Figure Blockchain Lending Platform Secures $100m from JP Morgan
Figure Lending has obtained a $100 million loan facility from leading U.S lender, JPMorgan for conforming and jumbo mortgages. The blockchain-powered mortgage platform claims it has secured $1.5 billion of lending facilities via five funding deals, according to a LedgerInsights report on January 15, 2021.
Figure Gets $100 Million From JPMorgan
Figure Technologies Inc., a startup that functions as a financial technology (fintech) company in both the home equity and blockchain ecosystems, has announced that its subsidiary, Figure Lending has successfully obtained a $100 million loan from JPMorgan bank for its conforming and jumbo mortgages.
Established in 2018, Figure offers home equity access solutions (refinance and home equity lines) to property owners, consumer financial solutions for home improvement, debt consolidation, and retirement.
For the uninitiated, conforming loans are simply conventional loan types that meet the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) purchase standards, as well as a specific loan amount ($484,350 as of 2019).
On the other hand, jumbo loans are mortgages that exceed the maximum conforming loan amounts ($510,400 in most U.S cities).
Mortgage Loans on the Blockchain
Notably, Figure Lending says it has so far secured a massive $1.5 billion of lending facilities through five funding deals, including $1 billion from Jefferies Group in 2019. Jefferies is a New York-based multinational independent investment bank and financial services company.
“With the financing facility now in place, Provenance.io can support the entire end-to-end financing of loans, from origination to funding to serving to financing. It paves the way for the first securitization on-chain, which will demonstrate the massive cost savings, risk reduction, and liquidity benefits blockchain delivers,” declared Figure Technologies CEO, Mike Cagney at the time.
Figure says the entire information pertaining to its mortgages are stored on its Provenance distributed ledger, which is also used to package the debt as mortgage-backed securities. This way, all data remains tamper-proof and secure.
The firm claims its mortgage lending businesses experienced a 100 percent month on month growth in Q4 2020. Buoyed by this success, Figure reportedly applied for a national banking charter with the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC) last November, though its application is yet to be approved.
In related news, BTCManager informed last May that the Bank of Russia is developing a digital mortgage system powered by Masterchain, a government-backed blockchain project.
