Marketplace Lending News Roundup – March 28, 2015

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending 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.

Besting Hobson at LendIt USA from LinkedIn – James Alexander gives his thoughts on platform diversification and the upcoming LendIt USA conference.

No Traditional Financial Institutions? No Problem from TechCrunch – Interesting piece by Charles Moldow in TechCrunch on financial services innovation.

Peer-to-peer lender DirectMoney set to list on ASX from The Australian Business Review – DirectMoney has only been operating for five months, but they are about to go public down under.

Peer-to-Peer in the OR from Bloomberg – Is healthcare lending the next frontier for marketplace lending?

Impact of Whole Loan Funding on Prosper from Orchard – Analysis of time to fund for both whole & fractional loans on Prosper.

Analysing P2P Industry Returns – What are the Correct Comparables? And a note on Volatility… from AltFi – Great article about the AltFi LARI index comparing to other investments.

Peer-to-peer lenders can’t find enough borrowers from Quartz – The perennial challenge for p2p lenders as they scale is finding enough borrowers.

Peer-to-peer to become more attractive over next year from BT – Why p2p lending is becoming more popular in the UK with the two changes announced in the Budget.

Banks on the Online Bandwagon? from the LendIt Blog – Noah Breslow, CEO of OnDeck Capital, gives an insightful look at the movement to lending online with some banks joining in. 

Spotlight on RBI: Why & how it needs to build P2P lending business in India from The Economic Times – We don’t hear much about p2p lending in India but that might be about to change.

Six safe investments that can beat term deposits from news.com.au – Good to see p2p lending make this Australian list of safe investment alternatives to term deposits.

The Reg A+ Bombshell: $50M Unaccredited Equity Crowdfunding Title IV takes Center Stage from Crowdfund Insider – The Reg A+ announcement from the SEC this week will have huge implications for equity crowdfunding.

Financial Technology and the Middle Class from the LendIt Blog – Innovative lender Avant is taking a new approach to underwriting.

Building a Sustainable Foundation for the Next Generation of Lending Solutions from the LendIt Blog – Interesting article from Cross River Bank about the sustainability of marketplace lending.

How Lending Club and Prosper Fit with Stocks and Bonds from LendingMemo – Simon gives his opinion of where p2p lending fits with traditional investments, particularly when it comes to retirement.

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.

Approved Loan Quality – Discussion about what it means for a loan to be in approved status from Lending Club.

Automated vs. Manual Investing? – A reader asks whether it makes sense to have a managed account for a $1M investment in Lending Club and Prosper.

How long is payment status pending? – A discussion about loan status changes when borrowers miss payments.

Peer-to-peer lenders can’t find enough borrowers –  Lively discussion on borrower acquisition and time to fund on Lending Club and Prosper.

  • 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.