One of the great things about the near prime space in online lending is that there are fewer competitors operating there. The reason is simply that it is harder to make work. There are challenges with data, pricing loans and customer acquisition costs just to name a few.

There is global movement in fintech to disrupt real estate lending or, as they call it in the UK, property lending. Taking out a mortgage loan has been a dreadfully inefficient process and entrepreneurs have attacked different parts of the ecosystem. The short term bridge loan space has been the first niche of choice for most startups and once established there they expand to other property niches.

Over the last couple of years we have seen something of a converge between payments and credit businesses. We have PayPal, Square, iZettle and others, all primarily focused on payments, entering the credit space. But perhaps the best example of this convergence is a company called PayU, a fintech business based in Europe.

What do you do when most of your potential customers base has no financial data whatsoever? When it comes to expanding access to credit for low income earners, who are often unbanked, new approaches are needed. New groundbreaking work is being done by a few enterprising entrepreneurs who are using psychometric testing as a way to underwrite risk.

What do you do when most of your potential customers base has no financial data whatsoever? When it comes to expanding access to credit for low income earners, who are often unbanked, new approaches are needed. New groundbreaking work is being done by a few enterprising entrepreneurs who are using psychometric testing as a way to underwrite risk.

Large banks don’t have it easy when it comes to innovation. We have all heard about the challenges of legacy tech infrastructure at banks that often goes back decades. Citi has taken on this challenge directly with the launch of a fintech division within the bank called Citi Fintech.

Large banks don’t have it easy when it comes to innovation. We have all heard about the challenges of legacy tech infrastructure at banks that often goes back decades. Citi has taken on this challenge directly with the launch of a fintech division within the bank called Citi Fintech.

While there is still a shortage of capital for many small business owners there are far more options today than there was five or ten years ago. Not only are there more options but these options are more convenient with simple loan applications and quick decisions. One of the newer entrants in this space, providing a range of different products, is American Express.

The sixth annual LendIt USA conference will be happening in San Francisco on April 9-11, 2018. Called LendIt Fintech USA 2018 it will be the largest fintech conference ever held in the Bay Area. We are expecting over 5,000 attendees from more than 2,000 companies, over 500 speakers on nine different stages and our largest expo hall ever with over 250 sponsors.

When it comes time to buy a car people are now accustomed to doing research online and to a lesser extent on an app. But when we are conducting the actual transaction in most cases today it is still a completely offline process. Our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast is trying to change that.