Marketplace lending

A Washington, D.C.-based startup that finances higher education in the U.S. for international students announced a $6 million equity funding round.

A recent federal court decision affirming the right of a servicer to collect on private student loans originated on Sallie Mae's behalf is good news for several parties, including marketplace lenders and others that partner with banks to make loans.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expanding efforts to encourage the development of new banking products, announcing Wednesday that it will establish an office of innovation to spearhead research and communication related to fintech.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray has revived an ongoing dispute between banks and fintech firms over screen scraping, a method certain companies use to obtain access to consumer bank records.

The online lender is entering the car-loan market at a time when some banks are scaling back and regulators are sounding the alarm about deteriorating underwriting standards.

Bizfi, a New York-based online small-business finance company, announced the hiring of John Donovan as its new chief executive officer.

The investment bank will take "a very deliberate and methodical approach" to building its online lending platform, Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz told investors Tuesday, implicitly drawing a contrast to once-highflying startups like Lending Club and Propser.

Such a charter comes with a bevy of legal and policy questions to resolve, including whether parent companies of firms that obtain a fintech charter would have to subject themselves to oversight by the Federal Reserve Board. State regulators, meanwhile, fear a new charter could erode their ability to regulate firms within their jurisdictions.

Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender by assets, said third-quarter profit rose 7.3%, beating analysts’ estimates, as revenue from fixed-income trading was better than predicted and expenses fell.

Community banks need profit and diversification opportunities, while marketplace lenders may find mergers to be the easiest route into the banking system.

Goldman Sachs' newly launched consumer lending website is aimed at some of the very same customers that big banks and marketplace lenders covet, yet there are plenty of questions about its business plan, its ability to manage credit risk and the prospects of online lenders in general.

It's official: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment banking titan, now offers consumer loans.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., has introduced an online consumer lending product that it uses technology developed by Avant.

Thomas Depping, who quit banking out of frustration with regulators five years ago, says Warburg Pincus' deep pockets will help him make Ascentium Capital a household name among small-business borrowers.

For regulators to develop a unified framework for fintech companies to operate in, they first have to come to a consensus.

A new app aims to modernize the automobile financing process by allowing car shoppers to get credit approval on their phones.

Prosper Marketplace is closing the secondary market for its loans, citing a lack of demand among investors.

Community bankers are showing renewed interest in consumer lending but admit they may be losing ground to more tech-savvy players, according to a survey released Thursday.

The Wall Street firm believes that its gold-plated brand will help attract middle-class borrowers.

Marketplace lenders' share of the consumer and small-business loan markets is small now, but is expected to grow substantially in the coming years. Banks looking to get in on the action have two choices: team up with these established players that have already perfected the technology or try to beat them at their own game.