Rachel Schneider discusses a new way of thinking about the financial lives of Americans; suggests that many of the models are out of date; Schneider worked with a research project called US Financial Diaries which worked with 235 families to learn about every dollar that they spent, borrowed, saved, earned, and more; through the research they understood these families on a much deeper level to understand the 'why' behind financial decisions; Schneider shares many interesting data points including income and spending spikes in the lives of Americans; highlights the opportunities for fintech companies in the US. Source
LendIt has announced eight finalists from a pool of approximately 300 applicants for this year's PitchIt @ LendIt USA; finalists will be connected with mentors for competition preparation and ongoing business support; LendIt has partnered with 500 Startups and sponsor Marqeta to host the event; the finalists will present to a panel of judges at LendIt USA 2017 on March 7. Source
Scott Sanborn gave a recap of his LendIt USA 2017 keynote presentation and reiterated his excitement and positive outlook for the marketplace lending industry in a blog post; Sanborn identified three key areas of importance: evolving the customer experience, unleashing the platform potential and amplifying core innovations; with a focus on these three things Lending Club plans to see more borrowers and investors as well as a number of new and innovative partnerships fueling its future business growth. Source
Caitlin Long, chairman and president of Symbiont, talks about why blockchain technology is ideal for syndicated loans; syndicated loans are some of the most complexly structured loans in the credit market; they involve multiple originators for a single loan and add significant balance sheet capital for corporations; blockchain could help reduce the syndicated loan deal funding process currently averaging over 20 days; it could also streamline documentation and loan processing providing significantly improved transparency and also supporting better loan market trading activities; Caitlin will be speaking about blockchain and its integration with loans at LendIt USA 2017. Source
India has fast become one of the world's most interesting fintech markets; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a fireside chat focused on digital credit for the India population and how their biometric Aadhaar system plays a key role; a few key developments have helped the India population, the ease of acquiring a smartphone and the Aadhaar system; Aadhaar started with an investment by the India government eight years ago and today there is one billion Indians who have an Aadhaar number with key identifiable pieces of information; the government then began linking Aadhaar with the banking system and enlisted fintech firms to begin extending microloans to individuals and SMEs; Aadhaar helps to solve the biggest issue with lending, KYC, by using a retina scan or biometric signature to verify the borrower; the fireside chat also talked through how the lending process worked with Aadhaar and how it has helped to extend credit to a segment of the population that only a few years ago was unable to access capital. Source
As with past conferences LendIt aims to bring new speakers to the conference; this year LendIt has confirmed Ash Gupta (President of American Express), Harit Talwar (CEO of Marcus) and Thomas Curry (Head of the OCC) among many others who are new to LendIt; the agenda will also include the leaders in online lending with representation from companies such as Lending Club, Prosper, OnDeck and loanDepot; the conference will be the largest for the industry to date with a 100,000 square foot exhibit hall, featuring over 200 companies; LendIt will end the conference with the first ever industry awards dinner. Source
Banks have been trying to understand what they will need to change to stay competitive as finance becomes more digital; the key question they try to answer is buy, build or partner; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a keynote fireside chat that focused on how a global cooperative bank stays innovative; digitizing their lending process to become more like a platform, understanding that fintech is more of an evolution and not a revolution, better understanding the customer's needs and offering hybrid solutions is key to staying ahead of the innovation curve. Source
The panel explores the spectrum of responsible online credit; discusses what is clearly irresponsible lending and what are some of the borderline cases of credit being deemed responsible; panelists discuss the many of things to consider when it comes to responsible lending including sales tactics, APRs, transparency and loan stacking/debt traps. Source
LendIt has posted presentations from LendIt USA 2017 keynote speakers and the event's various tracks on its blog; keynote speaker videos are now all available on the LendIt website and videos from different tracks continue to be added; also available on the website are LendIt USA 2017 photos. Source
The creation of a secondary market for marketplace lending loans has been a hot topic recently; if a robust secondary market existed many believe more pension plans, registered mutual funds and other institutional investors would participate because loans would have a price and there would be liquidity for investors; currently marketplace lending loans trade on an over the counter market where many of the panelists currently participate; the panel explores whether whole loans are securities, why that matters and dives deep into the key aspects of a secondary market: price discovery, connecting buyers and sellers and fulfillment. Source