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12 Alternatives for LendingClub Investors

With LendingClub's retail investment platform closed down we went looking for high yield alternatives

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It has been almost four weeks since LendingClub closed down their retail investor platform and cash is already starting to build up. I have had many people reach out to me to ask what I am doing with this idle cash so I thought I would provide some suggestions.

Important note: Nothing I write here should be taken as investment advice. This article contains my own opinions only and may not be suitable for your circumstances. You should always consult with a finance professional before taking any action on investments.

Here are twelve platforms for individual investors, most of which I have made investments on, that provide a similar kind of return to what we came to expect from LendingClub.  I have broken these down into two groups: non-accredited investor options and those for accredited investors only.

Non-Accredited Investor Options

  1. Prosper (prosper.com)

Prosper is the only offering that will provide exactly the same type of investment as LendingClub: unsecured consumer loans. I caught up with Prosper yesterday to get an update on their retail investor offerings and was pleasantly surprised. Retail Investor volume is up over 90% from April to December and this month is maintaining that trend. They are trying hard to ensure that idle cash is minimized and that is certainly true in my case as I am fully invested as of today. They are working on enhancements to the investor experience with an updated interface and new tools for monitoring investments. They are also committed to offering notes across the credit spectrum based on investor demand. Prosper increased interest rates at the start of the pandemic and the Loan performance for the 2020 vintage has been better than expected, performing even better than the typical vintage so far.  To get more details on performance, you can read Prosper’s monthly performance updates on their blog. I will be increasing my allocation to Prosper significantly as cash builds up in my LendingClub accounts.

  1. Fundrise (fundrise.com)

[Read more…]

LendingClub Closing Down Their Platform for Retail Investors

The peer to peer lending platform that LendingClub pioneered will be closing down completely at the end of the year

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There is big news out of LendingClub today for their tens of thousands of retail investors. They have given notice that they are closing down their Notes platform at the end of the year and individual investors will no longer be able to invest in any loans originated by LendingClub.

This is a disappointing development for the industry, as LendingClub was a pioneer in peer to peer lending, and for me personally as I have multiple LendingClub accounts going back more than a decade.

All investors should have received an email this morning detailing their plans. Here is an excerpt from that email:

As we move towards becoming a full-spectrum fintech marketplace bank, we have looked closely at our current and future product suite and have started development of new products to help our members keep more of what they earn and earn more on what they keep. Unfortunately, under a prospective banking framework, it is not economically practical for LendingClub to continue to offer Notes. So, we had to make the difficult decision to retire the Notes platform effective December 31, 2020.

While LendingClub began in 2007 as 100% focused on individual investors over the years it has moved to a much more institutional investor-focused approach. This was understandable as it is difficult to originate huge loan volumes on the back of just retail investors.

It is true that LendingClub has deemphasized individual investors over the past several years. We saw that the loan trading platform was closed down earlier this year, we have seen investors in some states being locked out of investing, increased investment minimums and there have been few, if any, new innovations for retail investors in many years.

Now, we are coming to the end of an era. The peer to peer lending model has not proven to be the wonderful innovation that it promised. There are virtually no platforms operating at scale today that have a pure retail investor approach. UK platform Ratesetter was probably the biggest, at least in the West, and that was sold earlier this year to a traditional bank for a fraction of what it was once worth. [Read more…]

Even in Uncertain Times, Identity is Key to Speed to Lead for Financial Service Marketers

[Sponsored Post] How Consumer Identity Management Expedites Conversions

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Even before the pandemic, mortgage originations were trending downward. Originations are expected to decrease in 2020 to $1.1 trillion, down 15% from 2019, according to the Mortgage News Daily. This has made for a fierce competitive landscape for high-quality mortgage leads in an industry that already sees deals made and lost in a matter of milliseconds.

The right CIM partner can dramatically increase speed to lead and speed to dial—and even level the playing field for smaller lenders. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to increasing your speed to lead.

