A new entrant in the nascent online peer lending space, Lending Club must decide whether or not to register with the SEC. Lending Club provided a platform through which individual borrowers could receive loans funded by individuals who chose to invest in them. The management team wanted to grow the business and also hoped to establish a secondary market to give lender members liquidity. The SEC had raised questions about whether or not the promissory notes issued to lender members were in fact securities, but there were legal arguments on both sides. While the legal situation was unclear, Lending Club considered the benefits of applying to the SEC, but had to decide whether it would be worth the significant investment of time and money, both up front and going forward.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union has the opportunity to purchase Nix Check Cashing as part of their "blue ocean" strategy to reach the financially underserved and increase credit union membership and deposits. But they face financial as well as reputational risk. Check cashing, payday lending and other alternative financial services are maligned in mainstream financial circles. This case asks students to evaluate both organizations, their respective industries, and the proposed $45 million deal and determine whether or not it makes sense for Kinecta to purchase Nix.

These spreadsheets will allow students to analyze financials for Kinecta Federal Credit Union and Nix Check Cashing. They also provide insight into the banking and AFS markets in which both organizations operate.

This note reviews a variety of shorter-term consumer credit products in the U.S. with an emphasis on the types of products that low and moderate-income consumers use. Included here are the following: credit cards, bank overdraft products, payday lending, personal loans and peer-to-peer lending, home-equity lending, rent-to-own contracts, auto-title lending, pawnbroking, refund-anticipation loans, informal lending.

In 2002, two homeowners in Massachusetts are deciding whether to refinance their home less than two years after taking out an initial mortgage and a subsequent home equity line of credit.