LendingRobot has announced the launch of a new alternative lending hedge fund; Lend Academy provides details in their article; the new fund will add to the service offerings at LendingRobot which currently include aggregated marketplace lending investment accounts for both retail investors and financial advisors; the new LendingRobot Series fund will invest in online loan origination platforms and offer multiple strategies for investors with expected net returns ranging from 6.86% to 9.66%; the fund is only open to accredited investors and requires a minimum investment of $100,000; it has a 1% management fee with fund expenses of up to 0.59%. Source
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report on the initial coin offering (ICO) of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (the DAO), which raised almost $150 million from investors using this new capital raising method (before returning the money); the report explained that the SEC views this ICO as a sale of securities and that the DAO was in violation of securities laws, though no enforcement action was taken. Source
ApplePie Capital has built a dynamic marketplace lending platform with a range of high net worth and institutional investors focused on business lending for franchises; Lend Academy talks with ApplePie Capital CEO Denise Thomas in their podcast; the podcast provides in-depth details on platform loan terms for franchisees; Denise Thomas also gives insight into the small business franchise market and talks about recent capital investments for the platform. Source
Lend Academy provides highlights from PeerIQ's Q1 2017 securitization market report in their article; total marketplace lending securitization issuance for the first quarter was $2.9 billion and all of the quarter's securitization deals were rated by a rating agency; SoFi leads the market in securitizations with nearly $9 billion representing 51% of the market's deal value. Source
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published details on its fintech charter in a 16-page supplement to its existing OCC licensing manual; the fintech charter supplement addresses capital requirements, liquidity, financial inclusion plans, consumer protection and the application process; Lend Academy provides an analysis in their article; the release of the fintech charter will now be followed by an open comment period which ends on April 14; also noteworthy is that Thomas Curry's term as comptroller ends on April 9 however he can serve until a replacement is confirmed. Source
Lend Academy provides a follow-up to their article on investment platforms for non-accredited investors; gives ten investment platforms for accredited investors across real estate, small business and consumer; defines the parameters for an accredited investor. Source
Lend Academy talks with Greg Gibb, CEO and co-chairman of Lufax; Greg Gibb talks about the founding of the business as a P2P platform, its relationship with Ping An and how it has evolved to become a broader provider of wealth management product offerings; the podcast interview also discusses Lufax's future plans for international expansion and a potential IPO. Source
Lend Academy provides insight and highlights from the event's keynote speakers in their article; day one featured Scott Sanborn from Lending Club as the event's leading keynote speaker and also included three keynote presentations on regulation in the industry from Congressman Patrick McHenry, Comptroller Thomas Curry and CFPB Director Richard Cordray; day two began with Alex Tapscott discussing blockchain and followed with a variety of insights from leading industry innovators; Lend Academy also reports on PitchIt and the LendIt Industry Awards additionally including key takeaways from the event overall; videos from the event will all be published within the next few days and can be found on the LendIt USA 2017 video page. Source
Bitcoin blockchain split on August 1, and rumors are that Bitmain CEO Wu Jihan is the man behind the split; Wu Jihan is an aggressive supporter for Bitcoin Unlimited, which believes that the size of these blocks should be increased; Wu Jihan's company, Bitmain, is the world's largest bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer; the company also runs the world's biggest mining pool, AntPool. Source
Yirendai is an online lending business unit of CreditEase with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: YRD); the firm is one of the most successful online lenders in China's online lending market; Lend Academy talks with the firm's CEO Yihan Fang in their podcast; Yihan Fang provides details on Yirendai's platform and gives her insight on China's online lending market. Source