On June 9, 2016, the FTC will host a “FinTech forum on marketplace lending,” the first in a forum series described by the FTC as “exploring emerging financial technology and its implications for consumers.”  According to the FTC, the forum “will examine the range of marketplace lending models, their potential benefits to consumers, possible consumer protection concerns, and the applicability of consumer protection laws to market participants.”

The regulators scheduled to be speakers at the forum include several FTC representatives as well as Thomas Dresslar, a Deputy Commissioner of the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO), who, according to the FTC, “is directing the DBO’s inquiry into the online lending market.”  In December 2015, the DBO announced that it was launching an inquiry into the marketplace lending industry and, in April 2016, it issued a summary report of aggregate data provided by the companies that responded to the DBO’s online survey that was part of the inquiry.

We note however that the speakers do not include any representatives from the CFPB (which recently announced that it had begun to take complaints about marketplace lenders) or the Treasury Department (which released a white paper last month addressing the online marketplace lending industry.)