Thursday April 11 2019, Weekly News Digest

United States

Need a loan for Tax Day? According to Lending Club data, you’re not aloan… er, alone (Thinknum), Rated: AAA

As seen in data from Lending Club ($NYSE:LC), there is a cyclical spike in the number of loans, as well as the money needed by those needing loans, right around the end of tax season. While this finding may seem pretty clear without any data, it essentially confirms an adage in the lending industry.

RIght now, there was only $21.5 million loaned out to lendees from April 8 to today. This past week, there was about $159 million worth of all sorts of loans — personal, mortgage, etc. — loaned out by the platform.

Lending Club Total Principal Loaned (Weekly)

ONDECK OFFERS SAME DAY FUNDING TO EMPOWER SMALL BUSINESS (OnDeck), Rated: AAA

OnDeck today announced that it will offer to fund and debit customer bank accounts with Same Day ACH transfers, eliminating a decades long pain point for small business owners accustomed to the traditional ACH transfer process, which can take multiple days and lacks certainty on when the transactions will hit bank accounts.

Same Day ACH transfers from OnDeck provide qualified OnDeck Term Loan and Line of Credit customers with funds up to the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) cap of $25,000 by 5:00 pm local time on the same business day the customer books or makes a draw on their line of credit.* Qualified customers are also debited via the same day ACH service, providing them additional predictability in transaction clearing times and offering better clarity around day-to-day cash flow management.

Highlights from Jamie Dimon’s Annual Letter (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA

US payrolls rose by 196 k in March and the unemployment rate remained at 3.8%.

Highlights from Jamie Dimon’s Letter to Shareholders

Jamie Dimon published his annual letter to shareholders. We look at some highlights below:

• The banking system, and JPM in particular, is over-capitalized – Under the Fed’s most extreme stress-testing scenario, where 35 of the largest American banks bear extreme losses (as if each were the worst bank in the system), the combined losses are about 6% of the total loss absorbing resources of those 35 banks.

PM is investing billions in technology to compete – the cloud, AI, ML and digital banking

• JPM customers can now open a bank account online in under 5 minutes and can reduce their mortgage closing times to 3 weeks.
• The bank now has 49 Mn active digital customers, including 33 Mn active mobile customers
• JPM is looking at fintechs in the US and in China as not just opportunities but also looming competition.

Online lender Kabbage rakes in 0m funding (Verdict), Rated: AAA

Kabbage, an online lender for small businesses, has fetched $700m in asset-backed securitisation (ABS) funding.

With the securitisation, the company’s debt funding increases to $940m.

Real-time data was Kabbage’s secret sauce, its first investor says (American Banker), Rated: A

The firm started life as a small, scrappy fintech startup in Atlanta in 2008, but has grown rapidly. It made $2 billion worth of loans in 2018 and more than $600 million in the first quarter of 2019. It also recently agreed to provide financing at the point of sale on Alibaba.com as part of a program called Pay Later.

Upstart Raises $ 50 Million and Announces New Bank Partners (Lend Academy), Rated: A

One of the big announcements on day one of LendIt Fintech USA 2019 is from consumer lender Upstart. They have announced a $50 million equity raise as well as three new partners for their “Powered by Upstart” banking as a service program. Oh, and they are getting into credit cards.

PeerStreet Lowers Minimum Real Estate Investment to $ 100 (Think Reality), Rated: A

The burgeoning peer-to-peer lending platform PeerStreet has unveiled product updates that enable investments of only $100.

The company recently announced it’s lowered the minimum investment to $100 for “small balance reinvestments” when using its automated investing product. The upgrade also expands the investment types available for automated investing to include cash offer loans and 30-day notes, which offer shorter terms than typical bridge loan investment options, the company said.

Sharestates Wins Top Real Estate Platform Award at LendIt Fintech USA 2019 (PR Newswire), Rated: A

Sharestates, a marketplace lending platform that connects real estate developers with investors, was crowned Top Real Estate Platform at LendIt Fintech USA2019 in San Francisco, California on April 9, 2019. The Top Real Estate Platform award is based on performance, volume, growth, product diversity, and responsiveness to stakeholders.