Download this piece to discover why identity is your timeless weapon for expediting conversions by:

  • Knowing your best leads instantly through identity verification
  • Completing identities with partial or missing information in order to increase reach
  • Scoring and prioritizing your leads based on their potential to convert
  • Adding attributes such as demographics and estimated income/buying power to create more relevant messaging

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My Quarterly Marketplace Lending Results – Q1 2020

My latest quarterly investment results show an overall 4.93% return for the year ending March 31, 2020

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Many of you have emailed me to ask whether I am still doing these quarterly investment reports. The answer is yes, so here is the latest installment. I have been providing these updates for all my marketplace lending investments since 2011 and I will continue to do so.

Regular readers will notice a significant change with this year’s report. There are several investments that I have decided to discontinue completely so I am separating these out now so everyone can see the returns of all my current investments. But I will still report my overall return for the time being until these investments have been mostly liquidated. I will also be sharing my thoughts on the impact the pandemic will have on this portfolio.

Overall Marketplace Lending Return at 4.93%

My overall returns for the twelve months ending March 31, 2020 was 4.93%. This is down slightly from the 5.12% return last quarter. But what has been quite encouraging is that my LendingClub and Prosper investments continue to improve. Of course, you should keep in mind that these returns are through March 31 so we have seen very little impact of the pandemic. I don’t expect these improvements to continue.

Now on to the numbers. Click the table below to see it at full size.

As you look at the above table you should take note of the following points: [Read more…]

Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending July 11, 2020

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Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week (in no particular order).

SoFi Applies for a National Bank Charter from Lend Academy – this was not unexpected as SoFi had filed for an ILC back in 2017, before withdrawing it some months later, but this time they are going for the full national bank charter.

Exclusive: Goldman Sachs-backed payments startup Marqeta prepares for IPO from Reuters – Marqeta is looking to hire investment banks in preparation for a potential IPO late this year or 2021.

Small Business Loans Helped the Well-Heeled and Connected, Too from The Wall Street Journal – This week the SBA
released the names of every PPP loan recipient that received more than $150k and summary data on the smaller loans. This is a treasure trove of data that will be analyzed over the coming weeks.

Consumer Bureau Scraps Restrictions on Payday Loans from The New York Times – While I am a big fan of increased access to credit it should be done in a responsible way. That is why I was disappointed the CFPB rescinded the proposals to make payday lending more responsible.

Fintech startup nCino targets ~$2B valuation in impending IPO from TechCrunch – The nCino IPO is imminent and they are seeking at least a $2 billion valuation.

Online SME Lender Funding Circle Posts Update on UK COVID-19 Support Schemes, US PPP Loans from Crowdfund Insider – Funding Circle released a trading update this week with insight into their UK and US businesses. They were a leader in CBILS lending in the UK and did $800m in PPP loans here. They are restructuring in the US and laying off 85 people.

How Blend fuels the trillion dollar mortgage market from HousingWire – Mortgage fintech Blend is on a roll, their customer base now accounts for more than 25% of the $2.1 trillion U.S. mortgage market by origination volume.

Dan Gilbert will keep strong grip on Quicken Loans after IPO from the Financial Times – Another IPO is in the works with Quicken Loans looking to go public with founder Dan Gilbert maintaining tight control of the company.

FICO will now score consumers’ readiness for a financial crisis. Here’s how it works. from The Washington Post – FICO has released a new product to help lenders figure out which consumers are most financially resilient and therefore better able to weather a financial crisis, they are calling it the Resilience Index.

New Acting Banking Comptroller Plans Rapid Pace on Fintech Agenda from Morning Consult – New acting head of the OCC, Brian Brooks, is not afraid to be bold. In this interview he discusses his plan for aggressive changes on fintech policy covering a wide spectrum of issues, including some that have been the subject of heated debate.

OnDeck Shares Early Progress in Borrower Behavior

OnDeck has been focused on cutting costs, amending credit facilities and has a plan in place for when they recommence originations.

