American Banker reports on the Small Business Administrations lending programs; loan volume for the 7(a) working capital program increased 5% in fiscal 2017 to $25.4 billion; the 7(a) program has increased by almost 70% since 2012; the 504 real estate program increased 6.3% over the prior year period; American Banker discusses the increase of loans to minorities, the biggest markets for SBA loans and the biggest banks in the space. Source
Genesis Capital is based in Los Angeles and provides capital to house flippers; they were founded in 2007 and lent $1 billion last year; the move shows Goldman’s continued interest in other areas outside their trading business; investor spending on the fix and flip market has grown recently, but still remains below pre-crisis levels. Source
P2Bi is an asset-based small business lender; yesterday they announced a new partnership with New Resource Bank; Krista Morgan, CEO and Co-Founder explains how it works: “Businesses that don’t qualify for traditional bank financing are evaluated by P2Bi for a partnership loan based on joint credit policy criteria. Qualified businesses are extended an asset-backed line of credit with capital provided by the bank in a senior secured position, and the P2Bi marketplace in the second position.” Source
In a blog on the company’s website David Farmer, Director of Communications, explained the ability for customers to instantly purchase digital currency using a US bank account; customers can now buy up to $25,000 and receive access to their digital currency immediately. Source.
The San Francisco based blockchain startup has more than 100 institutions using its RippleNet payment network “The technology we have, and the vision we have, is proven," Marcus Treacher, Ripple's global head of strategic accounts tells American Banker. "We've gone from theory to hard-nosed production, and that's a big event.”; the two way protocol allows for banks on both sides of the transaction to verify funds and fees. Source.
Insurtech startup Lemonade announced “We’re opening up the Lemonade platform to the world!” says Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade; the new open API will allow Lemonade to be seamlessly integrated with commerce websites, financial advisor apps, property management companies, payment software processors, IoT [internet of things] platforms and more as Banking Technology reports. Source.
Ken Sena runs a group within Wells Fargo Securities and recently introduced an artificially intelligent equity research analyst; the bot tracks stocks and put a sell rating on Facebook and Google, two of the top companies working on artificial intelligence; Sena provides his perspective on the new bot and where it might be falling short. Source
PeerIQ released their third quarter marketplace lending securitization report; total issuance for the quarter was $2.6 billion down from $3 billion in the last quarter; SoFi closed two consumer deals and one student deal; Lending Club and Prosper both issued one deal; College Avenue issued their first ever student loan securitization. Source
The project will help to connect multiple digital wallets to process money transactions; they say this will allow different currencies to flow through wallets like HTTPS, SMTP and SIP information goes between web browsers according to Banking Technology; this would allow an individual making a payment through WeChat to send money to a friend who uses PayPal. Source.
Overstock.com plans to launch their new regulated token exchange with its own initial coin offering; launched under Overstock.com's capital markets arm, tØ, the token offering will be the first listed event on the new exchange; CoinDesk reports that Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said the company will be able to raise between $200mn and $500mn easily. Source.