On the face of it this hearing has little to do with the marketplace lending industry. The hearing is somewhat sensationally titled: “Trading with the Enemy: Trade-Based Money Laundering is the Growth Industry in Terror Finance”.
So the focus for this hearing will be trade finance. But given what happened with the recent attacks in San Bernardino and the subsequent request for information from this very committee it will not be a surprise if this industry enters into the conversation. Even if it doesn’t I have heard that this is the first of several hearings the committee will hold over the coming months and one of them will be focused on marketplace lending directly.
Now, this is an election year and like most things in Congress politics will come into play. And given that fighting terrorism is one of the few bipartisan issues it is quite possible that something will emerge out of this committee that will impact our industry.
We will be following developments here closely and will report back on any news.
