Most fintech companies are focused on lending, payments, financial management or some kind of back office tech. There are very few companies focused on the income side of the equation, particularly when it comes to helping people maximize their earnings from a second job.

Machine learning in underwriting is all the rage today and has been now for a couple of years. But the first online lender to really hang their hat on this technology is Upstart. It is core to their business and it is why they applied for and received a no action letter from the CFPB back in 2017.

Since the invention of the FICO score, when it comes to building credit there has been a real chicken and egg problem. It is difficult to obtain credit unless you have already established a decent credit score. Despite all the advances in fintech this is a problem that has remained largely unsolved.

For decades community banks have been the lifeblood of small towns across America. Almost by definition they are closer to their communities than large banks or even fintech platforms. And while they don’t have the technology budgets of large banks they are acutely aware of the need to adapt to the changing needs of their customers.

Consumers want control over their personal data, particularly their sensitive financial data but at the same time they want seamless integration when they connect their bank account to a budgeting or financial management tool. Making these two, often opposing wants, work is the job of our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast.

The securitization industry has yet to really be disrupted. It operates basically the same way it did a decade or even two decades ago. But that may be about to change. Today, there are some fintech companies looking to bring the entire securitization process on to the blockchain to reduce cost and increase transparency. One such company is Global Debt Registry.

Quickbooks has been synonymous with small business accounting for several decades now. But they recently launched Quickbooks Capital to provide their small business customers with an easy and transparent way to borrow money.

In the UK, Barclays is one of the “big four” banks with more than £1 trillion in assets. MarketInvoice is the leading fintech company that specializes in invoice finance, and though it is relatively large it will only lend around £1 billion this year. Despite the difference in size, or maybe because of it, Barclays sought out MarketInvoice when they went looking for a new fintech partner.

Despite the growth of the personal loan business, and in particular debt consolidation loans, the total amount of outstanding credit card debt keeps rising and is now well over $1 trillion. We need more creative ways to solve this problem.

The most downloaded episode of the Lend Academy Podcast in 2015 was my discussion with Kathryn Petralia, the Co-Founder and President of Kabbage. That was more than three years ago and a lot has changed at Kabbage and in the industry since then.