Now operating in 46 states, Sharestates offers diversified asset classes including residential, multi-family, mixed-use, commercial properties, and land acquisitions.

Since launching in 2015, Sharestates has closed on over $1.7 billion in total loan volume and returned over $675 million in principal to investors. Average annualized returns have exceeded 10% every year. As a result of its strong performance and valued relationships, 82% of Sharestates loan volume has come from repeat borrowers and 81% of its investors are repeat investors.

The stREITwise Platform Brings Real Estate Investment to All (Realty Biz News), Rated: B

The company has just announced a new acquisition to its investment portfolio, a $32 million mixed-use building in Carmel, Indiana, one of the most affluent suburbs of Indianapolis. The 140,000-square foot Allied Solutions Building, already around 87 percent leased, stands poised to increase dramatically in value thanks to its location in the heart of downtown Carmel in the heart of a busy mixed-use development surrounded by restaurants, coffee shops, fast-casual dining, service-oriented retail, and the locally renownedSun King distillery and food hall right next door.

13 cities where renting is cheaper than buying a home (AOL), Rated: A

Americans’ homeownership rate is 64.8%, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

Following are the 13 metros where renting is cheaper by more than $150 a month, beginning with cities with a smaller advantage for renters.

BlueVine Adds Term Loan to Suite of Online Working Capital Solutions to Fuel Small Business Growth (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A

BlueVine, which provides small- and medium-sized businesses with access to fast and simple online financing, announced that it is making term loan financing available for business owners through its suite of online financing solutions. The BlueVine Term Loan provides small- and medium-sized business owners with fast and simple access to financing to grow their businesses through BlueVine’s advanced online platform. More than 59 percent of businesses are looking for funds to grow their business, according to the 2017 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey Report on Employer Firms. With a BlueVine Term Loan, business owners can quickly pursue larger projects and investments to bring their businesses to new heights.

Aura Approves 350,000th Affordable Loan (Bakersfield.com), Rated: A

Aura, a mission-driven financial technology company that offers affordable loans to hard-working families, this week approved its 350,000 th loan.

Since its launch in 2014, Aura has provided more than $437 million in credit-building loans to borrowers at approximately 1,200 partner locations using technology that enables local businesses to administer loan applications. Currently, Aura’s average loan size is around $1,600.

In total, Aura has raised over $403 million in social bonds across 21 bond issuances. The most recent issuance was in March for $50 million.

What Kind of Collateral Do I Need for a Business Loan? (Nav), Rated: A

Before you can qualify for a commercial loan, you’ll need to prove that doing business with your company is a good risk. This means you’ll need to pass successfully through a lender’s qualification process.

Next Wave of Personal Loan Growth May be Driven by Prime and Above Consumers (MarketWatch), Rated: A

The prime and above risk tiers have become a greater focus for lenders in recent years. Nearly two-thirds of unsecured personal loan balances originated in the first three quarters of 2018 were lent to prime and above consumers. FinTechs drove this shift as originations for prime and above grew to 62% in 2018, up from 52% in 2013. While still less conservative than banks, FinTechs’ overall risk profile for originations now aligns tightly with credit unions. At the end of 2018, FinTechs held the majority share of personal loan balances with 39%, while banks and credit unions followed with 28% and 21%, respectively.

Student Debt Isn’t Just An Employee Problem — It’s Also An Employer Problem (Killer Startups), Rated: A

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported in its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for the fourth quarter of 2018 that outstanding student loan debt increased to $1.46 trillion, which is $15 billion more than the previous quarter. It also reported that student loan debt rose by $79 billion in 2018.

The student debt load isn’t just impacting the individual students who enter the workforce, hoping they can find a job that enables them to make those monthly payments. I’s also slowing economic growth. A January 2019 Federal Reserve paper noted that young adults report their student loan debt is the reason they’re unable to buy a home. The same report also cited other research concluding that 20 percent of the decline in homeownership among young adults relates to student loan debt that’s been rising since 2005.