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There has been a lot of uncertainty over the last 2 months, especially for fintech lenders. OnDeck found themselves in a particularly difficult spot since they lend to many of the small businesses hit the hardest by the coronavirus.  Today, OnDeck shared a presentation providing an update on the business and the outlook isn’t as bleak as previously thought by many.

In order to protect liquidity, OnDeck has suspended substantially all new originations and is proactively amending certain credit facilities. They are working to drive down the cost of credit and reduce operating expenses to see them through the current crisis. As they entered the pandemic, the company held $121 million in cash and cash equivalents and subsequently drew down debt facilities and their corporate line. In April they maintained a cash balance in excess of $100 million.

Their actions to reduce Q2 2020 expenses resulted in $10 million in savings. About half was related to reduced marketing expenses, vendor/contractor spend, discretionary spending, partner incentives and pausing the employee stock purchase plan. Full time employees took a 15% pay reduction with CEO Noah Breslow as well as the OnDeck Board taking a 30% pay reduction. Some employees are working part time with a max of 24 hours per week. Others were furloughed and are receiving no salary but are having benefits paid by OnDeck. They also realized $3 million in international savings, concentrated on employee costs.

Like many lenders they saw customers looking for flexibility when it came to repayment of loans. Inbound calls and emails peaked at around six times the normal levels during the second week of April. Customers were offered temporary payment reductions, payment deferrals or term extensions. The below data is an interesting look at what industries are being the most impacted, with accommodation and food services reporting the highest rate of 1+ day past delinquency. While 1+ day delinquencies had doubled by the end of March, many small businesses are making some form of payment.

OnDeck reports improvements in the percentage of customers paying both their term and line of credit products. The data below is even more recent, showing continued improvements through the middle of May.

OnDeck also shared their plans for when they continue originations. Their plan breaks out new and renewal originations. Industries are put into five groupings based on impact from the crisis and the anticipated recovery. Also factored in is whether the stay at home orders have been lifted as well as services related to medical, retail and dine-in restaurants. It is also important to note that OnDeck is an SBA PPP approved non-bank conduit.

Conclusion

With the crisis still ongoing it is hard to say with any certainty what the ultimate impact will be on OnDeck. With states now reopening we will soon get a better understanding of what businesses are going to be able to survive. Clearly, OnDeck has been working hard to increase their probability of success. There is also a potential upside here as banks pull back further on small business lending so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Fintech Fundraising and M&A During a Pandemic

In our first session on LendIt Fintech Digital, Steve McLaughlin opened up about the current environment for M&A and fintech funding.

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When it comes to fintech M&A and fundraising there is no better person to talk to than Steve McLaughlin. McLaughlin is the CEO and founder of FT Partners, the leading investment bank in fintech globally. Yesterday we kicked off LendIt Fintech Digital with Peter Renton, co-founder of LendIt Fintech interviewing Steve McLaughlin to discuss the current fundraising and M&A environment. Below are our main takeaways from the discussion.

While the coronavirus crisis has severely impacted the fundraising environment, good companies still have the possibility to raise money right now. McLaughlin noted positive movement in recent weeks but generally valuations remain flat. Though companies are able to raise, CEOs are not being as realistic as they should be when it comes to valuation given how the world and their business has changed. McLaughlin also expects many bottom feeding deals, giving banks a once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase fintech companies. One of the challenges over the last decade for banks considering fintech M&A has been the valuations of many fintech firms and the amount of capital willing to fund them at ever increasing valuations. Now is the time for banks to beef up their technical prowess through acquisitions.

One thing that has changed significantly is the way deals get done. Two months ago VCs believed that they would never fund a company without a meeting in person. Today they find themselves doing all of their deals virtually with meetings happening over Skype, Zoom etc. However, one of the concerns is the security layer on top of these platforms as these conversations are highly confidential. Sequoia has done 10 deals via video conference and other VCs such Matt Harris from Bain Capital Ventures has started doing deals virtually. McLaughlin shared that there will be some deals coming soon and also discussed some of the recent deals that closed such as the SoFi/Galileo deal. SoFi also acquired 8 Securities, marking their first move out of the US.

