Marketplace lending

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup said Wednesday it plans to use the investment to help grow its cloud-based factoring platform for small businesses and expand into new market segments.

With the purchase of Sweep, Max Levchin's firm is betting that daily engagement with consumers will pay long-term dividends.

How two midsize banks and a marketplace lender are relying on chief culture officers to maintain a lively work environment and preserve their values amid M&A and organic growth.

CommonBond, an online lender that specializes in student loan refinancing, announced Monday that it has sold $150 million of bundled loans to investors.

Recent prosecutions against lenders accused of usury violations will test the government's use of a law more commonly known in organized crime cases.

Illinois, California and New York are all taking initial steps to try to crack down on borrower abuses in the fast-growing digital lending marketplace. The states are facing pressure to intervene because federal agencies have yet to take decisive action.

Capital continues to flow freely into financial technology ventures, many of which are repositioning themselves as aspiring partners for banks rather than would-be disruptors.

Lending Club said Thursday that it has hired Sameer Gulati, formerly of McKinsey & Co., to be its chief operations officer and promoted another executive, Scott Sanborn, to president. Both are newly created positions at the nonbank lender.

LendingClub Corp., a pioneer of online marketplace lending, said it raised rates for borrowers again to reflect a gloomier economic outlook and worse-than-expected performance for some of its riskiest loans.

An online student loan refinancing business that was recently spun off from a Virginia bank has been rebranded as Purefy Inc.

Research published in 2014 found that just 18% of U.S. checking account holders pay 91% of all bank overdraft fees.

WASHINGTON — Several Democratic senators are calling for the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether financial technology companies are properly regulated.

A partnership with a firm that makes consumer loans through Home Depot stores is exceeding all expectations at Regions Financial. The company is counting on arrangements with two other alternative lenders to further drive loan growth.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., posted a double-digit gain in its first-quarter profit as strong revenue growth more than offset continued deterioration in its energy-loan portfolio.

Suddenly, online lenders are struggling, or paying higher prices, to attract the institutional money that has fueled their rapid rise.

Affirm, a three-year-old online lender that finances consumer purchases at the point of sale, has raised a $100 million in equity funding to help it boost distribution and develop new products and services.

The partnership with OnDeck will allow the megabank to approve and fund loans in as little as a day, according to CEO Jamie Dimon. Meanwhile, OnDeck is eyeing similar partnerships with other banks.

Citigroup is no longer buying loans off the Prosper Marketplace platform and repackaging them into securities, a person familiar with the matter said.

The New York company makes two- to three-year term loans of between $3,000 and $25,000. It is seeking to distinguish itself from other digital lenders by targeting young adults who have limited credit histories.

Federal rules for technology-based firms providing the fast-moving sector certainty and consistency would be a benefit, even if rules are suboptimal.