Podcast appearances and mentions of peter renton

In This Episode In this episode we continue the series powered by U.S. Bank and recorded at the University of Utah's Fintech Xchange. CAUTION: The episode is hot! Breaking Banks' Hot Takes host Jason Henrichs, regulars Alex Johnson (Fintech Takes) and Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) are joined by David Ness, U.S. Bank's SVP Innovation, R&D and Peter Renton, Fintech Nexus, Chairman & Co-Founder. The newcomers jump right in, going straight for Fintech on Fire (#11 on a scale of 1 - 10), and comfortably deliver hot takes from the hot seats, recapping major themes from the event, and making predictions as to what 2025 brings to our industry. Plenty of insights are shared and there's plenty for the risky spice-takers to tackle including BNPL (acronym for a popular industry term, of course, and also our new Burn Now Pay Later hot sauce). Two other clues as to what the group might have talked about....the RegTech Reaper and Stable Coin Scorch . Don't worry, there's plenty more where these came from! Listen now on your favorite podcast platform! It's a hot conversation, worth being in the room for...to catch the visuals check it out on YouTube (@provokefm and while you are there, hit subscribe)!

In the ever-evolving world of fintech and open banking, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. Few understand this better than Peter Renton. He is the CEO and founder of Renton Co., a fintech consulting firm specializing in media, thought leadership, and event support. Renton is the former chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus (formerly LendIt Fintech). He has led fintech innovation for over a decade. His work has shaped the industry during this time. In today's episode of the Tearsheet podcast, Renton shared his insights on the current state of fintech. He shares his insights on where he sees the industry heading. Renton has a keen understanding of the fintech sector. His insights provide valuable guidance for established companies and newcomers in the industry. "Without doubt, the most interesting space in fintech in 2024 is the banking as a service space," Renton states. "Because of the way the banking system in this country is structured, we need banking as a service. And it's not going away." The evolution of fintech events Renton's journey in the fintech world was punctuated with the creation of LendIt. It is a conference that grew from a small gathering of 350 people to a major industry event attracting 5,000 attendees. As the fintech landscape evolved, so did the event. It expanded its focus from peer-to-peer lending to encompass broader fintech topics. "We expanded beyond lending and started it in 2017 and got going in like 2018, 2019 where we became a real fintech event," Renton explains. This evolution mirrors the broader changes in the fintech industry. These include specialized lending platforms to comprehensive financial services providers. The changing face of fintech conferences Large-scale events like Money 2020 and Fintech Meetup still attract many attendees. Renton observes a rising trend of smaller, more specialized events organized by fintech companies. "What you're seeing in the event space is more and more companies doing their small events," he observes. These specialized gatherings allow companies to showcase thought leadership. They help to engage with their target audience. Opportunities in Banking-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance Renton sees significant potential in the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) sector, despite recent challenges. He believes that new regulations will provide clarity and stability. This will create opportunities for community banks. As a result, they will be able to expand their reach through BaaS offerings. "If you want to grow your community bank, it's hard to do that geographically now," Renton explains. "But if you open up a BaaS line of business, there are ways you can grow your bank." Embedded finance is closely related to BaaS. It is another area Renton highlights as ripe for innovation. He points to companies like Pipe. They are bringing fintech solutions to non-financial businesses. Particularly in the vertical SaaS space. The promise of Open Banking Looking ahead, Renton is particularly excited about the potential of open banking. With the anticipated release of new CFPB rules on open banking, he foresees a wave of innovation. "Open banking... is going to be a moment in time, but then that's going to be in place and people are going to understand the rules of the road," Renton predicts. "I think there's a massive opportunity once that gets going. And when all the data, when your data becomes yours and it becomes more portable. There's going to be a wave of new fintech companies that are going to kind of use that and take advantage of that."

In this episode of the Operate Podcast, we take a behind-the-scenes look at the birth of fintech P2P and marketplace lending with Peter Renton, one of its pioneers. Peter shared his extensive background, starting from his early days as a self-directed investor to founding key fintech companies like Lend Academy and LendIt, which later became Fintech Nexus. We discussed his journey into peer-to-peer lending and its evolution as institutional investors entered the space. The conversation spans the rise of fintech innovation, the challenges of scaling peer-to-peer platforms, and the role of community banks in the future of financial services. Peter recounted the bubble in the fintech lending space around 2015 and how the industry adapted following the Lending Club debacle in 2016. He also shared his advice for fintech founders, emphasizing the importance of diversification in funding sources and customer acquisition strategies.  We delved into notable companies like Upstart and their pivots in the fintech landscape. Additionally, Peter reflected on the transition from LendIt to FinTech Nexus to encompass a broader range of fintech innovations for their content and events. We touched on the increasing interest of banks in fintech events from 2016 onwards and the changing landscape post-pandemic. Peter discussed emerging trends in fintech, such as embedded lending, mobile wallets, and new payment rails. He highlighted the necessity for community banks to adopt technology and attract younger customers. Lastly, Peter introduced his new consulting venture, Renton & Co, aimed at guiding fintech companies through content strategy, marketing, and market analysis. Enjoy this comprehensive look at the past, present, and future of fintech.   CHAPTER MARKERS: 00:00 Preview  00:34 Intro 00:47 Sponsor 01:19 Meet Peter Renton: A Fintech Pioneer 02:50 Peter's Early Fascination with Finance 04:04 Discovering Peer-to-Peer Lending 05:36 Building Lend Academy and LendIt 09:21 The Evolution of Marketplace Lending 18:39 Reflections on the Fintech Lending Boom 27:19 Kudos to Dave Girard (UpStart) and Team 28:04 The Shift to FinTech Nexus 29:04 Expanding Beyond Lending 32:16 Challenges and Stress of the Events Business 32:48 The Impact of the Pandemic 33:54 Future of FinTech and Embedded Lending 37:47 The Role of Community Banks 42:38 Advice for Community Bank CEOs 49:18 Peter's New Venture: Renton & Co

