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Thursday October 31 2019, Weekly News Digest

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Thursday October 31 2019, Weekly News Digest

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United States

PMIT funds online marketplace lending with $ 138 million (Asset Securitization Report), Rated: AAA

Prosper Marketplace Issuance Trust, (PMIT) 2019-4, is counting on a de-leverage transaction structure that will boost its credit enhancement levels over time, as it seeks to sell $138 million in securities backed by unsecured consumer loans.

PMIT is also utilizing total subordination of 23.79% for the class A notes and 11% for the class B. The deal’s credit support also includes excess spread of about 9.75%, based on a collateral weighted average interest of 14.32%.

PeerStreet Announces a $ 60MM Series C Fundraise and $ 4.25 Billion in New Capital Commitments (Business Wire), Rated: AAA

PeerStreet, a platform for investing in real estate backed loans, is excited to announce it has completed a $60 million Series C funding round. Colchis Capital led the round with a consortium of institutional investors. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, World Innovation Lab and Thomvest Ventures also participated.

Some Real Estate Crowdsourced Funding Isn’t Actually Crowdfunding (Propmodo), Rated: A

Some things, such as pool parties and potlucks, are just better the more people that get involved. Another one of those things is participation in real estate investment. The more people that invest, the more capital there is to fuel deals and improve everything from office quality to housing availability. People make money and society progresses. It’s how the market should work.

Santander Enters the Ring, FinTech Charter Roadblock, Recession Checklist (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

The NY Fed has increased permanent and temporary repo operation offerings from $75 billion to $120 billion and saw strong demand for its offerings.

Source: PeerIQ, Blackstone, St. Louis Fed

Digital Asset Lending Snapshot (Genesis Capital), Rated: AAA

Genesis continues to see sustained growth in its digital asset lending business. In the third quarter of 2019, Genesis added $870M in new originations, breaking our record of $746M set in the previous quarter. As of September 30, 2019, active loans outstanding stood at $450M, roughly flat from the previous quarter despite a significant decrease in Bitcoin’s price.

Originations increased 38.1% QoQ marking a sixth consecutive quarter of strong growth and bringing total originations to $3.1B since we launched the lending business in March 2018. Our loan portfolio largely sustained its value through increased cash (USD and stablecoin) loan issuance, offset by a decrease in the notional value of crypto loans outstanding.

Source: Genesis Capital

See the full report here.

Former Wall Street Traders Warn of Crypto Lending Bubble (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

The availability of cheap, cryptocurrency-collateralized loans is growing unsustainably and could induce a crisis, two former Wall Street traders now working in crypto lending have told Bloomberg.

Interests rates for these services started at 11% but now sit at around 5% APR.

Another Credit Bubble Grows: the $ 5 Billion Crypto-Loan Market (Bloomberg), Rated: A

Crypto credit has expanded too quickly and is headed for a blow-up, says a group of former Wall Street traders who are now seeking riches in digital assets. A near $5 billion industry has emerged from nothing just two years ago and the number of loan platforms is rapidly proliferating, according to blockchain data company Graychain Ltd.

Kabbage: The Care And Feeding Of A Fintech Unicorn (Forbes), Rated: AAA

Want to start and grow a tech unicorn — a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion? You have to target a large market. The Atlanta-based fintech company, Kabbage, has a valuation of $1.2 billion and is on the Forbes Fintech 50 2019.

The use of online lenders among employer firms has grown markedly over the past couple of years — from 19% in 2016 to 32% in 2018, according to the Small Business Credit Survey 2019 Report on Employer Firms, Federal Reserve Banks.

While less than what small businesses borrowed from banks before the recession, small business loans are still a huge market — more than $600 billion lent each year, according to Small Business Lending in the United States, 2016.

More than nine in 10 (91%) of small business owners spend as much as 20 hours per week on cash flow management from handling payroll to invoicing and purchasing inventory, according to a Kabbage survey summarized by Forbes contributor Moira Vetter. Imagine how much more revenue a small business could generate if it had more time to focus on growth.

 

Naysayers Are Unavoidable When Launching Your Business. Here’s Why You Should Listen to Them (Inc.com), Rated: A

Entrepreneurs become successful, essentially, by refusing to do what everyone else is doing, or by doing the thing everyone else refuses to do. But even when you know you’re onto a great thing, it can be difficult to ignore the naysayers and skeptics you’ll encounter on your way to growing a business.

