Opinion

April 20, 2015 @ 9:08 am By Dara Albright  |  

I’ve always said that you can gauge the success of an industry by the growth and enthusiasm of its annual convention. It’s also a great barometer of market peaks and bubbles – especially when you have the chance to really get into the psyche of… Read More

April 17, 2015 @ 1:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Prosper President Ron Suber delivered an extremely well received keynote address at the LendIt conference held in Manhattan this past week.  Over 2400 attendees converged from around the globe to discuss the future of finance, one where banks are on the decline and peer to… Read More

April 17, 2015 @ 8:00 am By JD Alois  |  

“Regulators should allow new firms to operate, generate data on the outcomes created by novel business models before writing new rules.” Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama, delivered a rousing speech… Read More

April 16, 2015 @ 12:03 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

It is clear that peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is here to stay but long gone are the days of actual “peers” lending to “peers.” Today Wall Street firms, hedge funds and other “big money investors”, make up the overwhelming bulk of the funds being lent through… Read More

April 16, 2015 @ 9:45 am By JD Alois  |  

In a world of growing governmental over-reach it is rare to find a regulator who wants to do less not more.  But it makes sense. Budgets are made, and funding allocated, based on predicted needs of tomorrow not the reality of last year. Legislators make rules… Read More

April 15, 2015 @ 7:32 am By Richard Swart  |  

    I recently published a report with Mary Milner addressing how crowdfunding models can be used to address global challenges across multi-national networks.   What is fascinating is how rapidly the nature of conversations about crowdfunding is changing among top policy makers, corporate leaders and… Read More

April 14, 2015 @ 9:00 am By Ron Suber  |  

In the world of finance, the traditional banking industry is the big celestial body at the center of things. Circling that orbit are the spheres of money transfer, payments, wealth management, banking and marketplace lending (also called peer-to-peer finance). Disruption to financial services has been… Read More

April 14, 2015 @ 7:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK has become one of the hottest markets for FinTech startups in the world. In fact the George Osborne has made the FinTech industry a tentpole in his policy initiatives. At the Innovate Finance launch last year the Chancellor declared “I want the UK to… Read More

April 13, 2015 @ 8:00 am By Bill Ullman  |  

  Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants…” Former US Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis The old guard is trying to define marketplace lending as part of a murky “shadow banking” industry.  Banking analyst Richard Bove concluded in a recent Rafferty Capital Markets… Read More

April 10, 2015 @ 5:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Alphaworks, the crowdfunding offshoot of innovation factory betaworks, recently published a series of postings on Regulation A+: How it came to be and what they anticipate it to become going forward. Broken up into three different segments, the first part reviewed the origin and history surrounding… Read More

April 10, 2015 @ 11:12 am By Conrad Ford  |  

    The various forms of peer-to-peer (P2P) financing have emerged as valuable sources of funding for small companies and vehicles for investment among lenders around the world in recent years. In fact, progress in the field of late has been remarkable to say the… Read More

April 10, 2015 @ 12:29 am By JD Alois  |  

Jamie Dimon is probably the most respected banking CEO on Wall Street today. And he should be.  He was the guy that really didn’t need the bail-out money but took one for the team when asked to do it by the Secretary of the Treasury…. Read More

April 9, 2015 @ 1:08 pm By Gil Michel-Garcia  |  

Regulators, particularly securities regulators, are normally a conservative and risk averse lot, generally preferring fraud prevention to economic efficiency.  However sometimes they can come up with some brilliant pieces of economically empowering regulation, particularly when pushed by the political powers that be and when faced… Read More

April 8, 2015 @ 12:01 am By Brad McGee  |  

After the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its final rules for the new Regulation A (Reg A+), many in the media heralded the changes as the dawn of a new financial paradigm: investment crowdfunding.  Companies we work with wondered if Reg A+ was the… Read More

April 7, 2015 @ 5:51 pm By Barry James  |  

5 Must-Know Things Before You Launch Your #Crowdfund One glance at this u-shaped graph of 200,000 crowdfunds is enough to tell the story to anyone who’s seen many crowdfunds succeed and fail. It confirms what we know – but shows it’s far starker a picture… Read More

April 6, 2015 @ 11:03 am By JD Alois  |  

National Public Radio in Minneapolis has just published a brief perspective on equity crowdfunding drawing a comparison to rewards based platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, with the changing environment where individuals will be able to actually purchase equity in small firms. NPR reporters enlisted… Read More

April 6, 2015 @ 9:03 am By JD Alois  |  

  In 2014 OTC Markets claimed a record “exchange graduation year” with 83 companies “up-listing” from the OTC marketplaces to a NYSE or NASDAQ listing. OTC Markets also experienced a 92% increase in the number of US companies that qualified for their OTCQX Marketplace and now has over 660… Read More

April 2, 2015 @ 3:15 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Regulation has provided the injection the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) industry needed to take off, according to RateSetter CEO, Rhydian Lewis. As the P2P platform celebrates almost £122 million in loans during Q1 and a year as “number one,” RateSetter cites regulation as a crucial turning point for… Read More

April 2, 2015 @ 9:29 am By Erin Hobey  |  

With an increasing number of start-ups launching with crowdfunding platforms, eBay has turned into a logical “step two” for entrepreneurs like FluxMob’s cofounders who are looking to expand their product’s reach.  Alan Tran and his childhood friend Justin Zito swiftly raised $90,253 in initial funds for their tech… Read More

April 1, 2015 @ 11:33 am By Josh Kalish  |  

By now, the startup world has heard the news. Finance blogs are ablaze, and twitter feeds are lighting up with word that capital just became a whole lot easier to access. Entrepreneurs from coast to coast are leaning back in their chairs, greedily steepling their… Read More