Weekly industry news roundup – January 2, 2017

Financial Well-being

Around the world

On Wednesday of last week PYMNTS covered recent comments from Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora. While he signaled changes ahead for marketplace lenders he also remarked that “More of the borrowers are seeking faster responses and are applying for funding online and digitally.” P2P lenders continue to leverage the advantages of a digital solution as banks seek ways to remain competitive.


Political news site The Hill forecasted changes in marketplace lending and other financial technologies. The author explains “Trump’s campaign promise to severely cut back regulation, as well as congressional Republicans’ general aversion to the increased regulatory presence in financial services, means significant changes are likely forthcoming.” The new administration may have an impact on the recent best practices recommendations from the Department of the Treasury.


At the end of the month Equities.com posted an article on partnerships developing between marketplace lenders and traditional banks. The author explains the genesis for these unions citing that “In recent years, small businesses have been underserved by the banks. Marketplace lenders saw the opportunity and rose to meet the demand for small business funding. This led to banks maneuvering to get a piece of that pie.”


Forbes discussed recent data which portends a favorable environment for small businesses in 2017 noting that “Institutional lenders, which have emerged as major players in the marketplace lending industry are approving an all-time Index high 63.3% of funding requests from entrepreneurs after an increase of two-tenths of a percent in a month-by-month comparison.”


Banking Exchange published a piece on the value of marketplace lenders who own every aspect of the P2P ecosystem. One such example, U.S. located Cross River Bank has explained, “We’re looking at the marketplace lending industry very holistically,” The Ceo continued “As an end-to-end solution, from origination to funding and even post-funding with liquidity channels, we want to own that part of the equation.”