LendIt Fintech Archives

Register Now for LendIt Fintech Europe 2018 in London

Launch pricing for the 5th annual LendIt Fintech Europe event ends tomorrow

June 14, 2018 By Peter Renton 2 Comments

LendIt is returning to London for the fifth time in November for the LendIt Europe show. Now known as LendIt Fintech Europe, to reflect our broadening scope beyond lending, it will be held on November 19 & 20 at a new location, the Business Design Centre. We are expecting well over 1,000 people at the event this year.

Planning has been underway for a month or so now and we have finalized the list of topics we will be covering:

Day One – November 19

Future of Banking
Legal and Regulatory Issues
Credit, Risk and Identity
Future of Fintech

Day Two – November 20

Lending Innovation and Financial Inclusion
Blockchain
Investing & Entrepreneurship
AI & Data Analytics.

While we have expanded beyond lending rest assured that lending will still be front and center at the event. We have seen a blurring of the lines between lending and other areas of fintech as banks offer online lending, lending platforms become banks and neo-banks now partner with lending platforms. As the online lending industry has matured we are broadening our purview.

In the last month we have started reaching out to potential speakers and we will be adding new speakers regularly over the next several months.

Signature Keynote Speaker: Rt Hon George Osborne CH

I am pleased to report that we have secured a signature keynote speaker for this year, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. When he was in government he was always very bullish about fintech and he was the driving force behind the new Innovative Finance ISA. I am looking forward to hearing his thoughts on open banking, bitcoin, blockchain, AI in financial services, Brexit, the current direction of the financial regulatory landscape in Britain and more.

More keynote speakers will be announced shortly as we expect to have the best speaker lineup ever this year with many people who have never presented at LendIt before.

What Else to Expect at LendIt Fintech Europe 2018

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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

April 18, 2018 By Peter Renton 1 Comment

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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Nominations for the 2nd Annual LendItFintech Industry Awards are Live!

Next year the LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner will recognize leaders in fintech.

December 19, 2017 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

Since its inception, LendItFintech, a sister company to Lend Academy, has been more than just a conference producer. We pride ourselves on our written content both here at Lend Academy as well as the conference content at our events across the globe. We engage with the industry on a deep level to create the best events possible.

Last year when we were determining which new projects we should pursue we decided to dedicate resources to put on the inaugural LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner. The entire LendItFintech team put on a fantastic event. It was great to recognize the companies leading in all areas of fintech and the executives that run those companies. You can view last year’s winners here. The atmosphere of the event is best captured in our recap video below.

The team is already hard at work putting our 2018 event together. Yesterday, we announced that nominations for the LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner are now open. The dinner will be held on April 10, 2018 at One Market in San Francisco and the event will celebrate 500+ Fintech influencers and innovations and their outstanding achievements in 21 categories. We encourage fintech companies from around the world to apply for the categories that are the best fit.

Fintech Innovator of the Year
Executive of the Year
Fintech Woman of the Year
International Innovator of the Year
Top Consumer Lending Platform
Top Business Lending Platform
Top Real Estate Lending Platform
Emerging Lending Platform of the Year
Top Fintech Equity Investor
Most Innovative Bank
Most Promising Partnership
Most Innovative Mobile Technology
Top Professional Services Company of the Year
Top Investment Bank in Fintech
Best Journalist Coverage
Blockchain Innovator of the Year
The Most Innovative Token Economy
Excellence in Financial Inclusion
Top Emerging Technology Company
Top Enterprise Company
Most Successful Cross-Border Partnership

We have already confirmed thought leaders from the industry who will be judging the various awards categories. Beyond recognizing the success of the companies chosen as winners, the event serves as a unique networking opportunity. We hope to see you there next year!