Future Finance has received commitment for £30 million from the European Investment Fund (EIF) to lend to master's degree students supported by the Erasmus+ European program; Future Finance is a student lending platform active in the UK and Germany; Erasmus+ subsidizes career skills-driven education for over 300,000 higher education students across the European Union; EIF's commitment involves loan guarantees that will encourage investing and borrowing on Future Finance's platform; it has launched a "Call for Expression of Interest" targeting additional financial institutions that finance master's degree students crossing national borders in the EU. Source
Jiedaibao, launched by JD Capital, would give people looking to engage in debt recovery all kinds of personal data belonging to overdue debtors, including phone numbers, addresses and even ID card numbers; releasing this kind of information would allow for any freelance debt collector to harass borrowers into paying their overdue amounts; this type of practice in China is not all that unusual as past debt collection efforts have discussed the release of nude photos if payments are missed; the agreement would give the "debt collector" 40% of the debt paid. Source
10x Future Technologies, founded by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, is developing a cloud-based core banking system that will allow banks to hold deposits and accounts; the company believes their technology will give banks better access and insights into clients' data; this new tailored access will allow the banks to offer products that will better fit their customers' needs. Source
With improved labor market data and a better than expected third quarter GDP report on Friday, the Federal Reserve is expected to outline plans for a December rate hike at its November Federal Open Market Committee Meeting (FOMC) this week; economists are expecting verbiage similar to that used last October before the Fed's last rate increase, indicating the economy was on target to meet the FOMC's objectives. Source
PeerIQ has released its monthly marketplace lending update for October; focus of the report is on the 2017 forecast for marketplace lending securitizations; PeerIQ forecasts 47% year-over-year growth ($11.3 billion) in new ABS issuance with 52% growth in new originations for its base case estimate; sees high demand continuing for securitized products however institutional investors will likely be more interested in shorter duration loans to manage interest rate risk as US rates are expected to rise; PeerIQ reports continued support from rating agencies with high ratings; expects leading securitization issuers in 2017 to be SoFi, Avant and Marlette. Source
Moody's has released a report commenting on the new FDIC guidelines for bank lending through third-party lenders; guidance from the FDIC is proposed and seeks to potentially improve controls on bank lending through marketplace loans; the new FDIC guidance will help to improve the overall quality of loans on marketplace lending platforms, according to Moody's; the new controls focus on greater analysis and oversight by banks of marketplace lenders' credit underwriting models to ensure that they align with the bank's lending terms. Source
UK listed marketplace lending fund, P2P Global Investments, has reported struggling performance in 2016; monthly return in September was 0.23% for a year-to-date return of 3.41%; target annual return is 6% to 8%; peripheral factors such as debt facilities and currency hedges have affected the return; the fund is now selling at a discount of 19.8%; has been steadily buying back shares to help improve the NAV and also using securitization to reduce debt costs; loan defaults and delinquencies have been higher as a result of longer maturities, however the primary factor affecting the return is the broad global diversification of the loans resulting in losses from currency hedging. Source
In an interview with P2P Finance News, Adair Turner cites P2P loan securitizations and other evolving forms of structured credit as high risk, causing a potential "red flashing light" for regulators; speaks of the evolution of the asset class as securitization portfolios from P2P lenders have been increasing in 2016; discusses complex structured investment vehicles as the most high risk specifically those issuing short term debt against longer term holdings. Source
The UK has launched their borrower referral scheme which came about as a government initiative; businesses who apply for loans at the nine largest UK banks and are rejected will be referred to aggregator platforms Funding Xchange, Business Finance Compared and Funding Options; the aggregators will pass information to alternative finance providers who will be able to provide quotes to the business. Source