Join us for an insightful episode of the Lending Link Podcast as host Rich Alterman chats with Peter Renton, former CEO of FinTech Nexus and now leading CEO of Renton & Co, LLC. In this episode, Rich and Peter delve into the story of FinTech Nexus, exploring its growth and impact on the financial services and fintech industries. Peter shares practical strategies for growth, the importance of building strong professional relationships, and the power of networking. Peter recounts his journey from direct mail and digital label printing to becoming a key player in fintech investments. He also provides valuable insights into the development of peer-to-peer lending, the need for solid regulation and consumer protection, and the potential impact of regulatory changes on the industry. This episode is packed with real-world experiences and actionable advice from one of fintech's influential voices. Perfect for anyone looking to stay informed and ahead in the fast-paced world of fintech.

Peter Renton, Todd Anderson and special guest Rex Salisbury discuss big fintech news from Plaid, Visa, venture capital, Rohit Chopra, Paze, Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade and more.

We have a special episode this week, our Fintech Nexus 2022 preview show. The first order of business, LendIt Fintech is doing a rebrand to Fintech Nexus.Our PitchIt name will remain, so we will now be PitchIt at Fintech Nexus!We couldn't be more excited to be back in person next week in NYC, this episode will give you a complete breakdown of the event. Content overview, what parties are happening, how to arrange meetings, and much more.I am joined by my colleagues Bo Brustkern, CEO & Co-Founder, and Peter Renton, Chairman & Co-Founder. We take you through the different components of the event so attendees can get the most out of the show.In this podcast you will learn:What it feels like to be back to in-person events.How we build the themes for the event.How the content is structured.How attendees can take advantage of the networking opportunities.What is involved in the VIP Networking program.Highlights of some of the parties and social events.Details of our Women in Fintech program.The favorite keynotes we are looking forward to.The different breakout track topics.Why we created two pre-conference workshops focused on crypto.A sneak peek on our rebrand to Fintech Nexus.So with our further ado, I present the Fintech Nexus 2022 preview show.

Our expert hosts, David M. Brear and Nicole Perry, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Dan Hardy, VP - Sales, Crowdcube Peter Renton, Co-Founder and Chairman, LendIt Fintech With soundclips from: Prakash Pattni, Managing Director of Financial Services & Digital Transformation (EMEA), IBM We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: Unicorn Qonto partners with Crowdcube to open up ownership - 5:10 Fast shuts doors after slow growth - 16:30 The competition will pay for this later: Klarna completes PriceRunner deal - 27:00 Rishi Sunak asks Royal Mint to launch non-fungible token - 36:00 Egyptian financial super app Khazna raises $38M from Quona Capital and Lendable - 45:00 IBM offers real-time fraud detection in new z16 mainframe - 47:15 Bank of Italy bans N26 from onboarding new customers over AML failings - 50:30 Liam Payne launches Revolut card - 52:00 This episode is sponsored by Alto IRA Did you know the majority of people are investing in cryptocurrency through a taxable account, when they could be using an IRA and avoiding or deferring the taxes? With an Alto CryptoIRA, you can invest in crypto without tax headaches. Create a free account in minutes. Choose from over 150 coins, and invest with as little as $10. No setup charges and no account fees. To open an Alto CryptoIRA with as little as $10, just go to www.altoira.com/insider Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. It's hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David M. Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates and Gwera Kiwana, as well as a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Follow us on Twitter: @fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Dan Hardy, Nicole Perry, Peter Renton, and Prakash Pattni.

On today's news show Todd Anderson, Kabir Kumar and Peter Renton discuss big fintech news from the SEC, Silvergate Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Polygon Technology, FDIC, GoCardless, DriveWealth, Betterment and more.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

In this episode of Fundamental Fairness, we will uncover the top 3 Fintech industry trends that are expected to lead the conversation well into 2021 and beyond with Peter Renton, co-founder and Chairman of Lendit Fintech, Founder of Lend Academy. Peter Renton is the co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the leading news and educational resource for the Fintech industry. He has been writing about this industry since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Lend Academy Podcast, the first and most popular podcast on lending and fintech innovation. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on marketplace lending and speaks regularly on the topic around the world.

