AROUND THE WORLD
UK p2p lender Zopa successfully securitized a portfolio of their loans. The credit quality of the portfolio was good enough to get a AA- rating from Fitch. This is an important step in providing liquidity and secondary markets to all Peer lenders, but especially the European ones. More information on this important advancement of p2p lending markets is available on Finextra.
The NASDAQ has a great article on p2p lending last week and tells us that Consumer lending is the biggest market segment in Europe at 366 million EUR followed by small business lending at 212 million EUR based on a Cambridge report done with accounting firm KPMG.
German credit broker Smava got some additional investment of $34 million in a Series C round funding. Smava started as an online lending platform and shifted focus to online portal and information site to various financial services including borrowing.
Lend Academy reports about Prospers plan to shut down their secondary market starting from October 27, 2016. According to Prospers statement the reason for this is that very few investors are currently using the secondary market and they want to put their focus on improving other aspects of their platform.
This Financial Times article discusses how the FCA in the UK (the securities authority that covers p2p lending in England) is asking the University of Cambridge Center of Alternative Finance for help in better understanding the industry. Better understanding means more sensible regulation of p2p lending in the UK.
BONDORA MENTIONS
Crowdfund Insider covered our new Refer-A-Friend program where you can earn referral fees with your own custom link.
The SMN Weekly blog covered our new rate structure that increases rates on our highest rate loans. Our blog post on it is right here in case you missed it.
