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Wrap-Up of LendIt Fintech USA 2018

Highlights from the many keynotes and more at LendIt Fintech USA 2018 held in San Francisco April 9-11

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Peter Renton, Bo Brustkern and Jason Jones open LendIt Fintech USA 2018

Last week the sixth annual LendIt USA conference took place in San Francisco. Officially known as LendIt Fintech USA 2018 this event was, in my opinion, the best we have ever produced. As I do at this time after every LendIt event, here are my thoughts on some of the ideas that were shared by the keynote speakers as well as a summary of the rest of the event.

The opening keynote, for the second year in a row, was delivered by Scott Sanborn, the CEO of LendingClub. He gave a different kind of presentation this year. He didn’t talk much about LendingClub at all, instead choosing to focus his keynote on financial health and the looming crisis that maybe coming. He gave us all something to consider beyond just disruption, he said we should think about three key areas: financial inclusion, regulatory innovation and customer alignment. He ended with a call to action for the industry. He wanted everyone to focus on what problem you are solving and what you can do to help restore financial health to all Americans.

Scott Sanborn, the CEO of LendingClub, delivers the opening keynote at LendIt Fintech USA 2018

For the first time ever we had the CEO of Quicken Loans, Jay Farner, on stage at LendIt. Quicken Loans has become the largest mortgage lender in the country, bigger than all the banks. It was interesting to hear Jay talk about innovation. He said it is not enough today to just be faster. You need to fundamentally rethink the process, do it in a new and different way. This is where good entrepreneurial businesses will succeed because they start with a blank sheet of paper. He said there is no reason a mortgage should take longer than 10 days.

Long time readers of Lend Academy will know the name Chris Larsen. He was the co-founder and former CEO of Prosper. He left Prosper in 2012 to start Ripple, his most ambitious startup yet. Ripple is trying to revolutionize the way money is sent around the world. As he said in his discussion with Jo Ann Barefoot in finance, when it comes to moving money, we are living in a pre-internet world. It takes days to send money around the world and yet email moves instantly. It is inevitable that this will change and when it does Chris said there will be a Cambrian explosion in innovation and economic development.

Max Levchin first made a name for himself as a co-founder of PayPal but today he is most well known as the CEO and co-founder of Affirm. Affirm is attacking point of sale financing, a space that is somewhat fragmented with few big incumbent lenders. In his discussion Max said that software is eventually going to eat the credit card. We are going to move to payments made by phone but we have more work to do on the software side before that becomes the standard way people pay. Interestingly, he also attacked the APR (annual percentage rate) standard as a bad way of judging credit products. We need to reinvent a way to compare financial products that is not just focused on the APR.

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LendIt USA Returns to San Francisco in 2018

The sixth annual LendIt USA conference will take place at the Moscone Center on April 9-11, early bird pricing ends on November 3

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When we launched LendIt USA back in 2013 we were the first conference ever focused on the online lending space.  Since then we have expanded our mission to cover all of lending and in 2017 we started expanding into other areas of fintech. This has reflected the maturation of online lending as it has become part of the mainstream financial system.

In 2018, we bring you the sixth edition of LendIt USA as we are heading back to the west coast on April 9-11, 2018 at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. We will be covering financial services innovation at LendIt USA 2018 with a focus on three core areas: lending, digital banking and blockchain. The event has been open for registration for some time and early bird pricing ends this Friday.

Below are some highlights from our 2017 event.

Networking Takes Center Stage

We will have more networking opportunities at LendIt USA 2018 than ever before. We know that one of the best things about a large conference like LendIt is that everyone is there and you can forge many new connections that will help in your business.

There will be a 1-to-1 networking tool powered by Brella that will allow you to schedule short meetings with other attendees. Not only that but once you tell it the kinds of people you are interested in meeting it will actually make suggestions for you. If you are after a more curated experience then we recommend our VIP Meeting Concierge who will personally coordinate meetings ahead of the conference, available to qualified participants and sponsors only. Of course, there will also be plenty of opportunities to meet with your fellow attendees during networking breaks and the onsite cocktail party.

A Comprehensive Agenda

We are still in the early stages of putting the agenda together but we have a fantastic program planned over an expanded 2 1/2 days in 2018. We will have several big new names this year along with many popular speakers from the past and will start sharing these names shortly.

