[Michael I]

zach you know i have tremendous respect for you as well as chris pepe from nyc . but you guys do need to do more research before acquisition of certain branches that are now giving the whole wbl a bad name .
i also guarantee you that those scum bag shops are also backdooring wbl and funding under the door from wbl with the backdoor of other people files .

[matt.estes]

Agree with Zach on general marketplace dynamics at work. OnDeck was at an average 55% APR 3 years ago, and is now at an average APR in the lower 30s...with no shift in the quality of credit bands in their portfolio. They are simply competing on price.

Although - I don't believe the top funders are hemorrhaging capital. The tier 1 consolidated / A-paper guys are still profitable. They are simply seeing shrinking, contracting margins.

I addressed the shrinking lifetime value vs. rising acquisition cost problem in a blog post back in August, that seems particularly relevant now. If you aren't building a business around utilization-based products & renewals, you're probably feeling the squeeze right now. Competitive, fragmented markets with no barriers to entry and limited-to-no product differentiation (...the cash advance / installment loan space...) always see decreasing price and rising acquisition cost as the markets mature. It's basic economic theory.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-way...?trk=prof-post