Marketplace Lending News Roundup – April 23, 2016

News

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.

Making sense of the lending industry’s rapid changes from TechCrunch – A must read for the skeptics who are concerned about delinquencies at online lending platforms.

The next wave of Lending Fintechs: Alt Lending 3.0 from Lending Times – Good rundown of PitchIt @ LendIt showcasing the future of fintech.

Looking to Prosper? Peer-to-peer lending may be the answer from GabelliConnect – The inimitable Ron Suber speaks at Fordham University giving career advice and some background on Prosper.

Marketplace Lending Leader Says His Market Should Embrace Sophisticated Collectors from InsideARM –  A look at Renaud Laplanche’s LendIt keynote from the perspective of collections management.

Take Another Look at Fintech Regulation, Senators Tell GAO from American Banker – It has been five years but the GAO may be taking another look at marketplace lending after three senators chimed in.

German Bank Commerzbank Plans to Launch Own P2P Lending Marketplace Within First Half of 2016 from P2P-Banking – One of the largest German banks is looking to launch a p2p lending platform this year.

LendingClub Boosts Projected Loan Losses, Raises Rates on Some Loans from The Wall Street Journal – Lending Club announced this week interest rate changes and increases to projected losses.

Fundrise ditches traditional crowdfunding to focus on REITs from The Real Deal – Real estate platform Fundrise now focusing on their eREIT product for individual investors.

Marketplace Lending: LendIt 2016 Learnings from VanEck – Bill Ullman gives his three key learnings from LendIt USA 2016.

Avant Loan Volumes Dropped Sharply in First Quarter from The Wall Street Journal – The rapid growth at online lending platform Avant has slowed in the first quarter this year.

A Short History of Lending Club Rates from LendingRobot – Lending Club raised interest rates this week. This is not unusual – they have adjusted rates more than 50 times since 2007.

The Complete Guide to Regulation of Marketplace Lending from Lending Times – An extremely detailed guide to the regulation of marketplace lending by Chapman & Cutler.

China freezes listing of finance firms from Business Standard – You can no longer start a new p2p lending platform in China. The government has suspended new company registrations.

Lending Club Hires Former McKinsey Partner. Promotes Scott Sanborn to President from Crowdfund Insider – Scott Sanborn has been promoted to president at Lending Club and they have hired a new COO.

Loans for Weddings: Fintech Learns to Focus from The Wall Street Journal – As marketplace lending grows niche platforms will become more prevalent. It has already started.

Is alternative finance still alternative? from Growth Business – In the UK alternative finance is going mainstream.

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.

Application question – A borrower wonders what happened to his loan application.

Time for LC to Raise Interest Rates? – Forum members discuss the latest increase in interest rates at Lending Club.

Where are the loans? – There was a huge number of loans added at Lending Club this week.

 

  • 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.