Our content tracks will be covering a breadth of topics: digital banking, consumer lending, real estate, small business lending, international fintech, financial inclusion, structured products, women in fintech, underwriting, regulation, blockchain and more.

New for 2018: The BlockFin Summit

Speaking of blockchain we are doing an entire conference within a conference focused on this topic at LendIt USA 2018. The BlockFin Summit will take place in a dedicated space within LendIt and will be focused on all things blockchain. Spearheaded by my partner, Jason Jones, the BlockFin Summit is a conference for the financial services sector with coverage of the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and tokens.

Some topics we will be covering include: enterprise blockchain using digital ledger technology, global finance built on AI and blockchain, tokenized VC and investment banking, blockchain infrastructure for markets, trading, and back office, decentralized banking and insurance, crypto-economics and more.

The LendIt Awards Dinner is Back

I think my favorite part of the 2017 event was the LendIt Industry Awards Dinner. This sold out event was a celebration of the industry where we recognized the leaders who have had the most impact over the previous year. A panel of 30+ judges selected the winners from 18 different categories. Tickets are available now for the 2018 Awards dinner and nominations will be open shortly.

Early Bird Pricing Ends Friday, November 3

Early bird pricing of $1,595 is available until this Friday, that is a $1,400 saving off the regular price. On top of that as a Lend Academy reader you receive an additional discount. Use the code LENDACADEMYVIP when you register for a 15% discount (you enter the code on the final checkout screen). While the discount code is always good for 15% off, our special early bird pricing only lasts until November 3.

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Key Takeaways From LendIt Europe 2017

Some interesting themes emerged from LendIt Europe 2017, a two day event held in London this week

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Imran Gulanhuseinwala kicks off LendIt Europe with the opening keynote

The fourth annual LendIt Europe event was in London earlier this week with around 1,100 people in attendance. Here are my key takeaways, focusing mainly on the keynote sessions.

We kicked off the event with Imran Gulamhuseinwala, the Global Head of Fintech for EY and also the head of the UK’s Open Banking initiative. Open banking is mandated to arrive in January 2018 and Imran is in charge of making sure this process goes smoothly. He delivered an optimistic message saying that open banking is simply an idea whose time has come.

He made it clear that this is all for the consumer, that the consumer is at the center of open banking. He put forward the idea that making transaction level data available to innovative fintech platforms should bring more people into the financial system. There will be one API to cover all of open banking and enrolment in the open banking directory begins this Friday, October 13. He ended with a call to action. Open banking will not be a success unless the fintech platforms embrace it and seize on this new opportunity.

Next up was Jaidev Janardana, the CEO of Zopa, who put forward his vision for the future of banking. The theme for his discussion, which ended up being a theme repeated throughout the event, was that the customer needs to be the starting point for all banking products. He chided banks today for making banking a zero-sum game where the bank wins and the customer loses.

Zopa is trying to build a bank where incentives are aligned between the bank and the customer. Every bank product should be a win-win. The reality is that our bank knows so much about us but their service is not personal. It should be. Jaidev shared that Zopa intends to offer four bank products: unsecured personal loans (something they already offer in their P2P lending business), credit cards, savings accounts and auto loans.

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Registration for LendIt Europe 2017 is Now Open

LendIt Europe returns to London for the fourth time on October 9-10 at the InterContinental London—The O2.

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I was in London last week where we officially launched LendIt Europe 2017. We are returning to the InterContinental at the O2 for the second year in a row where we expect over 1,000 attendees this year.

Our 2017 event will be a little different to last year. Similar to what we have done at our USA event we are expanding to include other aspects of fintech beyond online lending. While we will still be covering lending in some depth we also want to highlight the innovations happening in other areas of financial services. Europe continues to be a hotbed of innovation and we will be covering a number of new categories: artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics, blockchain and we will also dig deep on digital banking. Supporting the startup community is in LendIt’s DNA and we are excited to have PitchIt @ LendIt return for the second year at our Europe conference. Below is an agenda framework to give you some idea of what we have planned:

Early confirmed keynote speakers include Jaidev Janardana, the CEO of Zopa, Francesco Brenna, an Executive Partner at IBM Global Business Services and Shane Williams, the co-head of UBS Smartwealth. Our current confirmed speakers are here and if you are interested in becoming a speaker at LendIt Europe 2017 you can submit an application here.

