The Ranger Direct Lending Fund announced its second quarter 2017 dividend; the Fund has decreased its dividend to 24.26 pence per ordinary share; the lower dividend was a result of ongoing issues with investment in the Princeton Alternative Income Fund which had exposure to troubled lending platform Argon Credit; the Fund's returns have also been lower over the past few months and it has increased its cash holdings. Source
UK bank lending and mortgage approvals increased in January as rates remained low for borrowers; according to data from the British Bankers Association, consumer borrowing doubled from December to an increase of 538 million British pounds ($673 million) with loan growth in personal loans and overdrafts reporting an eight month high of 422 million British pounds ($527.9 million); bank lending to businesses also reported its highest increase since January 2015 at 3.4 billion British pounds ($4.25 billion); mortgage approvals were also significantly higher at 44,657 with total mortgage borrowing at 13.8 billion British pounds ($17.26 billion) and refinancing approvals up 15.7% from January 2016. Source
European online lender Spotcap has received A$20 million (USD$15.15 million) from New Zealand Bank, Heartland; Spotcap has also launched its platform in New Zealand and will be accelerating growth in Australia, helping to expand its business in the Asia Pacific region; Spotcap's lending targets small and medium enterprises with credit lines and loans of up to $250,000. Source
The new partnership aims to increase access to financial services for individuals and small businesses; according to a Chinese press release translated by TechNode, the "credit factory" (in Chinese) model is a business model mainly used for credit certification of small and micro-sized enterprises as well as individuals; loans lent to such groups are small, but are lent at high frequency; the adoption of the "credit factory" mode, thanks to its high efficiency and economies of scale in handling petty loans, can help big financial firms gain some ground lost to the country's mushrooming small loan companies in the microfinance market; an upgrade to the traditional "credit factory", Dianrong-Quark Credit Factory utilizes such fintech means as big data, anti-fraud management systems and decision engine; it can help lenders reduce manual operations, save costs and cut operational risks through its powerful quantitative system when they handle credit certification for individuals or small and micro-sized businesses. Source
The VPC Speciality Lending investment trust sold it’s exposure to Avant loans and their equity stake as it continues a move out of the sector; the fund has been shifting to a balance sheet strategy for quite some time and this is another indicator of that move; they also sold their equity exposure in Australian point of sale lender zipMoney. Source.
Crowdfund Insider reports on the launch of LendIt's PitchIt competition at Lang Di China in July; LendIt has partnered with JadeValue to support the competition and its finalists; applications are now open and the final competition will include eight finalists; the competition's finalists will be matched with mentors for business development and the winning startup will be given additional resources from JadeValue including coworking space, a $150,000 investment and technical tools. Source
80 percent of UK consumers were unaware of the term fintech; a new study by the Telegraph shows that fintech knowledge and adoption is surprisingly low; even larger name brands like Funding Circle, Atom Bank and Nutmeg were not known to most surveyed consumers; the results point to an uphill climb by industry participants. Source.
Coindesk reports that the initial phase of a token sale for tZERO attracted 2,000 accredited investors; the company may now shorten the time until their token sale; tZERO is an alternative trading system registered with the SEC. Source
Jonathan Snyder has developed the Philadelphia Capital Consortium to provide increased capital availability to small businesses; Snyder developed a process that allows Philadelphia small businesses to submit a form which is then sent to the Consortium's lenders; Snyder directs the process and interested lenders respond to the inquiry within 10 days; the Consortium has completed four loans and is currently adding new lenders to its network, including online lender Credibility Capital. Source
Money360 is a marketplace lending platform focused on commercial real estate; Evan Gentry of Money360 provides insight on the firm in a Lend Academy podcast; the firm offers loans of $1 million to $15 million for commercial real estate properties; it has two primary products, shorter term bridge loans which are mainly funded by high net worth investors, family offices, hedge funds and institutional investors and then permanent longer term loans funded by banks and credit unions; the company has also launched an open-end fund which allows investors to invest in a portfolio of the company's commercial real estate loans; it has plans for continued growth in 2017 with the goal of $1 billion in annual originations over the next few years. Source