Marketplace Lending News Roundup – May 23, 2015

News

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Interest Rate Changes – Sub-grade Analysis from LendingAlpha – An in depth look at the recent Lending Club interest rate change.

Regulations set to standardize Chinese P2P lending from Treasury Insider – Soon we will find out the details of China’s new regulations for the p2p lending industry.

Metro Bank strikes deal to lend through P2P site from Financial Times – In the UK Zopa has signed the first p2p lending partnership with a bank.

P2P Lending in India: A Concept Ahead of its Time from P2P-Banking.com – Will p2p lending ever take off in India? This author is skeptical.

30 Hot Fintech Startups to Watch from Fox Business – Lots of lenders on this FoxSMB Fintech startups list including: SoFi, LendUp, Lending Club, Prosper and LendingRobot.

Alternative Business Loans: Regulatory Arbitrage or True Innovation? from Forbes – Brock Blake, the CEO of Lendio, discusses whether or not alternative lending is just regulatory arbitrage.

My Personal Filters for Lending Club and Prosper in 2015 from LendingMemo – Simon from LendingMemo shares how he is investing in Lending Club and Prosper.

Bitbond Raises 600k Euro from P2P-Banking – Bitcoin p2p lender, Bitbond, has raised a 600k Euro angel round.

Lending Startups raised a record $1.5B in 2014 from VatorNews – Not that we needed it, but more proof that the online lending industry is hot right now.

Borrowers Advanced £459 From P2P Lenders from iExpats – The 9 members of the UK P2P Finance Associated loaned £459M in Q1.

No Credit Score, No Problem: Alternatives to a Number from PYMNTS – Discussion of the CFPB study about the 45 million Americans without a credit score.

CircleBack rolls out first P2P Trade from Market News – A new entrant in the securitization market. CircleBack Lending have completed a $100M+ offering.

Prosper Reports Record First Quarter from the Prosper Blog – From Aaron Vermut, CEO of Prosper on their record first quarter.

Morgan Stanley: Peer-to-peer lending is about to really take off in Australia from Business Insider – A new report out by Morgan Stanley says that p2p lending will hit $10.4B in Australia by 2020.

SocietyOne’s $30m of P2P loans the tip of an iceberg from AFRWeekend – Leading p2p lending in Australia is SocietyOne with $30M in total loans issued to date.

LendInvest Turns Two and Crosses the £300m Mark from AltFi – Congrats to the LendInvest team in the UK on crossing £300M in just 2 years.

From the Lend Academy Forum

The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.

Just use A/B/C LC notes for Asset Allocation (Stocks/P2P vs. Stocks/Bonds) – Forum members discuss asset allocation and risk adjusted returns.

Loan default rate by ZIP codes/state – Discussion surrounding default rates by state.

$25k loan, no payments and bankruptcy filed – A Prosper investor shares details of one of his loans where the borrower filed bankruptcy almost immediately.

New Interest Rates – Forum members discuss in detail the interest rate decreases that went into effect in the last week for Lending Club.

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.