Articles by deBanked Staff
Register for The 4th Annual Alternative Finance Bar Association Conference
May 12, 2022
The fourth annual Alternative Finance Bar Association conference is BACK IN PERSON. This is the go-to event for and with the industry’s leading attorneys.
Mark your calendars for June 15th and June 16th in New York City and register by emailing Lindsey Rohan at lindsey@lrohanlaw.com. Registration is subject to approval and space availability.
Two-day program includes the following panels:
The State of the Industry: Industry experts discuss pending legislation, case law and market hurdles. They have both a regulatory panel ready to discuss what’s new in Virginia, Utah, NY and California as well as a Courtroom panel ready to discuss the winning and losing case law that has come out in the past year.
Bankruptcy: The aftermath of Chicago v. Fulton, In re Shoot the Moon and other pivotal bankruptcy cases that shape industry practices.
Ethics: Challenges faced by internal counsel and ways to navigate those pressures.
Collections: Trends in the post-COJ, post-COVID era.
Employment/Labor Law: The rise of labor use outside the U.S. What challenges arise from having call centers outside the U.S. Tax implications, oversight and practical benefits/detriments. Post-COVID remote work implications. What you need to be aware of to avoid creating liabilities.
The Art of Arbitration: The importance of a carefully drafted Arbitration Clause and the pro/cons of this venue.
Thinking Ahead: What technologies and market conditions will shape the future of the industry. Broad discussion of Blockchain technology, CRM systems, cannabis and what we can imagine will shape the future of Alternative finance.
WEDNESDAY KEYNOTE: David Picon, Esq. – It is with great pride that David Picon of Proskauer Rose will be the Keynote speaker. For years the AFBA has admired his work from afar. Attendees now have an opportunity to learn directly from David what makes for an unstoppable litigator.
THURSDAY SPECIAL EVENT: AFBA Game Show Mash-Up with the Industry’s Legendary Attorneys. Special Guests you will not want to miss!
Speakers:
- Andrew Smith, Covington & Burlington LLP
- Brian Simon, Hollis Public Affairs
- Jamie Polon, Mavrides Moyal Packman & Sadkin, LLP
- Patrick Siegfried, Rapid Finance
- Natalie Pappas, Rapid Finance
- Keith Ellis, Expansion Capital Group
- Kate Fisher, Hudson Cook LLP
- Cathy Brennan, Hudson Cook LLP
- Blake Sims, Hudson Cook LLP
- Steve Denis, Small Business Finance Association
- Christopher R. Murray, Murray Legal PLLC
- Mark Stout, Padfield & Stout
- Shanna Kaminski, Kaminski Law Group
- Michael W. Davis, DTO Law
- John Viskocil, Fora Financial
- Gabriel Mendelberg, Mendelberg P.C.
- Anthony F. Giuliano, Giuliano Law P.C.
- Jeffrey S. Cianciulli, Weir Greenblatt Pierce LLP
- David Picon, Proskauer Rose
- Jonathan Nelson, Dedicated Financial GBC
- Lindsey Rohan, BasePoint Capital LLC
- Christina Grigorian, Katten; Zach Miller, Burr & Foreman
- Renata Buhkman, Delta Bridge Funding
- Vanessa Petty, Settle
- Alexis Shapiro, Forward Financing
- Jan Owens, Manatt Phelps
- Scott Pearson, Manatt Phelps
- Jesse Michael Carlson, Kapitus
- Robert Zadek, Buchalter
When:
Day 1 – June 15
9:00am – 4:30pm: Offices of Proskauer Rose (includes light breakfast and lunch)
5:30pm – 7:30pm: Cocktails at Dear Irving
Day 2 – June 16
9:30am – 6:00pm: 15 W. 38th Street, 2nd Fl, Sinatra Room (includes light breakfast and lunch)
4:00pm: Wine & Cheese
Register soon, SPACE IS LIMITED!
deBanked is a sponsor of the event. Industry attorneys are highly encouraged to attend.
