Alternative credit data company VerumView has developed a product primarily focused on capturing data surrounding an end-user's email; it's built on an API-based know your customer service (KYC) and helps to provide credit decisions on thin file borrowers; the system can service the following: identity verification, fraud detection, KYC, anti-money laundering, TF prevention, loan and insurance underwriting, credit and affordability scoring, competitive analysis and targeted marketing. Source
Upstart's Dave Girourad talks with TechCrunch about the company's new fundraising round which is adding new capital of $32.5 million; the new capital brings total funding to $85 million and this round's investors included Rakuten, Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital; the fundraising will help the firm launch a new software as a service product called Powered by Upstart, an extension of its proprietary credit underwriting platform which utilizes machine learning and modern data science; Upstart will be releasing the new product at LendIt USA 2017. Source
Urjanet has raised $20 million in new financing for its utility focused data services business; the firm tracks utility data from 4,000 utilities in 30 countries and plans to expand its data services for utility payments to lenders seeking alternative credit data; investors in the recent funding round included Oak HC/FT, Grotech Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Imlay Investments and the Georgia Research Alliance. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had a heightened presence in 2016; it was involved in governance for payday lending and marketplace lenders, it also declared a $100 million fine for Wells Fargo and was declared unconstitutional by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court; the CFPB's structure and authority will be a factor for 2017; a marketplace lending retrenchment in 2016 also included a number of new lessons centered around governance and alternative forms of platform investment; decreased confidence and increasing platform defaults will be factors to watch for marketplace lending in 2017 while increasing credit defaults overall, and specifically in auto loans, could also be influential. Source
AltFi Data is the leading public provider of data for the marketplace lending industry; its data platform, AltFi Data Analytics, aggregates data from originators in the UK, Europe and the US; AltFi Data manages indices and publishes analytics reports with support from the data platform; the addition of data from Prosper will make the platform's reporting more robust for the industry. Source
Marketplace lending data analytics provider AltFi Data has partnered with Lendix and will incorporate the lender's data on its analytics platform; AltFi Data is a leading performance data provider for the marketplace lending industry providing a single methodology for calculating platform performance across all lenders; its data reporting includes a range of attributes and data points including net returns, benchmark comparisons, originations, lending rates and charge-off rates. Source
AltFi Data has raised new capital and formed an advisory board; the new initiatives will help AltFi Data launch new products, increasing analytical tools and market transparency; the board’s advisors bring experience in market data and investing. Source
2016 could be the alternative finance industry's first net negative year according to AltFi; uncertainty in capital investment was a substantial factor for the first time causing a renewed focus on retail investment; CEO turnover has been a significant factor with Renaud Laplanche's resignation a catalyst for decreased investor confidence; regulators have also caused market uncertainty with new regulations potentially adding compliance burdens for alternative finance businesses; macroeconomic factors including Brexit and the US presidential election have also increased pressure on alternative finance; despite hardships, sentiment for 2017 is mostly positive with 2016 seen as only a temporary retrenchment. Source
AmEx has recently begun offering personal loans however its loans are only available to existing credit card customers; the firm says its new product is focused on its premium, high-credit quality card customers; overall, the firm appears to be taking a cautious customized approach to the lending product while also using the new initiative to help improve market share and struggling business growth. Source
Online lenders don't have a deposit base to lend out money, so they need to look at different forms of capital sources and Paul Fielding of SoFi talked about these options at LendIt USA 2017; they break up the investor pool into a few different buckets; investors looking to buy whole loans, their securitization shelf that has thus far done over 20 securitizations and direct capital from banks; understanding the right fit for the right investor and how that fits into the capital buckets is the key; while taking questions Paul discussed the recent formation of 1940 Act funds and believes the likes of BlackRock and AllianceBernstein could move into the consumer whole loan market as pensions begin to look at playing in the space; he also talked about the ABS markets being fickle, but in his view all markets are fickle as investors look at their allocation strategies. Source