There is a worldwide problem in that not enough people have access to financial opportunity in underserved markets; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel that focused on impact investing and opportunities for the underserved in financial services; panelists discussed the size of the market, how technology has helped to close the gap and why they feel that investing with their hearts and wallets is the better way to go; the discussion talked through the difference between regular investing and impact investing, as well as what investors look for when an opportunity presents itself; technology has allowed for low to middle income families to have a better understanding of their daily financial health and to expect better services; the panel also touched on the risks involved in certain markets, how to assess potential investments in emerging markets and how the local regulatory bodies can play a role; looking at investments beyond the financial return has helped communities around the world and this looks to be a trend that is on the rise. Source
SoFi was among Super Bowl advertisers with another commercial this year; this year's commercial reflected their expanding services by advertising the firm's support for owning a home, starting a family and seeing the world; with the firm's recent acquisition of online bank, Zenbanx, customers will now be able to use SoFi for a comprehensive suite of banking services, expanding beyond just the firm's core student loan offering. Source
Affirm announced they are partnering with merchants to make financing available in-store; Affirm InStore works similar to their online point of sale solution where customers can pay for purchases over time with fixed installments; the company also announced that consumers will be able to add a newly issued Affirm virtual card via Apple Pay. Source
This week’s PeerIQ Industry Update covers the great jobs report as nonfarm payrolls rose by 313,000 in February which caused the Nasdaq to hit an all-time high; CommonBond saw their first AAA rating by Moody’s and KBRA rated the senior bonds for OneMain’s latest deal at AAA, AA and A; PeerIQ also took a deep dive into the recent Amazon checking account news; they cover the benefits of the partnership, the significance of the deal and who might be next to enter the space. Source.
Intuit has launched a new lending product called QuickBooks Capital; clients of the accounting software provider will be able to access up to $35,000 in credit with terms between three and six months. Rania Succar, head of QuickBooks Capital stated, “As the largest small business accounting platform with approximately 2.4 million customers, the QuickBooks platform provides the most complete set of small business data available in the market.” Source
LendFoundry has enhanced its lending operating system (LOS); the LOS can now support loan processing and management for point of sale, auto loans, working capital loans and unsecured consumer loans; it also offers one of the industry's best suite of APIs for connecting with industry fintech companies including Clarity Services, Whitepages Pro, FEDChex, Yodlee, Towerdata, Twilio, Plaid, LOB and more; the platform has significantly expanded its API offerings to allow for increased integration across the industry; Brent Fausett, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at LendFoundry says: "Our product development team has built 50+ pre-configured APIs. We will continue on our vision and keep adding new APIs as we believe that a pre-integrated platform places lenders miles ahead of the competition." Source