan originations in October; the platform originated £95 million worth of loans in October, reporting its highest ever monthly origination volume; the firm's previous loan origination volume record was set in September with £75.2 million in loans; the small business lender now has total loan originations of £1.62 billion. Source
Zhengyuan Lu, OnDeck's Senior Vice President of Capital Markets, will soon move to investment firm, Victory Park Capital; his last day is Tuesday; Victory Park invests in and provides credit facilities to online lenders, including Avant Inc. and Square Inc.; the last year has been a challenge for OnDeck as investors have not been buying loans at the same pace and this has forced the lender to hold more loans on its balance sheet. Source
The P2PFA provides quarterly data on its eight member firms; as of the third quarter it seems to have simplified its reporting to provide only industry and platform origination totals; Kadhim Shubber of FT Alphaville is curious as to why the P2PFA has chosen the new disclosure format which no longer appears to include granular details such as principal outstanding, capital repaid, number of lenders and number of borrowers; he has petitioned the P2PFA for more disclosure and greater transparency, questioning the lack of consistency and transparency in its quarterly data reporting. Source
The Ontario Securities Commission has issued a request for high-level experts to join its newly-formed Fintech Advisory Committee; to begin with, the panel is expected to assist with the launch of an innovation sandbox called "Launch Pad;" other expertise at play includes crypto-currencies, fintech platforms, venture capital for fintech, AI and data analytics for finance. Source
Qudian, a financial firm that started as microlender Qufenqi, is sending signals of a possible 2017 IPO, according to Seeking Alpha; according to the reporting, Qudian has hired a foreign CFO and an investment bank, both typical developments for a company looking to go public within the next year; while the company originally focused on small student loans for items like computers or books, they now have broadened their scope and are a consumer lender; loan sizes are still small, about 1,000 yuan ($150) each, but they are on pace for close to $5.5 billion in total originations this year. Source