SoFi Says it is Working With SMB Finance Companies
May 10, 2022
SoFi may not exactly be in the small business lending market per se, but a digital payments company it acquired in April 2020, Galileo, has been put to good use.
“Galileo continues to expand its client base to include B2B and enterprise clients as adoption of modern cloud-based digital payments and banking has opened up new verticals and client types, use cases and opportunities,” said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto during the company’s Q1 earnings call. “For example, we launched two new clients in the first quarter that offer innovative working capital models for B2B and small- to medium-sized businesses.”
Noto said that they were not naming specific names at this time. “We will announce those [names] in conjunction with our partners as opposed to during our earnings call, but that’s increasingly a big channel for us, and we have a product pipeline to better serve the enterprise and SMB space holistically based on the demand we are seeing.”
SoFi reported a Q1 net loss of $110M, which it said was an improvement over the $177.6M net loss it recorded during the same period last year.
Shopify Capital Originated $346.7M in Business Funding in Q1
May 8, 2022
Shopify Capital originated $346.7M in MCAs and business loans in Q1, the company announced. That included merchants in the US, UK, and Canada. Though it was a 12% increase over the same period last year, the figure puts them virtually on par with originations in 2021 if the following three quarters hold steady.
Shopify was one of the only online lenders whose origination volume substantially increased during covid. Most experienced significant drops but have since dramatically recovered.
“The hundreds of thousands of businesses that shifted their business to Shopify during the pandemic and stayed with us since can now take advantage of our powerful retail point-of-sale offering for a unified view of their sales online and offline,” said Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein during the Q1 earnings call. “Shopify has been developing the world’s best point-of-sale retail software for years, and it’s now at the point where all merchants who came to Shopify during the pandemic can leverage it.”
Join the deBanked Team in NYC for a Night of Networking in Web3 & Crypto
May 8, 2022
The team behind deBanked is hosting a 3-hour open bar in New York City this Wednesday night on May 11th from 6-9pm. It’s called deCashed. deBanked readers interested in Web3, NFTs, and crypto are welcome to attend the event being held at The Refinery Rooftop.
Sponsored by Artchive and designated as the first in-real-life meetup for enthusiasts of the Ethereum Name Service’s recently formed “10KClub,” deCashed intends to bring crypto-capable folks together for a night of fun, networking, and cocktails.
“I think there is a big misconception among folks who associate crypto with things like the value of bitcoin,” said Sean Murray. “In my opinion, cryptocurrencies are not investments. They’re payment tools and a means of identity. If you’ve soured on crypto because you were told a coin was going to go up and then it went down instead, that is unfortunate because the actual use-cases for crypto are just starting to be used and are on the verge of mass adoption. You don’t need to invest in any coins, just be knowledgeable of the infrastructure.”
Twitter, for example, has already implemented a limited Web3 mechanism in which ethereum-based NFTs can be used as profile pictures for users that connect their wallets. Instagram too is slated to roll out integrations with ethereum, solana, flow, and polygon THIS WEEK as social media the world over begins its slow evolution forward. Coinbase too rolled out its own social network last week. Similarly, a handful of non-bank lenders have already pivoted to smart-contract-based loans in which lenders are effectively 100% insulated from loss.
Seven years ago there was a big rush for small business lenders to incorporate social media activity into the underwriting process with the premise that much could be learned by what businesses say, share, and present themselves as on social media. Today, social media users are slowly gravitating toward a blockchain-based experience connected to their digital wallets in which their bank statements and their online photos are effectively accounted for in the same system. Do you know how to examine that?
See you at the deCashed three-hour open bar this Wednesday night in NYC at The Refinery Rooftop from 6-9pm if Web3 and crypto appeals to you. Please register in advance. If you need help, e-mail events@decashed.com or call 917-722-0808.
Square Loans Originated $756M in Q1
May 5, 2022
Square Loans, the small business lending division of Block, is off to a roaring start. The company originated 90,000 loans for a total of $756M in Q1, according to the company’s latest quarterly earnings. One cause of that was a foray into the Canadian market as part of the company’s strategy to offer all its products in every market it operates in.
