Ram Ahluwalia from PeerIQ was a featured keynote speaker at LendIt USA 2017; Ram reports marketplace lending securitizations reached over $12 billion in issuance from over 75 transactions; in the third quarter of 2016 rated tranches reached a peak of nearly 25 and in the fourth quarter of 2016 rated tranches were approximately 18. Source
Avant has joined the Global Debt Registry (GDR) network; through the network partnership Avant's investors will have enhanced access to loan due diligence services; in comments regarding the partnership, Kevin Friedrich, senior director of treasury at Avant said, "We are delighted to partner with GDR to provide our investors with this independent loan data integrity service and help drive new transparency for the lending industry." Source
Russian marketplace lender Blackmoon allows professional investors to acquire portfolios of emerging market loans; it has now reported a new partnership with ID Finance, a data science, credit scoring and nonbank digital lending as an application provider; loans are screened and scored by ID Finance's advanced risk assessment system and qualifying loan transactions are automatically transferred to the creditor setting up an automated securitization process. Source
FnConn launched Chained Finance at LendIt USA 2017; the platform is built with blockchain technology and is intended to provide alternative loans for supply chain companies; Jack Lee, CEO of FnConn, says the platform has the potential to help improve supply chain finance in a number of ways specifically through greater cost efficiency from the use of blockchain; Chained Finance will be fueled through the support of FnConn's financial subsidiary Foxconn and P2P lender Dianrong. Source
Asia's alternative lending sector has been growing exponentially with a number of industry dynamics influencing the market; Forbes provides an overview of current market developments in China, India and Southeast Asia; growth in the three regions has been significantly influenced by a shift towards digital and a growing middle class increasingly using mobile technology; while marketplace lending has been growing in Asia a permeating challenge across all three regions is the lack of a deeply rooted credit underwriting system with robust data for lenders; China has approximately 2,200 P2P lenders with its P2P lending market valued at an estimated $100 billion however new regulations to handle fraud are likely to shrink the market; India is reporting about 30 P2P lenders in the country; India and Southeast Asia have a number of credible alternative lenders but seem to be growing cautiously in order to avoid the outbreaks of fraud experienced in China; Forbes provides a taxonomy of the various alternative lenders in Asia. Source
Old Mutual has reduced its stake in the VPC Specialty Lending Fund to less than 6%; the Fund's performance has been struggling since September 2016 and it has been steadily shifting to balance sheet investments; over half of the portfolio is now contained in balance sheet investments which is an increase from 43% in June 2016. Source
CapitalRise has announced the launch of an innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA) offering its investors a tax free account for investing in the firm's real estate investments; investors can invest in the IFISA with a minimum of 1,000 British pounds ($1,223); the investment maximum for the current tax year is 15,240 British pounds ($18,632) and the maximum will increase to 20,000 British pounds ($24,451) in the following tax year; the platform offers a range of real estate loan property investments in the UK with tax-free returns of approximately 10% to 14% per year. Source
Crowdfund Insider provides a roundup of keynote speaker quotes from LendIt USA expressing sentiment from the event; a great deal of attention at LendIt USA 2017 was on the industry's rebound from challenges faced in 2016 including a disturbance of platform confidence following the release of Lending Club's CEO with economic uncertainty and increased defaults also factoring into the market landscape; Scott Sanborn began the conference with an opening keynote speech discussing the exponential market opportunity still ahead likening the market's growth to Amazon's initial market potential; Lending Club's appointment of Sanborn appears to be a critical success factor for the firm and the industry overall; generally market leaders were confident about the industry's current trajectory and government officials reported an increased presence as mainstream integration becomes even more prevalent. Source
Lend Academy talks with John Donovan from Bizfi in their podcast; Bizfi provides balance sheet lending for merchant cash advances and also operates a multi-lender platform giving small businesses multiple loan funding options; Donovan talks about his career in online lending which began at Lending Club; he also discusses the dynamics of Bizfi's two business lines and some of the company's plans for the future. Source
Chapman and Cutler provide insight on regulation in marketplace lending in their annual survey publication titled, "The Regulation of Marketplace Lending: A Summary of the Principal Issues"; covers a wide range of marketplace lending regulatory aspects for consideration; includes court case rulings and government involvement; also provides details on the status of marketplace loans as securities, applicable securities laws and more. Source