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[Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lisa Weinberger, Director of Digital Marketing at CircleBack Lending. CircleBack Lending is a Silver sponsor...
CreditMate is a Mumbai based fintech startup; they help dealers and financiers provide vehicle loans to those with no formal credit history; Paytm plans to partner with the firm as part of the investment. Source
Funding Circle’s SME Income Fund has closed a funding deal with Citibank; according to the AltFi, “Under the terms of the agreement Citibank London will provide £50m of funding into the transaction, by entering into a senior, floating rate loan. The fund will contribute a portfolio of existing UK small business loans at par, and in return shall receive ?the approximately £50m of cash to be deployed in accordance with its investment policy, and junior notes.” Source
SoFi will make student and personal loans available to WeWork’s 3,000 employees and 175,000 customers at discounted rates. Source
American Banker reports on the Small Business Administrations lending programs; loan volume for the 7(a) working capital program increased 5% in fiscal 2017 to $25.4 billion; the 7(a) program has increased by almost 70% since 2012; the 504 real estate program increased 6.3% over the prior year period; American Banker discusses the increase of loans to minorities, the biggest markets for SBA loans and the biggest banks in the space. Source
As part of their SoFi ReFi program, SoFi will now offer a six-month grace period for new graduates; typically refinancing student debt has meant that graduates must give up their grace period on loans. Source
The non-bank lender launched two new initiatives to expand their mello brand; the home improvement venture will launch later this year and will provide loans up to $75,000 at the point of sale.
Salt Lending has written a blog post sharing the immense amount of interest in their blockchain backed loans; since launching on December 28th, 2017 they have issued $23 million in loans yet there is still demand of over $1.3 billion; the company is working on scaling and automating processes, but is focusing on addressing existing demand before adding new members. Source