Marketplace Lending News Roundup – January 20

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.

Zopa to launch income verification tool using Open Banking from Peer2Peer Finance News – With open banking now live in the UK Zopa has announced it is launching an income verification initiative.

China’s Lufax plans Hong Kong IPO in April at US$60 billion valuation: sources from South China Morning Post – Wow! The much anticipated Lufax IPO is planned for April in Hong Kong at a reported US $60B valuation.

Top backer of US subprime lenders eyes overseas opportunities from Financial Times – Leading online lending investment firm, Victory Park Capital, is looking for more international opportunities.

Lending Marketplace Lendix Raises €200 Million Institutional Financing to Trailblaze European Alternative SME Finance from Crowdfund Insider – The leader in online small business lending in France, Lendix, has raised a new €200m round of loan financing reports Crowdfund Insider.

Mission-driven Varo Money secures $45 million from investors from American Banker – The mobile banking app Varo just closed a $45M Series B led by The Rise Fund (Bono’s investment fund).

Funding Circle fund enters into £50m deal with CitiBank from AltFi – In the UK the Funding Circle’s SME fund just got a nice £50M investment from Citi.

11 decisions that made a challenger the best bank on the planet from The Finanser – Why does Chris Skinner think that this South African bank may be the best bank on the planet? He shares 11 decisions they made that sets them apart.

Trump’s CFPB to Rewrite Rule That Cracked Down on Payday Lenders from Bloomberg – The CFPB was going to crack down on payday lenders. It looks like that may be off the table now.

AI helps Harmoney improve ability to assess credit risk from CIO New Zealand – In New Zealand Harmoney is deploying AI in its underwriting to speed up implementation of new credit models.

U.S. property startup Roofstock raises more funding from SVB, others from Reuters – Real estate marketplace Roofstock has raised another round and just passed $1B in transactions on its platform

SEC says it’s worried about ‘significant’ issues with cryptocurrency ETF plans from CNBC – Looks like there will be no Bitcoin ETF in the US any time soon.

Guidant Financial And LendingClub Report On The State Of U.S. Small Business In 2017 (press release) – A new survey on US small business finds that business optimism is up.

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.

What is Your Minimum Acceptable Return – Investors share what they need to earn for marketplace lending to be attractive.

Investing with Bondora – A forum members asks others about their experience with Bondora.

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