An interesting week in P2P. Another big move by Goldman and a new API offering from Lending Club that allows brokers and advisors to directly offer P2P investments lead this week’s news:

Goldman to Buy GE Online Bank With $16 Billion of Deposits (Bloomberg, Aug 13, 2015) Goldman continues to bolster its deposit funding base; with this acquisition it will increase its total deposit to $89B (3x levels from 2008). Note also, G.E. to Retreat From Finance in Post-Crisis Reorganization (NYT, Aug 10, 2015) providing broader context on GE’s strategy.

Lending Club Launches API Integration for Financial Advisors and Brokers (Finance Magnates, Aug 12, 2015) Lending Club announces Lending Club Open Integration (LCOI), a new API that will allow broker-dealers and online advisors to offer their customer bases the ability to invest directly to borrowers on the platform.

Peer-to-Peer Lenders Losing Court Battle Over State Usury Laws (Bloomberg, Aug 14, 2015) Update on the Midlands ruling.

Silicon Valley Goes After Wall Street in Financial Services Technology (CNBC, Aug 10, 2015) Short article about the rise of alternative banking and how this industry is receiving more funding from tech-based venture capital firms.

Why Fintech Is One of the Most Promising Industries of 2015 (Inc., September 2015 issue) Finance oriented start-ups are dominating the Inc. 500 rankings.