LendingTree Study Reveals the Most Stretched Homebuyers in America for 2019 (LendingTree), Rated: AAA

  • Five of the top 10 cities where buyers are stretching themselves the most are in California. Though there is some speculation that the housing boom in California may be nearing its end, home prices in the state are still high. As a result, many buyers, especially those who don’t work in lucrative industries like tech, will take out large loans to cover the cost of their homes.
  • Since last year, Los Angeles and San Diego have remained the 2 cities where borrowers have to stretch their budgets the most. The leverage ratios in these two cities are 3.91 and 3.64, respectively.
  • Salt Lake City is the place with the highest leverage ratio not in California. A housing shortage is one of the key reasons buyers in Salt Lake may need to stretch their budgets so much in order to be able to afford a home.
  • Like last year, homes in the Rust Belt and the South are the most affordable in the nation. The average home price in our 10 most affordable cities is a bit more than $171,000, which is $90,000 less than the average home price for the whole nation. Furthermore, the leverage ratio in the most affordable cities is 2.25, compared with a ratio of 2.81 for the whole country.
  • Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit are where buyers are taking the smallest loans relative to their incomes. An average leverage ratio of 2.08 could make these cities attractive to potential homebuyers.
Source: LendingTree

Three Ways AI Will Impact The Lending Industry (Forbes), Rated: A

Consider the massive size of real estate lending. The Fed’s

Aura Secures $ 130 Million Credit Facility from Varadero Capital (Business Wire), Rated: A

Aura, a mission-driven financial technology company that offers affordable loans to hard-working families, today announced it has closed a $130 million asset-backed revolving credit facility with Varadero Capital, L.P. This new facility comes during a period of rapid growth for Aura in which the company has provided approximately $635 million in loans to more than 475,000 borrowers at over 1,250 partner locations since its founding in 2014.

Amount Announces Amount Pay (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Amount, a fintech company helping financial institutions reinvent the retail experience, today announced Amount Pay, an installment point-of-sale (POS) financing solution launching in Q1 2020.

Marqeta Announces New Reserve Financing Product (Financial Content), Rated: A

Marqeta, the world’s first modern card issuing platform, unveiled its new Marqeta Reserve Financing product at the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas today, a reserve financing option built into its core platform workflow. Marqeta Reserve Financing is uniquely tailored to the needs of companies struggling with the logistical, practical and administrative burdens of funding a reserve account to launch new payment card programs and keep it actively replenished with funds.

Become, the online platform for SMBs to find and optimize their funding solutions, today announced the closing of a $10 million Series A investment round led by Benson Oak Ventures and Magenta Venture, supported by RIO Ventures Holdings, iAngels, and Entrée Capital. The company has also secured an additional $2.5 million in venture debt from Viola Credit, bringing the total to $12.5 million. The funds will be used to scale up operations in the United States and Australia in order to execute Become’s mission to remove ecosystem friction and enable more SMBs to “become” the businesses they aspire to be.

The current small business lending landscape is fundamentally flawed, with 58% SMBs denied access to funding with no recourse or guidance on how to solve it.

This entrepreneur aims to boost fintech startups in Delaware (Technical.ly), Rated: A

In fact, with 9% of all jobs in the state falling under the fintech umbrella, Delaware has the highest share fintech employees of any U.S. state, according to a report conducted by the Delaware Prosperity PartnershipFirst State Fintech Lab and University of Delaware in June.

At the same time, the number of fintech startups in Delaware is small: There are a few mid-stage companies like Marlette FundingFair Square Financial and Acorns, but early-stage fintech companies are not exactly booming.

Businesses See Costly Decline of Consumer Trust as a Result of Large-Scale Data Breaches According to Annual IDology Fraud Report (Financial Content), Rated: A

IDology, a GBG company, today released its Seventh Annual Fraud Report, revealing the growing impact of large-scale data breaches and fraud on consumer trust and the critical need for businesses to balance the digital consumer experience with strong identity verification processes. The report also found that senior executives believe their companies are still not prepared to combat synthetic identity fraud and mobile attacks. Additionally, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is expected to have significant implications in 2020 and many businesses may not be ready to comply.

