Marketplace Lending News Roundup – January 14

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.

2016: A Break-out Year for Online and Marketplace Lending in Canada from Aspire FinTech – North of the border the marketplace lending industry is set for a big year in 2017.

China Rapid Finance to triple number of users on its consumer lending platform from South China Morning Post – China Rapid Finance is the largest online consumer lender in China based on number of loans and is in growth mode.

How voice technology is transforming computing from The Economist – I think voice technology is going to have a huge impact on financial services in the coming years.

The Brexit risk to the UK’s status as ‘fintech capital of the world’ from AltFi – The impact that Brexit will have on the UK fintech market, some of it is already being felt.

Confessions of a Fintech Chief Data Scientist from deBanked – Interesting piece from someone in the trenches of data science in alternative lending.

States to Feds: Back Off on New Fintech Bank Plan from The Wall Street Journal – The opposition to the OCC Fintech Charter are making their voices known.

Using FinTech to Level the Financial Playing Field from Finextra – Interesting piece on the unbanked “40% of unbanked Americans have access to a smartphone”. Opportunity is knocking.

PeerIQ’s MPL Securitization Tracker for Q4 2016 from PeerIQ – The quarterly marketplace lending securitization tracker from PeerIQ is out with $2.4B of new issuance in Q4.

dv01 Forms Collaboration With Experian to Bring Additional Transparency to Marketplace Lending from Crowdfund Insider – Interesting new partnership between dv01 and Experian bringing more data to investors.

Rising Asian Fintech Investor AMTD Goes Global from Institutional Investor – Good piece on Hong Kong investment house AMTD, LendIt’s partner in Asia.

Parsing Lemonade PR to see if P2P insurance is game changer or a mirage from Daily Fintech – I think Lemonade are a fascinating fintech company disrupting the insurance market.

How fintech firms are helping to revolutionise supply-chain finance from The Economist – Supply chain finance is another area that is being disrupted by fintech companies.

Square rival iZettle raises $63 million to fund acquisition and expand from CNBC – iZettle is the Square of Europe and they have just closed a big new funding round.

P2PGI shifts focus to asset-backed loans from Peer2Peer Finance News – Simon Champ says that P2PGI is increasing exposure to asset backed lending and away from US consumer loans.

Marketplace Lending Association to Congress: Please Ensure that America is a Place Where Fintech Can Flourish & the Federal Government is a Partner, Rather than an Obstacle from Crowdfund Insider – The MLA Director, Nathaniel Hoopes, has sent a letter on behalf of MLA members to the new congress.

SoFi: A Financial Services Provider That Is So Not Wall Street from TheStreet.com – Interesting profile of SoFi and what makes them different.

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.

Who buys a note like this from Folio? – Forum members discuss Folio pricing.

WAIR (Weighted Average Interest Rate) Isn’t what You Think – An investor spells out how weighted average interest rate is calculated on a Lending Club portfolio.

Worst Month Yet – Investors discuss their portfolios with 2016 coming to a close.