Marketplace Lending News Roundup – March 2, 2019

News

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending and fintech news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Millennial online lender SoFi to offer zero-fee ETFs, an unexpected rival for index fund giants Vanguard, iShares from CNBC – Interesting move from SoFi announced yesterday. They will begin offering ETFs, two of which will have zero fees, a first for the investment industry.

Best Fintechs to Work For from American Banker – Lots of familiar names on the American Banker best fintech company to work for list. Congrats to all the companies that were recognized.

YieldStreet raises $62M to democratise alternative investments in shipping, real estate and more from TechCrunch – Another big funding round announced today. YieldStreet has closed on a $62m Series B led by Edison Partners.

HSBC: Fintech deal will provide access to midsize businesses in U.S. from American Banker – An interesting fintech/bank partnership announced today with Neptune Financial partnering with HSBC to help the bank attack middle market lending.

Affirm’s latest partnership brings its alternative financing to Walmart’s US stores and website from TechCrunch – One of the most important fintech partnerships ever was announced yesterday. Affirm inked a deal with Walmart to provide point of sale financing for their customers both in store and online.

SoFi to launch cryptocurrency trading in partnership with Coinbase from CNBC – It seems that more than once a week these days there is a big announcement coming from SoFi. The latest is this, the fintech leader will begin offering crypto trading in the second quarter.

Roofstock will now allow investors to buy just a piece of a single-family rental home from HousingWire – Here is a great innovation from Roofstock. Real estate investors will now be able to buy fractional ownership in fully managed rental properties for as little as $5,000.

JPMorgan’s Dimon: Square innovated where we should have from American Banker – Interesting admission from Jamie Dimon this week. At the JP Morgan investor day he said that he wished his company had done some of the things that Square had done.

JPMorgan Sees a $250 Billion Opportunity in New Credit Card Loan Features from Bloomberg – More from JP Morgan. It looks like they are focusing on personal loans now. Chase customers will soon have a point of sale loan option as well as a way to tap into unused credit on a credit card as a fixed term loan.

SoFi founder Mike Cagney’s new company, Figure, just raised another $65 million from Techcrunch – Figure has raised another big round to help them leverage blockchain technology as they look to rethink the lending process.

Funding Circle US hits $2bn milestone from P2P Finance News – Since launching in 2013 Funding Circle USA has originated $2 billion in small business loans.

Revolut quizzed over potential transparency lapse from the Financial Times – Times are challenging right now for Revolut as they deal with staff turnover, anti money laundering issues, a parliamentary investigation and more.

Leading stars of Monzo, OakNorth and WorldRemit named among Women in Fintech Powerlist 2018 winners from AltFi News – Innovate Finance have released their annual Women in Fintech Powerlist.

From the Lend Academy Forum

The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.

Sold 858 notes for $13,632 in two weeks using a software program I wrote – An investor shares their experience selling LendingClub notes.

Lending Club loan default prediction model question – Investors share their thoughts on loan selection strategies.

Tue 02/12/19 payments about 3 times higher than normal – Forum members talk about the timing of loan payments in their account.

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.