Five Key IDology Fraud Report Findings:

  • The true impact of data breaches: A decline in consumer trust – 49% of businesses report a decline in customer trust over the past year. Additionally, 46% indicate that increased regulations are a top impact of large-scale data breaches.
  • Fraud vectors are shifting away from point-of-sale (POS) – 58% of businesses report fraud is increasing in their online channels.
  • New fraud threats, synthetic and AI fraud on the rise – 40% of businesses across industries experienced an increase in synthetic identity fraud (SIF) over the last 12 months and 92% percent expressed concern over SIF. The study found 33% believe that the fraudulent use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will be the most severe form of fraud in the next three years.
  • Compliance is an increasing burden – 28% of businesses believe CCPA compliance will be more burdensome than GDPR while 30% believe it will be equally as burdensome. CCPA contains additional rules with respect to identity verification that go far beyond what is required for GDPR.
  • How to thrive in the changing environment  96% of businesses see identity verification as a competitive differentiator. Also, 80% believe accurate address verification is very or extremely important to the identity verification process.
Source: IDology

Thursday October 31 2019, Weekly News Digest

Varo crosses 1 million customers, with plans to become a bank by 2020 (Bank Innovation), Rated: A

Digital banking brand Varo has 1 million customers, and is pushing ahead with plans to become a nationally-chartered bank early next year, CEO Colin Walsh told Bank Innovation Tuesday.

Varo offers checking accounts, savings accounts and installment loans. Becoming a nationally-chartered bank will help Varo differentiate through an expansion of its product suite, said Walsh. Like other digital-only banks, Varo intends to grow relationships with customers through multiple product relationships and integrations with other platforms. According to the company, 60% of its customers have more than one product relationship with the brand.

The changing shape of bank-fintech partnerships (American Banker), Rated: A

Blend, a fintech that initially specialized in software for mortgage lenders, is expanding into auto loans in the latest example of a startup broadening well beyond its initial area of expertise in an effort to appeal to more customers.

The San Francisco-based firm launched an auto lending product on Monday that is designed to enable consumers to upload documents quickly using mobile devices to get loan approvals faster. It comes on top of two other recent consumer-facing expansions, into home equity loans and deposit account opening products.

Walmart and Green Dot expand relationship, form new fintech program (Talk Business), Rated: A

Walmart announced a new seven-year contract agreement with Green Dot to continue as the issuing bank and manager for the retail giant’s MoneyCard program. The partners also agreed to launch a new financial tech accelerator.

As Digital Transactions Increase, Financial Services and Lending Firms Bear the Growing Cost of Fraud (PR Newswire), Rated: A

For every dollar of fraud loss, financial services companies now incur $3.25 in costs (losses related to the transaction face value for which firms are held liable, plus fees and interest incurred, fines and legal fees, labor and investigation costs and external recovery expenses), up from $2.92 in 2018. This represents an 11.3% year-over-year increase. Lenders see $3.44 in costs for every dollar of fraud loss, up from $3.05 in 2018, a 12.8% increase. Banks and credit lenders, in particular, were found to have the highest costs of fraud, with both percentages jumping double digits since last year – 17% and 16%, respectively.

Trends

  • Expansion of Mobile – There has been a significant increase in the use of mobile channels since 2018, with 73% of financial services (a 66% increase) and 71% of lending firms (an 8% increase) now offering this option to customers. This growth stems primarily from small financial services firms and digital financial services and lending firms now transacting through the mobile channel.
  • More Cross-Border Transactions – International transaction volume has risen among both mid/large-sized digital banks and all digital lenders. However, mortgage lenders have reported a significant drop in foreign transactions, which coincides with a decline in global growth and housing inventory.
  • The Rise of Botnets – A majority of banks reported double-digit year-over-year growth in botnet activity, which appears to at least be related to banks with international business reporting more transactions. Nearly half (47%) of mortgage lenders reported an average increase of 16% in botnet activity since last year. While surveyed firms appear to be aware of botnet activity, they have not been able to adequately prevent it.

Download the 2019 True Cost of Fraud study here.

Urjanet and LevelCredit Enhance Credit Files With Rent and Utility Payment Tradeline Reporting (PRWeb), Rated: A

Despite representing nearly 25% of consumer spend, until now rent, utility, cable, and telecom tradelines have been severely underreported in traditional credit reports, with only about 1% of consumer files currently including rent data and 2.4% including utility data according to FICO. When alternative data is included, it has proven to accurately score more than 90% of thin or no-file applicants, representing a powerful revenue tool that lenders can use to safely expand their markets, increase assets, and build lasting relationships with borrowers.

Urjanet and LevelCredit today announced a strategic partnership enabling lenders, banks, and fintech companies to confidently qualify thin and no-credit file consumers using rent and utility bill payment history. The partnership enhances LevelCredit’s existing rent reporting services with consumer-permissioned payment history from thousands of utility, cable, and telecom providers, helping financial services organizations safely extend credit to a growing number of consumers who aren’t getting the credit they deserve today.