What does it take to start a business around the peer-to-peer lending industry? Peter Renton created Lend Academy, a leading peer-to-peer blog. His site attracts about 20,000 visitors a month. Peter is also the co-creator of LendIt, a conference for peer-to-peer investors. In the following interview, you can learn how Peter is building Lend [...] The post How to Build a Business Around the Peer to Peer Lending Industry appeared first on Small Business Advice Help For Startups and Entrepreneurs.

In this episode of "Squashing the Market," Bill talks with Peter Renton, aka “Mr. FinTech.” A widely acknowledged expert in financial technology, Peter has been interviewed by just about every major media company, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times and CNBC to name a few. An expert yes - but Peter is an outstanding entrepreneur too. He founded Lend Academy, the leading news and educational resource for the online lending industry. Peter also co-founded the LendIt conference series, the largest and most important conferences dedicated to FinTech and digital lending. He also founded NSR Invest, an investment and analytics platform that provides access to digital lending marketplaces for individual and institutional investors. Bill and Peter discuss the latest trends and issues in financial technology, what’s gone right and wrong and what’s next in this dynamic and ever changing industry. Produced by Sam Swanson. Music by Alex Atchley.

Sometimes there’s a need that can only be met when technology and innovation come together at the right time. On this episode, we talk about one fintech industry that has grown by leaps and bounds… marketplace lending, or P2P lending. Our guest today is Peter Renton, who is the founder of Lend Academy and Co-Founder of LendIt Conference LLC. Lend Academy the leading news and educational resource for the marketplace lending industry and has been instrumental in bringing businesses and professionals in the space together for almost a decade. Peter joined Scott to discuss the ins and outs of the industry, where he and his organizations fit into it all, and more. Find show notes and more at: https://www.soarpay.com/podcast/

Ryan King is the Co-Founder and CTO of Chime, one of the leading digital banks in the US. Chime offers free banking to over three million customers, helping them save hundreds a year on banking and gain control of their financial lives. This episode was recorded at LendIt in San Francisco. A huge thanks to Peter Renton and his team for inviting us to participate. As listeners know, digital banking is a space we follow closely. The US is a fascinating market to watch, given the importance of spending, borrowing and investing, prevailing incumbent pricing structures, digital penetration and customer expectations. And with the number of well-funded fintechs converging on comprehensive digital financial offerings, including Robinhood, Acorns, Betterment, MoneyLion, Chime, Varo and others, not to mention European digital banks like Monzo, N26 and Revolut, the space will get competitive fast. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ryan King.

Today’s show is coming to you from London. I’m here to speak at the LendIt Fintech Europe conference, and I’m delighted to say that my guest is the cofounder of the LendIt Fintech conference series, Peter Renton, who is also the founder of Lend Academy.

