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.
Payday-Lending Rule Gets a Do-Over from The Wall Street Journal – The CFPB is looking to redo payday lending rules to stop the requirement that a lender consider a borrower’s ability to repay as part of the underwriting process.
Chinese banks start scanning borrowers’ facial movements from Financial Times – Another interesting development out of China. They are working on facial recognition technology that can detect even the tiniest of facial movements to help determine whether someone is lying.
FTC puts student lenders on notice by citing misleading ads at SoFi from American Banker – The FTC has accepted a settlement with SoFi over claims it exaggerated how much borrowers could save by refinancing their student loans.
Even Financial acquires Birch Finance, a credit card rewards startup from TechCrunch – Fresh off their $18.8 million Series A Even Financial has made its first acquisition Birch to help it expand its offerings in the credit card space.
What challenger banks get about small businesses that banks don’t from American Banker – Great piece by Penny Crosman about why challenger banks have a leg up on traditional banks when it comes to small business banking.
Upgrade, Inc. Completes $282 Million Securitization from PR Newswire – The details of Upgrade’s first securitization have been released. It was a $282 million rated deal with participation from nearly 20 banks and asset managers.
Monzo, the UK challenger bank, raises £85M Series E at a £1B pre-money valuation from TechCrunch – UK challenger bank Monzo is the latest fintech unicorn after raising £85M at a £1B valuation.
OakNorth: How AI Can Fuel Banks’ Return To SMB Lending from PYMNTS – One of the challenges of underwriting small business loans is that much of the data unstructured. OakNorth Analytical Intelligence is able to structure this data and then use AI to run tens of thousands of scenarios on that data.
Popular Bank’s bid to streamline small-business lending from American Banker – Another fintech/bank partnership, this time it is Biz2Credit in a new partnership with NY-based Popular Bank to help the bank underwrite small business borrowers.
QED Quarterly – Issue 1, Autumn 2018 from QED Investors – Just received the first issue of the QED Quarterly, the new publication from QED Investors. Congrats to Matt Burton who has joined QED as a partner and will open their new NYC office.
The Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50 2018 from P2P Finance News – List of the 50 most influential people in the UK peer to peer industry.
Clash of clans … or new bank versus old bank (Fidor, BPCE) from The Finanser – Interesting piece by Chris Skinner discussing the challenges when a large bank acquires a new digital bank.
Banking needs a regtech sandbox from American Banker – Interesting op-ed by Jo Ann Barefoot on regulatory innovation and how a regtech sandbox may be more palatable to regulators than a fintech sandbox.
Chinese Wealth Manager Lufax Eyeing P2P Lending with Blockchain from Blockchain Reporter – Lufax was a pioneer in the Chinese peer to peer lending space and is one of its most successful players; it is moving its entire p2p lending portfolio to the blockchain.
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.
FICO score inflation – An interesting discussion on FICO scores over time.
Members’ Thoughts and Experience with StreetShares – A StreetShares investor shares their thoughts on deal availability.
Is LC no longer interested in retail investors? – Some forum members question whether LendingClub is still focused on the retail investor.
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.