Marketplace lending

PayPal, Amazon, Square and American Express have all built new businesses by extending credit to merchants that already rely on their payment networks. Their client relationships give them certain advantages over banks, marketplace lenders and others.

As investment dollars flood into the alternative lending sector, fueling the rapid growth of early entrants such as Lending Club, lots of smaller online loan platforms are also popping up. Many of these new firms are specializing in narrow lending niches, touting their expertise in underwriting particular forms of credit. Here's a rundown of some of these specialties.

CircleBack Lending, an online marketplace that offers installment loans to consumers, has completed its first securitization deal, the Boca Raton, Fla., firm said Friday.

Ex-banker Sandy Kemper, the chief executive of an online marketplace that allows companies to negotiate over discounted, speedier payments, discusses the future of commercial finance.

RiverNorth Capital Management is seeking to establish a closed-end fund that would serve as a source of permanent capital for so-called peer-to-peer lenders.

Credit Karma in San Francisco has raised $175 million in venture capital to expand its product offerings for consumers' personal finances.

As financial technology transforms the banking industry, experts are placing bets on the banks and startups most likely to thrive in the digital future. Here are seven top contenders, according to insiders from both sides of the divide at last week's Next Bank USA conference in New York.

Moody's managing director Will Black argues that it’s hard to predict the performance of P-to-P loans because of a lack of historical data.

The regulatory path may also be bumpier for P-to-P lenders that focus on subprime borrowers, predicts Raj Date, a former second-in-command at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Silicon Valley firms like Apple and Lending Club are happy to partner with banks — so long as they get to be the face of customer interactions. But banks may not easily give up that ground.