My guest today is the World Bank’s Harish Natarajan, a leader of one of the most visionary and ambitious efforts underway in the financial world -- to achieve complete financial inclusion. Throughout history, the idea of reaching full inclusion -- enabling everyone to access the mainstream financial system -- seemed like fantasy. Financial services have always been expensive to produce and deliver, making it unprofitable to serve everyone. In addition, they often involve the need to evaluate and risk-rate customers, and to verify their identity information, all of which has always been costly and complex. Mainstream services were for people who had some means and had traditional identity documents. Other people had to rely on high-cost alternatives, or had no access at all. And then, we got cell phones. Suddenly, here was a new delivery system that could reach nearly everyone, through a channel that was already there, already built, and that could, furthermore, serve them inexpensively. No more need to build and staff high-cost branches. Everyone, today, can have a bank branch in their hand. Recognizing this new opportunity, the World Bank set a transformational goal -- that every adult on earth should have financial access by 2020. They defined inclusion as having a transaction account, since for most people, that’s the easiest and most-needed starting point. Once that exists, other services can be added on top of it, from lending to savings to insurance. As the consumer’s financial information becomes increasingly digitized and consolidated in the phone, it becomes possible for financial providers to evaluate that digital profile to extend more products. It also becomes possible to authenticate identity -- which is critical because the anti-money laundering Know-Your-Customer regulations currently block millions of people from the system because they lack traditional ID documents. Technology is making this shift possible, but of course, it isn’t easy, nor is it a panacea. Some people still don’t have mobile phones -- although that problem is rapidly evaporating -- the UN says more people have had access to mobile phones than to plumbing since 2013. Of those who do, many don’t adopt electronic financial accounts, and many who do so become vulnerable to scams and predatory products, especially since hundreds of millions of these consumers are being exposed to financial services for the first time. Those challenges, in turn, create an urgent need for regulatory modernization. Finance is being digitized, and regulation will have to be digitized too in order for government to protect consumers and assure financial stability. So the World Bank’s work includes a focus on modernizing the regulatory infrastructure itself, building up capacity to understand new technologies and address risk. In this episode, Harish describes this whole transformative landscape. He talks about the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative, or FIGI, a three-year program with three partners, and three global themes -- cybersecurity, e-payments acceptance, and digital ID. He explains why people don’t have access to accounts, how digital ID can satisfy documentation requirements, and the varied regulatory models evolving in different counties. He talks the World Bank’s research on blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) as critical components of a better system. The United States has been a relatively slow adopter of mobile phones, partly because most Americans traditionally had landlines. That means cell phone adoption is much more advanced outside the United States, which in turn means that the US can learn many lessons from countries that are leapfrogging over us in digital transformation of finance and financial regulation. Much of this modernization is being driven by NGOs like the Omidyar Network, where I’m a Senior Advisor, and the Gates Foundation. For example, Omidyar and Gates have financed a Regtech for Regulators Accelerator, or R2A, which is bringing technology solutions to regulatory challenges in multiple countries. More on Harish Harish is Lead Financial Sector Specialist in the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, heading a global team working on payments and market infrastructures. He is a core member of the cross-sectoral teams addressing Universal Financial Access 2020, ID for Development, government payments, Digital Economy and FinTech. Harish represents the World Bank in the working groups of the Committee on Payment Market Infrastructures (CPMI) at the Bank for International Settlements and FinTech-related working groups at the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Previously, Harish worked with VISA Inc. in the South Asia region in various senior roles in business development, operations and risk management. Prior to VISA, he served in positions at Citigroup, Infosys and other technology companies in the areas of payment systems and retail banking. Harish holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, from IIM-Calcutta, specializing in IT systems and finance. More links Link to Full Transcription World Bank Financial Inclusion World Bank DLT Report Universal Financial Access by 2020 Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI) Findex G20 Digital Principles for Financial Inclusion Access For All: CIIE’s Sanjay Jain and The India Stack How to Change the World: The Gates Foundation’s Michael Wiegand Transforming Identity: GlobaliD CEO Greg Kidd More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. Di Giammarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a far-ranging conversation with Peter Renton, who leads Lend Academy and the LendIt conference series. As part of our series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech, we’ll talk to Anju Patwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who describes fintech developments in China. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of EarnUp, and one with Walter Cruttenden, Co-Founder of Acorns and Co-founder and CEO of Blast. A few places I’ll be speaking this fall include: Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, London Consumer Federation of America Financial Services Conference, November 29-30, Washington, DC ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC RegTech Rising, December 3-5, London Fintech Connect, December 5-6, London Boston Regtech Meetup, December 10, Boston, MA I also have a number of events coming up where I’ll be speaking directly to groups of regulators. Watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book, Bank 4.0, which you can now buy on Amazon. I co-wrote the regulatory chapter with Brett, and we’ll have a show and events on that as well. Last year, my autumn conference circuit became a  “world tour” designed to speak in seven countries in seven weeks. I chronicled it with mini-videos about what I was learning, and since a lot of people told me they enjoyed joining in those adventures, I’m doing it again this year. My fall travels will be fewer countries but more events, in America, Europe and Asia. Please follow along with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and come to jsbarefoot.com for more information on it all and to subscribe to my newsletters and get the latest podcasts as soon as they come out. Also, here’s my fall newsletter, titled Whirlwind. Innovation everywhere! support our podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

