Weekly Industry Update: Jamie Dimon's Annual Letter & Return of Renaud Laplanche
By Vy Phan
April 9, 2017
Upgrade has also incorporated innovations and best practices from other originators. For instance, Upgrade intends to offer financial management tools that enable customers to monitor their credit. Additionally, applicants that fail credit criteria will receive financial education on improving the credit. On the underwriting side, Upgrade will also incorporate free cash flow analysis and incorporate anti-stacking technology.
More fundamentally, Upgrade is focusing on developing a relationship with the borrower before and after the lending transaction. We see this as a key area of focus for lenders in a world with intensifying product competition and shifting consumer payment priorities.
Conferences:
- CEO, Ram Ahluwalia will discuss Bank and Non-Banks: Competition or Partnership at a LendingTimes event on, April 18 at 6:00 PM at Manat Phelps & Phillips in New York.
- FRALLC’s Bank/Alternative Lender Strategic Partnership Summit on May 10-11 in New York. Ram will speak on the “Tapping Secondary Markets: Securitization & Liquidity” panel on Tuesday May 11 at 2:00PM.
- Big Banks Poised to Scoop Up Fintech Startups, Report Finds (Bloomberg, 4/6/17) New report by PwC finds half of global finance firms plan to acquire fintech startups in the next 3-5 years.
- Banks Seek Judgment That Loans Facilitated By Online Platforms Are Exempt From Colorado's Lending Laws (Orrick, 4/7/17) WebBank and Cross River Bank assert that loans they originated in collaboration with non-bank online lending platforms are exempt from Colorado's statutory limits on interest rates and fees.
- Peter Renton interview with Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana (LendAcademy, 4/7/17) Zopa’s CEO elaborates on plans to launch a bank. [Transcript]
- Fed’s Tarullo Opens Door to Changes in Stress Tests, Volcker Rule (WSJ, 4/4/17) Parting speech from the Fed’s regulatory guru outlines changes that could help big banks.
- The Real Reason Everyone Offered You Free Tax Prep This Year (WSJ, 4/7/17) As more Americans file their own taxes online, paid preparers seek to use customers financial data to offer other financial services.
- Renaud Laplanche, Ousted at Lending Club, Returns as Rival to His Old Firm (NYT, 4/6/17) Renaud Laplanche, former CEO at Lending Club, started new online lender, Upgrade.
- Elevate Credit Pops More than 19% in Trading Debut, after Pricing IPO Below Expectations (CNBC, 4/6/17) After postponing its IPO last year, Elevate Credit, went public on the New York Stock Exchange last week.
- Q4'16 Loan Originations Fall YOY for Digital Lenders, Capping off a Rocky Year (SNL, 4/4/17) The U.S. digital lending market has started to mature, with more focus on achieving sustainable growth and profitability.
- JPMorgan's Head of New Technologies Hired by LendingClub (Bloomberg, 4/4/17) Santiago Suarez led JPMorgan strategy and new product efforts and will now join LendingClub.
- What Dimon Had to Say About Fintech in His Annual Letter (AmericanBanker, 4/4/17) JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank spent $9.5 Bn on technology in 2016 and is partnering aggressively with startups.
- Wall Street is Making it Harder to Buy a Car (Bloomberg, 4/7/17) Lenders are tightening credit standards in response to falling recovery values.
Lighter Fare:
- For Facebook and Google, the Best Way to Fight Fake News Is You (MITtechnologyReview, 4/7/17) The battle against fake news continues—but with new features from Google.