Global online lender Spotcap partners with Heartland Bank, launches in NZ
European-based online lender Spotcap today announces a partnership with NZX-listed New Zealand bank, Heartland, with the bank providing Spotcap’s Australian operations with A$20million of funding. At the same time, Spotcap today launches its New Zealand operations in Auckland, further cementing Asia Pacific as one of the fastest growing regions for global fintech. * Spotcap provides flexible and accessible funding solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with unsecured credit lines and business loans of up to $250,000. Rather than basing credit decisions on historical financials, Spotcap has developed a unique, proprietary credit algorithm which provides deep insight into the financial condition of a business, enabling quick, sound credit decisions. “We […]
The Emergence of Fintech in Indonesia
Financial technology, or more popularly called ‘fintech’, can be defined as a phenomenon in which technology and financial features go hand in hand in altering the traditional financial institution business models and discovering solution alternatives to customers’ financial experience. Like other businesses, fintechs are established to answer consumers’ needs, challenges and wants. In this case, the emergence of financial technology is no exception. There are at least four main challenges surrounding the potential and necessity of fintech in Indonesia. Firstly, the large amount of unbanked population. It is estimated that only 40% of Indonesia’s 250 million population currently have access to banking services. Secondly, the large amount of underserved small […]
Peer-to-peer loans hedge fund LendingRobot combines robo-advice with blockchain
Alternative lending investment platform LendingRobot combines robo-advice with blockchain technology to make the fund fully transparent to investors. The investment platform also uses the cloud and offers a dollop of machine learning to enhance returns. The Seattle-based hedge fund will only invest in peer to peer loans: Lending Club, Sofi, Funding Circle and the like, allowing investors exposure to thousands of loans at once across consumer credit, small business loans, and even real estate loans. For investors, the returns in investing in these loans are extremely stable income-generating assets (people tend to pay them back), noted a spokesman. Historical returns on peer lending for investors average around 7%, while returns […]
The first property-backed Innovative Finance ISA has arrived
LandlordInvest, having recently been approved as an ISA manger by the Board of HM Revenue & Customs, becomes the first peer-to-peer lending platform to offer a property-backed Innovative Finance ISA (“IFISA”). LandlordInvest’s property-backed IFISA lets savers invest up to £15,240 in the current tax year (rising to £20,000 in the next tax year) in peer-to-peer loans secured by residential property, and with the ability to earn tax-free returns between 5-12% per annum. It is the first property-backed IFISA ever made available to UK savers, and it is expected to be a valuable addition to any well-diversified portfolio, especially in the current low rate environment. Filip Karadaghi, LandlordInvest’s Chief Executive said: “This […]
US fintech SoFi targets mortgage lending in Australia
One of the best-funded financial technology companies in the US, SoFi, is preparing to launch in Australia to offer mortgages in direct competition with the banks. In recent days, the San Francisco-based SoFi has used LinkedIn to advertise for a manager of mortgage operations, based in Sydney, along with an operations manager and a marketing manager. The pending opening in Sydney would be SoFi’s first office outside the US, where it has funded more than $US7 billion in student loan refinancing, personal loans and mortgages since it was founded in 2011. Over the past two years, SoFi, which used to be called Social Finance, has raised $1 billion in new […]
LandlordInvest gains ISA manager status from HMRC
LandlordInvest has been approved by HMRC as an ISA manager, paving the way for the launch of its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), Peer-to-Peer Finance News has learnt. The peer-to-peer lender, which specialises in buy-to-let mortgages, gained full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority in early December, following a 24-month application process. The platform will be making an official announcement regarding its HMRC approval later today. The IFISA is a tax-free wrapper around P2P investments heralded as a game-changer for the industry. It is hoped that the ISA brand will open the sector up to a wider range of retail investors, who might have not considered P2P before. At present, just […]
Octopus gets FCA authorisation
OCTOPUS Choice is the latest peer-to-peer lending platform to be granted full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), just nine months after launch. The property lender has attracted almost £45m from lenders and funded 75 deals since it launched last April. Richard Wazacz, head of Octopus Choice, said authorisation now opens the door for the firm to launch its Innovative Finance ISA later this year. “The incredible demand we’ve witnessed in the nine months since launch underlines the level of interest for this sort of investment – and the authorisation that the FCA has now granted us will no doubt give renewed confidence to our fast-growing base of investors,” […]
China Rapid Finance to triple number of users on its consumer lending platform
China Rapid Finance (CRF), the mainland’s largest online consumer lending platform in terms of the number of loans transacted, is looking to triple the number of users this year as it looks to create a business on par with a major commercial bank’s credit-card division. Zane Wang Zhengyu, founder and chief executive of CRF, told the South China Morning Post that the company would be impervious to the challenges facing other peer-to-peer (P2P) operators on the mainland, and would continue to bolster its online consumer lending businesses in accordance with Beijing’s financial reforms. “We have been trying to nurture the growth of the online consumer lending business in China,” he […]
