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
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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
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
Steve McLaughlin has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to M&A in fintech, having advised on many deals in the space; he founded his firm FT Partners when he was 32 years old; according to data from KPMG, M&A was down in 2016 by 68% compared to 2015; McLaughlin shares his thoughts on what has contributed to the decline and where the industry is going from here; believes that the ability for companies to raise financing rounds has contributed to the lower amount of M&A deals; many companies in fintech are also fairly young when it comes to the earnings which makes M&A not as attractive to banks; McLaughlin also talks about the deals that have occurred in fintech and the sectors that are hot in 2017. Source