Ranger Capital Group Partners With Banking Industry Executives To Assist Banks In Working With Online Lending Platforms

DALLAS, Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The peer-to-peer lending marketplace is viewed by many as a means of disintermediating and/or replacing banks as lenders. Ranger Capital Group and banking industry executives Brian Jones and Scott Reed disagree with this perspective. Rather, they see an opportunity for banks to expand their loan portfolios and existing lines of business through partnering with peer-to-peer lending platforms. Similarly, the partnership recognizes the opportunity for the online marketplaces to expand their product lines as the two groups leverage each other's expertise, technology and services. 

Recently banks such as Union Bank, Westpac and Santander have announced partnerships with different online lending marketplaces. These partnerships include banks investing in marketplace loan inventory, banks taking an equity position directly in the online lending companies, and banks leveraging marketplace technology and expertise to increase their product offerings and customer experience. 

"There is an opportunity for a win-win partnership between banks and online lending marketplaces," states Bill Kassul, a partner in the Ranger Specialty Income's direct lending initiatives. "Many banks simply need an organization to explain the opportunities and help them engage the direct lending marketplace. This partnership is being set-up to do just that."

Ranger Capital Group, Jones and Reed will serve as liaisons between banks and online marketplaces.  Through the Ranger Specialty Income direct lending fund, the firm has established relationships with many leading online lending marketplaces.  The objective is to unite these relationships and Ranger's existing loan investment technology to help banks purchase loans and monitor investments generated by the lending platforms.  Jones and Reed will leverage their extensive relationships in the banking industry, as well as their firsthand knowledge of regulatory and marketing issues, to take these opportunities to interested banks. 

"We believe the banking community can take advantage of many products and services provided by the online lending marketplaces," says Scott Reed. "We see a keen interest from many banks who want to increase their loan portfolio by purchasing loans using these lending platforms, but need assistance in the set-up, monitoring and reporting to ensure these investments meet regulatory requirements. We will provide this assistance to our partner banks."

Initially, the partnership between Ranger and Jones and Reed will focus on helping participating banks work with consumer lending platforms. Over time they will also assist banks in purchasing loans across multiple loan categories such as real estate and small business lending from online platforms. 

The need for a relationship between banks and online lending marketplaces was recently explored in a report written by Cognizant entitled, "Marketplace Lending: A Maturing Market Means New Partner Models, Business Opportunities". According to the report, online lenders already view banks favorably as 74% of respondents would trust marketplaces run by retail banks. In fact, banks already possess many of the attributes that online lenders want, including transaction security, money transfer facilities and even branches. These key findings suggest that banks can play a key role in expanding the online lending marketplace.

About Ranger Specialty Income Strategy
For those lending platforms that have available loan history and that can accommodate electronic loan selection, the Ranger Specialty Income strategy uses a proprietary artificial intelligence system known as TruSight Technology^™ to evaluate, select and invest in multiple loan categories and a variety of lending platforms to create a diversified portfolio.  Developed by the Portfolio Manager exclusively for investing in peer-to-peer loans, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms generated by TruSight evaluate data and hundreds of borrower credit fields from the peer-to-peer lending platforms which have both an electronic interface and sufficient historical data to accommodate TruSight.  TruSight algorithms seek to identify the important criteria of loans with the highest potential returns on investment. Ranger's TruSight Technology and approach to peer-to-peer investing has been actively used and continually enhanced to invest in peer-to-peer loans over the past four years.

For more information about the Ranger Specialty Income strategy, please contact Bill Kassul at 214-871-5270 or [email protected] . 

About Ranger Capital Group
The Ranger Specialty Income strategy is advised by Ranger Alternative Management II, LP, an investment adviser under common control by Ranger Capital Group and registered with the SEC.   Ranger Capital Group is an employee-owned holding company which hosts a variety of registered investment advisers offering traditional and alternative investment opportunities to institutional and high net worth individual investors. Currently, Ranger affiliated investment advisers manage over $3 billion in assets.  Additional information regarding Ranger Capital Group and its affiliated investment advisers may be obtained on-line at www.rangercap.com.  Registration with the SEC as an investment adviser does not imply any level of skill or training.

About Brian Jones and Scott Reed
Brian Jones and Scott Reed are partners with BankCap Partners. BankCap Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the U.S. financial services sector.  Founded in 2005, BankCap is one of only a few private equity firms generally pursuing growth-oriented investments in the banking industry.  Through BankCap and their prior affiliations, Jones and Reed have extensive experience in advising, partnering and investing in U.S. commercial banks.  Notable transactions include being the catalyst behind the largest bank start-up in U.S. history (Atlantic Capital Bank).  Their deep understanding of the industry, and on-going involvement as an investor and director of banks, position them to be value-added partners to those banks looking to expand into the rapidly growing peer-to-peer lending space.

For more information, visit: www.rangerspecialtyincome.com

SOURCE Ranger Capital Group