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.
Fintech Needs To Stop Tinkering At The Edges Of Big Data from Forbes – In an interesting column in Forbes the CEO of ZestFinance says that lenders need to go all in on machine learning, it is no good having more data for underwriting and then using it ineffectively.
Don’t overhaul CRA just for the sake of it from American Banker – There has been much talk about reforming the Community Reinvestment Act but in this American Banker op-ed the author argues that maybe just a few tweaks are necessary.
Brexit delays Goldman’s Marcus launch in Germany from Financial Times – Last year Goldman Sachs said they were going to launch Marcus in Germany in 2019 but given the Brexit delay they have now decided there is no hurry to setup a new deposit base in the EU.
Citi wants to bring credit card perks like miles to bank accounts from American Banker – Interesting move from Citi looking to bring perks to bank accounts as they try to grow their deposit base.
OakNorth launches mortgages for entrepreneurs from Tearsheet – Being an entrepreneur often means it is difficult to get a mortgage. UK fintech leader OakNorth is looking to change that with their new mortgage offering.
Brazil fintech Nubank opens Mexico office as it seeks Latam expansion from Reuters – Brazilian digital bank Nubank is one of the top challenger banks in Latin America with 8.5 million customers and they are now expanding into Mexico.
SoFi launches gig-focused ETF from TechCrunch – SoFi continues to ramp up their investment offerings. This week they have launched a new ETF focused on the gig economy.
New Rule to Shift Debt Collection Activities to Digital Devices from The Wall Street Journal – The days of debt collectors bombarding debtors with phone calls may be coming to an end as the CFPB unveiled a plan to update rules aimed at curbing such calls.
Fraud alert: What to watch for in online business lending from American Banker – An interesting look at how online lending platforms are combating fraud today.
Amazon just launched a lending service in China while shuttering its local marketplace from CNBC – It is no secret that China is a difficult place to do business for US companies, even Amazon struggles. Fascinating to see them create a Fundera type offering there referring loan applications to outside lenders.
Facebook picks London as base for WhatsApp push into payments from Financial Times – This is a big shot in the arm for London. Facebook has chosen the city to work on a major fintech initiative as WhatsApp pushes into payments.
Amazon Now Among The Top Online Small Business Lenders in The United States from deBanked – According to deBanked there are five small business online lending platforms that loaned more than $1 billion in 2018.
Banks Waking Up to Fintech Threat Throw Billions Into Digital from Bloomberg – One thing that fintech has done is make the banks up their game. They are now spending billions on technology to try to keep up with the innovative challenger banks.
Ex-SoFI CEO’s Startup Closes $1 Billion Credit Line on a Blockchain from Coindesk – At LendIt Fintech last month Mike Cagney told us this was coming. In preparation for the world’s first securitization done 100% on the blockchain Figure has closed a $1 billion funding line.
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 survey last week of April 2019 – did you get it? – LendingClub recently sent out a survey to some investors.
LC now dropping E grade loans – Starting July 1, LendingClub will no longer offer E grade loans.
STRATA Public Unsecured Notes balance not equal LC balance – An investor shares an issue related to closing out a LendingClub IRA.
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.