Peer to Peer Lending Archives

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

[Sponsored Post] How Consumer Identity Management Expedites Conversions

July 16, 2020 By Todd Anderson Leave a Comment

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.

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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

July 13, 2020 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

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…]

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.

May 28, 2020 By Ryan Lichtenwald 1 Comment

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.

May 14, 2020 By Ryan Lichtenwald 1 Comment

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

May 13, 2020 By Jason Jones 2 Comments

[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.

May 7, 2020 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

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.

May 5, 2020 By Ryan Lichtenwald 1 Comment

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.

Upcoming Webinar: How Increased Engagement Will Impact Fintechs and Digital Banks

Our next webinar will dive into how fintechs are handling the rapidly changing environment related to customer engagement

April 23, 2020 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

LendIt Fintech continues to connect the fintech community during these challenging times. In partnership with Plaid, our next webinar will focus on how increased engagement will impact fintechs and digital banks.

This webinar is free to attend and will feature:

Niko Karvounis, Product Lead, Plaid
Colin Walsh, CEO & Founder, Varo Money
Brandon Krieg, Co-founder & CEO, Stash
Moderated by Bo Brustkern, Co-founder & CEO, LendIt Fintech

With customers unable to go to bank branches, they are left with only one option but to interact digitally with their bank. This means it’s game time for the digital banks as customers look for the best products in the market. Some companies are facing an unprecedented amount of signups and it is paramount that they be able to deliver services.

Some topics that will be covered include:

How is customer behavior changing?
Do startups have the infrastructure to handle the increased load? Is your company making technology changes?
Will they be able to offer the same type of service if they needed to cut staff themselves?
Can they perform at a higher level than banks and keep customers they acquire through the bad times?
Deposits at traditional banks jumped significantly since January. Why is this happening and how does this news fit in with increased demand for your products?
What do the next 12 months look like? Are digital offerings going to be seen as heroes?
How is Varo Money handling the Moven transition?

Time: Tuesday, April 28 at 2 PM ET

LendingClub Cutting 460 Staff in Response to Reduced Loan Volume

The cuts are across every department and include C-suite executives

April 21, 2020 By Peter Renton 7 Comments

Back in October last year LendingClub executives ran an exercise where they had to game plan how the company would react to a pandemic. In hindsight, this was a very timely exercise that has helped the company react quickly in today’s unprecedented times.

They were one of the first fintech lenders to issue the work from home order as well as provide the ability for borrowers to self-serve when it comes to loan forbearance. Now, they are one of the first to announce a sweeping round of layoffs.

According to an 8-K filed by LendingClub today the company is laying off 460 people or around 30% of its workforce. A LendingClub spokesman told me that the cuts were across every division of the company as they are adjusting the size of the company to reflect a business environment that is dramatically different from just a couple of months ago.

The C-suite was not spared in the downsizing. Steve Allocca, president of LendingClub for the past three years, will be exiting the company on May 12 as his position has been eliminated for now. Also eliminated is the Chief Marketing Officer so Alexandra Shapiro, who had been in the role for less than a year, will be leaving. With no need to pursue growth marketing costs will be reduced substantially as many paid programs are put on pause.

Additionally, executives are taking a 25% pay cut with Scott Sanborn, CEO of LendingClub, taking a 30% cut. Sanborn said this in a statement:

It’s never easy to lose people who are not just colleagues, but teammates and friends. These are amazing, innovative, and committed people who have helped to build LendingClub into a great company. However, it was necessary to realign our staffing to the current business environment. With these actions, we believe we are well positioned to achieve our long-term strategic goals and better serve our members, who will need us more than ever, once the economy stabilizes.

Origination volumes have tumbled across the consumer lending industry as companies have pulled back in marketing and many institutional investors no longer adding in new capital. On this latter front LendingClub is fairly well positioned given it has worked so hard in recent years to diversify its funding sources. Interestingly, some funding sources have not declined, and some have even increased in volume. I was told that retail investment is actually up which I thought was interesting.

My Take

While initially shocking, it is not that surprising that LendingClub has made this move. With originations down they needed to cut costs and, while painful, a large round of layoffs is essential for any significant cost containment program. The company entered this crisis in a strong financial position with over $500 million in cash on their balance sheet at the end of Q4.

While I have been assured that completing the Radius acquisition is a top priority for the company, if the economic malaise continues for a long time I will be surprised if it stays on track. It is such a shame really, as I felt with this move LendingClub had turned a corner this year and was finally on offense after many years of defense. But now the name of the game is weathering this crisis as the whole world has hit the pause button.

You will be able to learn more on LendingClub’s next earnings call scheduled for May 5. We will be covering that here as usual.

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

[Sponsored Post] How Consumer Identity Management Expedites Conversions

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

Overall Marketplace Lending Return at 4.93%

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

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.

Conclusion

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.

Conclusion

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

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.

Conclusion

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.

Conclusion

Upcoming Webinar: How Increased Engagement Will Impact Fintechs and Digital Banks

Our next webinar will dive into how fintechs are handling the rapidly changing environment related to customer engagement

LendingClub Cutting 460 Staff in Response to Reduced Loan Volume

The cuts are across every department and include C-suite executives

My Take

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