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.
P2P providers urged to come clean on fees from Financial Times – In the UK, a call for p2p lending platforms to be more transparent and standardize fees for investors.
Student debt’s at a record high, and this company’s cashing in by trying to help from Business Insider – Student lender CommonBond has just closed a $35M Series B.
Loan Reviews for Small Businesses from NextAdvisor – NextAdvisor reviews marketplace lending platforms for small business loans with Lending Club leading the way.
Interview with Martins Sulte, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintos from P2P-Banking – The CEO of new Latvian marketplace lending platform, Mintos, talks with P2P-Banking about their progress.
Victory Park Capital to Issue at Least £200 Million in Shares. Will Invest in Direct Lenders from Crowdfund Insider – Victory Park will raise another £200M for their closed end fund to invest in marketplace lending.
What Stands In The Way Of Marketplace Lending’s Growth? The Marketplace Lending Industry from Forbes – The next step for marketplace lending is to make it easy for investors to buy loans.
Money Pours Into Fintech as Three Startups Raise $115 Million from Inc. – Congrats to Matt Burton and the Orchard team on their $30M funding round.
Lending Club chief Renaud Laplanche banks on disruption from The Australian Business Review – Interesting piece on Lending Club and bank disruption from The Australian Business Review.
Funding Circle Partners With H&R Block from P2P-Banking – An interesting new partnership announcement from Funding Circle this week.
Disintermediation? Not so much from LendingRobot – Good overview of the different types of roles companies play in the marketplace lending ecosystem.
Will LendingClub Become THE Online Lending Platform For Consumer Credit? from Seeking Alpha – A primer on Lending Club and an opinion on whether the stock is worth buying.
Fintech Investments are Seeking Consistent Growth in 2015 from CloudTweaks – Lots of money still flowing into fintech from the VCs.
Bank disrupters fail to live up to hype from Financial Times – Despite the headline some interesting tidbits about marketplace lending, banking and some news on SoFi.
SoFi Surpasses $4 Billion in Funded Loans; Adds Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt as Advisor from Crowdfund Insider – Another big milestone for SoFi, $4B funded and the addition of a former SEC Chairman to their team.
What to Ask Before You Reach for Yield from The Wall Street Journal – High yield investments are not without risk, but some are less risky than others.
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.
Good News for LC Algorithm-style Investors – Lending Club credit attributes that were to be removed come October have now been pushed to December.
FolioFN strategy – Forum members talk about strategies when trading on Lending Club’s secondary market.
P2P Asset Class shows it’s strength – Investors discuss strengths of p2p lending, including the importance of being diversified.
