Articles by deBanked Staff
Shark Tank Star Barbara Corcoran Stars in OnDeck TV Commercial
September 27, 2016Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran is going beyond Shark Tank to help small businesses, this time by appearing in TV commercials for OnDeck.
“All small business owners have grit and perseverance. That’s a given. What they sometimes lack is access to capital. That’s where OnDeck becomes so valuable. OnDeck has the services and solutions that entrepreneurs need to meet daily challenges and grow their business,” said Ms. Corcoran in an OnDeck announcement. “I’m delighted to communicate the good news to small businesses that, thanks to OnDeck, financing their dreams is easier and faster than ever.”
See both versions of the commercial below:
Corcoran isn’t the only Shark Tank star to promote a small business lender. Kevin O’Leary, for example, is a spokesperson for IOU Financial, Lori Greiner is a spokesperson for Kabbage, and Kevin Harrington actually co-founded Ventury Capital.
Podcast: The Current State of Marketplace Lending and Investing – By Pepper Hamilton LLP
September 26, 2016Law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP has released a podcast discussing the current state of marketplace lending. Of note is the recent CashCall decision as it pertains to “true lender” status. They also touch upon Madden v Midland Funding, a discussion on the recent FDIC guidance and the CFPB complaint portal.
Listen below:
Not loading? visit here
Lendio Improves Access to Capital, Continuing Marketplace Trend
September 22, 2016
Small business loan marketplace Lendio partnered with Detroit-based working capital financing company Supplier Success to improve capital access to businesses owned by minority and women owners.
“By joining forces with Supplier Success, we’re able to expand our capabilities to provide minority business owners easier access to financing,” said Brock Blake, CEO and co-founder of Utah-based, Lendio.
Supplier Success is the latest addition to the string of partners the company already works with. In August, the company announced that it had facilitated over $250 million in funding transactions and of that, $55 million was originated in Q2 alone. Partnerships with GoDaddy and Staples originated $14 million and $4 million respectively.
Loan marketplaces have been quick to board the partnership wagon, forging customer-share deals to expand their reach. Recently, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based small business lender CapitalFront partnered with Lenders One, a marketplace for mortgage brokers to offer unsecured business loans on the Lenders One platform.
Lenders One is a mortgage banking cooperative with 250 members including credit unions and community banks. Under the customer-sharing partnership, CapitalFront will offer funding to self-employed residential mortgage customers.
“Roughly 20% of mortgage borrowers are self-employed business owners,” said Brian Simon, CEO of CapitalFront in a statement. “The relationship between CapitalFront and Lenders One allows the cooperatives members to differentiate their services and strengthen their relationships with their customers by offering borrowers access to capital for their business needs.”
Denver-based Marketplace Lender P2Bi Secures $10 Million Credit Facility
September 20, 2016Denver-based marketplace lender P2BInvestor (P2Bi) closed a $10 million credit facility with Pittsburgh-based mortgage service company Urban Settlement Solutions.
Founded in 2012, P2Bi provides revolving lines of credit of up to $10 million to businesses. With an average line of $1 million, the company’s customers include businesses in retail, manufacturing and consumer goods packaging. They have originated $300 million since 2014. “Partnering with Urban Lending Solutions proves our ability to fund large facilities to established businesses through our marketplace model,” said Krista Morgan, CEO and cofounder of P2Bi in a statement.
This investment follows a round of $50 million funding the company raised in March this year.
Do Marketplace Lenders Need to Take Balance Sheet Risk?
September 20, 2016At the recent altfi conference in NYC, Rhydian Lewis from RateSetter and Rob Young from OnDeck debated the need for marketplace lenders to take balance sheet risk. (see the video below)
According to Georgia Quinn of Crowdfund Insider, “noteworthy absentees [at this conference] from former years were SoFi, Dealstruck, OurCrowd, Symbid, LendKey, Biz2Credit, OneVest, Realty Mogul, Assetz Capital, CommonBond, Seedrs, Crowdcube, P2BInvestor, and Zopa.” She speculated that it might have something to do with the Lending Club scandal from earlier this year.
Altfi is a UK-based company, competing against many other industry conferences in the US. Competition among conferences probably had more to do with a low turnout than anything else. For a list of upcoming conferences that should have a good turnout, see the upcoming schedule HERE.
Windset Capital Winding Down
September 18, 2016
An email sent out on Friday by Paul Phillips, announced that Riverton, UT-based Windset Capital will be winding down their funding operations this week. Phillips is the company’s business development manager.
“Windset will no longer accept new loan applications effective Monday, September 26, 2016. Windset will complete and fund all open and valid approvals and will continue to service all of the loans in its portfolio, for the entire duration of their terms.”
Phillips’ email explains a hard truth. “In our opinion the working capital loan market has become unhealthy, reflecting current and trending competitive patterns that we believe no longer maintains an acceptable balance between risk and pricing,” he says. “In addition, as an organization, we have multiple growth opportunities in our equipment finance businesses that are more compelling.”
Windset launched in in 2013 with the idea that they could provide businesses with at least two years in business with working capital loans up to $250,000.
“After three years of serving the short-term working capital market and dedicating 100% of Windset’s resources to the broker/ISO community, we have made the strategic decision to exit the working capital loan market and focus solely on our growing equipment finance businesses.” said Barry Shafran, Chesswood’s President and CEO.
Winset is owned by Chesswood Group Limited, whose portfolio of companies includes the notable Pawnee Leasing.
“While we have continued to manage Windset profitably, our longer term outlook on the changing fundamentals of the working capital loan market have made us uncomfortable with the risk-return profile. We appreciate the many relationships we have made since 2013 and we will continue to fund all of our partners’ approved applications,” said Windset and Pawnee Leasing President Gary Souverein.
Are Fintech Companies a Step Closer to Getting a Nonbank Charter?
September 15, 2016Pushing the agenda further on a limited-purpose charter for non banks, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Thomas Curry at an industry event on Tuesday said that the bureau is investigating “unique risks” that fintech companies might pose to the banking system and the economy.
Curry said that the true test for the industry will come under a “less favorable credit cycle.”
He revisited the topic of creating a limited-purpose charter for fintech companies akin to credit card banks and other non-deposit taking entities. The agency which was evaluating its authority to extend the same status to fintech companies might be a step closer. Should that happen, “the institutions who receive the charters will be held to the same strict standards of safety, soundness and fairness that other federally chartered institutions must meet,” Curry was quoted as saying in Reuters.
Short of advocating for a charter, the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA) with companies such as Kabbage, OnDeck and CAN Capital have suggested a licensing system that would eliminate the duplicative patchwork of federal and state laws.
Apart from this, fintech companies have also urged regulators to put up a united front by coordinating better among themselves and to take a principle-based approach instead of a rules-based one.
Robocalls, You Say? There Were 986 of Them Made Every Second in August
September 13, 20162.64 billion: That’s the estimated number of robocalls that were made last month, jumping almost ten percent from July.
That’s 986 robocalls placed every second somewhere in the country.
According to California-based robocall blocking software company YouMail, Texas received the highest number of robocalls — 298.3 million, and robocallers from California made 206.7 million calls, the highest last month.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that regulates interstate and international communication has been cracking down on unwanted robocalls and texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act blocks companies from robodialing cell phones without consent, however barring the exception of certain student loan debt collectors who represent the Department of Education.
And in its ongoing attempt to stop the “robocall scourge”, the FCC has turned to tech and telecom giants like AT&T, Google, Apple, Verizon and Comcast, urging the companies to make blocking software more effective.
