The UK's MarketInvoice has reported record originations of 130 million British pounds ($161 million) for the first quarter of 2017; originations increased by 160% from the comparable quarter giving the firm cumulative originations of 1.2 billion British pounds ($1.5 billion); origination growth for the firm has been helped by a new product called MarketInvoice Pro which provides businesses an open funding line for their invoice borrowing. Source
UK invoice financing platform MarketInvoice reported a record day of transactions this week; the platform transacted GBP4.1 million ($5.38 million) in invoice advances to UK businesses; the firm's MarketInvoice Pro product has been a factor supporting increased lending volumes on the platform with the new product offering an open funding line for businesses. Source
Marketplace provides insight on Goldman Sachs' new online lending business discussing the culture and variance from the traditional aspects of the investment bank; one reason for the divergence in culture is the company's focus on building Marcus as a tech startup within the bank; the investment bank's venture has gained considerable industry attention and also attracted talent from leading technology companies including Facebook and Google; it appears to be well positioned in the market with numerous competitive advantages supported by the legacy bank's 147 year history. Source
Money Platform has launched in the UK with full authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority; the platform provides short term personal loans and seeks to offer a more affordable solution than payday loans; it will include 3 to 12 week loans of up to 1,000 British pounds ($1,255) with interest rates ranging from 0.3% to 0.7% per day; the platform is targeting 12% net returns for investors and will retain 35% of the interest payments from each loan; overall the most a borrower will pay in interest on the platform is 165%. Source
The UK government has released a white paper discussing its real estate property development initiative; UK P2P lenders continue to support the initiative through alternative funding for real estate borrowers; the government will also manage a 1 billion British pound ($1.25 billion) fund for financing specialized real estate developers; the UK is targeting 200,000 new homes. Source
Peter Renton of Lend Academy and Andrew Dix from Crowdfund Insider will be doing a question and answer forum discussion on Wednesday, January 18 at 2:00 PM EST; the webinar will be hosted by LendIt, Crowdfund Insider and Orchard Platform; participants can submit questions for the speakers at registration or during the webinar; LendIt will also be hosting a number of webinars leading up to LendIt USA 2017; register today for Marketplace Lending 101 and submit your questions. Source
Fintek News talked with Ron Suber about the marketplace lending industry and his recent presentations at LendIt, AltFi Australasia and the ACFE Fintech Fraud Summit; as an investor and one of the industry's most active speakers, his insights have helped influence all aspects of marketplace lending both globally and in the US; in his most recent presentations he has discussed current opportunities for the industry, how online lending can be compared to online trading and factors influencing fintech fraud. Source
P2P Finance News provides details on how six of the industry's top funds have performed over the past year; their analysis includes performance for P2P Global Investments, SME Loan Fund, Ranger Direct Lending, Funding Circle SME Income Fund, VPC Specialty Lending and Honeycomb Investment Trust; performance from Ranger Direct Lending leads the group of funds with an NAV total return over the past year of 19.9%. Source
Marketplace lending platforms have offered investors a viable alternative for fixed income market returns however their disclosures and reporting standards are continuing to evolve; while these disclosures can vary by platform, Rupert Taylor from AltFi says lenders should consistently ensure that there is alignment between investors and originators, also noting that, "Lenders should seek platforms that can demonstrate that their overriding motivation is to originate loans at an interest rate that adequately compensates for the risk of default."; appropriately assessing a platform's returns is important for investors and Rupert Taylor advocates for increased demand from investors for platform performance transparency. Source
Nava Finance Ltd. has announced plans to launch a new marketplace lending platform in the UK in 2017; the platform will be called Nava and will focus on near-prime consumer credit loans with investment only from institutional investors; the founders believe their experience and credit underwriting models can provide competitively priced loans for borrowers and competitive market returns for investors. Source