Mr. Clayton is chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Mr. Giancarlo is chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; in a Wall Street Journal article they share their perspective on regulation as it relates to cryptocurrencies; they discuss trading, listed bitcoin futures products, ICOs and more. Source
Includes data from the UK, EU and the US; AltFi projects €2.8 billion to be lent in Europe in 2018 and £7.5 billion in the UK; this would represent a year over year increase of 73% and 43% respectively; overall 2017 was a bounce-back year for the marketplace lending industry across the globe. Source
SoFi originated $12.9 billion and sold more than $2 billion in loans in 2017; Ashish Jain, senior vice president of capital markets provides some insight into how hard the team worked to ensure their success in 2017 stating, “We were willing to do calls at any hour, to assure them the quality of product was high, and that there weren't any issues on these loans they were buying. Synovus and Citizens were among the banks that bought SoFi loans last year.”; Jain reports that all of their investors are still buying and they have brought in new investors after Mike Cagney left the company. Source
Tim Draper spoke at the event Blockchain Connect Conference today; he stated, “In five years, if you go to a Starbucks or McDonald's and try to buy a burger or coffee with fiat currency, the person at the counter is going to laugh at you. There's a real need for a currency that's global.”; Draper was an early backer in companies like Skype and Baidu; his interests have since turned to bitcoin and ICOs. Source
Louis Beryl was co-founder and chief executive of Earnest; he left the company this week; Navient Corp purchased Earnest back in October 2017 for $155 million; Earnest co-founder Ben Hutchinson remains at the company as chief operating officer. Source
What has been a standard feature at big banks for some time, real time messaging is now being offered by community banks who see the value in reaching customers more efficiently; the digital feature could also help the bank to reach more people who they would normally not have access to; “We can use it as a counseling tool to help strengthen relationships and improve a customer's financial health," said Ron Strand-Sorrell, EVP and COO at Axiom Bank, to American Banker as they recently rolled out the messaging; becoming more digital can also help the banks to better position themselves to attract millennials. Source.
U.S. Bank plans to use the upcoming Super Bowl to build brand awareness; being based in Minneapolis, home to this year’s Super Bowl, will allow the company to utilize the game to increase local exposure; the company plans to run local ads during the game along with sponsored videos on social media channels; they also plan to use local Minneapolis space in coffee shops for example to have people interact with technology and compete for prizes; “We want to get people in the space, and help them get exposed to the brand and learn a little bit and get engaged in a fun activity,” said Chris Lee, head of sponsorships for U.S. Bank, to TearSheet. Source.
As banks keep closing or reorganizing their branch experience JPMorgan Chase just made a big bet on branches and staff; the bank announced a 5 year $20bn investment plan that includes 400 new branches and 4,000 new jobs; the plans included expansion into 15 to 20 new markets for the branches, where most of the staff hires will occur; they also said lending will increase by 25 percent over the next 5 years. Source.
Discover Financial Services CEO David Nelms stated, “It really takes a decade of experience going through cycles to understand how to use credit bureau information to have good predictions…The funny thing is they’re not making money, even in a great cycle.”; Nathaniel Hoopes, executive director of the Marketplace Lending Association provided his own comments on the manner and how marketplace lending is putting pressure on credit card issuers and other traditional lenders. Source
SoFi closed SoFi Professional Loan Program 2018-A; underlying collateral of student loans totaled more than $1 billion dollars; this is SoFi’s largest ever securitization as they continue to lead in the marketplace lending securitization market; there were 39 unique investors, including five new investors. Source