Inside the Groundbreaking Nova Credit-American Express Partnership (Lend Academy), Rated: A

It all started with a cold LinkedIn message back in 2016. The co-founder of the (then) tiny startup Nova Credit, Nicky Goulimis, reached out to an executive at American Express to discuss a potential partnership. It was an audacious move but one that, three years later, has paid tremendous dividends for the company.

Behind Credit Karma’s savings account launch with Jagjit Chawla (Tearsheet), Rated: A

Credit Karma built a wonderful business providing almost 100 million people with free products to help them manage their debt. It was inevitable that they move into the asset side of their customers’ personal balance sheets. Last week, the firm announced a new savings account.

AccountScore and Equifax release new Open Banking credit risk index (Fintech Finance), Rated: B

AccountScore and Equifax have today announced the release of a new credit risk index for the consumer lending sector which allows financial institutions to more effectively understand consumers applying for credit products.

Lendio’s Online Bookkeeping Software, Sunrise, Announces Partnership With WePay (Lendio), Rated: B

Sunrise, a Lendio company, today announced a strategic partnership with WePay, the integrated payments business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Through this collaboration, Sunrise will provide its small business clients with a new feature called Sunrise Pay, powered by Chase, which gives users immediate access to invoicing capabilities as well as the ability to set up recurring payments.

Cred Appoints Former Netflix Executive to Leadership Team (Valdosta Daily Times), Rated: B

Cred, the leading global digital asset lending and borrowing platform serving customers in over 180 countries, today announced that veteran technology executive Cliff Edwards has joined the company as chief marketing officer to help accelerate understanding of blockchain technology and to promote innovative use cases for digital assets.

United Kingdom

Funding Circle revamps secondary market to boost liquidity (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

The peer-to-peer business lender, which saw its average loan part resale time rise to 124 days this month, said that following a recent review, it is introducing a new selling tool on 2 December to improve access to funds.

Funding Circle also announced that it is introducing a 1.25 per cent transfer payment, which will be deducted from the seller’s proceeds and go to the buyer of the loan part.

Funding Circle ditches selling queue (The Times), Rated: A

Funding Circle appears to have listened to complaints from investors waiting for as long as four months to take their money out of the platform.

ID Finance crowdfunding surges past £2m target as investors eye Latam region (UK Investor Magazine), Rated: AAA

ID Finance, the fintech company operating in Europe and Latin America, has surged past its £2m crowdfunding target on Crowdcube and is now overfunding with £2.3m raised from over 700 investors. The Barcelona-based lending-tech scaleup is the second-fastest growing fintech in Europe, according to Financial Times, has enjoyed strong investor demand as it looks to disrupt the LatAm market. The company will continue to take commitments from investors at crowdcube.com/idfinance

Source: Crowdcube

The House Crowd investments now available within a SIPP (P2P Finance News), Rated: A

THE HOUSE Crowd has announced that it is now able to accept investments through a self-invested pension plan (SIPP).

London lending start-up Koyo raises $ 4.9m and already has ‘global ambitions’ (LearnBonds), Rated: A

Digital lending start-up Koyo has raised $4.9m for its plans to sell loans to new migrants and people with thin credit histories.

Business lending platform Trade Ledger raises £1.5 million (Finextra), Rated: A

Trade Ledger, the ground-breaking business lending platform, which automates commercial lending processes for global banks and alternative finance providers, today announces strategic investment in a £1.5M round led by Hambro Perks, to further accelerate revenue growth.

M&S LAUNCHES ‘BUY NOW, PAY LATER’ SERVICE (Independent), Rated: A

Marks & Spencer is the latest retailer to adopt a “buy now, pay later” payment model, in the hope that it may attract younger customers in the run up to Christmas.

The retailer has partnered with Clearpay to launch the initiative, which allows customers to pay for purchases via a series of four instalments paid over a period of six weeks. The payments can be made via a smartphone app.

CashEuroNet, UK LLC’s Enter Into Administration (Global Legal Chronicle), Rated: B

Slaughter and May has advised the administrators of CashEuroNet, UK LLC which entered administration on 25 October 2019.

The company previously traded as QuickQuid.

China

China’s Financial Hub Moves to Shut Down P2P Lending (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

The regulator in China’s financial center has ordered Shanghai’s more than 40 peer-to-peer lenders to exit the business, people familiar with the matter said, the latest blow to an online industry that’s shrunk by half this year.

