News Topic: Alternative lending

A paper released by the agency’s Center for Financial Research says aspects of someone’s digital footprint — including whether they use Apple or Android — help predict likelihood of default. ... Read full article

Allowing alternative data such as rent and utility payments has bipartisan support, but some say it could create more problems than it solves. ... Read full article

Approval rates for small-business loan applications were up at small and larger financial institutions as the labor market continued to improve. ... Read full article

Cereal is looking at the aspects of the market that could be considered the most stable. By encouraging more mining activity, Cereal also promotes the viability of the cryptocurrencies being mined. ... Read full article

For one California bank, the biggest challenge was finding equity investors to participate in deals. ... Read full article

Some fear that the removal of such data from individual credit reports could lead lenders to believe a consumer is a better bet than they really are. ... Read full article

The digitally savvy lender MyBucks, which has lent money through a smartphone app and chatbots on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, could be a good role model for U.S. banks thinking of using AI in credit decisions. ... Read full article

BankMobile, the digital-only subsidiary of Customers Bank in Wyomissing, Pa., is planning to use software by Upstart to offer its first credit product to the students it reaches through relationships with 800 universities. ... Read full article

Lenders on the fringe of the financial industry are now pitching a solution to bitcoin investors in need of funds but wary of cashing in: loans using a digital hoard as collateral. ... Read full article

The risk to Canada's financial system from tapped-out borrowers is merely shifting — this time to a market where there's no oversight from the country's national bank regulator and new stress-test rules don't apply. ... Read full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its first "no-action letter" to an online lender that uses alternative data to determine creditworthiness and loan pricing. ... Read full article

Bank earnings rose nearly 11% in the second quarter, according to the FDIC; Goldman lobbying to kill or weaken the rule to boost its bond trading performance. ... Read full article

Working with Sungage Financial will help NBT Bancorp diversify its consumer loan portfolio and learn from a fintech startup with a speedy credit approval process. ... Read full article

Readers this week highlighted the need for banks to upgrade payments systems, debated a small bank’s decision to ditch its legacy core vendor, lamented populist initiatives of the GSEs, and more. ... Read full article

The promise of fintech is that it might offer underbanked consumers access to financial products. But some are worried that relying on algorithms to make credit decisions could open up problems of its own. ... Read full article

Dan O'Malley, who until very recently ran the fintech incubator at Eastern Bank (and before that was at Capital One), now has a startup called Numerated Growth Technologies and software that he says can process loans in five minutes. ... Read full article

Bill would replace much of Dodd-Frank but is unlikely to become law; online retailer is expected to expand Amazon Lending program to small businesses in the U.S., U.K. and Japan. ... Read full article

More business lending is shifting from banks to "murky" trusts as the government imposes more restrictions to reduce risky loans; 11 states advance suit as Justice Department retreats. ... Read full article