Better Mortgage is now offering mortgage loans in thirteen states with the expansion to Florida; the lender offers a number of advantages for borrowers including a 100% digital experience and a verified pre-approval letter for qualified borrowers within 24 hours; with the licensing in Florida, Better Mortgage gains access to lending in Tampa and Jacksonville, recently reported as two of the healthiest housing markets in the country. Source
Blog post outlines platform performance and improving delinquency rates across most grades and terms; provides perspective on the economic backdrop and interest rates; the company has updated their loss forecasts; projected returns are similar to last quarter with small increases for grades F and G. Source
In a LinkedIn post, Sukhwinder Shoker provides insight into MarketInvoice's loan book which the company shares publicly; analysis includes data on originations and advance rates, invoice terms, risk-price grade, gross discount rates, diversification and net returns; according to Shoker's analysis, the average monthly net return achieved since January 2012 by investors before fees and tax is 50 basis points. Source
Online lender Earnest is working with Barclays to find a potential buyer; seeking buyout at approximately $200 million; firm has raised over $300 million since 2013 and grown to 200 employees. Source
Lending Club has announced their second quarter earnings results; originations were up 10% sequentially to $2.15 billion; quarterly originations have been hovering around $1.9 billion since Q2 of last year; the second quarter also marked the second highest revenue generating quarter for the company; bank participation made up 44% of the funding for the quarter; Lending Club focused on developing testing infrastructure for borrower take rates which included a website redesign; guidance was adjusted upwards for the third quarter and the full year. Source
Originations for the quarter were $464 million; OnDeck continues to tighten their credit policy and limit loans designated as held for sale on OnDeck's marketplace; company seeks to achieve GAAP profitability by the end of the year; the second quarter brought some of the highest quality borrowers the company has ever originated which resulted in OnDeck being in a substantially more stable credit position than six months ago; OnDeck made progress in expanding and lowering the cost of their funding sources on multiple fronts; the partnership with JP Morgan Chase has been extended for up to four years. Source
The Ranger Direct Lending Fund announced its second quarter 2017 dividend; the Fund has decreased its dividend to 24.26 pence per ordinary share; the lower dividend was a result of ongoing issues with investment in the Princeton Alternative Income Fund which had exposure to troubled lending platform Argon Credit; the Fund's returns have also been lower over the past few months and it has increased its cash holdings. Source
LendingCrowd will give investors GBP150 ($195) for every GBP2,500 ($3,257) investment they make on the platform through August 31; the offer is open to new and existing investors and can also be obtained through investment in the firm's new IFISA; the Edinburgh-based peer-to-peer lending platform is primarily focused on SME loans and has originated GBP15 million ($19.5 million) in cumulative lending from 182 loans. Source
A WeBank employee wrote a post in WeChat Moment, announcing that the loan amount of Weilidai (WeBank's micro loan product) is over RMB100 billion ($14.92 billion); Weilidai's loan amount has increased almost 300% over the past seven months; according to its financial results, WeBank lost RMB583 million ($86.97 million) in the first year (2015); but in 2016, it made a profit of RMB401 million ($59.82 million); in the first four months of 2017, WeBank made a profit of RMB500 million ($74.59 million); in terms of product, WeBank has launched an enterprise-grade product, "Weiyedai"; Weiyedai provides unsecured loans of up to RMB3 million ($447,507) to enterprises, with annual percentage rates ranging from 10.95% to 16.43%. Source (Chinese)
The Series A fundraising included both debt and equity capital; investment was led by K2 Venture Capital with participation from STI Financial Group and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper who made his first investment in an Indonesian startup; firm will use the funds to expand its lending and build its technology with plans for adding new research and development centers for machine learning and algorithm design; platform provides short term micro-loans of between US$75 and US$350 for a maximum of 30 days. Source