Happy New Year everyone. As I do every year at this time I make a few predictions for the year ahead as well as review my previous years predictions.
Review of my 2016 Predictions
As we know 2016 turned out in a way that was completely unexpected. Regardless, I will go through what I thought would happen in 2016 – some things I got right and with others I was way off.
- Lending Club will launch an auto lending operation this year
Despite the challenges at Lending Club in 2016 I did get this one right. They launched a new auto lending operation in October in their first new product expansion in more than two years. - Consolidation will begin
I was not really right with this one. While consolidation did begin somewhat in 2016 my suggestion of three platforms buying acquired by larger competitors did not really come true. We saw several platforms go out of business but only one or two minor acquisitions. - There will be five IPOs in our industry in 2016
I was embarrassingly wrong on this one. I expected the IPO market to rebound in 2016 and several of the large platforms to take advantage of the public markets. I was completely wrong with zero IPOs in our industry in 2016. - Three large banks will build platforms
I was pretty much right on this one. We had Goldman Sachs launch their Marcus platform in 2016 and we also saw Wells Fargo launch their Fastflex product for online small business lending. While outside the US, German banking giant Commerzbank launched their own online lending platform. - A Chinese company will buy a U.S. marketplace lending platform
This did not happen in 2016 although interest in the US marketplace lending industry in China has never been stronger. I think I was probably a couple of years early on this prediction. - The retail investor will become more in favor in 2016
The retail investor certainly became more in favor this past year. There were some new Reg A+ deals announced and Lending Club made several moves aimed at increasing retail investor volume including the one just last month providing bonuses for new IRA investment. - A new trade association will finally launch
This was an easy one to predict as many of the leading companies have been talking about it for some time. The Marketplace Lending Association launched in April and we had several other initiatives launch as well.