“I would say that we have always felt that fast access to funds, whether it’s a customer’s own funds or access to credit has been a key part of our platform and a key part of what our customers need in good times and in uncertain times,” said Block CFO Amrita Ahuja. “And we’ve built a lot of data, a lot of heuristics machine learning around the ability to enable customers for access to those funds in a responsible way. Obviously, we do that today on the Square platform with our Loans — Square Loans product, which we were able to very quickly pause during the early days of the pandemic, pivot to PPP, and then relaunch. And now with originations there back to pre-pandemic levels with continued strong results, encouraging results we’ve seen with respect to loss rates and repayment rates.”
Square Loans’ first quarter originations more than doubled YoY. The increase is consistent with results experienced by competitor Enova/OnDeck.
Enova Doubles Small Business Loan Originations YOY
May 4, 2022
Enova’s small business lending arm, powered mostly by OnDeck, originated $659M in Q1 of 2022. That was more than double the volume over the same period in 2021 and up 14% sequentially from Q4 2021. Overall, Enova reported a Q1 net income of $52M.
“The first quarter net charge-off ratio for small business receivables was 1.9%, up from 80 basis points last quarter, but below the prior year ratio of 2.6% and below pre-pandemic periods as we continue to see strong payment performance across all of our small business products,” said Enova CFO Steven Cunningham during the quarterly earnings call.
Company CEO David Fisher said that Enova felt really good about its market position in the small business lending space and considered itself the largest player in the non-prime sector of it overall. “We are not feeling APR pressure in our small business products,” Fisher said when asked if competitive forces might drive the company’s loan prices down. He attributed the company’s rapid originations growth to both an increase in marketing spend and an increase in customer awareness that they can access capital quickly online.
“…small businesses have a pretty strong appetite for growth, but also for kind of more traditional non-bank small business lenders,” Fisher said. “I think kind of the online approach with kind of the speed and the ease and the transparency is really appealing to businesses.”
LendingClub Expects Modest Growth of its Commercial Lending Business
May 1, 2022
Fintech bank LendingClub expects its commercial loan business to grow modestly, according to Sameer Gokhale, Head of Investor Relations. Gokhale made the comment briefly during the company’s Q1 earnings call. “These commercial loans are largely secured by collateral or cash flow and should continue to be a good source of revenue and credit quality diversification,” he added.
LendingClub had $615M worth of commercial loans and equipment leases on its balance sheet as of March 31st. That excluded the $185M worth of PPP loans it still held.
The company’s overall lending business is still consumer-focused. Auto lending is expected to increase, but not to such an extent that it catches up to Lending Club’s personal loan business.
Overall, the company reported a net income of $40.8M on $289.5M in revenue for the quarter.
IOU Financial Originated $59.6M in Loans in Q1 2022
April 27, 2022
IOU Financial is experiencing tremendous growth. The small business lender revealed that it originated $59.6M in loans in just the first quarter of 2022. In its quarterly earnings report, it set a target range of $220M to $260M in originations for the whole year of 2022. This would be a massive increase over its loan originations last year when it set a personal record of $161.5M.
Separately, the company is profitable. IOU achieved net earnings of $3.7M on an IFRS basis. It also had $119.5M in loans under management as of year-end 2021.
“The Company attributes a significant portion of its strong growth in loan originations to its successful transition from a balance sheet strategy (under which the Company traditionally funded loans to its balance sheet) to a marketplace strategy under which new loan originations are primarily being sold to institutional purchasers,” IOU said in its official announcement.
“IOU’s marketplace strategy allowed the Company to originate significantly more volume in 2021 than would have previously been possible under the financial limitations of a balance sheet strategy,” said Robert Gloer, President and CEO of IOU. “This has proven to be a win-win that has in turn given us the financial latitude to repurchase approximately $3.7 million in convertible debentures in 2021 and invest in strategic growth initiatives as part of our Post-Pandemic Growth Plan.”
