Approved has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding and announced its launch; Approved provides lenders with a solution for moving their lending operations online; the platform technology provides for increased transparency and faster processing times; the company will target established originators seeking to modernize their lending businesses. Source
Goldman Sachs is estimating a 500% return on its initial investment of $550 million in credit data provider TransUnion; the investment began in 2012 when Goldman Sachs bought TransUnion; since then TransUnion has gone public with shares opening at $22.50 on June 25, 2015 and currently trading at $38.23; Goldman Sachs has also earned $50 million from TransUnion's IPO and debt underwriting; additionally, Goldman Sachs is reporting a number of other advantages from the investment including support for its newly launched consumer lending platform Marcus which is a client of TransUnion. Source
Understanding the millennial customer is a key for most lenders in the market today and Stephen Dash of Credible explains how his firm handles this challenge during his fireside chat at LendIt USA 2017 with Dakin Campbell of Bloomberg; identifying who the millennial is and how they consume information will help you to tailor your products to this group; 25% of consumers today fall into the millennial category and Credible believes a strong, focused product set will help them to service this generation efficiently; before looking to sell other types of services you must first build a relationship with them, trust can be eroded in an instant; ensuring a compelling value proposition is the key and fully understanding what the customer needs will help you to hold that customer over the lifetime; ultimately customers are co-owned and you can help to make sure your relationship lasts by showing a loyal and durable product set. Source
Online lender Elevate Credit (ELVT) began trading shares of company stock on Thursday; the firm's CEO Ken Rees talked with CNBC about subprime lending and the IPO; shares opened for the day at $6.50 with a 19% increase to close at $7.76 giving it a market cap of $270 million; the offering was below expectations which had the stock estimated at $12 to $14; the firm offers loans to subprime borrowers with an underwriting system that considers over 10,000 data points. Source
Avant and Marlette Funding are battling state law in Colorado; the state has a 12% rate cap for consumer loans and both lenders advertise loans that exceed that limit; both partner banks that work with the online lenders have filed lawsuits against Colorado claiming the interest rates they charge are acceptable by federal law because of the charters they hold from their state. Source
Consumer borrowing increased by $15.2 billion in February, according to a report from the Federal Reserve; credit card borrowing increased by $2.9 billion helping total credit card debt outstanding to increase to $1 trillion; auto loan and student loan borrowing also increased in February by $12.3 billion. Source
Experian will integrate BioCatch with its fraud prevention platform; the new platform services will use behavioral biometrics to help clients detect fraudulent credit card and loan applications; with BioCatch clients can consider a range of factors including the speed at which information is entered and how familiar a user is with the application process. Source
Upgrade has launched for consumer lending; Lend Academy provides details on the platform's fundraising, lending criteria and lending structure; Renaud Laplanche has raised $60 million for the new company; its loans will focus on high credit quality borrowers with low debt-to-income and minimum monthly free cash flow of $1,000; loans range from $2,000 to $50,000; the platform will be partnering with WebBank for loan originations and will then acquire the loans and sell them to institutional investors with some portion of the loans retained on the firm's balance sheet. Source
The House of Representatives has passed Supporting America's Innovators Act (HR 1219); the bill will provide increased access to capital for small businesses; among its provisions are changes to the number of investors in a venture capital fund and incentives for rural entrepreneurship. Source
Renaud Laplanche has announced the launch of a new online consumer lending platform called Upgrade; the firm's investors include Apoletto, CreditEase, FirstMark Capital, Noah Holdings, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Union Square Ventures, Uprising and Vy Capital; the firm will partner with WebBank for loan originations and plans to sell its loans to institutional investors; it is working with Jefferies on its capital markets strategy and a loan securitization program; the firm also has plans to use blockchain for data management and transactions. Source