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 founder of LendingClub, ousted two years ago, pledges not to make the same mistakes with his new company from CNBC – Interesting piece on Renaud Laplanche of Upgrade and what he is doing differently with his new company.
PeerIQ’s Benchmarking Product, Navient & Nelnet and the Student Loan Market, OnDeck milestone from PeerIQ – In this week’s PeerIQ newsletter they take a look at Navient and Nelnet and do a deep dive into their Benchmarking Tool.
How this regulator is using AI to probe financial fraud from American Banker – Love this piece by Penny Crosman. Any endeavor that involves sifting through millions of documents is a great application of AI. UK regulators are using this today to catch fraud faster.
OCC’s Otting: Why do state regulators want to limit consumer choice? from American Banker – The head of the OCC, Joseph Otting, pens an op-ed in American Banker responding to the states and the NYDFS on why they are wrong to bring a lawsuit over the fintech charter. I am in complete agreement with Comptroller Otting.
Funding Circle $2.6 Billion IPO Tests Post-Adyen Fintech Demand from Bloomberg – The Funding Circle IPO edges closer and according to Bloomberg they are likely to publish their pricing range as soon as tomorrow. A post IPO valuation of £2 billion is anticipated.
‘Just a matter of time’ before Amazon, Google enter mortgages: loanDepot CEO from American Banker – The CEO of loanDepot says it is not if but when…Amazon and Google enter the mortgage business.
Peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle to be valued up to $2.4 billion after IPO from CNBC – And now we know the price range for the upcoming Funding Circle IPO: 420 pence to 530 pence for a valuation of between £1.4b and £1.8b. We still don’t have a confirmed date yet.
Fed will have the say on key parts of OCC’s fintech charter from American Banker – The Federal Reserve is coming under pressure to provide more clarity on where it stands with the fintech charter and whether non-banks can have direct access to central bank lending and to the U.S. payment system.
How the biggest private equity firms became the new banks from Financial Times – It used to be banks that provided large loans to corporations but increasingly this is becoming the business of big private equity firms.
Revolut’s Nikolay Storonsky Is Building The Amazon Of Banking from Forbes – Interesting write up about arguably the leading fintech company in the UK. Revolut is looking not just to dominate consumer finance in the UK but around the world too.
Fellow Finance Plans IPO at Nasdaq Helsinki from P2P-Banking – Another European p2p lending platform is looking to go public. This time is is Finnish platform Fellow Finance intends to list on the Nasdaq Helsinki exchange.
ING Ventures buys £5m stake in Funding Options from P2P Finance News – UK Small business lending marketplace Funding Options has raised £5m from the venture arm of Dutch bank ING.
Women in finance: an economic case for gender equality from Fintech Futures – Women are underrepresented in all areas of finance from depositors and borrowers to bank board members and regulators.
U.S. way behind the curve on open banking from American Banker – The conversation about open banking is just getting started in this country as Europe takes the lead in this area.
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.
FTC Files Complaint Against LC, Accuses of Deceptive Practices – There has been some progress on the FTC suit against LendingClub.
IRA Notes sold- what next? – Investors need to consider the implications of future recoveries when closing down an IRA account with LendingClub.
Converting from growth to income – An investor seeks clarification on tax implications when withdrawing funds from LendingClub.
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.