AutoFi and Ford have announced a new partnership that will make financing and buying a car available online; Ford will use the AutoFi platform for sales from its Ricart Ford dealership in Groveport, Ohio with expansion planned for dealerships throughout the United States; through the AutoFi platform customers can select a vehicle, access Ford Credit for a financing decision and terms, customize their vehicle protection products, review their paperwork, and schedule a time to complete the sale and pick up the vehicle; Ford Credit also made an equity investment in AutoFi. Source
An opinion editorial in American Banker makes the case for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; says the agency provides for unnecessary expansion of federal regulatory power; suggests a return to segregated oversight; provides a list of overreaching executive powers in addition to its recent unconstitutional ruling. Source
Pepper Hamilton will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, January 24 at 12:00 PM EST providing insight on the considerations for fintech companies interested in applying for the new fintech charter; topics will include fintech charter advantages, the application process, OCC requirements, OCC oversight and capital requirements; the panel will include Pepper Hamilton lawyers with OCC experience; participants can register here.
Credible is one of the success stories in online lending today. The leading online exchange for student loans has just closed their $10 million Series B funding round that we have been told was "a significant up round." Australian fund manager Regal Funds Management led the round that also included Prosper President Ron Suber. Credible doesn't lend money itself. Instead, it has deep integrations with many of their lending partners (such as CommonBond and College Ave) allowing borrowers not only to compare interest rates but to only see those rates with a high likelihood of approval. Source
In June 2016 the White House held the White House FinTech Summit for regulators and industry stakeholders; on January 13 the White House published a white paper on its principles titled, "A Framework for FinTech"; the paper outlines government policy objectives for fintech as well as ten principles; the white paper also outlines agency actions to date. Source
In December the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its proposal for a fintech charter with an open comment period until January 15; the OCC has received numerous comments which can be found here; Lend Academy and LendIt submitted a response in favor of the fintech charter; their response outlines the difficulties online lenders have in complying with different rules in each of the 50 states; suggests nationalization of regulation would make platform operations more efficient and help the industry to broaden the benefits it can offer to financial inclusion and other nationwide initiatives. Source
Over $300 million has been invested on RealtyShares into residential and commercial real estate projects; the company crossed $200 million in September 2016; individual investors can invest a minimum of $5,000 per project; the company also has multi-billion dollar institutions participating on the platform; to date 550 real estate deals have been done across 1,000 properties, spanning 35 states; RealtyShares has a network of 38,000 accredited investors. Source
Lend Academy provides details on how marketplace loans are performing at Lending Club and Prosper; delinquency rates have been increasing since the third quarter of 2014; less risky loan grades have continued to report the best performance; lower quality loans have suffered increased degradation specifically since the third quarter of 2014; Prosper has made fewer interest rate changes than Lending Club and it seems its higher risk loans are performing slightly better; Lending Club announced additional changes to the platform on January 18th. 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 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaint reports, the agency showed only seven US complaints pertaining to bitcoin in 2016; data mined by LendEDU reports four filed against CoinBase and three against Circle; nonprofit advocacy group Coin Center says 37 complaints were filed on digital currency from 2011 to 2015. Source