RiverNorth's total portfolio consisted of 10,173 loans with an average loan size of $10,176 at the end of July; in the note to investors RiverNorth shared that investors are becoming more comfortable with online lending assets with more awareness likely to drive further growth; highlights two recent positive events in the industry including Prosper's recent securitization and Lending Club's Q2 2017 results. Source
SuperMoney has developed new auto loan technology to provide consumers with auto lending offers; it signed on 20 auto lenders for the product's launch and is able to provide interested borrowers with options for secured and unsecured loans, refinancings, and private-party auto loans; the firm is seeking to simplify the search process for finding an auto loan and compares its technology to current services for buying an airline ticket. Source
The deal would add to market competition for retail credit, specifically competing directly with Wal-Mart credit cards; Wal-Mart plans to begin a pilot program with Affirm that would offer installment loan plans in select locations and for a targeted group of online customers; source reports that the installment loans will focus on costlier items of $200 or more; with an Affirm partnership, Wal-Mart could seek to reach an expanded market demographic, specifically customers with limited credit histories; Affirm uses alternative underwriting methods and its loans average approximately $750 with repayment periods of three to 24 months and fixed annual percentage rates ranging from 10% to 30%. Source
2016 was a year filled with shaky investor confidence, compliance issues and bad credit performance in online lending; OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow's 2017 LendIt USA keynote focused on the challenges posed by 2016 and the trends for 2017 and beyond; after seeing how the industry reacted to these challenges he stated that he is now more optimistic than ever before; the industry is maturing and measures of success have shifted; the unstoppable trends include: customer awareness, trust and adoption of online lending, bank partnerships, constructive engagement between the public and private sector, and the global growth of online lending; he also predicts that by the mid 2020's nearly all small business loans will be made online. Source
The New York Fed's most recent Household Debt and Credit Report shows credit levels reaching new highs; total consumer debt for Q2 2017 was $12.8 trillion and student loan debt reached $1.3 trillion; Forbes highlights an increasingly upward trend in student lending which it says is being supported by federal government loans. Source
CNBC talks with Eyal Lifshitz of Bluevine who says fallouts from public companies have affected valuation discussions noting that investors are more skeptical now after struggles from Lending Club and OnDeck; Lifshitz expects companies will drop out of the market and Schwark Satyavolu, general partner at Trinity Ventures, says the industry is likely to see more acquisitions and consolidation. Source
The SEC's report on ICOs as securities has prompted ShapeShift to review the listings on its cryptocurrency exchange; ShapeShift will likely delist some of its traded listings and says it does not want to be characterized as a securities exchange; ShapeShift and its legal counsel will apply the Howey Test to the cryptocurrency listings which is the current market standard also used by the SEC for determining whether an offering is considered a security. Source
Tom Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, is projecting bitcoin's value to reach $25,000 in the next five years; the strategist also projects a bitcoin value of $6,000 by mid-2018; the cryptocurrency is currently trading at $4,284.14, gaining approximately 330% in 2017; Lee cites bitcoin derivatives as a key catalyst since they have now been approved and are increasingly being used in wealth management strategies and also expects bitcoin derivatives trading will lead to increased institutional investment. Source
Overstock.com has announced it will allow customers to pay in over 40 cryptocurrencies through support from ShapeShift; the e-commerce website is the first well-known retail platform to allow coin payments beyond bitcoin; the payments are facilitated by an API built by cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift. Source
Amazon has a number of clients using Alexa for financial advice and solutions architect Felix Candelario says, "Natural language processing is the new rocket science."; clients include UBS, LPL, Fidelity, Capital One and Betterment; overall, machine learning innovation is providing for new technology solutions and pairing it with voice automated interactions adds a new element of service for customers. Source