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.
The difficult task of qualifying for student loan refinancing from Boston Globe – The student loan refinancing market is booming. Interesting piece with comments from SoFi, Citizens Bank and Credible.
Loans Without Loan Officers? Investment Without Investment Banks? Welcome to FinTech. from History News Network – A short history of fintech from 5,000 years ago through today by a Yale professor.
Avant Secures $255 Million Asset-Backed Securitization Led by J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley and Renews $392 Million Warehouse Facility from PR Newswire – Finally some good news for Avant. A new securitization and a renewed credit line (press release).
Two CEOs tell us where alternative lending is headed from Business Insider – Ron Suber of Prosper and Rob Frohwein of Kabbage discuss the state of online lending and where the industry is going.
Shares in Yirendai Jump as Chinese P2P Lender Executes on Objectives from Crowdfund Insider – Chinese p2p lending platform Yirendai is bucking the trend in the US with solid Q2 earnings.
SocietyOne chief Jason Yetton says lending jumps tenfold from The Sydney Morning Herald – Down under SocietyOne still leads the way in marketplace lending. Total outstanding personal loans now A$100 million.
‘Good’ Payday Loans Still Very, Very Expensive from NerdWallet – Small dollar loans are expensive but many of the new alternative lenders are trying to fix this.
Subprime credit card lending is making a big comeback from Business Insider – There are 133 million credit card holders in the US, 10 million of which received their first card in the past year.
Heartland Bank credits peer-to-peer lender Harmoney for increase in lending from Stuff – In New Zealand Heartland Bank has a partnership with Harmoney that has propelled an increase in consumer lending.
How Lending Club’s Biggest Fanboy Uncovered Shady Loans from Bloomberg – Long and critical article about repeat borrowers on Lending Club. But virtually no mention of investor returns.
Orchard Adds Franchise Lender ApplePie Capital to Market Data from Orchard – The latest from Orchard, they have added ApplePie Capital to their originator database.
Why the opportunity in alternative credit is far broader than just p2p from AltFi – Some out of the box investment ideas in this article by Josh Maseco.
Learning From Online Lending’s Stumble from Blue Elephant Capital Management – Brian Weinstein of Blue Elephant Capital provides some perspective on how online lending should move forward.
Comparing Expected Return and Net Annualized Return from LendingRobot – A look at Lending Club’s Net Annualized Return and LendingRobot’s Expected Return.
Princeton Alternative Funding (PAF) returns 16.78% in its first year of management from Lending Times – Subprime consumer lending fund Princeton Alternative Funding posts a good first year.
Insikt launches MyCRO Comparison Tool from Insikt – Insikt has launched their MyCRO analysis tool for Lending Club and Prosper loans.
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.
Value of P2P Lending Sector Diversification – Investors discuss diversifying beyond consumer lending into real estate crowdfunding.
My Decaying Star – An investor asks about cash flow after stopping reinvestment in Lending Club notes.
Folio Selling – most transactions are cancelled due to ‘payment processing’ – The forum discusses why transactions on the secondary market may get cancelled.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events 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. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.