Thomson Reuters announced the launch of evaluated pricing for Marketplace Lending - derived by Thomson Reuters Pricing Service (TRPS) and MountainView IPS - to assist fixed income investors and investment managers with third-party, fair market valuation and price verification for hard-to-value loans. The new offering will be part of the TRPS global solution that provides users of the DataScope suite with evaluated prices to support portfolio, fund and single-security valuations.

Non-traditional lending has registered explosive growth over the past several years. In the U.S. alone, marketplace loan origination - known also as peer-to-peer lending, where borrowers are matched with investors via an online marketplace platform -- has more than doubled each year since 2010, reaching approximately $12 billion in 2014 and exceeding $16 billion for the first six months of 2015.

"Working alongside MountainView IPS, we are proud to add Marketplace Lending to our rapidly expanding offering in evaluated pricing services," said Jayme Fagas, global head, Valuations and Transparency for Thomson Reuters Pricing and Reference Services. "This new pricing capability supports Thomson Reuters objective to provide clients with the breadth of evaluated pricing to help them value their portfolios and power investment workflows."

"The marketplace lending industry is in an emerging market growth phase much like the one that the U.S. credit card industry experienced in the 1980s. This is a new and unique asset class for most CUSIP- focused fixed income investors," said Christopher Kennedy, Managing Director at MountainView IPS.   "Fixed income investors need more industry education around the platform risks, credit risk underwriting, and valuation transparency. The role of independent valuation service providers is very important, in that investors need their internal pricing methodology documented and validated by an independent third party for their daily and monthly NAV (Net Asset Value) process."

MountainView IPS, a subsidiary of MountainView Capital Holdings provides independent/third-party valuation services for hard-to-value fixed income assets. The company prices mortgage- and asset-backed securities, residential whole loans, CLOs, CDOs and marketplace lending loans.  MountainView IPS serves diverse clients, including banks, credit unions, hedge funds, pension funds, mortgage companies, specialty finance companies, private equity funds and the government sponsored enterprises.

With its global team of over 150 fixed income professionals, TRPS is a solution that covers over 2.5 million fixed income securities, derivatives and loans, priced daily. Prices are delivered throughout the day or at market closing times around the world depending on the asset class, with supporting commentary to provide insight on the day's events. For more information on Thomson Reuters Pricing Service, click here.

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