Lend Academy Readers Receive a 15% Discount

The launch price of £795 is in effect until June 2nd, but as a Lend Academy reader you can receive an additional 15% discount by using the code LENDACADEMYVIP at checkout. The discount code is always good for 15% off but you will receive the best pricing if you purchase before midnight on June 2nd. You can register now on the LendIt website.

Our fourth London event I expect will be our biggest and best ever. I am looking forward to hearing from a range of industry leaders in not just the UK but from across Europe. It will be interesting to see the impact that Brexit has on the event and with open banking arriving in Q1 next year that is going to provide some major impetus for change that we will be covering as well.

Below is a video with some highlights from our event last year that was at the same location. I hope to see you at LendIt Europe 2017 in October.

Wrap-Up of LendIt USA 2017 in New York

My thoughts on the LendIt USA 2017 conference last week in New York

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Peter Renton, Bo Brustkern and Jason Jones open LendIt USA 2017 to a packed house

LendIt USA 2017 is now history. It was a great event, I think it was our best ever, it was certainly the largest with over 5,000 people in attendance. As I do every year here is my wrap-up of the event and some of my thoughts on what was shared.

For the fifth year in a row the CEO of Lending Club kicked off the conference with the opening keynote. The big difference was that this year it was Scott Sanborn delivering this presentation for the first time. He didn’t sugar coat the challenges Lending Club has faced in the past year but he is also didn’t dwell on them.

He compared the online lending industry with that of online retailing. He said that today parallels the time in the early 2000’s when online retailing was going through some early challenges. Back then we were going through the dot-com crash and many laughed at the idea that tiny Amazon could ever be a threat to the most successful retailers. Fast forward to today and Amazon was the first company to generate $100 billion in online sales and its online operations dwarfs that of Walmart. [Read more…]

The Preliminary Agenda for LendIt USA 2017 is Now Available

The fifth annual LendIt USA event will be the biggest event in the history of the industry.

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LendIt-USA-2017-New-York

We are just five weeks away from the annual LendIt USA show. The LendIt team, including myself, have been working diligently for months to bring you the biggest and best show we have ever done.

We have just released our preliminary agenda and I think it is coming together nicely. Every year we try to keep the event fresh and interesting, reflecting not just where Fintech is at today but where it is headed. This year we are featuring some completely new tracks that capture this: digital banking, blockchain, policy and regulation, financial inclusion, insurtech, digital wealth management and artificial intelligence. There will also be the always popular tracks of credit & underwriting, consumer lending, small business lending, real estate, investor insights and structured products.

Fintech’s Leading Speaker Lineup

The LendIt team has also worked hard on bringing together some of the most interesting speakers, many of which will be new to LendIt this year. Here are some examples:

  • Ash Gupta – President of American Express
  • John Sculley – Vice Chairman of Lantern Credit (former CEO of Apple)
  • Harit Talwar – CEO of Marcus (a division of Goldman Sachs)
  • Antony Jenkins – CEO of 10X Future Technologies (former CEO of Barclays)
  • Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) – United States Congress
  • Thomas Curry – Comptroller of the Currency (Head of the OCC)

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Wrap up of the LendIt Europe 2016 Conference

The third annual LendIt Europe conference was this week in London with over 900 people in attendance.

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Samir Desai, CEO of Funding Circle, gives the opening keynote at LendIt Europe 2016

Samir Desai, CEO of Funding Circle, gives the opening keynote at LendIt Europe 2016

I have been in London this week for our third annual LendIt Europe conference. In many ways this was the best event we have ever done – the speakers were excellent, everything was conveniently located on the same floor and the event ran smoothly.

We kicked things off with the CEO of Funding Circle, Samir Desai, giving the opening keynote for the second year in a row. He made an excellent case for why, despite all the challenges in 2016, we are about to enter a golden age for marketplace lending. He listed three mega-trends:

  1. Banks are pulling back from SME lending
  2. Investors are unable to generate yield from traditional investments.
  3. Internet marketplaces are disrupting many big industries.

Samir also pointed out the fact that marketplaces do not carry any systemic risk even at a very large scale. This is because there is no maturity transformation, the loan duration of the borrower and the investment horizon of the investor are perfectly matched. Also, there is no inherent leverage in the system – dollars are invested in a 1:1 way.

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Registration for LendIt USA 2017 is Now Open

The fifth annual LendIt USA conference will take place in New York City on March 6-7, 2017.

