The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has cited fintech as a risk for traditional banks in its "Semiannual Risk Perspective for Fall 2016"; the semiannual OCC report discusses risks for national banks and federal savings associations with data through June 30, 2016; says strategic planning is important for banking innovation and that banks who do not innovate to meet evolving needs may be at a competitive disadvantage. Source
NYC-based, insurance software provider Namely has obtained $50 million in Series D funding; the company offers software services for human resources, payroll and benefits; its services are targeted for small to medium-sized businesses with 50 to 2,000 employees; they have recently been enhancing their software services to offer new features including daily employee interactions and company news feeds. Source
Unison offers funds for a down payment in exchange for a home ownership stake; in the case of one California homebuyer, the company matched their 10% down payment and required no monthly payments; instead the borrower must repay Unison with the sale of their house plus 35% of any real estate gains incurred from the sale; a handful of companies are offering similar real estate products including Point which offers cash-for-equity arrangements for existing homeowners. Source
Increased home prices combined with available capital are supporting renewed interest in house flipping; the number of investors buying and selling a house within a few months has increased to the highest level since 2007; current investors are reporting an average profit of approximately $61,000; big banks are now more interested in financing real estate lending for house flipping deals and more online lending platforms are facilitating these investments; real estate crowdfunding companies seeing increased activity from house flipping customers include 5 Arch Funding, LendingHome Corp., Asset Avenue, Groundfloor Finance and Anchor Loans. Source
California mortgage lender Opes Advisors is using proprietary software technology to help clients think more holistically about how buying a home fits into their financial plans; the company originates approximately $3 billion in mortgage loans per year and has built technology software that advises clients on comprehensive financial planning; also offering wealth management, the company provides comprehensive advisory services that are unique in the mortgage lending market. Source
Small Business Administration (SBA) loans are a popular source of funding for small businesses in the US; SmartBiz Loans is one of the online market's leading providers of these loans; Lend Academy talks with Evan Singer, CEO of SmartBiz, in their podcast; SmartBiz recently became the number one provider of SBA loans under $350,000, beating out big banks such as Wells Fargo for smaller dollar loans; Evan Singer talks about the firm's business and the origination process which involves a network of bank lenders. Source
Liberty Mutual has announced new personalized offerings within its usage-based insurance strategy; HighwayHero is a driving app launched to track driving and offer driving score discounts; it will be expanding its pay as you drive, ByMile, program to additional states; its usage-based insurance app, RightTrack, is also being expanded to additional states. Source
Lend Academy recently highlighted the trends in interest rates at Lending Club in their recent article; Lending Club has changed interest rates five times since late 2015; the recent trend of increasing rates can be seen in the below chart taken from Lending Club's statistics page which tracks average interest rates across loan grades since 2008; higher risk loans have seen the most impact from recent changes in interest rates. Source
In October 2016, Prospect Marketplace Lending Corp. filed an N-8A and an N-2 indicating the company's investment status and plans for managing a closed-end fund investing 80% of the assets in marketplace lending investments; the firm has now filed a Form 40-APP; the Form 40-APP requests permission to offer multiple share classes, each with its own fee and expense structure. Source
The Fed made one increase to the federal funds rate in December 2016 and economic market activity appears to be improving with the election of President-Elect Donald Trump; Rohit Arora of Biz2Credit says the outlook is optimistic for small business owners in 2017; with only one rate increase, borrowing rates are still low for small business owners and lenders are approving a higher percentage of loans; Donald Trump's plans to alleviate some of the burdens from Dodd-Frank on banks is also likely to help approval rates for small business owners. Source