Marketplace lending

A small Internet-focused bank plans to offer Prosper Marketplace's personal loans directly to its own customers through the bank's website. Prosper could use it as a template for deals with other banks.

Brayden McCarthy and Jared Hecht of Fundera argue that the Small Business Borrowers' Bill of Rights, a self-regulatory document written by online small-business lenders, should serve as a template for future government regulation of the sector.

PeerIQ, which provides data to firms that invest in marketplace loans, has raised $2.5 million in early-stage financing.

Funding Circle has formed a partnership with H&R Block to provide loans to the tax preparation firm’s small-business customers.

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Arthur Levitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1993 to 2001, will become an adviser to the marketplace lender Social Finance.

Orchard Platform, which provides services to institutional investors in the marketplace lending industry, has raised $30 million in additional funding.

Brayden McCarthy of Fundera contends that unfair practices are commonplace in the online lending industry, and that self-regulation is needed to protect small-business borrowers.

The marketplace lender CommonBond announced that it has raised $35 million, which it plans to use to expand its operations across the country.

The San Francisco company hopes to lower its costs by driving out human intervention as much as possible. To get there, it has made the counterintuitive decision to locate its operations staff in one of the country’s most expensive cities.