Meta Financial Group formed a partnership to provide personal loans to customers of NY based Liberty Lending; Meta said they will look to originate between $500mn to $1bn of personal loans during the three year partnership; “We are excited to partner with a respected and growing brand in online lending, and look forward to working together to deliver best in class loan products to consumers,” Brent Turner, Meta's head of consumer lending, said in a press release reported by American Banker. Source.
SoFi acquired the engineering and product teams from mortgage startup Clara Lending; American Banker reported SoFi said of the deal it will help them to, “immediately ramp up our technical capabilities."; SoFi’s business is still reliant on student loan refinancing but this acquisition will allow them to increase their mortgage business in the next few years. Source.
Lending Club files an 8K for a $200mn warehouse funding agreement; JPMorgan Chase was the administrative agent and Wilmington Trust was the collateral trustee; the revolving credit facility will be with certain lenders not yet announced; the move is another step in the funding sources diversification direction the company discussed late last year. Source.
SoFi will make student and personal loans available to WeWork’s 3,000 employees and 175,000 customers at discounted rates. Source
This week’s PeerIQ Industry Update covers 4th quarter GDP news, another round of bank earnings, the new SoFi CEO, fintech fundraising’s and the latest securitization trends; the new SoFi CEO was accepted positively across the market as the company looks to expand products in coming quarters; SoFi and Lending Club are looking at a busy quarter on securitization issuance and PeerIQ reviews their most recent deals; Streetshares secured a $23mn series B round led by Rotunda Capital; PeerIQ also took a deep dive into the key points of the recent letter CFPB Director Mulvaney circulated to staff about his vision for the bureau. Source.
The CEO of Prime Meridian Capital Managements gives his thoughts on marketplace lending today and what investors need to know. 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
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
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.
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.