Marketplace lender Argon Credit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; its loan underwriting was centered around machine learning algorithms which it marketed as decisioning as a service; offered subprime loans from $2,000 to $35,000 with APRs ranging from 4.99% to 149%; in May 2015 it secured a $75 million debt funding investment from credit hedge fund, Princeton Alternative Funding; prior to that it had raised $5.05 million. Source
Citizens Bank has entered into a partnership with Fundation to extend capital to small businesses; Citizens Bank will offer a digital solution so small businesses can apply and get a loan through one process; businesses who don't meet Citizens' credit profile will then be underwritten by Fundation; this is the second fintech partnership for Citizens Bank as they recently entered into a partnership with digital wealth management service SigFig. Source
Rob Pfeifer has been appointed to chief risk officer at Affirm; was previously chief financial officer; Pfeifer has been with Affirm since March 2013; prior to Affirm, Pfeifer worked in various financial analysis roles; he has extensive experience in forecasting, reporting and deal transactions.
In a recent interview, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney stated, "We feel very confident that in 2017 you'll be able to have a SoFi bank account with a debit and/or credit card."; further details are not known on how SoFi plans to offer deposit accounts; Cagney stated the company is working on two or three initiatives; back in July Cagney told investors that getting a traditional bank license was not a viable solution; the company may be able to leverage the OCC's recently announced nonbank fintech charter. Source
In May 2015 SoFi's CEO, Mike Cagney, said the company planned to go public within the next 12 months; current plans have changed and the CEO now says it has no plans for an IPO anytime soon; the market for online lending IPOs has been volatile in recent months; SoFi has also been significantly focused on expanding its products beyond just student loans to meet broader needs for its customers; the CEO says its business and expanding business lines subject it to quarterly fluctuations in reporting metrics which could be detrimental under public investor scrutiny; given the firm's positioning it could be one of the industry's leading beneficiaries of the OCC's new fintech charter which will allow for national standards; as of last year SoFi had a valuation of approximately $4 billion and currently it's involved in a $500 million funding round to increase loan purchases and potentially equity. Source
Massachusetts lender Radius Financial Group has begun experimenting with an all paperless mortgage in recent months as they look to become more efficient in this technological age; the process includes DocMagic, the MERS loan registry, Fannie Mae and Santander Bank; so far they've been able to complete six applications; the savings seen are significant, $200 a loan and on average nine to 13 days by using an e-warehouse line as compared to the traditional warehouse line. Source
Orchard provides insight on monthly trends in P2P lending originations; uses Lending Club's publicly available standard program data for the analysis; finds October has historically been the peak month for P2P loan originations; identifies loan purpose trends for 2015 with debt consolidation notably highest in January; categories with peak lending originations in December in 2015 included major purchase, other and small business. Source
The SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016 (HR3784) was signed into law; the law will add a new office within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for small business advocacy; the small business advocacy office will oversee and support regulation and investment activities for small businesses and small business investors; the new law will also establish a small business capital formation advisory committee that will advise the SEC on small business market activity. Source
Estimated return on loan production in November 2016 was 6.58%, which is down from the previous three months; Prosper attributes its revised pricing and credit market trends overall to the month's weaker performance; the average FICO score in November was 714.2 which is approximately 10 points above the FICO scores in 2015 vintages; cumulative charge-offs are trending higher in 2015 and 2016 than 2013 and 2014; higher pricing is also a factor potentially affecting prepayment rates which are higher for loans originated in 2016. Source
Lending Club's chief technology officer, John MacIlwaine, has resigned and will pursue another opportunity; the firm will conduct a search for a new chief technology officer and has appointed the senior vice president for technology to oversee the business; MacIlwaine had been with Lending Club since 2012 and has extensive experience in executive management roles overseeing financial technology platforms. Source