One of the biggest challenges in fighting money laundering is satisfying the KYC, or Know Your Customer, rules. These regulatory requirements make sense in concept -- they require financial companies to verify customers’ identities before letting them connect to the system, in order to screen out high-risk people and entities and as a foundation for meeting the legal mandate to monitor financial activity for potential crime. However, the traditional verification process has always been expensive and time-consuming. In recent years it’s also been creating new problems. My guest today has a company that is setting out to fix those. She is Laura Spiekerman, the Chief Revenue Officer of Alloy.   The new problems are two-fold. One is that millions of people lack traditional identity documents and therefore can’t gain access to the system at all. That isn’t actually a new issue -- it’s always been true -- but it’s becoming more acute because mobile technology is making it possible for more and more people to connect to the financial system through their phones, if they can identify themselves.  In much of the developing world, hundreds of millions of people cannot, because they lack formal ID documents (a factor that tends to disproportionately harm women, members of disfavored minorities and people with low incomes). Having large swaths of the population detached from mainstream finance, in turn, undermines economic growth and opportunity. As a result, many central banks throughout the world view KYC modernization as a top priority. For example, see my episode with Sanjay Jain who was one of the leaders of the India stack on their project that is connecting everyone in India to the financial system and mainstream commerce. Some governments are trying to create customer identity through biometric identification. Global organizations ranging from The World Bank to the Gates Foundation and the Omidyar Network (where I am a Senior Advisor) have all elevated AML as a core goal in their efforts to wide financial inclusion. The KYC barrier also impacts consumers in the United States, including many young people and immigrants or, say, people who have moved frequently. If a financial company cannot verify identity by investing a reasonable level of time and effort, it usually will not open an account. The second problem with the current KYC process hits the US and other developed countries even more directly. We still rely on traditional identity information like name, address and Social Security number that is, quite simply, no longer secure -- it’s widely for sale on the dark web. (Re-listen to our episode with Greg Kidd of globaliD) for more insight on that). The solution to both problems -- both access and insecurity -- is the same: more data and better technology. Alloy is bringing these into KYC. The company enables real-time decisioning through an API that lets a financial institution access the data it needs, in a fully transparent way, and that also provides a rules engine to control how to waterfall the data to put it into a rule. I spoke to Laura at the Comply 2018 conference in New York this year -- you’ll hear some of the conference bustle in the background. In our conversation, Laura describes the impact Alloy can make. In retail banking, they’ve been able to automate about 98% of decisions for onboarding, as opposed to a standard of about 50%. Once the remaining 2% are sent to manual review, they have also been able to reduce manual review times by about 95%, while also seeing reductions in fraud and increases in conversions, seemingly a win-win for all. Laura also shares her advice for other fintechs, including how to overcome the many barriers faced by regtech firms in trying to work with financial institutions. She talks about Alloy’s plans for building AI into their solutions. And she offers advice to regulators. Like me, she’s hopeful that the regulatory landscape is increasingly receptive to new technology. I know you’ll enjoy my conversation with Alloy’s Laura Spiekerman! Links Full Transcript of Episode Alloy on Twitter Innovation at a Small Bank: Radius CEO Mike Butler Access For All: CIIE’s Sanjay Jain and The India Stack More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. We have a series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech. One is with Harish Natarajan of the World Bank, who talks about their remarkable work in global financial inclusion. Another is with Anju Padwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who describes fintech developments in China. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. DiGiamarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a far-ranging conversation with Peter Renton, who leads Lend Academy and the LendIt conference series. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of Earnup...among many others. Last week I spoke at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling’s NFCC Connect in Dallas, where I was very honored to receive their Making the Difference award. I’m on the NFCC board and want to share that we have a visionary new CEO, Rebecca Steele, who is bringing technology more and more into the work of credit counselors -- the people on the front lines of helping consumers make their financial lives healthier. Keep your eye on the NFCC and try to connect with its work. Other places I’ll be speaking this fall include: Online Lending Policy Institute, October 9, Washington, DC P20 Conference, October 10, Atlanta, GA American Banker RegTech, October 15-16, New York, NY Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018 in London ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London Last but not least, Money 2020, is only two weeks away and it’s going to be amazing. I’m chairing and hosting the regulatory track, which is SUNDAY, October 21, starting at 10AM. The day will include amazing speakers, including a fireside chat I’m doing with Lord Digby-Jones of the House of Lords, and an Oprah-style regulator town hall. On Monday, all ten of the senior regulators and former regulators participating in the conference will join in a mix and mingle with anyone who would like to talk with them. And then Monday afternoon at 3:15, I’ll be on the new Revolution Stage speaking on Regulation Revolution. I’m aiming to make it the most interesting speech I’ve ever given. If you’ll be at the conference, be sure to come, and tell your friends to come too. Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book, Bank 4.0, which you can now buy. I co-wrote the regulatory chapter with Brett, and we’ll have a show and events on that as well. Last year, I ended the fall with what I called my world tour designed as seven countries in seven weeks, ending at the Dutch Central Bank right before Christmas, and I tried to share the main takeaways from each by posting mini-videos from the scene. This year I’ll be in fewer countries but at more events, so I’m going to do the videos again -- a lot of people said they enjoyed coming along on those adventures. So please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and come to jsbarefoot.com for more information. And yes, we’re going to revive the newsletter. One of my colleagues recently suggested we call the next post Whirlwind, because that’s what the year has been. Innovation everywhere! Support Our Podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

