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.
What a busy week this was. I think there were more major announcements and interesting articles written about this industry than any week I can remember. The list today could easily be 30 or 40 articles long but I have included what I consider to be the top 15 of the week for you here.
P2P consumer loans given landmark rating from the Financial Times – One of the biggest news stories of the week was the Blackrock $327 million securitization of Prosper loans that was rated by Moody’s – the first rated securitization of Lending Club or Prosper loans.
Real Estate Crowdfunding Turns 75 from Forbes – There are now 75 real estate marketplace lending platforms in the US – this article has the list.
Prosper Wants to Finance Your Fertility, New Teeth With Takeover from Bloomberg – Coverage of the Prosper acquisition of American Healthcare Lending.
Lending Club Secondary Market: Loan Vintage and Loan Status at Listing from PeerCube – Outstanding research on the Lending Club secondary market, a must read for all Folio investors.
WILL LENDING’S FUTURE BE UNTETHERED FROM BANKS? from PYMNTS.com – Money quote from James Gutierrez of Insikt: “The system by which creditworthiness is determined by traditional lenders is broken”.
Democratising finance: P2P lenders rebrand and evolve from the Financial Times – Documenting the evolution of this industry from P2P lending to marketplace lending.
Five Big Myths About Marketplace Lending from American Banker – Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche pens an article detailing the misconceptions people have of this industry.
Democratising Finance: Big banks eye peer-to-peer lending push from the Financial Times – Goldman Sachs and Société Générale are looking to enter the space and Arianna Huffington joins the board of Payoff.
Lenddo Creates Credit Scores Using Social Media from Forbes – One of the more innovative companies in our space is Lenddo who are underwriting loans successfully without a lot of financial data.
P2P Lending Gets a Fresh Boost from the Mainstream from The Wall Street Journal – Victory Park Capital, based in Chicago, is putting together a £200 million listed fund in London to invest in loans issued by the marketplace lenders.
Small businesses access half a billion pounds via Funding Circle (press release) – In the UK Funding Circle have now lent £500 million and are the #4 small business lender there by monthly volume.
P2P Real Estate Lender LendInvest Tops £200 Million to Start New Year from Crowdfund Insider – Also in the UK, leading real estate lender, LendInvest, has now issued more then £200 million in loans.
Lending Club Schedules Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2014 Earnings Release and Conference Call (press release) – Any one can listen in to the first ever earnings call by a public company in our industry.
Life After Banks from LinkedIn – Interesting article about all the banking services available today from non-banks.
UK P2P Lenders Smash Through £2bn Ceiling from Forbes – The 2014 numbers are in from the UK’s P2P Finance Association – the UK industry there did £1.24 billion in loans last year.
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.
Estimate how long money will last withdrawing $x amount? – Discussion about using P2P lending in retirement and drawing down on a Lending Club or Prosper account.
Borrowers’ loan descriptions (all blank) – New investor wonders why there are no borrower descriptions on loans.
Is anyone else having difficulty finding quality notes on Folio? – Has anything changed recently in Lending Club’s secondary market?
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.