• Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • About LendIt Fintech News
  • Home
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item

Lend Academy

LendIt Fintech News: Daily Coverage of Fintech & Online Lending


  • Editorial
  • Daily News
  • Podcast
  • Investor Forum
  • Events

Goldman Sachs New Online Lending Platform Will be Called Marcus

The New York Times is reporting that the new consumer lending platform from Goldman Sachs will be called Marcus and will launch in October

August 19, 2016 By Peter Renton 7 Comments

Views: 1,004

Goldman_SachsAccording to the New York Times the long awaited online lending platform from Goldman Sachs now has a name: Marcus. This name was chosen in honor of one of the founding partners of the firm, Marcus Goldman.

We first wrote about the new Goldman Sachs initiative in June of last year. The new platform has long been known as Mosaic and details have been very hard to come by but as Goldman gets closer to a launch date more information is slowly coming out.

Goldman has been building out its online lending platform since early last year. They hired Harit Talwar, a former executive with Discover, to lead the effort and they have also been looking to hire people from Lending Club and Prosper. They supposedly have built a team of around 100 people now – a much larger pre-launch team than any other company I have come across.

It looks like Marcus will initially offer consumer loans in the $15,000 to $20,000 range – that is the sweet spot for Lending Club, Prosper and many other online lenders. I assume these will be three or five year loans and that they will be targeting prime borrowers. We will know more shortly as the New York Times says they are targeting an October launch date.

Goldman Sachs – A Curious Consumer Lender

Clearly, they couldn’t go to market with the Goldman Sachs brand to a consumer demographic so I think you will find their corporate brand completely absent from this offering. It will likely be Marcus Corporation branding with no mention of the parent company on their consumer facing website.

I always thought it was curious that Goldman Sachs was entering the consumer lending business when they have spent most of the past 150 years serving wealthy individuals and corporations. They have zero experience in serving the middle class demographic.

But whether you like them or not Goldman has a reputation for hiring some of the smartest people in finance. Clearly, they see consumer lending as an opportunity worth pursuing. They will have a huge advantage over all non-bank lenders as far as cost of capital goes so they should be able to offer better rates. How they compete beyond price on such things as user experience or customer acquisition remains to be seen.

The online lending industry is about to enter a new era with the arrival of Marcus. It is going to be fascinating to see how this plays out.

Filed Under: Peer to Peer Lending Tagged With: Banks, Goldman Sachs, Marcus, online lending

Views: 1,004

Comments

  1. Rob L says

    August 19, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    It’s now finally upon us. “The Empire Strikes Back” (or something like that).
    Yeah, this is going to be so very interesting.
    I have no doubt the folks at LC have spent the past year planning their response and competitive strategy.
    Talk about a David and Goliath story. Can’t wait to see how it plays out.

    Reply
    • Peter Renton says

      August 19, 2016 at 3:42 pm

      Ha! The Empire indeed. I know that LC has been thinking about this for a long time. I didn’t mention this in the article but I asked Scott Sanborn at a conference late last year about GS. And he said that “he is looking forward to competing with GS on user experience.” It remains to be seen whether GS create a modern user experience or one that looks like a bank.

      Reply
  2. Nobody says

    August 19, 2016 at 3:20 pm

    I’m not so convinced that they’ll be hiding their name from this new venture. Maybe they will, but they kept their name right out front with their consumer facing bank. https://www.gsbank.com

    Reply
    • Peter Renton says

      August 19, 2016 at 3:43 pm

      The bank is different I think. You want a bank that is well established with a lot of assets if you are thinking about depositing money. But will consumers feel the same way about borrowing money? I don’t think so.

      Reply
      • Nobody says

        August 19, 2016 at 5:07 pm

        Very valid point. I guess we’ll find out sometime soon. 🙂

        Reply
  3. Lisa Wilhelm says

    August 20, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    The Financial Times reports this differently: the brand will be “Marcus by Goldman Sachs”

    “Goldman’s new consumer lending arm, set to launch later this year, will be named “Marcus by Goldman Sachs” after the nearly 150-year-old company’s founder, Marcus Goldman, said a person close to the company.

    The familiar first name, reportedly the product of extensive market research and lengthy internal discussions, sounds more like a Silicon Valley start-up than a Wall Street titan. Oscar, a US health insurance technology start-up, closed a $400m funding round earlier this year.

    A person close to the company said market research had shown that target customers had also responded positively to the new brand’s association with Goldman Sachs.”

    Reply
    • Peter Renton says

      August 28, 2016 at 6:56 am

      Hi Lisa,

      I saw the Financial Times piece and I was surprised. I don’t know anything about this research and I still maintain that the GS brand will not have good resonance with the target market looking to take a loan. We will just have to wait and see.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Investor Intelligence

Peter Renton's Returns

Investor Forum

Lending Club Review

Prosper Review

Investor Resources

Most Popular Editorials

The Pure Marketplace Lending Model is Dead, the Hybrid Takes its Place

The 2018 Lending Club and Prosper Tax Guide

My Returns at Lending Club and Prosper

Map of Available States for Lending Club and Prosper Investors

Banks and Marketplace Lending Platforms: Ideal Partners?

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Lend Academy Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to the Lend Academy Podcast
List of Podcast Episodes

Archives

Follow @LendAcademy Follow @LendIt

ABOUT LENDIT FINTECH NEWS

LendIt Fintech News, Powered by Lend Academy, has been bringing you all the news and information about fintech and online lending since 2010 when it was founded by Peter Renton. We not only have the industry’s most active news site, but also the largest investor forum and the first and most popular podcast.

We are a team of fintech enthusiasts who have been covering the industry for many years. With a deep knowledge of online lending, digital banking, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more our team covers the daily news and writes in-depth editorials.

Recent Editorials

  • The MLA and OLPI Merge to Form the American Fintech Council
  • Marcus Co-Founder Leaving for New Walmart Fintech Initiative
  • Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending February 27, 2021
  • Podcast 287: Brad Paterson of Splitit
  • ODX and Fundation Join Forces to Form Linear Financial Technologies

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in