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.
An Early Lending Club Investor on the Future of Fin Tech from The Wall Street Journal – The always insightful Dan Ciporin on Lending Club, Orchard and the future of marketplace lending.
Ex-Google chief claims new venture will hit £1bn ‘unicorn’ status from The Telegraph – This UK startup has big plans, is teaming up with Zopa and RateSetter on loans paid back with salary deductions.
Return Calculation Methodologies from Orchard – There is no consensus on the best way to calculate marketplace lending returns. Orchard explores three methods.
Fundrise Opens Real Estate Deals to Investors from Australia, Canada and the UK from Finance Magnates Fintech – Real estate platform Fundrise is now available to investors in UK, Australia and Canada.
The 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance from American Banker – Carrie Dolan, the CFO of Lending Club is #11 on the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance list.
CommonBond Expands Student Loan Refinancing to Undergrads, Parent PLUS Loans from NerdWallet – CommonBond has expanded from 200 to 2,000 schools for student loan refinancing.
LendIt / P2PFA Prepare for Second Annual European Conference, Harriett Baldwin MP Selected as Keynote Speaker from Crowdfund Insider – Day two of LendIt Europe this year is the P2PFA Summit with senior UK gov minister as keynote.
Lending Club’s Renaud Laplanche On His “White Knuckle Moment” from TechCrunch – Fascinating video and article about Lending Club’s early days and Renaud Laplanche’s struggles.
Prosper Marketplace Adds to Lending Services With BillGuard Acquisition from The New York Times – More coverage of the ProsperLoans and BillGuard deal in the NY Times.
Industry Profile – David Klein from Orchard – Loving these Orchard profiles. Here is David Klein CEO & Co-founder of CommonBond.
Anthony Hilton: Peer-to-peer lending under pressure as rumours of a failure fly from EveningStandard – In the UK there is a rumor that a p2p lending platform is in trouble. Will be interesting to see what happens here.
Four Questions To Ask Your Favourite P2Ps Re Stress Tests from AltFi – Mike Baliman shares the 4 important questions to ask p2p lending platforms about stress testing.
Open Letter to Renren Special Committee, Board of Directors and all Renren Shareholders from private investors from PR Newswire – Chinese company Renren owns a good piece of SoFi and other marketplace lending platforms. CEO wants to take the company private.
Ledge Picks Up Where Lending Club Left Off from Forbes – Ledge is a startup trying to bring social connections back to lending. Haven’t we seen this before?
Harmoney Secures $200m Commitment From P2PGI from AltFi – The leading New Zealand platform has secured a large investment from UK fund P2PGI that includes some equity as well.
ADF Launches Institutional Whole Loan Platform, introduces lead investor from Bankless Times – Colchis is the lead investor with this new platform along with the prolific Victory Park.
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.
Fully paid on first payment – Forum members continue this thread discussing pre-payments on Lending Club.
only A/B notes available? – As we approach the end of another quarter, it seems that Lending Club loan volume is lower than usual.
How to open a 401k Rollover Account with LC? – A forum members asks about transferring money to a Lending Club IRA.
Personal Portfolio Returns – Bryce, formerly of P2p-picks shares his latest returns and his strategy going forward with his taxable account.
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.