In December the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its proposal for a fintech charter with an open comment period until January 15; the OCC has received numerous comments which can be found here; Lend Academy and LendIt submitted a response in favor of the fintech charter; their response outlines the difficulties online lenders have in complying with different rules in each of the 50 states; suggests nationalization of regulation would make platform operations more efficient and help the industry to broaden the benefits it can offer to financial inclusion and other nationwide initiatives. Source
Bank service provider Misys is looking to bring an end to alternative lending by giving banks a solution that is similar to that of marketplace lenders; "There's clearly a demand for banks to take back that piece of the lending market," explained Misys Senior Product Officer Jean-Cedric Jollant in a discussion with PYMNTS; Misys believes this solution would give banks more lending options and they would no longer have to partner with an online lender; Jollant goes on to say that 90% of the online lending market will collapse and only the top names will survive a decade or two. Source
Online loan marketplace LendingTree has released its third quarter list of top customer-rated network lenders; the platform has a network of over 450 lending partners; top lenders from each of the list's four categories included: Veterans United Home Loans, Lending Club, rateGenius and Credibly. Source
Online lender Welendus has announced a Seedrs campaign with targeted fundraising of 300,000 British pounds ($375,060); firm provides short term financing options at affordable rates; plans to launch in the first quarter of 2017. Source
Ppdai is reportedly looking to a US IPO and plans to raise $200 million; it would be the second lender to do so after Yirendai in 2015 who raised $75 million; the company was founded in 2007 and offers unsecured loans. Source
Landbay, UK Bond Network, Downing and Peer Funding will use Goji to offer investments in Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISA) in the UK; the offerings are anticipated to launch before the tax deadline; Jake Wombwell-Povey, Goji co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "We're signing up an increasing number of platforms who are keen to offer their investors a best of breed IFISA service. There is a great deal of complexity in bringing the IFISA to market and we are focused on ensuring that it is as easy as possible for investors to access this new opportunity to drive returns. Interest in this new and attractive investment vehicle is not surprising given the low yields available on traditional fixed income and savings and increasing inflation." Source
This week's PeerIQ industry update mentions SoFi's securitization deal, solar lender Mosaic's signal to the market of their first ABS deal and a detailed explanation about trigger breaches; SoFi has announced plans to issue a $477 million unsecured consumer loan securitization; the market was very happy to hear news from Mosaic as this is the first solar deal since early 2016, though the size of the deal has yet to be determined; the trigger breaches seen in MPL ABS deals have hurt the securitization market and caused the cost of capital to rise among lenders; PeerIQ breaks down the current deals that have breached and what it means for the overall MPL ABS market. Source
Prospect Capital is a publicly traded business development company investing in marketplace loans; Lend Academy talks with Chris Johnson who runs marketplace lending investments at Prospect Capital Management; Chris talks about the firm's investing strategy and its allocation to marketplace loans which includes Prosper, Avant, Lending Club and OnDeck; Chris also talks about Prospect Capital's involvement with securitization, their investment approach for 2016 and 2017, their new closed-end fund and his perspective on a marketplace lending secondary market. Source
Tempoe has completed a deal with its financing partner for a $150 million credit facility; the firm provides alternative leasing solutions for durable goods including furniture, appliances and electronics; the additional capital will help the firm to invest in the online shopping market, expand to additional retailers, explore new markets and make strategic acquisitions. Source
Luxury assets lender Borro has raised 5.6 million British pounds ($6.93 million) in new equity capital; firm received Financial Conduct Authority authorization in 2016 and reported business growth of 30%; the funding will help support the firm's balance sheet lending; since 2011, firm has lent 230 million British pounds ($286 million). Source