Marketplace Lending News Roundup – February 3

News

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech 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.

Funding Circle heads for market from The Times – According to The Times a Funding Circle IPO could mean a big marketing blitz in the US where brand awareness is still very low.

A bank’s unfolding plan to enter online consumer lending from American Banker – Yet another bank is looking to start a consumer lending operation by partnering with a fintech platform.

Weekly Industry Update: Strong GDP growth, Mulvaney’s New Director for CFPB, SoFi’s New CEO from PeerIQ – In this week’s PeerIQ update they look at recent comments from the acting CFPB director and what it all means for fintech platforms.

Hearing entitled “Examining Opportunities and Challenges in the Financial Technology (“Fintech”) Marketplace” from Financial Services Committee – On Capitol Hill this week the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on fintech featuring Nathaniel Hoopes and other industry leaders.

Lessons from a Mountain Top from Rewirement – The latest lessons from the inimitable Ron Suber, the mayor of fintech.

Zopa hits £3bn lending landmark from Peer2Peer Finance News – In the UK Zopa has now issued over £3B in loans to more than 300,000 borrowers.

BNI Europa to fund German SME loans via Funding Circle from Finextra – Portuguese digital bank BNI Europa is quietly making a name for themselves in marketplace lending circles. Now, they have committed €50 million to Funding Circle DE.

Marlette Funding Closes Largest Securitization Transaction in Company History from Business Wire – Now it is Marlette Funding out with their largest securitization ever, a $464 million deal.

Banco Popular reboots Eloan for new era in online lending from American Banker – One of the original fintech companies Eloan, owned by Banco Popular since 2005, is back offering personal loans.

‘A 401(k) of the future’: How SoFi wants to grow student loan refinancing with WeWork from Tearsheet – Interesting that SoFi is partnering with WeWork for student loan refinancing.

New Rothschild-backed fintech investment trust plans £125m IPO from AltFi – Here is an interesting way to invest in UK fintech. A new publicly traded closed end fund is launching with a mandate to invest in the equity of UK fintech startups.

Lawmakers struggle to find right balance on fintech policy from American Banker – Review of the fintech hearing before the House Financial Services Committee this week.

SoFi Lays Off 5% of Staff from The Wall Street Journal – The new CEO of SoFi has not started yet but changes are already happening. They are laying off 5% of their staff, primarily in their mortgage operations centers.

No Credit? No Problem! Microlender for Women Uses Novel Approach from The Wall Street Journal – I am a big fan of Grameen America and the work they are doing to successfully expand access to credit to so-called risky populations in underserved communities.

Fintech Lenders Keeping Close Eye on IRS Data Sharing Bill from Bloomberg BNA – The latest on the movement to bring APIs to government with the IRS Data Verification Modernization Act.

3rd European Alternative Finance Report: Market Expanded by 41% in 2016, P2P Consumer Lending Leads from Crowdfund Insider – The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has their latest report on the state and growth of fintech in Continental Europe.

Industry Profile – Martin Chorzempa from Orchard – Great profile of Martin Chorzempa, one of the brightest young minds in fintech and he can speak mandarin!

International P2P Lending Volumes January 2018 from P2P-Banking – The European p2p lending loan volumes are out for January with Funding Circle leading the way yet again.

SoFi Fell Short of Ambitious Lending Goal During Tumultuous 2017 from Bloomberg – We learn about the ambitious lending goal that SoFi set this year before founding CEO Mike Cagney left.

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.

LC Stock Down to $3.66 per Share – Forum members discuss LendingClub’s stock price.

Liquidating IRA account for rollover – An investor shares their experience of liquidating a LendingClub IRA.

Available now: 2017 – 1099 Consolidated Package – Tax documents are now available for download for LendingClub and Prosper investors.

Cash Parking – Investors keep tabs on yields outside of marketplace lending, focusing mainly on CDs.

  • 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.