SoFi will make student and personal loans available to WeWork’s 3,000 employees and 175,000 customers at discounted rates. Source
A former SoFi employee has filed a California lawsuit; he is arguing that he was fired for reporting sexual harassment and has included in his court filing, allegations of impropriety in the handling of loans; source also reports that a broader class action lawsuit is being prepared on behalf of a group of mistreated employees. Source
Two cases involving sexual harassment charges have been filed against SoFi; CEO Mike Cagney wrote an open letter regarding the cases, stressing that he is taking the complaints seriously; Cagney and SoFi's legal team are in the process of investigating and responding to the filings. Source
We had already known about the partnership between SoFi and Samsung, but today the companies have officially unveiled Samsung Money...
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
Privately-owned, US marketplace lender, SoFi, has announced it will be expanding its product offerings to include life insurance by becoming a broker; within the industry the company is primarily known for its student loan refinancing services; it has also been expanding its product offerings to include personal loans, mortgage loans and wealth management in an effort to more actively meet broader financial needs for its clients; Lend Academy provides more details on the life insurance offering and future growth expectations for the company in their article. Source
SoFi has faced challenges of opposition to its industrial loan charter from numerous parties for various reasons; now California Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, has written a letter to the FDIC calling for a public hearing to more broadly discuss the online lenders application and its market implications; fintech regulation is an ongoing topic for debate and Waters says, "Granting SoFi's application would set a precedent that a wide variety of other fintech companies may choose to follow even though concerns related to financial inclusion, consumer benefits, supervision, and regulation of such entities are still unresolved."; the industrial loan charter would give SoFi a number of advantages including the allowance for FDIC insured deposits with no supervisory reporting requirements at the holding company level; Waters also commented on the development of the OCC's special purpose national charter for fintech companies which would grant internet lenders nationwide business approval in a single charter, stating that the framework has not been fully developed for implementation; the industrial loan company charter is currently limited to business in the states of California, Colorado, Minnesota, Indiana, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah. Source
Well this morning started out as a bit of a bummer! See -- Charles Schwab to buy TD Ameritrade in a $26 billion all-stock deal. The $55 billion market cap Schwab is gobbling up the $22 billion TD Ameritrade at a slight premium. Matt Levine of Bloomberg has a great, cynical take on the question: Schwab lowering its trading commissions to zero is actually what wiped out $4 billion off TD's marketcap a few months ago. For Schwab, the revenue loss from trading was 7% of total, while for TD it was over 20%. Once Schwab dropped prices, TD started trading at a discount and became an acquisition target. You can see the share price drops reflected below in the beginning of October.
Online lenders are about to face their biggest test and many are trying to balance how they keep up with...
John Battelle, founder of Newco, talks with SoFi's Mike Cagney about the firm and its business growth; Cagney talks about the firm's customer commitment and the support customers receive over traditional banks; also reports on the verticals it has expanded to since starting the business with student loans; additionally Cagney provides some metrics on the business including that the company has $1 billion in equity on its balance sheet, $6 billion of lending capacity, $9.5 billion in loans for 2017 and estimates $18 to $20 billion in loan originations for 2018. Source