Newsroom

May 25, 2016

Online lender Prosper ups rates for some amid investor drop

Online lender Prosper Marketplace Inc. will raise rates for borrowers deemed "risky" amid trouble finding investors to fund its loans, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Prosper increased rates 1.4 percent in February, citing the "turbulent market environment." WSJ also noted the recent resignation of the head of rival online lender LendingClub Corp after revelations of falsified data on loans sold to an investment bank.

Earlier this month, NAFCU's Carrie Hunt noted the uneven playing field between credit unions and online lenders in response to the Treasury Department's white paper on online marketplace lenders. In its white paper, Treasury recommended more "effective oversight" over the online industry.

"Treasury's report largely confirms our concern that there exists an uneven playing field for overregulated credit unions as compared to online marketplace lenders, which are not subject to the same disclosure rules and underwriting standards that apply to traditional lenders," said Hunt, NAFCU's executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel.

NAFCU has urged financial regulators to hold online lenders to the same regulatory requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and underwriting standards for loans as apply to regulated financial institutions.