Some of the nation’s biggest platforms including Ping An-backed Lufax and Dianrong.com have been told in recent meetings with Shanghai’s financial services bureau to stop issuing new products and to wind down existing peer-to-peer lending services, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private.

European Union

Flender secures €75m funding line, slashes interest rates (The Irish Times), Rated: AAA

Peer-to-peer lending company Flender has secured a new €75 million funding line to provide loans to Irish businesses.

The rate cuts mean that loans of up to €250,000 are now available for SMEs from 6.45 per cent for terms up to 36 months.

Max Crowdfund: A Real Estate Crowdfunding Platform Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Simplify Property Investment (CardRates), Rated: A

In a Nutshell: Blockchain technology has helped many industries innovate in recent years. Max Crowdfund is one company using the technology to make investing in real estate easier and more accessible. The platform also simplifies investment managment for real estate professionals. Through the use of blockchain technology, properties can be tokenized — or broken down into investment opportunities as low as €1,000 — something that can’t be done through traditional real estate investing. Overall, the Max Crowdfund platform makes real estate investing faster, cheaper, and easier for everyone.

CNH Industrial and October signed a crowd-funding partnership agreement to offer digital funding to Small and Medium Companies. (Emergency-Live), Rated: B

CNH Industrial and the fintech lending platform October entered into a partnership agreement in July 2019 to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) working with IVECO and CASE Construction Equipment brands through the adoption of crowd-lending in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
International

Crypto Sentiment on the Rise? Quarterly Stablecoin Loans Surge 38% to $ 870m (Forbes), Rated: AAA

Genesis Capital, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest investment firms in the crypto sector, has reported a 38% increase in stablecoin loans in the 3rd quarter of 2019.

Australia

Pop Up Tax Shop and Mr Tax Acquired by Queensland Accounting Group (Newsmaker), Rated: B

Mr Tax Refund was incorporated in 2012 and majority-owned by online lender, Paid International. In January 2015, Paid was sold to ASX listed, Money3 Corp Ltd.

India

P2P Lenders Grow Amid A Gloomy NBFC Environment (Bloomberg Quint), Rated: AAA

The 19 P2P lenders have now facilitated disbursals of close to Rs 500 crore, estimate industry executives who say that a good chunk of this growth has come in the last twelve months. While P2P lenders are registered with the Reserve Bank of India, the regulator does not release lending data for these platforms. As such, BloombergQuint could not independently verify the extent of loans given out via these platforms.

Online lender Aye Finance’s profits grew 10x at INR 250 mn in FY19 (IBS Intelligence), Rated: A

Aye Finance Private Limited (Aye Finance) is among the few in the Indian online lending space that has been posting profits for the last two years. The company, which provides micro-financial services, has reported a net profit of INR 250 million during fiscal 2019, a 10x increased from INR 23 million net profit a year ago.

P2P Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Sees BTC/Rupee Trade Volumes Soar by 22% As India Celebrates Diwali (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: B

As India donned its festive hats to celebrate a whole week of Diwali, the real gift went to the peer-to-peer lending exchange Paxful. It saw the country’s Bitcoin trading volume on its platform reach an all-time high.

Southeast Asia

Digital Financial Services to Generate $ 38 Billion in Southeast Asia, Study Finds (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

Digital financial services from lending to asset management are expected to generate at least $38 billion of annual revenue across Southeast Asia by 2025, more than tripling from $11 billion in 2019, according to a new study by Bain & Co.Google and Temasek Holdings Pte.

Online lending will comprise about half that total for the region, which houses some of the world’s fastest-evolving internet and mobile industries. Growing smartphone penetration promises to unlock internet-based services such as insurance to more than 70% of an adult population neglected by traditional banks, according to the report.

Indonesian P2P lender Investree close to Series C funding, plans expansion of Islamic business (Salaam Gateway), Rated: A

While celebrating its fourth anniversary this week, the fintech start-up that set the peer-to-peer lending ball rolling in Indonesia is preparing for its third major round of investment, possibly in the next month.

Aside from regional expansion, Investree intends to intensively develop its Shariah-compliant business unit over the coming year.

Golden Gate Ventures, Modalku invest in Indonesian accounting SaaS startup Paper.id (e27), Rated: B

Indonesia’s Software as a Service (Saas) startup Paper.id announced that it has closed an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Southeast Asia-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures and Indonesia’s P2P lending platform Modalku.

Authors:

George Popescu
Allen Taylor

The post Thursday October 31 2019, Weekly News Digest appeared first on Coin times.


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