banks

Credit Suisse NEXT Investors Leads 165M US$ Investment Round in Prosper Marketplace

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Prosper Marketplace, Prosper Logowhich operates a privately held p2p lending marketplace, today announced a 165 million US$ Series D financing, led by Credit Suisse NEXT Investors, part of Credit Suisse Asset Management. Additional participants included J.P. Morgan Asset Management, SunTrust Banks, a subsidiary of USAA, BBVA Ventures (BBVA’s representative office in San Francisco), Neuberger Berman Private Equity Funds, Passport Capital, Breyer Capital, and others. The latest funding will support the company’s continued growth, expansion, and development of a national brand as it builds new products and services for the marketplace’s borrowers and investors. This round put the valuation of the company at roughly 1.87 billion US$.

The funding comes on the heels of a record quarter, with nearly 600 million US$ in loans originated through the Prosper platform, up 200% from the year ago quarter. The significant growth is a true indication of the increasing mainstream acceptance of marketplace lending.

“This investment is a testament to the efforts of our entire team in changing how people experience access to credit,” said Aaron Vermut, chief executive officer at Prosper Marketplace. “The explosion of interest in P2P lending demonstrates that a shift is in progress in the way that consumers borrow and lend. This new funding will help us scale the business to meet this growing awareness and demand.” Continue reading →

Lendico Announces Large Influx of Institutional Capital – Repositions in some Markets

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Lendico logoGerman p2p lending service Lendico announced yesterday that an unnamed international hedge fund and 2 german banks will invest over 100 million Euro in loans on the Lendico marketplaces. The management sees that as a mark of confidence. Lendico is committed to increase activities in its growing core markets and plans to expand the product into SME loans. Continue reading →

Goldman Sachs Quantifies Potential Impact of US P2P Lending on Bank Profits

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Goldman Sachs published the research paper ‘The Future of Finance’ analysing the potential impact of alternative finance companies, especially p2p lending marketplaces, on the US banking sector.
Goldman Sachs states ‘We see the largest risk of disintermediation by non-traditional players in: 1) consumer lending, 2) small business lending, 3) leveraged lending (i.e., loans to non-investment grade businesses), 4) mortgage banking (both origination and servicing), 5) commercial real estate and 6) student lending. In all, [US] banks earned ~$150bn in 2014, and we estimate $11bn+ (7%) of annual profit could be at risk from non-bank disintermediation over the next 5+ years.‘

Goldman Sachs Future in Finance

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RBS starts Referring SMEs to Funding Circle and Assetz Capital

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The Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced that it is set to give thousands of small British businesses greater access to finance by formally referring customers to the p2p lending marketplaces Funding Circle and Assetz Capital.
From next week customers, who the bank is unable to financially help at the moment, will be signposted to both Funding Circle and Assetz Capital as options of alternative sources of finance. RBS accounts for 33% of the small business lending market, so is set to become the largest lender to refer small business customers. As well as this, after having explored Invoice Finance, Asset Finance, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme and the Regional Growth Fund, customers will be asked to visit the BBA’s dedicated website which also offers additional support.

The bank’s aim is to expand choice for customers whose loan applications do not meet the bank’s criteria, by signposting them to 2-5 peer-to-business lenders (P2B) alongside other alternative finance sources. This will happen through conversations that the customer will have with a relationship manager or through documents included with correspondence.

P2P Lender Lending Club Announces Partnership with Union Bank

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Renauld Laplanche, CEO of Lending Club, announced today that Lending Club and Union Bank will partner to develop and offer products to  the 1 million customers of Union Bank. Lending Club has partnered with several smaller banks in the 12 to 18 months. Laplanche sees great potential for more of the 6,000 banks in the US to partner with the p2p lending industry and profit from leaner processes the new players offer.


Source: Lending Club


Renauld Laplanche speaking at LendIt 2014

Asked whether Lending Club has plans to go international he says the focus is on the US. But the time may come for international expansion but that is at least 2-3 years of.

Westpac Banking Corp Invests Into P2P Lending Service Society One

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In Australia Reinventure Group, the new Westpac­-funded venture capital manager, has invested $5 million in p2p lending service Societyone. Society One, which was founded in August 2012 (see related earlier coverage) by Matt Symons and Greg Symons has originated about 200 loans totalling 4 million AUD. The loan book has doubled in the past six months. Westpac’s VC fund will be joined on the SocietyOne shareholder register by Rocket Internet, which is already funding Lendico, and several local investors including the Australian head of global private equity giant KKR, ­Justin Reizes, who said he has invested in Society One in a personal capacity.The 8.5 million capital raising will allow Society One to develop new credit products. It recently launched livestock loans and loans tailored for young doctors which are being offered to sophisticated investors through its internet-based platform.