In 2016 the online consumer lenders had an unexpected downturn; platforms experienced a capital markets crunch as well as concerns over credit quality; this panel with some of the largest consumer online lenders explores their expected growth going forward; despite the pullback, the major lenders continued to underwrite a significant amount of loans and believe growth for their businesses will return albeit in a more measured way; panelists discuss changing platform strategies and the focus on profitability. Source
2016 was a year filled with shaky investor confidence, compliance issues and bad credit performance in online lending; OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow's 2017 LendIt USA keynote focused on the challenges posed by 2016 and the trends for 2017 and beyond; after seeing how the industry reacted to these challenges he stated that he is now more optimistic than ever before; the industry is maturing and measures of success have shifted; the unstoppable trends include: customer awareness, trust and adoption of online lending, bank partnerships, constructive engagement between the public and private sector, and the global growth of online lending; he also predicts that by the mid 2020's nearly all small business loans will be made online. Source
PitchIt 2017 was a competition for fintech startups, in exclusive partnership with global venture capital fund 500 Startups, the world leader in investing in and mentoring early-stage fintech startups; the platform nurtures emerging talent in fintech throughout the competition, provides selected finalists with unparalleled access to industry expertise as well as invaluable exposure and branding; eight finalists present their businesses to a panel of select judges who then ask questions to determine a winner. Source
Competition in the personal loan market has become quite heated since the financial crisis; banks of all sizes, and credit unions now have to compete with the likes of emerging fintech companies who have originated billions in loans; at LendIt USA 2017 Ken Lin of Credit Karma did a keynote presentation on some of the keys to success in this highly competitive market; helping to understand the trends of the last few years (higher defaults and increased APRs) can first give you a better understanding of current market conditions; the keys to success to overcome and reverse those trends are to continuously refine your underwriting models, solve real customer pain points and find a way to win on mobile; keeping ahead of the curve is not easy with so many players but making improvements to certain areas could go a long way. Source
Lend Academy provides insight and highlights from the event's keynote speakers in their article; day one featured Scott Sanborn from Lending Club as the event's leading keynote speaker and also included three keynote presentations on regulation in the industry from Congressman Patrick McHenry, Comptroller Thomas Curry and CFPB Director Richard Cordray; day two began with Alex Tapscott discussing blockchain and followed with a variety of insights from leading industry innovators; Lend Academy also reports on PitchIt and the LendIt Industry Awards additionally including key takeaways from the event overall; videos from the event will all be published within the next few days and can be found on the LendIt USA 2017 video page. Source
Regulation in the US is far different than in China; CredEx is a Chinese company that shares the state of regulation there; Jo Ann Barefoot shares her perspective on regulation in the US, having spent most of her career working in consumer protection and financial inclusion; she believes that we have produced a regulatory system that has high cost and low value which has left consumers confused by products; while not discounting the importance of regulation, Barefoot shares that fintechs can do more to further goals around financial inclusion than regulation can; one area where the US is lagging behind much of the world, specifically China is in mobile adoption and regulators in the US are struggling to keep up as technology quickly changes. 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
Banks of all sizes have been trying to figure out how to adapt to the changing landscape and at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel to look at the future of digital banking; panelists cover how they see the future of banking, is it mobile only or mobile first, how do millennials help to guide strategies and when life becomes more complex how many different devices do people use; panelists focused on how to leverage social networks and how important digital strategies are to grow your audience; when doing partnerships who really owns the customer, is it the bank or does the customer feel more ownership to the social network or other type of partner; how do you compete with larger incumbent banks and how are smaller more nimble players able to gain market share; the panel also touches on different types of fees, how to make money in the digital age and how smaller firms can keep costs lower as they scale. Source
LendIt has announced a list of keynote speakers for LendIt USA 2017 on March 6 and 7; keynote speakers will cover the industry's most important topics and innovations; as fintech regulation and a new presidential administration influence the market, LendIt USA 2017 will also be featuring some of the industry's most influential government officials including Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Thomas Curry, comptroller of the currency for the US Department of the Treasury and Patrick McHenry, US congressman. Source
APIs combined with banking has become an important topic for banks and fintech companies; we are seeing increasing interest in APIs as every bank has to have an API or open banking strategy; since APIs often need to be built on legacy infrastructure there are often many challenges involved; the panel has a wide variety of perspectives from API service providers to banks who share how to build APIs on traditional banking technology. Source