Karun Thareja, Faircent's chief marketing officer, talks about the firm's business model and technology; the firm is one of the largest peer-to-peer consumer lenders in India and offers its investors annual returns ranging to 20%; it has built a comprehensive loan operating system with integrated client relationship management technology and lead generation channels; recently it has been focused on client acquisition through Facebook which it has integrated with its platform for customer communication. Source
Opus Fund Services has released OpusNotes™, a loan accounting services platform for marketplace lending vehicles; in comments regarding the release, Mike Canni, chief operations officer for Opus, said, "This product is the culmination of five years of development, working with the requirements of the world's largest marketplace lending hedge funds and their institutional investors. Delivered through our online dashboard, this is a significant release of the most comprehensive platform available for the provision of administration services for marketplace lending strategies." Source
UK-based P2P lending platform Assetz Capital has announced a promotional interest rate increase for investors in its 30 day access account; investors will receive a 4.75% rate of interest for up to 90 days after investment through May 11; the promotion adds 50 basis points to the current rate on the account with interest paid monthly. Source
Orix Corporation and its affiliate Yayoi Co., Ltd. have launched a new online lending business; the platform will focus on lending to small businesses in Japan; the service will seek to utilize big data and artificial intelligence to develop an advanced credit underwriting model for lending. Source
The Financial Conduct Authority's P2P lending standards have caused only 40% of P2P loans to be covered under the HM Treasury's 36H regulation; 36H regulation is a compliance factor that P2P firms are concerned with; the differing definitions involve the matching of the loans; the complex process of institutional pre-funding and subsequent loan matching has been a factor resulting in discrepancies between the loan matching definitions from the 36H regulation and the Financial Conduct Authority's definition. Source
Bankless Times highlights AltFi Data, speaking to Rupert Taylor, founder and CEO; the company is an independent source of data to the European peer-to-peer lending market; currently tracks 28 UK originators and detailed loan level data on Zopa, Funding Circle, RateSetter and MarketInvoice; Taylor stated: "The right model doesn't involve the institutional investor duplicating that credit decision making process performed by the originator. But investors can use verified data to understand the historic performance of the assets, and to identify originators that are prepared to use disclosure in a way that holds them to account for the quality of the loans they originate." Source
Experienced credit market executive Kathryn Petralia talks with Crowdfund Insider about fintech and the business growth of Kabbage; the firm has originated approximately $3 billion in loans to 100,000 US small businesses since 2011; it has developed lending partnerships with global banks Santander and Scotiabank; it has also been active in promoting small business lending through its development of the SMART Box in collaboration with the Innovative Lending Platform Association; other highlights from the interview include insight on fintech predictions and regulations, Kabbage's involvement with the Consumer Financial Data Rights group, initiatives within the Innovative Lending Platform Association and Petralia's career advice. Source
UK consumer lender Lending Works has lent over GBP50 million ($62.68 million) to UK consumers, also reporting over 10,000 clients; the firm's success has been helped by the launch of its innovative finance individual savings account which reported investments of approximately GBP1.5 million ($1.88 million) in the first 24 hours and has accumulated investments of over GBP8.8 million ($11.04 million) since February 2017; the firm's chief executive says it expects to reach originations of GBP100 million ($125.36 million) very soon; business growth is also expected to be helped by a new loan offering partnership with Revolut. Source
CredifX will add to the firm's data services which provide data on over two million US commercial properties and $13 trillion in loans; the CredifX platform will offer a marketplace for commercial loans, providing access to financing and investing for commercial real estate borrowers, brokers and lenders; the new commercial real estate loan platform is expected to increase market competition and pricing for loans. Source
Point of sale finance is not new, but it has changed significantly over time; panelists share how point of sale finance was done 40 years ago and what it looks like today; companies are working with merchants in different ways to serve their customers at the point of sale through improved user experience, buying power and saving the sale; the panel talks about how they go about pitching retailers including how point of sale can help the 100 million consumers who have FICOs of below 700, a demographic that Zibby serves; unique models represented on the panel are Acima Credit's lease to own product and Summit Amerifirst's product which finances home improvement loans through contractors. Source