Transferwise has obtained a license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to offer retail investments to clients; while Transferwise has...
Lend Academy provides a resource for new investors in Lending Club and Prosper; their article includes five basic principles for investing in the platforms; the five key elements for investing include: 1) diversify investments 2) expect defaults 3) keep cash balances low 4) automate investing and 5) avoid taxes by investing through an IRA. Source
Acorns has partnered with personal financial management app Clarity Money; Acorns now has two million investment accounts with users investing spare change into customized investments; Clarity Money launched in 2016 and is an app for personal finance advice and expense and savings management; users of both platforms benefit from the partnership with Clarity Money customers able to use Acorns' automated investing features and Acorns' investors able to sync their Acorns investment account to their Clarity Money dashboard. Source
The Victory Park Capital Specialty Lending Fund reported a net total return of -1.47% for the fourth quarter of 2016 with its marketplace loan investments dragging on total return; while reporting a loss for the fourth quarter, the fund says "…there has been further progress in the reallocation of capital to balance sheet investments"; the fund increased its balance sheet investments to 51% of the fund's net asset value in the fourth quarter, up from 22% at the beginning of the year; firm continues to reallocate its fund and is also buying back shares. Source
LendingRobot has filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating its plans for a pooled investment fund; the investing platform currently provides investment accounts that allow customers to invest in marketplace loans from direct lenders through the platform; the new fund provides a pooled fund investment option for investors; the minimum investment is $100,000. Source
Opus Fund Services has released OpusNotes™, a loan accounting services platform for marketplace lending vehicles; in comments regarding the release, Mike Canni, chief operations officer for Opus, said, "This product is the culmination of five years of development, working with the requirements of the world's largest marketplace lending hedge funds and their institutional investors. Delivered through our online dashboard, this is a significant release of the most comprehensive platform available for the provision of administration services for marketplace lending strategies." Source
SoFi has announced a new fund following a theme discussed at LendIt USA 2017; SoFi's new fund, the SoFi Prime Income Fund, will target family offices; it has raised $105 million from 33 investors each contributing a minimum of $500,000 and will include SoFi's unsecured student and personal loans; it adds to a Credit Opportunities Fund introduced last year; at LendIt USA 2017 panelists discussed new fund creation by platforms; the industry has begun to favor platform fund development over retail fund development; the complexity of marketplace loans and specifically their liquidity risks have kept them from widespread expansion in the retail fund management industry; challenges such as managing international currencies and using alternative leverage strategies are just a few of the retail fund risks for investment managers. Source
The Asian Banker has awarded CreditEase Wealth Management with its first Best Non-Bank Private Wealth Product award; the award was part of the Asian Banker's awards program which has been recognizing financial services companies for 16 years; voting was done by an advisory board using detailed criteria to identify the non-bank with the best solutions for meeting the needs of high net worth customers by matching their risk profiles and investment objectives; CreditEase's CEO Ning Tang said its wealth planners focus on cross-border, cross-regional portfolios with multi-asset classes for clients and that its Toumi RA robo advisor service was created to help clients evaluate and minimize risks with a scientific portfolio. Source
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
Marvelstone Capital is working with fintech startup Smartfolio to develop a robo advisor solution for family offices; it will target family offices based in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and India; the robo advisor solution is being designed as a hybrid service for family offices with less than US$1 billion in AUM however Marvelstone will also market to family offices with AUM of US$1 billion to US$10 billion; it plans to launch the new solution in the third quarter of 2017. Source