The House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, has scheduled a hearing on the marketplace lending sector of online lending. Entitled, Examing the Opportunities and Challenges with Financial Technology (Fintech): The Development of Online Marketplace Lending,” the meeting will take place on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, July 12th, commencing at 2PM. Typically these meetings are live streamed on the HFS website.
The hearing will see the participation of the following witnesses:
- Parris Sanz, Chief Legal Officer, CAN Capital, on behalf of the Electronic Transactions
- Sachin Adarkar, General Counsel, Prosper Marketplace
- Rob Nichols, CEO, American Bankers Association
- Bimal Patel, Partner, O’Melveny & Myer
The hearing notice states that within the Fintech industry, marketplace lenders us algorithms to provide affordable and broad access to credit. During the past year, multiple regulatory agencies have expressed interest in the online lending sector “to better understand the opportunities it presents and examine the existing regulatory structure.”
The hearing is expected to help Committee members better understand this sector of Fintech.
Online lending, along with marketplace lending platforms, has come under intensifying scrutiny over the past months. Recent challenges at Lending Club have helped to fuel regulatory interest. While regulators typically group all online lending into a single bucket, industry participants highlight important differences in methodologies and practices. A good primer on the online lending industry is available here.
