During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.
An SEC lockdown almost killed this startup right after it launched – now it’s worth more than $6.5 billion from Business Insider – Interesting article about the early days of Lending Club.
Successful SoFi expands beyond student loans from San Francisco Business Times – Great piece on how SoFi is reinventing both student and mortgage lending.
Retail investors at risk as big business enters P2P Lending from Financial Times – I think the risk is overblown. Retail and institutional can co-exist just fine.
Bitcoin-Powered Lending With BTCJam and Bitbond from Orchard – Orchard takes a look at the bitcoin p2p lending market with Bitbond and BTCjam.
Canada Peer-to-Peer Lenders Court Bond Investors from Bloomberg Business – Profile of Norm Cappell, Head of Capital Markets at Borrowell.
No ‘Cherry-picking,’ Says The UK’s Peer-To-Peer Finance Association from Crowdfund Insider – Christine Farnish, head of the UK P2P Finance Association, lays down rules for large investors.
Lenders Provide Clarity Around Institutional “Cherry Picking” Ban from AltFi – Lots of talk in the UK today about cherry picking loans. Some clarity from AltFi.
The Future Of Banking Is Now On Sale from StreetAuthority – A look at the Lending Club share price in the context of growth of p2p lending.
IPO Lockup Expiration: LendingClub Corp from Seeking Alpha – It is nearly six months since the Lending Club IPO, meaning the end of the lockup period is near.
Is Peer-to-Peer Lending the Future of Loans (video) from Bloomberg Business – In depth interview with Sam Hodges of Funding Circle.
Banking Response to Alternative Finance from BAI – Good piece about how and why banks can partner with marketplace lending platforms.
OnDeck Gets a Taste of its Own Medicine from deBanked – Comparing business loans at OnDeck, Lending Club, and a typical merchant cash advance.
New Lending Club TV Commercial Makes its Debut! from the Lending Club Blog – Lending Club has a new TV commercial focused on debt consolidation borrowers.
“It’s A Lot Of Money….Enough For Us To Build What We Wanted To Build”: Dianrong.com CEO On New Valuation of ‘About’ $1 Billion from Crowdfund Insider – Former Lending Club exec Soul Htite is going strong in China with Dianrong, which is now worth $1 Billion.
The Formation of a Market: Glenn Hodgeman’s thoughts on Aussie P2P from AltFi – Local expert Glenn Hodgeman gives his views on the Aussie P2P lending market.
Will P2P Lending Survive the Next National Recession? from LendingMemo – Simon looks at the 2008-09 recession as a benchmark for p2p lending returns in the next recession.
From the Lend Academy Forum
The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.
Charge off percentages – Forum members share their returns and default rates.
Lot of loans, but not quality loans – Discussion around loan supply and quality.
FICO and Trend Discrepancy – Many Folio investors rely on FICO trends to decide when to sell notes but this loan shows contradictory data.
