Marketplace Lending News Roundup – January 13

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.

Loans at point of sale are poised to take off from Tearsheet – Good rundown on why point of sale will be be a huge growth industry for online lending.

Jack Ma Debt Giant Grinds to Halt as China Curbs Micro-Loans from Bloomberg – Chinese fintech giant Ant Financial has halted their microloan sales as regulators there have stopped approving certain ABS transactions.

Credit card debt hits all-time high of $1.023 trillion: Fed from American Banker – This week the Fed announced that credit card debt in the US has hit an all time high of $1.023T.

WeChat shows messaging is the future of financial services ‘platforms’ from Tearsheet – China is years ahead of us when it comes to the convergence of fintech and messaging apps. But they show what is possible.

Why We’re Co-Hosting, & Why You Should Attend, BlockFin — The World’s Largest Crypto FinTech Conference from Hacker Noon – Launching at LendIt this year is the BlockFin Summit, the largest event covering blockchain. Here is a write up from our new partner Lou Kerner.

Trump Administration Seeks to Change Rules on Bank Lending to the Poor from The Wall Street Journal – There are changes coming to CRA rules that could impact credit availability for poor borrowers.

Spike in delinquency rate mars outlook for personal loans from American Banker – While still at a much lower level than a few years ago delinquencies have been increasing on personal loans.

Banking as usual is NOT an option from the Finanser – Great piece by Chris Skinner on how banks need to adapt to the financial system of tomorrow.

Germany’s Smava raises $65M to expand its consumer loan portal from TechCrunch – German loan marketplace Smava has closed another big funding round.

Mambu banking engine powers Kreditech’s lending leap to India from BankingTech – India is one of the hottest fintech markets on the planet right now. Klarna is teaming up with Mambu to tackle this huge potential lending market.

JPMorgan to offer car loans online through AutoFi from American Banker – JPMorgan Chase has another new fintech partnership. AutoFi is going to be powering online auto lending for the banking giant.

Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs to offer home improvement loans from The Washington Post – Leading consumer lending platform Marcus is moving into home improvement loans, a logical next step.

Fintech firms weigh in on launch of Open Banking from AltFi – Saturday (today) is the big day for the launch of open banking in the UK. What does this mean for fintech?

YieldStreet celebrating $113M raise from Bankless Times – Online lending platform Yieldstreet has closed a $13 million Series A and a $100 million revolving credit facility.

What You Missed in the NY Post’s Takedown of Lawsuit Funding from Mighty – The New York Post ran a feature recently criticizing lawsuit financing, this is the response.

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.

Recoveries: More than usual? – LendingClub investors report on recent recovery payments.

Worst Loan of the Day Thread, Grades A – C – An investor shares an interesting chart of the distribution of FICO scores across loan grades.

Worst Month Yet – Forum members share their 2017 returns.

Cumulative ROI by Vintage Beginning 14Q1 – A forum member shares tables of cumulative ROI at Prosper over time.

Cumulative ROI by Vintage Beginning 14Q1 – A forum member shares tables of cumulative ROI at LendingClub over time.