Different areas of fintech are experiencing different challenges with the lenders being the hardest hit. Those businesses that just offer personal loans are likely to struggle. The companies that have wider offerings such as Upgrade, Chime and SoFi will fare much better through this crisis. Lenders across the board tightened credit criteria significantly and are focused on managing their current portfolio and cutting costs if necessary. The reality is that today lenders can’t rely on FICO. This is emphasizing the value of open banking platforms like Plaid, where lenders can get insight into recent transactions. Some investors have also shut down their credit lines to lenders, with Jefferies being one example.

While some fintechs are unfortunately struggling there are also companies that are on hiring sprees as business has increased dramatically. Marqeta is one example that is seeing increasing traction during these times due to relationships with companies like DoorDash and Instacart.

One interesting point from McLaughlin was that previously fintech talent was highly fragmented. Since anyone could get money to start their own business, they often did. If more fintechs begin to fail we will see some previous founders taking their talent to more established fintech companies who will stand to benefit.

Conclusion

It was fascinating to get McLaughlin’s perspective on the current environment. While M&A deals will be down in 2020 it is good to hear that deals are still happening. McLaughlin still expects FT Partners to do well this year and we look forward to hearing more about some of the deals in the works as they are announced.

If you’re interested in learning more about the current fintech environment be sure to check out LendIt Fintech Digital, our new online community for financial services innovators.

Why Decentralized Lending Today is Like the Early Days of P2P Lending

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[Editor’s Note: In part one of this two part series, Jason Jones, co-founder of LendIt and current CCO of Centrifuge, explains how decentralized lending works and why MakerDAO reminds him of the early days of LendingClub]

We are on the verge of history. On a day not too long from now, a real world borrower will receive a loan created from newly printed currency that is extended from a smart contract that lives on the Internet. The borrower’s loan application will have been vetted and ratified by a vote from a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that is made up of over 20,000 global voters. These voters are part of the MakerDAO community, which is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. At this moment in time, the Internet will become a lender to a real world business and history will be made.

This will not be a loan made by a bank or even by a person, this will be a loan made by a smart contract. The members of the DAO will participate in the decision making process, but the actual loan issuance will be made by technology and will be funded by digital currency called Dai. The Maker Protocol, or system of coordination, will bring together a decentralized group of experts to review the loan application, approve the collateral (all loans are secured by collateral), conduct the due diligence, and vet the borrower. The ecosystem will help to find borrowers, help to find new merchants to accept Dai, and help to secure exchanges to convert Dai to local currencies, among other things.

From MakerDAO’s perspective, the borrower serves an important role as a supplier of collateral, which is needed in order to mint new Dai currency. There is no investor or bank on the other side of the loan. There is only the smart contract, which has minted new Dai as currency, based on the series of rules that were provided by the MakerDAO community.  It is in MakerDAO’s interest to expand the amount of Dai in circulation and increase the velocity of Dai transmitted. The more places that accept and use Dai as currency, the more demand there will be to expand the amount of Dai in circulation, and the more borrowers will be needed to supply fresh collateral. Since Dai is pegged to the US Dollar it represents a digital representation of USD. Any borrower who takes out a loan denominated in Dai can either spend Dai or immediately convert it to USD. With each new Maker Vault created by a borrower, MakerDAO has introduced new Dai into circulation. Dai is over collateralized, backed by a real world asset, and pegged to the USD.

This reminds me of our early days in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry. It was an exciting time and we were pioneers trying to figure out how to responsibly give out loans to deserving borrowers. I remember the rapid advances in technology coupled with a growing community of developers, investors, and early borrowers. I remember the challenges we faced on how to interpret and apply the law to our new paradigm. I remember the explosion of start-ups that iterated on existing concepts, which collectively pushed the industry forward. Above all of it, I remember there was one company at the center of the P2P universe, much like there is one company at the center of the DeFi universe. MakerDAO reminds me of Lending Club. It is the decentralized version of Lending Club that sits at the center of the DeFi universe.

