Dan Loeb of Third Point is the latest hedge fund to invest in marketplace lending; the hedge fund manager has reported a 10% allocation to marketplace loans and says that he will be reducing his investment in structured credit and specifically residential mortgage backed securities to allocate to the fixed income alternative; Loeb says he is working with marketplace lenders on securitized portfolios and is excited about the investment opportunities available in the marketplace lending market; the firm also has a venture capital business, Third Point Ventures, which is invested in SoFi, Upstart and Swift Capital. Source
President Trump is set to sign two executive actions on Friday that take aim at reversing the new financial regulations that were put in place as a result of the 2008 financial crisis; the executive actions will give the labor secretary power to rescind the fiduciary rule and ask the Treasury secretary and regulators to come up with a plan to replace Dodd-Frank; the fiduciary rule was set to go into effect in April and was meant to ensure advisors had their client's best interests at heart; Dodd-Frank was passed in 2010 and began implementation in 2012; the law was meant to limit the chance of another financial crisis like we saw in 2008; uncertainty exists with what will end up happening, but signals show that the fiduciary rule will be struck down and Dodd-Frank will be replaced. Source
OnDeck Capital's chief operating officer, James Hobson will be leaving OnDeck; according to Reuters, Hobson will be taking a new role as chief executive at online insurance company Attune; Hobson will remain in the role until March 15. Source
RateSetter has announced new terms for its lenders which will go into effect on March 1; the new terms provide increased transparency for lending activities; they also give greater flexibility to the Provision Fund through a new stabilization period; changes made to the lender terms since October 2015 can be found here. Source
LendFoundry provides insights on the global fintech market opportunity in their featured blog post; the firm launched its fintech lending operating system at LendIt USA 2016; provides marketplace lenders with a comprehensive solution for loan originations, marketing, acquisition, underwriting and servicing. Sponsored Blog Post
UK consumer lending platforms reported originations of 154 million British pounds ($191.81 million) in January which topped a previous high in September 2016; Zopa led UK consumer lenders in January with originations of 80 million British pounds ($99.64 million); other consumer lenders contributing to the January record included RateSetter, Lending Works, Funding Secure and Lendable. Source
UK firm Populous is seeking to provide a new innovative approach to invoice financing using blockchain technology; the firm plans to utilize smart contracts for invoice financing operations which will lower costs and also provide safer and more secured investments with competitive yields; the platform has been in development for 24 months and plans to launch in May 2017. Source
The focus of the weekly update centered around how the Trump administration will try to ease the regulatory environment for banks and an explanation of the risk retention rule that recently went into effect; banks welcomed the executive orders signed by Trump, the regulatory burden has been high and cost of capital has continued to rise to meet the demands of Dodd-Frank; as of December 24, 2016 all asset types are required to adhere to a 5% risk retention requirement or skin in the game; this is meant to align investor interests with sponsor interests and make the securitization deal safer; PeerIQ goes into a detailed explanation and helps to provide answers to some of the questions surrounding the rule's implementation. Source
Fundrise began its crowdfunded initial public offering (IPO) on February 1; the investment has been oversubscribed and the company has paused the offering due to high demand; it has reported it will increase the available shares to three million from two million; in an updated offering circular the firm says it will offer three million shares at a price of $5.00 which brings the total expected fundraising to $15 million. Source
SoFi was among Super Bowl advertisers with another commercial this year; this year's commercial reflected their expanding services by advertising the firm's support for owning a home, starting a family and seeing the world; with the firm's recent acquisition of online bank, Zenbanx, customers will now be able to use SoFi for a comprehensive suite of banking services, expanding beyond just the firm's core student loan offering. Source