Teaching the World About Peer to Peer Lending
It has been several years since we have done a reader survey here at Lend Academy and a lot has changed. We are about to make some enhancements to Lend Academy for 2017 but before we do that we want to take the pulse of our readership.
This is only a short survey so please spend just a couple of minutes of your time giving us feedback. You can take the survey here.
And thank you.
A new report released today by the law of firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP shows that community and regional banks are very open to partnering with Fintech companies. The report is based on information gathered in a survey of 75 executives from banks, Fintech companies and private equity investors. While the survey size is very small the findings are still quite interesting.
The main thrust of the survey is that banks are far more open to partnering with Fintech companies than ever before. This is a trend that began many years ago and seems to be accelerating today according to this report. Here are some of the key findings of the report:
So, assuming this report is representative of the attitudes of all of banking we can expect far more collaboration in the future. I think this is good news.
In November, 2015 we reported that the most comprehensive study was being conducted on marketplace lending for the Americas by the University of Cambridge. The same research center has just released their UK study of the entire alternative finance industry there. The report titled “Pushing Boundaries” was released today and was headed up by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge and Nesta. While the report shows how 2015 was all about pushing boundaries, the report proposes that 2016 is when alternative finance goes mainstream.
In total 94 companies participated and included many of the top companies in marketplace lending in the UK. The report highlighted three key themes: increasing market share, the real estate crowdfunding opportunity and fraud and malpractice fears. The full report can be viewed on KPMG’s website who also was a partner on the study. Below are a few highlights from the report: [Read more…]
A new research study recently kicked off that will delve into the p2p lending and marketplace lending industry. With the industry maturing it’s important to take a look at where we are at today. Lend Academy and several other organizations have partnered to help make the most comprehensive survey ever on marketplace lending a success. We are asking all companies in the industry to participate by using the links below.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Chicago Booth School of Business are heading up the survey titled 2015 Americas Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey. The study kicked off just last month and will conclude on November 10th. [Read more…]
From new platforms to institutional investors, there is no shortage of interest in the marketplace lending industry. However, we have yet to see such a survey conducted to gauge the true institutional investor interest until today. Richards Kibbe & Orbe along with Wharton FinTech shared today their 2015 Survey of U.S. Marketplace Lending.
We spoke to the co-authors Jahan Sharifi and Scott Budlong from RK & O as well as Steve Weiner from Wharton FinTech to learn more about the survey. They stated that the survey came about out of pure interest in the industry. They hope to help investment funds and investors get a better sense of the market. They believe the survey will help drive interest into the industry itself.
The survey outlined the growth of the industry with lenders issuing $5.5 billion of loans in 2014. They highlighted PwC’s projection that lending platforms could be issuing $150 billion or more annually within the next ten years.
They polled over 300 institutional investors with an approximate response rate of 30%. Almost half of the respondents polled work at funds with more than $500 million in assets under management, 10% had more than $10 billion and almost 40% had under $200 million. The survey aimed to to answer the following questions: [Read more…]
When I was in London in March I spoke on a panel at the AltFi conference with Richard Swart, a professor at UC Berkeley. He has become one of the leading academics focused on crowdfunding. We have stayed in regular contact since then as Professor Swart has decided to expand his research to include p2p lending.
This is great news for our industry because there has been virtually no research done in this country and there was no academic that wanted to take the lead here. Professor Swart, his team of researchers at UC Berkeley and I have put together a survey that we will be sending to all major platforms in the coming week.
The goal of this first annual survey is to quantify the broader online lending industry in several ways. Here is the official research description:
We seek to understand transaction size, volumes, and changes in markets for alternative lending. We are seeking aggregate loan or platform activity data that will be anonymized and aggregated so that readers of the final research report will not be able to determine the activity on any particular platform (unless the platform already makes that data public). This analysis includes gathering demographics of users – we seek to understand the demographic profile of users and track activity by metropolitan area. We do not seek personal data about individual loan recipients.
An additional survey will be focused on the self-reported information of small business owners who have taken out loans through online lending platforms. We want to get to the heart of the motivations of business owners to obtain financing and the impact these loans have on their business and the broader community.
Our new industry needs a benchmarking survey so everyone will be able to understand the evolution of online lending and its impact on the financial industry over time. I am honored to be helping out Professor Swart and his team at Berkeley on this important project.
It has been almost two years since I have done a reader survey and a lot has changed in the meantime. Lending volume is up dramatically and this site has enjoyed a similar growth curve. So, I want to find out a little bit more about you.
I am not asking for a big time commitment here – there are just five questions in this survey that will take you less than two minutes to fill out. Please take the survey here: https://www.lendacademy.com/ReaderSurvey.
And thank you.