The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
You have probably heard the terms DeFi, which is an abbreviation for Decentralized Finance and NFTs, meaning Non-Fungible Tokens. They have been covered in the news a great deal in the past month or more. So, I wanted to do an episode where we do a deep dive into these topics to find out not just what they are but what they might mean for the future of finance.
The way the basic checking account is constructed has not changed in decades. Your money is kept on a bank’s balance sheet and the bank lends this money out and they make money on the spread. Obviously, I am simplifying here because banks use leverage on these deposits to lend out multiples of this money. But the core system has remained unchanged.
The biggest decision in anyone’s life is the decision to start a family. For the growing segment of the population that can’t do so naturally there is, of course, fertility treatments. Now, this is an exciting, scary and often heart wrenching time. And for many people the financial burden for these treatments is too much to handle on their own and they have to turn elsewhere for support.
We have heard many times on this show and in the media that last year was a good one when it comes to savings rates and loan delinquencies. People were not spending as much and they received government stimulus to help with their savings and pay down their debt. So, when I received a survey last month that showed the exact opposite of this consensus, I wanted to learn more. So, while those generalizations are true, there is a segment of the population that has been hit brutally hard by the pandemic and in this episode we find out more about them.
The Co-Founder of Victory Park takes us through the history of asset backed lending, how the industry has grown, and what it takes to succeed today.
Many fast growing companies today look to equity to fund that growth, whether it is angel money, VCs or the public markets. But equity should not be the default capital choice, it is expensive and often not necessary. Many times debt capital can provide a more optimal solution, one that helps the company maintain fast growth while the founders do not have to give up more equity.
Most countries in the world today have some kind of centralized repository for credit data. But this data exists in silos, cut off from the rest of the world. For immigrants moving to a different country this has been a real problem. A doctor with a 20-year credit history earning $250,000 a year in, say, Australia is treated as a thin file/no file credit applicant in the U.S. and is rejected for a credit card with a $500 limit. This makes no sense.
Today, we are talking about earned wage access again. I am a big fan of this product and it is getting serious traction today. As I recently shared regulators are also paying attention and that is a good thing as the industry. As you will learn in this episode millions of people are now relying on this product to become more financially healthy.
PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) loans have been around for more than a decade but occupy a relatively narrow niche in the lending ecosystem. The legislation varies by state but PACE loans can be used to finance energy efficiency projects such as solar panels, new boilers, insulation and more. The borrower does not repay the lender directly but makes payments as part of their property tax assessments.
Impact investing is having a moment. While it has been around in some form for several decades, today, many large and small investors are demanding that their money do more. They don’t just want to make an impact investment, they want to see exactly how they made an impact, in a measurable way.