Articles by deBanked Staff
Neuberger Berman Acquires Significant Stake in IOU Financial
November 4, 2020
Neuberger Berman, an investment manager with $374B under management, is acquiring a 15% stake in IOU Financial, a small business lender. As part of the deal, one of the firm’s funds has agreed to purchase up to $150M a year of IOU’s loans over the next two years.
“This investment by a Neuberger Berman managed fund represents a strong vote of confidence in the fundamental, long-term value of our business, and is a testament to IOU’s loan origination and servicing capabilities in addition to its capital markets capabilities” said Phil Marleau, CEO of IOU, in a public statement.
Additionally, Neil Wolfson, a former board member to rival OnDeck, is joining IOU’s board of directors.
Business Who Received Multiple MCAs is Charged by NJ AG
November 1, 2020New Jersey State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the New Jersey Bureau of Securities within the Division of Consumer Affairs is suing Owusu A. Kizito and his business Investigroup, LLC. Regulators allege that “he defrauded at least 57 investors out of nearly $2.2 million through the fraudulent sale of unregistered securities and then used much of the money for his own personal benefit, including payments for his Maserati.”
Among the allegations in the AG’s announcement is that the defendants used merchant cash advances which assigned away the company’s rights to its receivables and that it failed to disclose this material information to investors.
Shopify Capital Originated $252M in MCAs and Business Loans in Q3
October 29, 2020
Shopify Capital, the finance arm of the 2nd largest e-commerce platform in the United States, reported making $252.1M worth of merchant cash advances and loans in the 3rd quarter. This is a 79% increase over the same period last year and spans three markets, the US, UK, and Canada. It’s also a quarterly record for the company.
The figure also solidly trumped the numbers recently reported by rival OnDeck.
Shopify CFO Amy Shapero said that the company has maintained loss ratios in line with historical performance.
“Businesses need financial resources to survive and fulfill their potential especially in these uncertain times and as you heard just now capital greatly increases the value of Shopify to our merchants,” she said during the earnings call.
Enova Posts $94M Profit for Q3
October 27, 2020Enova, the international lending conglomerate that recently acquired OnDeck, reported a Q3 profit of $93.67M, bringing the company to over $147M in profit for the year so far.
“We are pleased to report strong earnings as the credit quality of the portfolio continued to improve during the third quarter,” said David Fisher, Enova’s CEO in an official announcement. “Encouraged by the better than expected portfolio performance and the stable and predictable credit risk seen in our testing, we thoughtfully began reaccelerating lending in the third quarter.”
Speaking about OnDeck, Fisher said that “OnDeck experienced growth in originations, improving credit quality and solid profitability. Our integration plans and recognition of the expected synergies and financial benefits of the transaction remain on track. With the combination of Enova’s and OnDeck’s complementary, market-leading businesses and our extensive experience navigating changes in the operating environment, we believe we are well positioned to grow profitably and drive long-term shareholder value.”
Revisiting Miami in 2020
October 23, 2020deBanked reporter Johny Fernandez flew down to Miami in September to find out how the South Florida non-bank small business finance industry has been getting along since covid. The following are some excerpts of interviews:
Jordan Fein, CEO of Greenbox Capital
“I’d be lying to you if I told you that, well it was fine for us. It wasn’t fine for anybody. We got hit pretty hard. I’d say that anywhere between 20 – 24% of our Canadian and about 25 – 28% of our US market got wiped out. And we shut down funding from mid-March to the end of April and we started funding again in early May. We’ve just increasingly been bringing back people from furlough and getting our legs back under us and now I think we’re really cooking right now.”
Craig Hecker, CEO of Bitty Advance
“So I think [the covid crisis] taught us a lot. And I think that when you face challenges like this pandemic, it really pushes you to reinvent yourself or reinvent certain parts of your business that you never thought were possible. And one of those things that we’ve learned is that we have a lot of folks that prefer to work at home, they’re actually more efficient working from home, they’re not in any hurry to come back into the office setting. Of course, we have certain employees that their jobs require them to kind of be with other employees, etc. but I think it’s really forced us to adapt, and to just embrace the new normal.”
