Marketplace lending

Prosper Marketplace on Monday announced a three-year agreement to offer financing to consumers making improvements to their homes through the website HomeAdvisor.com.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Massachusetts invested in technology to beef up its small-business lending, an area ripe for the picking by alternative lenders.

Traditional financial institutions are often seen as the outdated rival to new disruptors, but the idea that a bank can't be a marketplace lender, and vice versa, is a myth.

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Startups, including one in the virtual currency field, have approached the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about applying for banking charters, the agency's chief counsel said Thursday.

Prosper Marketplace is rebranding a personal-finance app that it acquired last year, a key part of the firm’s efforts to engage more frequently with its borrowers.

LendKey, which manages online lending programs for banks and credit unions, has named Salil Mehta to senior vice president of credit risk and analytics.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's move to collect complaints about online marketplace lenders is a sure sign it is laying the groundwork for rules or enforcement actions against the industry.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking aim at marketplace lenders, announcing Monday that it is accepting complaints about the developing industry and releasing a bulletin to inform the public about such firms.

Cordia Bancorp recently sold its student lending platform due to concerns about loan concentrations. In doing so, the Virginia company provided another example of why it is difficult for smaller institutions to gain traction in marketplace lending.