Weekly Industry Update: September 27, 2015

Lots on great sector events this coming week. So before our recap of industry news, we wished to highlight some PeerIQ movements. Please drop a line if you'll be attending and wish to connect:

• Crowdfinance 2015 NYC (Sep. 28) Ram to speak on Banks & Marketplace Lenders: 1+1 = 3 panel @ 3:40pm ET
• Marketplace Lending in the Regulatory Spotlight Webinar (Sep. 29) Kevin to speak on regulatory developments @ 9am ET
• Marketplace Lending and Peer-to-Peer Securitisation Summit London (Sep. 30) Ram to speak on securitization panel @ 3pm BST
• Private Debt Investor: New York Forum (Sep. 30- Oct. 1) Kevin to speak on Online Lending panel on Oc.t 1 @ 11am ET

And now, our selected P2P stories of the past week:

• Prosper Marketplace Adds to Lending Services With BillGuard Acquisition (NYT, Sep. 24, 2015) Prosper acquires identity security company for $30M, mostly cash, deal.

• This is the most important employee benefit coming to American workplaces since 401(k)s  (Quartz, Sep. 23, 2015) New developments in student loan refi benefit (first PWC, now CS) and the new channel this is opening up for online lending platforms.

• Funding Circle Sheds Light on Fund (AltFi, Sep. 24, 2015) Funding Circle to launch a listed vehicle, SME Income Fund, for new means to access exposure of its loan book.  The platform intends to raise £150m for the fund via an IPO, which will take place within the next two to three weeks.

• EIB Turns to Peer-to-Peer Lending for UK Companies (FT, Sep. 27, 2015) Related to the above fund, the European Investment Bank intends to lend £100m to small business, via Funding Circle’s new vehicle.  Great sign of confidence for the P2P lending sector.

• GLI Fund Launches (AltFI, Sep. 25, 2015) The emergence of closed-end funds continues with the launch of long-awaited GLI Alternative Finance fund, with market cap of £52.66m and trading on LSE under the ticker “GLAF”.

• An Early Lending Club Investor on the Future of Fin Tech (WSJ, Sep 22, 2015) Good interview with Canaan Partners’ Dan Ciporin on the future of the sector.