Amount Announces Cloud-Based Account Verification Platform (Kake), Rated: A

Amount today announced AmountVerify, a cloud-based platform for risk management across financial products. AmountVerify marks the first time industry leading fintech provider Avant is making a component of its cutting edge online lending platform available to financial service companies as a standalone product through Amount.

Onfido raises $ 50M to create the Identity Verification Standard for Businesses Globally (Markets Insider), Rated: A

Onfido, the global identity verification provider, today announced it has raised $50M in funding, bringing the total investment in the company to over $100M. The round was led by SBI Investment and Salesforce Ventures, with support from M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures), FinVC and others, including existing investors.

Forward Financing Expands Capital Base with $ 90 Million Credit Facility (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Forward Financing has closed on a $90 million credit facility, consisting of a $60 million senior revolving credit facility and a $30 million junior term loan. AloStar Capital Finance (“AloStar”), a division of Cadence Bank, N.A., served as the Agent on the senior facility.

Credibly Announces Investment Grade Senior Debt Offering (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Today, Credibly announces the next phase in its balance sheet growth strategy with a $10 million Investment Grade-rated senior debt offering. The transaction closed on March 28, 2019.

Mitek Expands Auto-Capture User Experience Across All Digital Channels with the Addition of Desktop (GlobeNewswire), Rated: A

Mitek today announced it has upgraded its desktop browser experience to support auto-capture so customers can rapidly verify the identity of applicants across all digital channels: desktop browsers, mobile web and native applications.

According to Javelin Research, today only one third of users (34 percent) still complete the entire account opening process on their desktop.

MiSnap delivers a superior auto-capture experience for desktop and across mobile devices through:

• Guided commands:  Real-time commands such as where to place a document in relation to the camera or detection of glare on the ID document are some of the conditions evaluated in order to help the user capture an optimal image, which improves image acceptance rates and reduces capture retries.
• Advanced image analysis: Once MiSnap has achieved an optimal capture of the ID document, the software then further analyzes the image and makes the necessary adjustments in order to process all images consistently and accurately.
• Modern architecture: Because MiSnap uses WebAssembly, it can perform at native speeds and is easy to integrate into customers’ web-based apps and requires minimal footprint.

58% of lenders will use AI in next two years (AI Foundry Email), Rated: A

Fannie Mae recently put out a survey on AI and mortgages, showing:

• Nearly two-thirds of lenders are familiar with AI
• But, only 27% are using it in their businesses now, and…
• Only half of that group are currently using it with customers (the rest are doing trials)
• However, looking ahead two years – 58% of lenders expect to use AI/ML in their mortgage business.
• Of the rest:

• • 22% predict they’ll be investigating AI
  • 19% foresee being in a “wait and see” mode

These data points show us that “prime time” is coming soon for AI/ML in mortgages. AI Foundry, who recently unveiled a platform for mortgage lenders that uses AI and ML to speed mortgages from the (industry average) 3 weeks down to 1-2 days, can talk about the requests and needs of their customers, and how they use AI now.

Fintech alone won’t be enough to boost credit union mortgage volumes (Credit Union Journal), Rated: A

How can credit unions, especially small institutions, compete with Quicken Loans’ Rocket Mortgage “Push button, get mortgage” campaign?

They can’t – and, sources said, they shouldn’t try.

GROUNDFLOOR Wins 2 FinTech Awards (Groundfloor Email), Rated: B

GROUNDFLOOR was named Best Crowdfunding Platform by the FinTech Breakthrough Awards. FinTech Breakthrough recognizes the top companies in the global FinTech market for showcasing technologies that drive innovation and exemplify the best in FinTech technology solutions across the globe.

GROUNDFLOOR was recognized by the TAG FinTech ADVANCE program as a company with ties to Georgia that is helping the financial industry move forward through innovation. This award is open to technology firms of all sizes (i.e. not just startups) that are providing technology, growing and making a difference.

Pulte Mortgage and Finicity Partner to Combat the Home Loan Paper Chase (MarketWatch), Rated: B

Pulte Mortgage announced today it is partnering with Finicity — a leading provider of real-time financial data access and insights, to provide its borrowers with a faster, simpler and more secure way to navigate the home financing process.

