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.
New Fintech IPO Offers Litmus Test for Online Lenders from The Wall Street Journal – According to Peter Rudegeair GreenSky could price their IPO as soon as Wednesday. They are looking at raising $700M at a $4.2B valuation.
Strong Retail Sales, Prosper Earnings, MFT 2018-2 vs AVNT 2018-A from PeerIQ – The latest PeerIQ newsletter takes a deep dive comparison between recent securitizations from Marlette and Avant.
To Succeed With AI, Invest In Humans from The Financial Brand – Most bankers expect that AI will result in a net gain in jobs within their bank in the next three years but so far the benefits of this technology have lagged expectations.
Online lender Kabbage to launch payment services by year-end from Reuters – While we knew this was coming Kathryn Petralia confirmed that Kabbage plans to offer payment processing services by year end.
Americans Are Prioritizing Phone Payments Over Car Loans from Bloomberg – Interesting idea that Ram Ahluwalia brought up first at LendIt last month. Now Bloomberg reports that there has been a shift in loan payment behavior as people value their mobile phones more than ever.
SoFi will get crypto investing by 2019, says CEO Anthony Noto from CNBC – Looks like SoFi is going to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon with members being able to invest as soon as next year.
How SoFi is personalizing its mobile experience from Tearsheet – More on SoFi as Tearsheet profiles their mobile app and their efforts to make it a personalized financial hub for their members.
Meet the Goldman Sachs-Backed Fintech Startup Aiming to Take Over North America from Fortune – Speaking of apps many financial services firms, both new and old, connect with the Plaid API for their mobile app. Now, the company is looking to expand to Canada.
A GDPR fintech Q&A from AltFi – The new European regulation known as GDPR came into effect on Friday. AltFi has the lowdown on what this means for fintech companies.
PeerStreet Funds One Billion in Loans from BusinessWire – Congrats to Brew Johnson, Brett Crosby and the entire PeerStreet team on crossing $1 billion in total loans originated.
Prosper Introduces Loans Up To $40,000 For Borrowers from Prosper – Yesterday Prosper increased their maximum loan size to $40,000.
Decision on fintech charter coming this summer: OCC’s Otting from American Banker – After almost two years of waiting the OCC will finally be making a decision on the fintech charter.
GreenSky stock stalls after IPO, but CEO sees new growth levers ahead from MarketWatch – Now that they are a public company we will start to hear more from the GreenSky CEO David Zalik. Here he talks about their first day as a public company.
Banks’ foray into small-dollar loans adds pressure on payday-lending industry from Tearsheet – The small dollar loan space is about to get a lot more interesting (and competitive). Regulators want banks to play a more active role in the space.
Mike Meru Has $1 Million in Student Loans. How Did That Happen? from The Wall Street Journal – Fascinating story of an orthodontist who now owes almost $1.1 million in student loans. There are more than 100 people who owe in excess of $1 million in student loans.
Dot lets you invest in property without the hassle of a traditional mortgage from Techcrunch – There is a new startup in London that is taking a new approach in an effort to remove the hassle out of investing in property.
Are we in the Golden Age of Fintech? from FintechTV – The latest from the Godfather of Fintech, Ron Suber, as he talks about the current fintech landscape and what the future might bring.
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.
Now, feel a little less bad about paltry returns – Forum members discuss a recent WSJ article about ROA at credit card companies.
Account Liquidation- How did you get the last of your notes to sell? – Investors provide updates on divesting their IRA accounts.
Investing with Bondora – Forum members discuss the wide variety of loans available on Bondora’s platform.
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.