Larry Bassuk, President of Idea Financial
“I think that we’ve been consistent in our risk management approach from the beginning. When we first surveyed the alternative lending space to see where we thought the best opportunity was for Idea Financial, we decided to focus on the higher credit quality segment of the market. our credit standards reflect that, our risk management principles reflect that, and quite frankly, our product reflects that. So during the covid crisis, when it was very acute in March, April, May, we got to see in real time, how our risk mitigation principles were functioning. It was a real test of all the theory that crisis, we got to see things shake out, and we got to see things being proven. A lot of assumptions that we were very strict on, really helped us manage the crisis. Going forward, we see that we’re going to be doubling down on those risk management principles, doubling down on how we underwrite and keeping a very close watch on how the businesses perform pre-covid, during covid, and then hopefully post-covid.”
You can watch the full 12 minute, 35 second TV episode deBanked produced here.
An Update on Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank
October 23, 2020
After more than a decade, Section 1071 of The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (AKA Dodd-Frank) is finally moving along. The law expanded the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau collect demographic data from small business finance companies. For ten years, a whole lot of nothing happened to roll it out, so you’ll be forgiven if it seems like the latest updates are a bit vapid.
But then the CFPB got sued for its failure to carry out its duties and it resulted in a settlement that requires the agency to hit certain milestones by certain timelines. Section 1071 is all about collecting loan applicant data in commercial finance to measure if there are disparities in the ability to access credit, particularly for female-owned and minority owned businesses. It necessitates a mechanism to comply, which will
ultimately cost time and money.
But in the meantime, the milestones to even get to the point where data collection is being carried out, are roughly as follows:
1. Convene a panel of small business lenders
2. Have that panel issue a report
3. Propose what the rules on collection will be
4. Collect feedback on the proposal
5. Formulate a final rule
6. Issue a rule
7. Set a time for when that rule will go into effect
We spoke with one alternative finance company that has been engaged in the process.
“I am representing, and Greenbox Capital is essentially representing, the industry,” CEO Jordan Fein told deBanked in regards to his role as a Small Entity Representative to the CFPB’s panel of small business lenders. “There are some banks, there’s Funding Circle, but other than that, it’s Greenbox Capital serving in the industry.” Fein said that panelists give their opinion and engage in discussion on how companies will be impacted. He also said that he was very happy to participate in the process.
“It’s an honor to be selected to the industry panel providing feedback on section 1071 of the DoddFrank Act ensuring fair lending laws to women- and minority-owned businesses,” said Fein. “Over 2 million businesses across the U.S. are either women or minority owned and it’s vital they can secure funding as easily as non-minority owned businesses.”
The panel must complete a report within 60 days of convening. With several more milestones to go, a final rule is unlikely to go into effect prior to 2022. But until then, know that Section 1071’s implementation will probably happen during your lifetime.
deBanked Meets The Kosher Guru
October 19, 2020In a crossover episode, deBanked president and chief editor Sean Murray had lunch with Kosher Guru at Reserve Cut in lower Manhattan. In it, they talked Kosher food, business funding, and more!
DailyFunder Still #1 Small Business Finance Community
October 14, 2020
DailyFunder, the small business finance forum founded by Sean Murray in 2012, continues to be the leading online community for the industry, according to a recent announcement. The forum recently surpassed 10,000 registered members, in addition to logging more than 2 million page views just in 2020 so far.
“The forum has attracted well over a million visitors since inception and users have historically spent longer than 10 minutes on the site in any given session on average,” Murray said.
deBanked’s parent company fully acquired DailyFunder earlier this year. The announcement was featured prominently in deBanked’s January/February 2020 magazine issue. In it, Murray renewed the website’s objective:
“The mission will be to create a great forum for those involved in day-to-day dealmaking,” he said in a Q&A. “How can we provide a platform that enables those in the industry to make more money? That’s the way I look at it. I think if we can provide that type of value, success will follow.”