Hudson Data and LendingPoint partner to prevent Synthetic ID fraud (Finanzen), Rated: B

Hudson Data and LendingPoint announced that they are partnering to create an industry solution to prevent synthetic identity fraud using powerful graph machine learning.

Dharma crypto lending platform officially goes live (CoinGeek), Rated: B

Dharma Labs completed a Series A funding round earlier this year to support its cryptocurrency lending platform project. The San Francisco-based company raised $7 million from companies such as Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures and others and, if there was any concern about the platform not going live, those concerns are now extinguished. Dharma announced this past Monday in a Medium post that the platform is now live.

United Kingdom

RateSetter ISA Milestone: Passes £200 Million in Subscriptions (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: AAA

UK-based peer-to-peer lender RateSetter recently announced its ISA has now passed the milestone of attracting £200 million in subscriptions.

“Investors have enjoyed an average annualised return of 4.5%, tax-free of course, since the RateSetter ISA launched in February 2018. The average RateSetter ISA balance stands at £11,000.”

Funding Circle boss pocketed more than £4m last year (P2P Finance News), Rated: AAA

FUNDING Circle founder Samir Desai (pictured) earned more than £4m last year, having cashed in some of his shares at the time of the peer-to-peer lender’s stock market flotation.

Desai took home a salary of £210,000 last year, according to Funding Circle’s annual report, a four per cent increase from his salary of £202,000 in 2017.

The majority of his total remuneration of £4.081m came from cashing in share options.

Zopa rewrites outdated money idioms (The London Economic), Rated: AAA

Each future-looking idiom challenges the status quo. For example, according to Zopa, the ‘signing for the bill’ gesture will be redundant soon. Instead, when people have finished their meal, people will be more likely to signal facial or iris recognition to the waiter. Jonesy gives his take and takes it one step further by illustrating a customer displaying his eyeball to request the bill.

Fintech unicorns are leading job creation in London (Business Insider), Rated: AAA

In 2018, there was a 61% increase in fintech job creation within London from the previous year, per a new report by Robert Walters, making it the fastest growing sector for vacancies in the city.

The UK houses 25% of all fintech unicorns and their growth plans call for more talent. There are 29 fintech unicorns worldwide, seven of which are based in the UK, making the UK second only to San Francisco, which is home to nine.

Over 30% of jobs in the UK’s fintech industry are for IT-related roles, compared with 24% in 2017. And fintech unicorns’ hiring for IT professionals increased 74% year-over-year (YoY).

London to take San Francisco’s fintech unicorn crown (The Innovation Enterprise), Rated: A

However, the report has predicted that London could take the lead as early as this year, as the city receives 39% of European fintech venture capital funding, with the runner-up, Berlin, taking just 21% of the total investment.

With 50% against a global average of 33%, the UK also enjoys the highest rate of consumer fintech adoption of any Western country, only beaten by India and China, the report found.

LendInvest gains £200m HSBC funding as it seeks home loan market entry (Verdict), Rated: A

LendInvest, which operates an online marketplace for mortgages, has received an investment of £200m ($261m) from HSBC UK to support its foray into the regulated home loan sector.

Peer-to-peer scheme for first-time buyers launches (FT Advisor), Rated: A

Arbuthnot Latham launches Arbuthnot Direct for those seeking long-term interest returns (Arbuthnot Email), Rated: B

Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited (“Arbuthnot Latham”) is pleased to announce the launch of its new platform under the trading name of Arbuthnot Direct. Arbuthnot Direct offers fixed term deposits online, targeting retail customers who are seeking interest returns on their money over the longer term. The platform held a successful soft launch in February 2019 and has already met with a positive reception.

China

The rise and fall of P2P lending in China (Finextra), Rated: AAA

It is worth mentioning that the size of China’s P2P industry is larger than that of the rest of the world combined, with outstanding loans of US$217.96BN.

China’s online P2P lending industry grew rapidly between 2011 to 2015, with the number of P2P lenders growing from 50 to nearly 3,500 respectively.

Trouble started brewing in China back in 2016, when statistics released by the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission showed that about 40% of P2P lending platforms were in fact Ponzi schemes.

