Peer to Peer Lending News Roundup – July 12, 2014

During the week I share the latest p2p 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.

The Financial Times continues to be one of the leading sources of breaking news for this industry. While they are behind a paywall you can register for free – that will allow you to view 8 articles a month. I highly recommend everyone who wants to stay in touch with the news in this industry to do just that. Even though they are a UK publication their coverage of the US p2p lending industry is outstanding.

Peer-to-peer lender wins landmark rating from Financial Times – This is a big deal for our industry: SoFi, the student loan lender, has received an A rating from Standard & Poors. This is the first time one of the big three ratings agencies has rated a package of peer to peer loans.

Our Billion Dollar Quarter from Lending Club – The other big news story of the week was the milestones achieved by Lending Club, covered on Lend Academy here.

Lending Club Loans Exceed $5 Billion from SiliconBeat – More coverage of the Lending Club milestones.

Vacation Loans on Prosper & LendingClub from Orchard – I have always been amazed that some people would take out a loan for a vacation but the numbers show these people may not be a bad investment.

Peer-to-peer lending gets NZ green light from The New Zealand Herald – Harmoney has become the first p2p lender approved in New Zealand under their new regulatory environment.

Eyes on the Upcoming Lending Club IPO from Retire Before Dad – This Lending Club investor would like to participate in the upcoming Lending Club IPO.

Lending Club And Prosper Update (July 2014) from Investor Junkie – Long time Lending Club and Prosper investors shares his latest update on his investments there.

China’s shadow banking system is moving online from Fortune – This article clearly explains why peer to peer lending is taking off in China: their shadow banking system is huge.

Prosper June Snapshot from Prosper – CEO Aaron Vermut shares his thoughts on their recent developments including some of their key new hires.

Ratesetter first P2P platform to receive risk rating from Financial Times – Big news for UK investors: one of the leading platforms, Ratesetter, has received a cash-like risk rating by a research agency there.

2014 Q2 Quarterly Update from LendingMemo – Simon Cunningham shares details of his returns at Lending Club and Prosper and announces a new useful return calculator tool.

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.

Loss / Interest Earned percentage – 17% of interest lost due to charge-offs sounds high until you look at the averages. As some people said in this thread: charge-offs are part of the process.

Change to Loan Issuing Process – Lending Club sent out an email this week with a minor change in the way loans are issued that has provoked quite a discussion.

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media 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.