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lendit-usa-2017-new-york-city

LendIt USA was the first and is the largest conference in the online lending space. Next year marks the fifth edition of this event and we are very excited to be hosting it at the Javits Center in New York on March 6-7. Last night we opened our 2017 event for registration.

As many of you know I am one of the co-founders of LendIt and I spend most of my time these days working on this business. We have three events a year: in the USA, Europe and China with the US event being by far the largest. At LendIt USA 2016 in San Francisco in April we had more than 3,600 attendees and next year we are expecting 5,000 people. Below is a video with some highlights from our San Francisco event.

 

Hear From the Industry Leaders

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The Fall 2016 Marketplace Lending Conference Schedule

Fall is conference season for the marketplace lending industry with eight conferences focused on our industry. Here is a quick rundown of each event.

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Marketplace Lending Conferences

With LendIt USA in the spring every year pretty much every other significant marketplace lending conference takes place in the fall. It will be a very busy three months so everyone will have to pick and choose which conferences to attend. To help you in this regard we are listing all these fall conferences in calendar order with a brief description of each.

MPL Policy Summit

When: September 13
Where: Washington, DC
Link: http://mplsummit.org/
Description: The fall conference season kicks off in Washington DC with the first ever Marketplace Lending Policy Summit. This one event is put on by Cross River Bank in partnership with the the Center for Finance, Law & Policy at Boston University. The MPL Summit is also intended to be the catalyst for the establishment of another trade group: the Online Lenders Policy Institute. I will be making the trip to DC to speak at this event because I believe it is important to make more efforts to engage with Washington lawmakers. Featured speakers will be Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Thomas Curry the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Here is a short official blurb from their website:

Over the past few years, across the globe, there has been unprecedented growth and innovation in marketplace lending. In the US, this industry is committed to working with regulators to create an appropriate framework to foster responsible innovation in marketplace lending. The Marketplace Lending Policy Summit will bring together thought leaders from the private and public sectors to continue the constructive dialogue that has begun between the industry and the various regulatory agencies.

AltFi Global Summit

When: September 14
Where: New York City
Link: http://www.altfi.com/events/Global_Summit_2016
Description: The third annual AltFi Global Summit is brought to you by the AltFi folks who are based in the UK. So, this conference will have a decidedly international flavor with many speakers making the trip from across the pond. I will also be speaking at this event in a debate with David Stevenson about the importance of the retail investor.

Marketplace lending, direct lending, trade finance, BDCs, asset backed finance, real estate crowdfunding – the list goes on. The alternative spectrum offers unprecedented income generating opportunities through online platforms, via funds, or increasingly by tapping directly into sources of asset origination.  Dis-intermediation of the legacy architecture is gathering pace as investors find new routes directly into intelligently priced financial assets.

MARKETPLACE LENDING + INVESTING

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LendIt Europe 2016 is Now Open for Registration

The third annual LendIt Europe conference, held in conjunction with the UK P2P Finance Association, will take place in London on October 10-11, 2016.

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LendIt Europe 2016 with the P2PFAThe LendIt team is excited to be back in London this year for our third annual LendIt Europe conference on October 10-11. We are privileged to be partnering, for the second year, with the UK P2P Finance Association, the leading trade association for our industry in Europe. Registration is now open.

It has been fascinating to watch the industry in Europe this year and in particular these past few weeks. While not completely immune to the bearish sentiments in the U.S. it has become clear that the market in Europe is different. When I have spoken with platforms there recently they have said that investor demand is still strong. While they have all had to deal with questions arising from the Lending Club saga they have not seen much in the way of reduced demand from investors.

Lord Adair Turner to Keynote at LendIt Europe

We will have some of the biggest names in financial services speaking at LendIt Europe. The former head of the UK Financial Services Authority (now the FCA), Lord Adair Turner, will be one of our major keynote speakers. In February this year he famously spoke out against the P2P lending industry and we will all get to hear first hand if his views have changed since that time.

The Largest European Marketplace Lending Event of the Year

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About Lend Academy

Lend Academy has been bringing you all the news and information about peer to peer lending since 2010. Founded by Peter Renton, Lend Academy not only has the most active news site, but also the largest online forum and the first and most popular podcast in the industry.

The Lend Academy team loves peer to peer lending and our staff have all invested their own personal money in one or more of the platforms. Lend Academy Media is part of Cardinal Rose Group which also owns LendIt, the leading industry conference, and has a majority interest in NSR Invest.

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