Millennials now account for the largest majority of the US population and research predicts they will grow to 81 million in 2036; a majority of millennials have been credit averse with minimal credit history which has caused credit providers to target them in slightly different ways; in a white paper from LexisNexis the company provides a profile of millennials for credit providers. Sponsored Blog Post
Orchard has updated its US Consumer Online Loan Index; constituents providing data for the Index have increased to five; new methodologies pertaining to estimates and delinquencies have also been incorporated to improve the Index’s reporting; the updates increase the credibility of the Index as a performance benchmark for the marketplace lending industry; Bill Ullman, Orchard’s chief commercial officer, provides some additional details on the Index’s updates and an analysis of its performance in a blog post. Source
Lend Academy talks with Andrea Jung of Grameen America in their podcast; Grameen America is a non-profit lender with a concept founded by Muhammad Yunus who has won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts; it provides small business loans to female entrepreneurs; Andrea talks about her career experience and the Grameen America business model, explaining how it has evolved from the original Grameen started by Muhammad Yunus; Grameen currently boasts a default rate of just 0.3% on $620 million of lending. Source
New Zealand-based Xero provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium size businesses; it has now announced new agreements to integrate its software with working capital financing platforms MarketInvoice, iwoca and DueCourse; the business integrations will help to better facilitate invoice finance lending and working capital credit for businesses using Xero. Source
Data from Financial Technology Partners reports over 1,500 funding deals from over 1,700 investors in 2016; these deals accounted for $36 billion in fintech financing; data by fintech category can be seen in the chart below with banking and lending companies accounting for 29% of the year's total deals; payments, loyalty and ecommerce accounted for 22%; securities, capital markets and wealth management also reported substantial interest from investors with 19% of the deals funded. Source
Millenium Trust Company has hired Tom Daley to lead the Alternative Solutions Group; Millenium Trust is a leading provider of custody solutions in the marketplace lending industry; Mr. Daley will be focused on adviser and registered investment adviser business development, seeking to expand the firm's alternative assets under custody from fund managers and financial advisers. Source
Marcus by Goldman Sachs was launched in 2016 and marked an important point in the consumer lending industry as they decided to build their own platform from scratch; Ainsley O'Connell from Fast Company interviews head of Marcus, Harit Talwar; Talwar shares what was attractive about getting into personal loans and details the Marcus product; stated that there were many consumer pain points and Goldman Sachs was confident they could help; Goldman also has several advantages to give them an edge; not only do they have their own balance sheet, but they essentially built a startup, leaning on 147 years of experience; they also had the advantage that there were no conflicts over any legacy consumer businesses within Goldman; the company worked closely with consumers to bring to market a product they want which Talwar discusses in the interview. Source
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index decreased to 104.7 from 105.3 in March and fell below expectations of 104.8; small businesses were less optimistic about business growth as momentum from the Trump administration slowed; lower sales expectations and uncertainty were key factors for the March Small Business Optimism Index report which collected its data prior to the delayed Obamacare vote which many small business owners were watching closely. Source
Orchard's December 23 industry snapshot highlights interest from marketplace lenders Zopa and SoFi in providing banking deposit accounts; in publicly traded online lending stocks, Square led monthly gains with a return of 13.03% and Yirendai led losses with a monthly return of -19.40%; in P2P listed funds the VPC Specialty Lending Fund led gains with a monthly return of 10.18% and the Ranger Direct Lending Fund led losses with a monthly return of -5.49%. Source