The securitization portfolio will include private consumer loans from the SoFi platform; associated parties on the deal include PwC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Mizuho Securities USA LLC; according to Finsight, the securitization is SoFi's ninth this year with the last being a $500 million transaction that took place in June. Source
The Times provides more detail on issues of transparency at RateSetter; reports that RateSetter made loans in partnership with Wellesley and Archover; according to The Times, RateSetter lent via these platforms, utilizing them as a source of borrowers; around GBP10 million ($13.05 million) in property development loans were lent in conjunction with Wellesley which were repaid in full in April 2016; GBP1 million ($1.31 million) in loans are still outstanding with Archover; a RateSetter spokesman reported that no new loans with these competitors are being issued. Source
The "Facebook Initiative" has helped increase lending at Irish credit unions and now 15% to 20% of loan inquiries come through the social networking site; the program initially started out as a pilot project and has moved into a key source of new leads; half of consumers that used this program never borrowed from a credit union before; the process involves a 30 second inquiry online, then lending officers call the borrowers to ensure they understand what they are borrowing; this is part of a broader move by the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA) in Ireland to spur innovation in finance. Source
The Fund is increasing its dividend for the first time in eighteen months; dividend will increase to 1.7 pence per share after five consecutive quarters at 1.5 pence per share; the Fund currently has GBP343 million ($447.12 million) in assets and has been increasing its allocation to balance sheet investments. Source
Abundance sold 72% of all Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) products in the last year; this represented 62% of investment into the new product overall; while the P2P lender is happy with their success they realize their market lead will diminish as they were one of a few platforms approved in the last year; a host of other platforms, including top lender Zopa, have been approved recently and the numbers are sure to be more widely spread out among a larger group of platforms; Bruce Davis, co-founder and joint managing director of Abundance, tells AltFi, "Abundance's success is very much the good news part of the Innovative Finance ISA story to date." Source
Funding Circle recently announced it would be shifting away from manual lending to auto bidding; with the change Funding Circle follows its two closest competitors Zopa and RateSetter who only offer auto-bid options; with auto-bid investors gain access to more diversified investments; P2P Finance News outlines the UK P2P industry auto-bid platforms versus manual bid platforms. Source
Zopa has promised its investors it will speed up the time for selling loans on the platform after investors complained of loan sale times taking weeks; the platform has identified this as an issue, reporting in a blog post, "Recently, some of our processes have been running slower than normal, resulting in it taking longer for you to sell loans and access your money early."; Senior Developer Joe Hutchinson says the platform has been working to upgrade its technology with steady progress and it has more enhancements planned which will provide more capacity on the server improving performance significantly over the next few weeks. Source
Australian lending platform Timelio has received investment from new investor, Anthony Thomson; Anthony Thomson is founder of Atom Bank and Metro Bank; the Timelio platform has funded over $100 million in invoices since launching approximately two years ago. Source
Peter gives a recap of activity in 2016 which included issues across most all of the largest firms and reported many small firm closings with the launch of Marcus by Goldman Sachs changing market competition; compared to 2016, 2017 appears much better with equity investments already surpassing 2016 totals and many new startups launching lending platforms; overall, Peter says the industry is recovering but not recovered and notes that returns are dropping. Source
dv01 provides insight on marketplace lending originations with data from Lending Club, SoFi, Marlette and Prosper; shows 2Q17 originations increasing 21% from 1Q17 and up 52% from 2Q16 with average loan coupons increasing to 14.31%; average FICO has increased from 703 to 711 as firms tighten their credit underwriting. Source