I am especially thrilled about today’s guest -- California DBO Commissioner Jan Owen -- because this episode has been years in the making. I’ve known Jan for a long time, and as anyone who knows her will attest, she’s a breath of fresh air in the regulatory world. She’s candid, she’s outspoken, she’s thought provoking, and she's fearless in tackling thorny issues. We’ve been looking for a good chance to sit down and talk, and we finally found one this summer. As it happens, it turned out to be one of Barefoot Innovation’s most fun settings ever (and we’ve had some great ones, including beachside in Fiji at the AFI conference). Jan and I were both in Santa Fe in July for a conference and we decided to record our talk on an outdoor balcony, as a thunder storm approached. It was extremely windy, and we could smell the ozone and coming rain, and you’ll be able to hear the thunder booming, sometimes startlingly well-timed to punctuate Jan’s more pointed comments. We took our chances with the weather, staying outside as the sky darkened and dozens of lightning strikes forked down out of the clouds onto the mountains behind Jan -- I wish I’d gotten a photo of that.  In the end, we had to run for it as the rain began, first with big drops spattering the deck and then, ten seconds later, deluge! So the episode ends a little abruptly! Jan Lynn Owen is one of the most important financial regulators in the US because she heads the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO). Since California arguably leads the world in financial innovation, the DBO is at the forefront in addressing emerging regulatory issues around fintech. Importantly, state regulators, unlike most of the federal ones, oversee both banks and nonbanks. The US federal regulators dominate financial policy, but they don't directly supervise nonbank startups. That means they’re not in close touch with the cutting edge of innovation, which is not in the banks -- it’s in the nonbank startups. So having a regulator like Jan who understands both banking and fintech is invaluable. In our conversation, she shares her diverse background, including having been a banker and regulator. She describes the scope of the DBO, which is breathtaking -- 368,000 licensees, over 4,000 small business and small dollar lenders, over 300 payday lenders, over 400 nondepository mortgage companies - you get the picture. As you would expect, we had a lively discussion about the proposal by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create a fintech charter. Jan is famously opposed to it and I have been an outspoken advocate for it - we’ll link in the show notes to my debate on that topic with John Ryan, CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). Jan is of course a leader in CSBS and in our talk, she describes their efforts to modernize and streamline the state regulatory systems and licensing system in ways that she believes can meet the needs of the fintech sector without the OCC establishing a new type of federal charter. (Note that my discussion with Jan was recorded in mid-July, and so predated the OCC’s July 31 announcement that it is going ahead with the new fintech charter.) Jan points out that the fintech world has transitioned from seeking to avoid regulation to embracing it, in the realization that it helps their business model. She says this shift is putting healthy pressure on government to figure out how to regulate these novel companies, and she’s candid in saying that many of our financial laws and rules are old and out of date. In our talk, she invites input from anyone and everyone on how to fix them. The OCC fintech charter was not the only issue on which Jan and I disagree. If you read the news, you probably already know that she’s been outspoken in her skepticism about regulatory sandboxes -- and our regular listeners know that I think regulators really need them. Much of the issue comes down to how they’re designed, and we had a good conversation about the dos and don'ts of sandboxes, reglabs, and innovation hubs. The key is to give regulators a safe space to do easy experimentation, mainly to accelerate their own learning, while still assuring full consumer protection. (Since Jan and I spoke, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection also announced that it will launch a regulatory sandbox.) Before we fled the rainstorm, I asked Jan to talk about a speech she’s been giving titled “Sex, Drugs, and Skinny Jeans” (a perfect example of her style). The “sex” topic is the #MeToo movement, including Jan’s personal experience with workplace sexual misconduct. The “drugs” issue is, of course, how to regulate the financial issues raised by legal marijuana in states like California, since federal law still bars banks from opening accounts for these cash-rich businesses. And “skinny jeans” is about the culture clash between traditional, suit-and-tie finance and the jeans-and-tee-shirt worldview of Silicon Valley. We’re going to have to bridge that divide, if we want to optimize the technology change coming to the financial world. Enjoy this thunderous episode with Jan Lynn Owen. Links LINK TO FULL TRANSCRIPTION Podcast with John Ryan - Conference of State Bank Bank Supervisors President Recent Speech at Lendit More on Jan Lynn Owen Jan Lynn Owen was appointed the first-ever Commissioner of the California Department of Business Oversight by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on July 1, 2013, following a merger of the departments of Corporations and Financial Institutions. Previously, Ms. Owen served as Commissioner of Corporations. Prior to becoming Commissioner, Ms. Owen was the principal at The Jan Owen Group; a strategic initiatives manager at Apple Inc.; vice president of government affairs at JP Morgan Chase; state director of government and industry affairs at Washington Mutual Inc.; and executive director of the California Mortgage Bankers Association. From 1999 to 2000, Ms. Owen was acting commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions, following on her role as deputy commissioner from 1996 to 1999. She also served for several years as a consultant to the state Senate Banking Committee. Ms. Owen is an alumna of California State University, Fresno, where she earned her degree in Economics. More for our listeners We have great podcasts in the queue. We have a series focused on global developments in fintech and regtech, including Harish Natarajan of the World Bank and Anju Padwardhan of CreditEase and Stanford University, who talks about fintech developments in China. From London, we’ll have a talk with P.J. DiGiamarino of JWG and the Regtech Council. We’ll also have a really thought-provoking show with Peter Renton, who leads LendAcademy and the LendIt conference series. We have a regtech firm coming up, Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. And we’ll have a show with the co-founders of Earnup. So, lots to look forward to! The fall conference circuit is exciting. Some of the places I’ll be speaking are: Finovate Fall, September 26, 2018, New York, NY NFCC Connect, October 2, 2018, Dallas, TX Online Lending Policy Institute, October 9, Washington, DC P20 Conference, October 10, Atlanta, GA American Banker RegTech, October 15-16, New York, NY Money 2020, October 21-24, Las Vegas, NV Singapore Fintech Festival, November 12-16, Singapore LendIt Europe, November 19-20, 2018 in London ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Conference, December 2-4, Washington, DC Regtech Rising, December 3-5, London I’ll also be speaking at several events hosted by US regulators this fall. It’s great to see so many of them really digging into the issues surrounding fintech and regtech. Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five star rating and also remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going. Come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Support our podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Today’s show brings us two fascinating guests.  Alex Lintner is President of Consumer Information Services for Experian, and Sasha Orloff -- who is a previous guest on Barefoot Innovation -- is founder and CEO of LendUp. They recently joined forces to explore using new kinds of data to widen financial inclusion. We all sat down to discuss it at the LendIt conference this spring in San Francisco. Credit scores are a great tool for evaluating the creditworthiness of many consumers, but as Alex explains, not for all of them. He and Sasha think -- as do I -- that we need a fuller view into what Alex calls the consumer’s financial “reputation.” Experian estimates that 100 million people in America need this kind of broadened evaluation. We know that many consumers with low or no credit scores are actually creditworthy, and in fact could prove it if we had systems that could look closely at their financial behaviors and situations beyond reported credit history. Traditionally, though, we didn’t have efficient ways to get that information because, in the analog age, when the current systems were designed, data was scarce and costly. Today, in contrast, we have massive volumes of digital information we can access and analyze, instantly and efficiently. This creates the ability to do what used to be impossible -- make financial services more inclusive, without sacrificing lending soundness. Toward that goal, LendUp and Experian undertook a joint research project to look at the benefits of capturing data on customers’ performance on single-payment loans. The study produced really striking results -- the overwhelming majority of consumers in the study came out with positive impacts on their credit scores. And as Alex explains, single-payment loans are just one kind of nontraditional data. In today’s digitized world, there are many other factors that we can begin to capture methodically and build into routine credit scores. Experian is now routinely doing this, offering a new score called Clear Early Risk. In our conversation, Alex and Sasha share insights drawn from their own lives and talk about the many situations in which people have trouble accessing credit when they need it. Some of these consumers are young people or new immigrants with thin or no credit file. Some are facing life changes like a family death or divorce. Some are contending with emergencies like loss of a job or medical bills. Our discussion also tied these kinds of individual challenges into big shifts underway overall in lifestyle and in technology -- the advent of mobile financial services, the rise of the gig economy, and expanding use of artificial intelligence.  In addition, we touched on the future of the Community Reinvestment Act, which is due for much-needed, tech-driven modernization. Using alternative credit risk data has complex implications for fair lending regulation, especially in the US and especially regarding “disparate impact.”  US policy bars use of credit practices that have a disproportionate adverse effect on “protected classes” like women and minorities, unless the lender can demonstrate a business need and show that less-discriminatory alternatives are not available. The criteria for proving this are not clear today, and I’m among the many people who think that clarifying them is essential to expanding financial inclusion by fostering use of new data. Despite having the best of intentions, policymakers have inadvertently made hard-to-score consumers the riskiest market to serve, due to the regulatory risk arising from uncertainty. That chills efforts to address these customers’ needs by many mainstream and high-quality lenders. The CFPB is exploring this issue through its evaluation of alternative data and issuance of a “no action letter” for Upstart. A similar effort is underway, also, at the new nonprofit FinRegLab, which is run by Melissa Koide and funded by the Omidyar Network. I chair FinRegLab’s board, and we’re conducting empirical testing of alternative data -- specifically cash flow underwriting -- including how these new methods relate to disparate impact. Today’s show is a glimpse of a promising future, harnessing innovative technology to produce lending that is more inclusive, and also more sound. More Links Episode Transcription Podcast with Al Ko - Episode recorded last year with Al Ko of Intuit LendUp Infograph Alternative Credit Data trends and reports Op-Ed by Sasha on innovation in credit scoring More on Sasha and Alex Sasha Orloff is CEO and co-founder of LendUp. LendUp’s mission is to provide anyone with a path to better financial health. The company builds technology, credit products, and educational experiences that haven’t existed before for the emerging middle class -- the 56% of Americans shut out of mainstream banking due to poor credit or income volatility. It has originated more than $1 billion in loans. With offices in San Francisco, CA and Richmond, VA, LendUp is backed by debt and equity financing from venture and social impact investors including Y-Combinator, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Victory Park Capital and Yuri Milner’s Startfund. In June, both Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman of QED Investors joined the LendUp board of directors. Prior to founding LendUp, Sasha held roles in risk management, finance, online acquisitions and customer insights on Citi’s consumer credit team, and most recently served as Senior Vice President on Citigroup's Venture Capital team. He previously worked for the Grameen Foundation Technology Center and The World Bank. He has a B.S. in applied math and economics from the University of California, San Diego and an MBA from Georgetown University. Alex Lintner is President of Experian’s Consumer Information Services, overseeing the company’s US consumer credit bureau and the National Consumer Assistance Centre (NCAC). He’s responsible for all aspects of Experian’s consumer credit activities within the business-to-business marketplace, including delivery and management of value-added credit risk, marketing, and collection products to help clients manage and optimize their customer relationships. Alex was previously CEO and President of Vertafore, a $450+ million revenue insurance industry technology provider. Prior to that he was President of Intuit’s Global Business Division and also Senior Vice President of Strategy, Government Affairs and Corporate Development. He’s also spent 15 years as a consultant, starting as a Business Analyst at Dr. Hoefner & Partners in Munich, Germany and later serving as Vice President of The Boston Consulting Group in their London and San Francisco offices. More for our listeners Our next guest on the show will be another community bank CEO, Mike Butler of Radius Bank in Boston.  