This triggered the shutdown of P2P lending platforms; over 900 closed by the end of 2016. For 2018, only 1,021 providers remained in place.

Shenzhen police arrest Zhang Wei, calling China Create Capital a ‘mafia-like gang’ (SCMP), Rated: A

China Create Capital Limited, the investment holding company headed by the 46-year-old Heilongjiang native is a “mafia-style gang” involved in illegal fundraising, harassment, blackmail, illegal detention of people and the possession of firearms, the Shenzhen police said in a notice. The whereabouts of Zhang, who was arrested with 43 other executives of China Create, could not be ascertained.

European Union

Klarna launches global customer authentication platform (Klarna), Rated: AAA

Klarna today announced the launch of its global authentication platform — an aggregator with multiple global and local authentication solutions. The platform allows multinational businesses, including merchants and other banks, to provide a simple, secure and personalised customer authentication experience irrespective of market, through a one-time integration.

Klarna Sees Payments as Evolving From Function to Engagement (WWD), Rated: A

Klarna’s Hannah Bravo says customers chose brands based on payment options.

This New Tool Is Helping Retailers Build Consumer Trust During Online Checkouts (Footwear News), Rated: B

The Klarna platform enables businesses to choose from a range of global and local authentication methods so that they can find one that works best for their customer. Whether using SMS verification or emailed one-time passwords, brands and retailers can verify their customers’ identities with minimal interruption to the consumer’s shopping journey.

International

Drivers of Global Growth in FSB’s Shadow Banking (DBRS Email), Rated: AAA

DBRS sees significant risks stemming from continued growth in shadow banking globally. Assets are now at $52 trillion globally, up from $30 trillion in 2010, according to the FSB. The U.S. has the largest concentration with 29% of global shadow banking assets. But, this is down from 48% in 2010, as other regions are growing faster.

Summary highlights of the commentary include:

• Shadow banking is still growing. This narrow, but rapidly growing, subset of nonbanks had assets of $52 trillion in 2017, up 75% from $30 trillion in 2010.
• Since 2010, assets of nonbanks are also growing, up 61% to $185 trillion. That is 49% of the $378 trillion in total global assets in all financial institutions at the end of 2017, up significantly from 44% in 2010.
• The key driver of this growth in nonbank assets is the expansion of OFIs. These OFIs are defined as all financial institutions that are NOT central banks, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, public financial institutions, or financial auxiliaries. Assets at these OFIs grew 71% since 2010 to a record $117 trillion in 2017, or just over 30% of assets in financial institutions globally.
• By far, the largest segment of shadow banking globally is collective investment vehicles, which are subject to runs. These include fixed income funds, mixed funds, MMFs and hedge funds. Since 2010, this segment has grown by 130% to $36.7 trillion in assets. By contrast, growth in other segments has been less than $1 trillion, or even negative.

Read the full report here.

Crypto Lending Platform Salt Adds Support for Dash as Collateral (Crypto-Economy), Rated: A

Cryptocurrency lending platform Salt will now be allowing its users to collateralize their Dash holdings including their Masternode staking coins to access loan facilities.

India

RentoMojo in talks to raise $ 40 million from GMO, others (livemint), Rated: A

For RentoMojo, the latest fundraise comes almost two years after it raised $10 million in July 2017 from Bain Capital, Accel and Chiratae Ventures. Renauld Laplanche, chief executive of US-based Lending Club, also took part in his personal capacity.

Asia

Housing sector remains major source of complaints: BPKN (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A

The BPKN received 154 complaints in the first quarter, most originating from the housing sector. BPKN communications and education coordinator Arief Safari said the agency had received 129 complaints on the housing sector in the first quarter, followed by six complaints on online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, three on banking and the remainder on various sectors, including travel and e-commerce.

Batumbu to help finance SMEs (The Jakarta Post), Rated: A

PT Berdayakan Usaha Indonesia has announced that it aims to help small and medium enterprises (SME) access financial capital through a partnership program with its digital platform Batumbu.

MENA

The Future of Digitization, AI and FinTech in the Middle East Region (Bloomberg), Rated: AAA

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