MakerDAO is an early stage venture that launched a little over two years ago. Venture capitalists, including Andreesen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Paradigm, and others have collectively purchased more than $50m in MKR tokens from the Maker Foundation.  More than 80 team members work at the Maker Foundation with offices in San Francisco, NYC, Copenhagen along with a distributed workforce from around the World. Total Dai in circulation is approaching $120 million, and the amount of collateral locked into Maker smart contracts is over $350 million, making it the largest DeFi project even though it is tiny on the Real World scale. While MKR is held by over 20,000 addresses, the active community only represents several hundred people, who are the passionate early adopters.

In early April, the Maker Foundation introduced their version of a constitution. Their goal is to fully decentralize oversight of the Maker Protocol to the point where they can turn over all operations and decision making to the MakerDAO community at which point they will dissolve the Maker Foundation because it will no longer be necessary. Their constitution is the framework that they will follow in order to fully decentralize.

Once fully decentralized, MakerDAO will become a self-sustaining Internet Protocol. There will be no CEO, no Board of Directors, and no executives or employees. Anyone who owns a MKR token will have a vote on all decisions made by MakerDAO. Decentralized teams and contributors will be voted in by the community to deliver on a full scope of roles and responsibilities including risk, pricing, regulation, security, privacy, marketing, finance, and operations (among other things).  At this point a Decentralized Lending operation will be formed.

When I think about MakerDAO’s biggest challenge today, it is much like Lending Club’s biggest challenge when it was getting started.  How can you build an organization that responsibly gives out loans to deserving borrowers? It doesn’t matter that in this case we are dealing with a decentralized organization, the same problems still need to be addressed. A full scope lending operation needs to be built. Maker needs to attract and compensate the World’s leading lending & technology experts to contribute to this open protocol.

With this in mind, I reached out to one of the original architects of Lending Club. John Donovan was the co-founder, COO, and former Board Member of Lending Club (after an 18 year career at Mastercard).  He was responsible for building out Lending Club’s early teams where he led its organizational development.  I asked John to consider Maker’s first key element, Elected Paid Contributors and Domain Teams.  Specifically, I asked him what type of Domain Teams he would nominate if he were to launch a decentralized lending operation (DLO).  In Part Two John will provide his take.

Bernardo Martinez Steps Down as Managing Director Funding Circle US

Martinez served as managing director of Funding Circle US for more than two years and is now returning to PayPal.

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We have recently learned that Bernardo Martinez is stepping down from his role as US Managing Director of Funding Circle. Bernardo started leading Funding Circle US in March 2018 when industry pioneer Sam Hodges stepped down. Before his role at Funding Circle, Bernardo was head of PayPal Working Capital.

Interestingly, Martinez is returning to PayPal in a new global role after his two year stint at Funding Circle. Vipul Chhabra is stepping in to fill the role as interim managing director. Chhabra is Funding Circle’s Global Head of Data and Analytics and has been working in financial services for two decades spanning roles at Capital One and Citigroup.

Martinez provided the following statement as part of the news:

 I’m extremely proud of my work with Funding Circle US over the past two years. Our goal has always been to support American small businesses—the backbone of the economy—and I can truly say that Funding Circle US is at the forefront of aiding small businesses, even in a historic crisis. While my time with Funding Circle US is coming to a close, I’m confident that the company and it’s leadership will continue to innovate and deliver for small business owners.
Interim managing director Vipul Chhabra had this to say:
Having launched our Paycheck Protection Program lending, this is a historic period for Funding Circle. I’m committed to our mission of supporting and funding American small businesses, which is as important today as it’s ever been.

Conclusion

Funding Circle is among the fintech lending leaders serving small businesses in the US. The company recently was approved by the SBA to issue loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. We continue to follow the work Funding Circle is doing closely and wish Martinez the best of luck in his new role at PayPal.

LendingClub Releases Q1 2020 Earnings, Anticipates Originations to fall 90% in Q2

LendingClub spoke at length in their Q1 Earnings call about the impacts of the coronavirus crisis on their business.

