Small business loan facilitator, Lendio, has secured $20 million in a financing round led by investment from Comcast Ventures and Stereo Capital; Dave Zilberman of Comcast Ventures will be joining the firm's board of directors following the financing round; the firm seeks to partner with small business lenders in order to help them find the best loan provider for their needs; they currently partner with approximately 75 loan providers; in the third quarter they helped facilitate $63 million in loans for small businesses, an increase of 93% from the third quarter of 2015. Source
Sub-prime lender Elevate, while still awaiting the right time to go public, has expanded their product line by offering customers a line of credit for up to $3,500 called Elastic; Republic Bank is the issuer of the credit line and according to Elevate's CEO, Ken Rees, there are other institutions showing interest; Rees explains further, "Banks are terrible at lending outside of their branch footprint and they are not good at customer acquisition. We provide products and a set of underwriting tools that fits for non-prime customers." Source
Intuit has partnered with BlueVine to make credit more easily available for its QuickBooks users; the partnership will allow small businesses using QuickBooks to obtain credit lines of up to $100,000; BlueVine will add a line of credit product offering to the borrowing options on QuickBooks which currently also include loans from Lending Club, OnDeck and Funding Circle. Source
PeerStreet announced that they have crossed $150 million in originations after one year in business; the company launched at Money 20/20 last October; so far the platform has experienced zero losses, providing returns between 6% and 12%; PeerStreet's weighted portfolio loan-to-value is 65%. Source
The Debt Exchange notes how US regulators are flagging some concern with commercial real estate investment concentrations, even as pricing shows steady demand for properties; regulators are finding bank ratios of commercial real estate loans to total risk-based-capital are approaching 300% in certain property markets (300% is possible through leverage) and loan-to-deposit ratios are approaching 100%, both flags on the risk side; the article notes that loan sales, to private investors as well as through securitizations, are an effective way to reduce these ratios. Source
Ant Financial announced at Money 20/20 a partnership with payment processor First Data and hardware provider Verifone; new move will expand scope of their wallet product, AliPay, into North America and Europe for wealthy Chinese travelers; AliPay has 450 million active users, totaling nearly 70% of the third party payment market in China. Source
MasterCard is launching customizable bots for merchants and banks; they have partnered with Kasisto, the company that created KAI Banking, a conversational AI platform; consumers will be able to manage their money inside Facebook Messenger, asking questions about their accounts, purchase history, spending levels, etc.; transactions will also be able to take place on Messenger with MasterCard’s Masterpass, a digital payment service. Source
The new digital assistant is launching inside the Bank of America mobile app next year and will be named Erica; the bank is looking for the tool to help customers better understand their spending habits and offers different ways to stay financially fit; Erica will use artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to help customers make payments, check balances, save money and pay down debt. Source
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP has released a report based on survey results from 75 executives and investors at banks, fintech companies and private equity firms; Lend Academy provides a summary of the report in their article; report focuses on the interest from regional and community banks in partnering with fintech companies; high interest from these banks since the partnerships can help them provide their services at a lower cost and also expand geographically; survey results find that the majority of regional and community banks are already engaged in partnerships with fintech firms. Source
Propel, the $150 million fintech venture capital company set up by Spanish bank BBVA is investing $14.1 million into InsurTech startup, Hixme; the investment was announced at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas; Propel’s sole backer is BBVA - its $150 million of funding makes it one of the biggest fintech-focused funds in the world; the company's hope is to invest in next-generation fintech companies. Jay Reinemann, managing partner at Proper Ventures, says: "Insurance has been one of the latest hot areas, it's been that way for at least a year. Source