LendFoundry has developed a full operating system for marketplace lenders, banks and credit unions to provide online loans; Roger Vogel the firm's CEO talks about the operating system and how the business is evolving; also reports on the wide range of capabilities that the operating system offers including its APIs and services for compliance, loan originations and loan management. Source
Bond Street is partnering with NerdWallet to develop small business lending resources to educate small businesses on its loans; resources will include service from NerdWallet's Small Business Loan Tool as well as guides and webinars on marketplace lending and small business planning; with the partnership, Bond Street intends to more broadly market and service small business lenders with its loan offerings which range from $10,000 to $1 million. Source
Shareholders of PayPal have sued firm directors implying that management falsified statements in quarterly reporting related to Venmo; as a subsidiary of PayPal, Venmo's business activities influence the overall results of the firm; in 2016 Venmo was investigated for unfair and deceptive practices resulting in a fine and ongoing investigations with the FTC; shareholders are arguing that PayPal did not properly disclose and inform shareholders of the implications of the investigations which led to shareholder losses of approximately 15%. Source
Global Debt Registry (GDR) has been steadily growing its business now announcing that Prosper will join the firm's verification network; by partnering with GDR, Prosper can enhance the reporting for its institutional investors; according to John Goldston, director of capital markets at Prosper, "GDR's eValidation and eVerify asset certainty tools fit easily into our existing data structures and processes, allowing our investors to seamlessly access GDR's enhanced verification and loan-level diligence services." Source
Financial inclusion is a factor considered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in all of its banking charters; American Banker discusses how the fintech charter's financial inclusion provisions compare to the Community Reinvestment Act requirements for banks; the new fintech charter would require fintechs to detail how they plan to promote financial inclusion with accountability from the OCC for those goals and more direct OCC enforcement actions for fintech companies. Source
Philadelphia Fed president, Patrick Harker, gave a speech titled, "Fintech: Revolution or Evolution?" at the University of Pennsylvania; the speech was part of a lecture series at the School of Engineering and Applied Science; Patrick Harker discussed fintech in the context of technology, business and government noting innovation in cryptocurrency, blockchain, banking and regulation. Source
AutoGravity was founded in 2015 and recently launched in 46 states; its mobile app provides users with four personalized auto financing offers on their smartphone; their statistics report over a quarter million users have downloaded the app and notes that its financing network includes 1,400 franchise dealers; the firm's report also includes demographics of users and types of cars purchased, among other statistics. Source
Lending Club has hired Santiago Suarez, JPMorgan's head of new technologies; he will join Lending Club as the firm's head of strategy and mergers and acquisitions; at JPMorgan, Suarez was involved with testing blockchain and machine learning; he also worked in the bank's corporate strategy group, focused on managing top strategy issues for the bank. Source
Representative Patrick McHenry says Dodd-Frank reform is not likely to make it to the House of Representatives until June or July; he is confident in major changes for the regulation from the House of Representatives however he foresees opposition from Senate democrats; in an interview with WSJ Pro Financial Regulation he also provided his insight on a range of regulatory aspects which could be integrated into legislation in various ways. Source
Through the partnership Zoho will offer Fundbox credit products to its customers in the US; Zoho is a cloud-based operating system for businesses; Zoho's customers rely on the system to manage their finances, invoices and working capital; with the Fundbox partnership, businesses can now easily connect with Fundbox for credit solutions to manage their cash flow planning. Source