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Today LendingClub announced their Q1 2020 earnings. Lenders in the US are being hit hard by the coronavirus and we are now getting a sense of how significant the impact may be. We were already aware of moves LendingClub has made which included cutting about 30% of their staff which was announced two weeks ago.

LendingClub led off the call with the actions they are taking under five guiding principles. This includes:

  • Keep employees safe
  • Preserve liquidity
  • Protect investor returns
  • Support members
  • Stay on track for the Radius acquisition

GAAP net losses for the quarter were $(48.1) million. The significant decrease was the result of a fair value markdown of $(101.7) million. Just over half of the fair value markdown ($64 million) was LendingClub reevaluating loans that are held for sale by the company at fair value. Loan originations were $2.5 billion, down 8% from the prior year period and revenues dropped 31% to $120.2 million from the prior year period (because of the fair value markdown).

While it was an expected tough quarter for the company the results included less than a month of the US being largely shut down due to the coronavirus crisis. LendingClub expects originations to fall 90% as they have further tightened credit criteria. Investors are also pulling back on funding personal loans. LendingClub’s moves in originations is best illustrated by the below data shown in the earnings presentation which demonstrates just how much the borrower demographic has improved (at least on paper).

New originations are being focused on existing members that have positive payment histories. While it is impossible to predict loan performance, LendingClub’s transition over the last 18 months towards serving higher quality borrowers is likely to pay off compared to their peers.

The company proactively started to make changes even before investors started scaling back allocations. Borrowers are able to receive a 2-month payment deferral plan under the skip-a-pay program. As of April 30, 11% of outstanding loans were enrolled in the skip-a-pay program. For those not enrolled LendingClub is not seeing any loan degradation. Not surprisingly loan prepayments have also decreased which is a drag on investor returns. Going forward, LendingClub intends to provide additional graduation and forbearance programs as borrowers look to bridge gaps in income.

LendingClub, like many companies, is in cash preservation mode. As previously mentioned LendingClub cut 30% of staff that were working in non-core expansion initiatives such as auto and projects such as a planned migration to Amazon Web Services. Variable expenses which includes vendors, contractors, marketing spend, discretionary spend and real estate spend saved $50 million off LendingClub’s quarterly expense base. Employee cuts and salary reductions for senior leadership will save another $20 million.

Fortunately for LendingClub, they have been in a strong cash position for some time and ended Q1 2020 with $550 million in estimated net liquidity. According to cash flow stress testing the company has enough liquidity to get them through 2021. It is interesting that with LendingClub’s new cost base along with cash flows from servicing fees and their loan portfolio, they are able to cover cash flow expenses from operations even assuming a $0 origination scenario.

On many investors’ minds is the Radius acquisition which was announced a few months ago. This statement was included in the earnings deck:

Under multiple scenarios considering various maturities, triggers and recourse we believe that we have adequate liquidity to weather the storm and complete the acquisition of Radius bank

While CEO Scott Sanborn wouldn’t go into detail he did say that talks continue to be productive with regulators and they are highly engaged. It seems the company is committed to moving this process forward though one investor on the earnings call did ask about whether the company should pursue being purchased to which LendingClub responded that they feel good about where they are and are well positioned. The transaction is estimated to be completed in roughly one year.

Conclusion

It is hard to make any predictions on LendingClub going forward as there is nothing to compares with this crisis. What we do know is that LendingClub is likely in a better position than most given their borrower demographic and cash on hand. The next quarter will be very different as LendingClub prepares for a dramatically lower loan volume. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this crisis plays out not just for LendingClub but for all fintech lenders.

ABOUT LENDIT FINTECH NEWS

LendIt Fintech News, Powered by Lend Academy, has been bringing you all the news and information about fintech and online lending since 2010 when it was founded by Peter Renton. We not only have the industry’s most active news site, but also the largest investor forum and the first and most popular podcast.

We are a team of fintech enthusiasts who have been covering the industry for many years. With a deep knowledge of online lending, digital banking, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more our team covers the daily news and writes in-depth editorials.

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