Alternative Finances

Alternative Finances
LendingClub’s Skyrocketing Charge-Offs
July 12, 2016

Proving the old adage that troubles never travel alone and instead choose to hunt in packs – LendingClub is facing yet another headwind in the hurricane they’ve experienced since spring. The newest problem? Their borrowers – and the fact that they aren’t so much paying back...

Alternative Finances
PayPal Working Capital Arm Ups the Ante
July 08, 2016

PayPal’s been making its SMB risk management list and checking it twice. And has found a lot of new insights behind the $2B and 90k SMBs that have been on the other side of its Working Capital program, including the role that mobile plays in...

Russian Online Lending Marketplace Comes To US
July 06, 2016

The U.S. online lending platform market just got a bit bigger with the addition of a startup called Blackmoon from Russia. The company has a presence in Russia, Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia and Finland. Now, it will expand that footprint into the U.S....

Alternative Finances
Amex Sets Sights On Working Capital Loans
July 06, 2016

With an eye on Square and other FinTech upstarts, Amex is branching out into working capital loans -- and banking on its deep credit knowledge to gain competitive advantage.

Alternative Finances
Avant’s Sailing Troubled Waters
July 05, 2016

Whether or not Lending Club managed to get a month or so jump on the Fourth of July with its interpretation of fireworks, 2016 was already shaping up to be a tough year for marketplace lenders. Market conditions were changing, as were investor options about...

Alternative Finances
Lending Club Names Scott Sanborn CEO
June 28, 2016

There’s big news out of Lending Club this morning. The pioneering marketplace lender has simultaneously announced the hiring of a new CEO and the fact of 179 coming layoffs. Well, not exactly the hiring of a new CEO – but the appointment of the interim...

Alternative Finances
From Bad To Worse, Marketplace Lending And The Brexit
June 28, 2016

 The Fourth of July is not a holiday celebrated in the U.K. — not really that surprising, given that it is the country from which the United State declared independence. And while we expect that 2016 will mark the 24oth July 4th in a row that...

Alternative Finances
Big ‘Payoff’ For One Online Lending Startup
June 17, 2016

Not all is lost in the online lending space. TechCrunch reported on Thursday (June 16) that Payoff has raised a nice payoff of $46.7 million, which itself is only part of a $67.4 million financing round. The company makes loans to people who seek to pay...

Alternative Finances
Have Expanding Dreams, Must Be Flexible
June 15, 2016

While the stock market has yo-yoed since the end of May 2015, reaching nearly its all-time high before dropping almost 9 percent in three months – all things considered, the economy is doing pretty well. The latest Store Front Business Index™ reveals that the businesses...