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.
The Looming Paycheck Protection Program Forgiveness Nightmare by Forbes – For the last month most of us have been (quite rightly) focused on how to get badly needed PPP Loans to small businesses. Ron Shevlin takes a look at the other part of this process, loan forgiveness, and finds confusing rules and a lack of clarity.
Peter Thiel-backed digital bank N26 raises another $100 million, bracing for coronavirus uncertainty by CNBC – Leading digital bank N26 raised another $100m in their never ending Series D round (they raised $300m in Jan ’19, added $170m to it in July). Given the uncertain times it is understandable why they would want to bulk up their balance sheet.
Revolut on the hunt for acquisitions by Financial Times – Meanwhile Revolut App has already closed their latest mega-round ($500m) and is on the hunt for distressed companies to acquire.
Bank robots have been fighting a secret war with outdated government tech to decide who gets $670 billion in small business bailouts. Here’s the inside story. by Business Insider – Excellent in-depth piece in Business Insider analyzing the travails of the SBA E-Tran system and the PPP Loans program. “Looking at the SBA’s financial portal today is like peering into a fintech time capsule.”
Revolut is the most hyped fintech in Europe. Can it grow up? by Financial Times – The Financial Times has published the most in depth report on Revolut App I have ever read. Fascinating to get an inside look at this digital banking leader.
Real Estate: After Pausing on Loan Funding, PeerStreet Now Resumes with New “Credit Box” Product by CrowdFund Insider – Real estate platform PeerStreet is back lending again after hitting pause a few weeks back. They have a new credit box with tighter underwriting criteria than before.
Samsung to launch a Samsung Pay debit card this summer by The Verge – This is a big deal for SoFi. Samsung Pay will be coming out with a debit card and mobile money management tool in the summer and they have chosen SoFi as their partner.
Demand for Small-Business Loans Cools by The Wall Street Journal – I will admit I was wrong here. I thought the second round of the PPP would be done in a day or two. And here we are almost two weeks later and there is still plenty of money left. The WSJ explains why.
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.