Wells Fargo is being put on a highly restrictive diet by the Federal Reserve and won’t get any relief until its compliance and governance shape up. Under the terms of the Fed’s Consent Order, Wells cannot grow its consolidated assets beyond the total consolidated assets reported at the end of 2017. Although Wells is dismissing the effect of the Order as a nothingburger, if there’s really no...
If the subprime auto loan asset-backed securities (ABS) market collapses, any post-mortem is likely to begin and end with the underlying auto market. Of course, it won’t all be about sales practices and consumer trends – there would also likely be closely-related contributing factors in lending and ABS practices. But despite growing concerns, following the 2018 Detroit Auto Show, it appears the...
Ten Years Gone, but the Memory Remains Litigation related to pre-financial crisis subprime mortgage lending and securitization has resulted in a decade-long hangover for many of those who participated in the boom times. The boom actually lasted only four or five years for most participants, but more than a decade later, many are just now drawing closer to resolution of legacy disputes. The...
Whether or not you believe in global warming, the recent frequency of severe climate-related events – from mudslides to bomb cyclone snowstorms – suggests Thomas Friedman had it right years ago when he coined the phrase “global weirding.” One would think that in this environment, the outlook for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, which makes energy efficiency possible for the...
There is no doubt marketplace lending, by offering speed and flexibility not historically seen in traditional banking, has done its part to foster the “do it yourself” (DIY) era. At its core, the DIY mindset starts with a question – why pay someone to do a job or share your profits or glory, when you can do it on your own? And ideas come to fruition through the vast amount of information now...
2018 may be the beginning of the end of an education finance system that has resulted in overburdened students and families struggling to pay back loans that were too high at their inception relative to the reasonable income potential of the degree earned. Change won’t come overnight, but potential solutions should be put in motion this year, mainly aimed at relieving the student loan debt burden.
Familiarity might breed contempt, but it seems nothing brings out the detractors like success. After a meteoric rise, marketplace lending has had its share of challenges and scrutiny, but the future should still be bright for such an industry on the forward edge of technology and consumer needs. Yet marketplace lending seems to be ending 2017 under an unwarranted attack from regulators and...
