Rob Pfeifer has been appointed to chief risk officer at Affirm; was previously chief financial officer; Pfeifer has been with Affirm since March 2013; prior to Affirm, Pfeifer worked in various financial analysis roles; he has extensive experience in forecasting, reporting and deal transactions.
Ally Bank has expanded its banking products to include mortgages and will offer the loans through an online service called Ally Home; the online service offering seeks to meet heightened expectations and shifting market priorities for digital, tech-driven customer experiences; with Ally Home, borrowers will have the option to manage their communication through email and their documentation online through any device; the bank also says it has partnered with mortgage servicing specialist, LenderLive, to provide fast and efficient service. Source
AlphaFlow has announced the launch of AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios; created by Ray Sturm, co-founder of RealtyShares, AlphaFlow has been managing real estate investments that allow investors to invest in loans across multiple real estate crowdfunding platforms since its launch in 2015; the introduction of the AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios is an effort to better meet the needs and demands of the firm’s investors; the new platform will provide investors with a real estate portfolio of 75 to 100 real estate loans; the portfolio will be driven by AlphaFlow Advanced Analytics and targets returns of 8% to 10% with a 1% fee on assets under management. Source
Upstart's Dave Girourad talks with TechCrunch about the company's new fundraising round which is adding new capital of $32.5 million; the new capital brings total funding to $85 million and this round's investors included Rakuten, Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital; the fundraising will help the firm launch a new software as a service product called Powered by Upstart, an extension of its proprietary credit underwriting platform which utilizes machine learning and modern data science; Upstart will be releasing the new product at LendIt USA 2017. Source
Amazon will now allow customers to add cash to their Amazon accounts through barcode scans at participating retailers throughout the US; funds will be immediately available for use; the firm says the initiative is expected to target underbanked customers; Morgan Stanley says the announcement could decrease the chances of the firm partnering with PayPal for payments which is a deal the market has been potentially anticipating between the two companies. Source
Originating the loan to a borrower is just the beginning; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a presentation by Envestnet | Yodlee on monitoring the consumer after the loan; key items to focus on include: monitoring the lending relationship and data analysis of the borrower, ensuring you have the best data for a specific borrower, are credit data and scores enough or should you look to alternative data sources, what alternative data and details do you focus on to make sure you are making the right decision, and how do changes to income and employment effect the borrower status; focusing on the details is key, making sure you understand the different borrowers and the data points that affect them the most. Source
Seeking to be more involved in auto financing, the firm has launched Clearlane; the platform has been developed from the firm's acquisition of BlueYield; the integration and enhancement of the acquired business has resulted in a simplified customer experience and broad range of offerings; the platform includes over a dozen finance providers offering consumers auto financing and auto loan refinancing options with various opportunities identified for expansion. Source
Alternative credit data company VerumView has developed a product primarily focused on capturing data surrounding an end-user's email; it's built on an API-based know your customer service (KYC) and helps to provide credit decisions on thin file borrowers; the system can service the following: identity verification, fraud detection, KYC, anti-money laundering, TF prevention, loan and insurance underwriting, credit and affordability scoring, competitive analysis and targeted marketing. Source
AltFi Data is the leading public provider of data for the marketplace lending industry; its data platform, AltFi Data Analytics, aggregates data from originators in the UK, Europe and the US; AltFi Data manages indices and publishes analytics reports with support from the data platform; the addition of data from Prosper will make the platform's reporting more robust for the industry. Source
Amazon is fast becoming the financial services company of the future; they now have their hands in payments, cash, small business lending, consumer credit and more; partnerships with companies like USAA and Capital One who use Amazon's Alexa digital assistant have emerged; this all shows the threat Amazon poses to traditional banking giants, though there has been no indication they want to become a bank themselves; JPMorgan Chase has started using Amazon's cloud-based AWS service to build a hybrid private-public cloud strategy; AWS sales increased 42% on a year-over-year basis to $4.1 billion for the second quarter; banks are starting to become technology firms and technology firms are helping to change the way banks operate. Source