Upcoming episodes include a fascinating conversation with Congressman Gregory Meeks on financial innovation and policy; a talk I recorded this year at LendIt with my friend Greg Kidd of Global ID; and three discussions with regtech firms -- JWG in London, Compliance.ai, and Alloy. Speaking of LendIt, I was a guest this month on Peter Renton’s Lend Academy podcast, and he’ll be on our show soon as well. I was also a guest in June on the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation podcast, CFTC Talks, with Andy Busch. And here are my two podcasts with the CFTC, one with Chairman Giancarlo and a recent one with innovation head Dan Gorfine. It’s not too early to register for the fall’s premier fintech event, Money 2020, in October in Las Vegas. I’ll again be MC for the regulatory track, which, remember, is on Sunday -- be sure to plan accordingly!  I’ll also be speaking on the Revolution Stage, which is new this year, about regulation innovation. Also watch for Regtech Rising in December, which I’m helping to plan. We’ll also be posting information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well, and I’ll be a guest on Brett’s great radio show Breaking Banks this week, on July 5. Please remember to give Barefoot Innovation a five-star rating on iTunes to help us expand the show. I hope you’ll sign up to get emails that bring you the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts, at www.jsbarefoot.com.  Follow me on Twitter and our Facebook fan page. And please send in your “buck a show” to keep Barefoot Innovation going! SUPPORT OUR PODCAST Until next time, keep innovating! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Some organizations are so interesting that we come back to them more than once. Among US regulatory agencies, the most fascinating may be the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Last July we ran a podcast conversation with the Commission’s Chairman, Christopher Giancarlo, which goes into greater depth about the role of the CFTC and it also contains Chairman Giancarlo’s thought-provoking statement that the top priority facing every regulatory body is to convert the rule book from analog to digital design. The CFTC is at the forefront of regulatory innovation in part because its leader is so passionate about the importance of it. In that spirit, they recruited the perfect person to lead the LabCFTC innovation project -- today’s guest, Daniel Gorfine. Luckily for us, the CFTC was able to attract Dan into government from the fintech sector – I first met him when he was at OnDeck – and he’s been bringing an innovator’s mindset and working models to this venerable government agency. This episode has three very meaty topics, each of which could have been a whole show. First, Dan talks about the vision and work of LabCFTC, sharing insights about how it’s organized that I know other regulators will find helpful. He talks about how they track and facilitate innovation in the financial markets, including a “primer” they issued on rules applying to cryptocurrency. He also explains how they explore new technology for use by the agency, itself -- they call that CFTC 2.0 -- as well as “Digital Reg,” an internal think tank for rapid learning and sharing of tech insight. Second, Dan talks with me about an exciting initiative they’ve just launched, issuing the first-ever CFTC Science Prize Competition Act challenge. They discovered this law empowering agencies to run competitions to solve regulatory problems in science and technology, and they decided to crowdsource ideas on both the problems to tackle and the process to use. Public comments are due July 24. In our conversation, Dan throws out some of the ideas he and his colleagues have thought of -- maybe regulatory data visualization tools, or machine-learning for market surveillance, or machine-readable and machine-executable regulation -- but they want to hear from you. Our listeners are among the most thoughtful people anywhere on regulation innovation, so please comment. You could even become CFTC Innovator of the Year! Our third topic is one that rarely surfaces in the innovation dialogue, and solely needs discussion: the legal and procedural obstacles to government agencies that want to embrace innovation. We could call the topic, government modernization. Think about it. If you were a federal agency wanting to keep up with technology innovation, you would want to be able to do a few things. You would want to be able to try out new technologies, hands-on. If the innovation was something you might adopt for your own agency, you would want to test it before you had to commit to a major procurement budget and procedure. You would also want to be able to brainstorm with a wide range of people, learning from them, thinking through ideas with them. All of this is stunted today by well-intentioned rules that were designed long ago -- for good reason -- to prevent inappropriate influence, backroom deals, and the like. Dan talks in particular about the Anti-Deficiency Act, which restricts procurement activities and prevents the CFTC from being able to try out new kinds of tools. Another issue is the procurement process itself. I met a few months ago with people from a different agency, showing them some innovative technology that could make their regulatory work easier, and one of them said, “If we decided today that we should adopt this, we would have it in seven years.” I’ve talked with other agencies that cite the Federal Advisory Committee Act, with its restrictions on meetings, and the Administrative Procedure Act, which structures the rule-making process and, at some stages, limits interactive dialogue. Agencies have raised concerns about various “government in the sunshine” rules, which again make it difficult to talk informally. Some can’t readily attend a breakfast or lunch event. They have to ask about the value of the meal being served and if it’s more than, I think it’s $15, they can’t eat it, or they have to go through paperwork to pay for it. And of course, there are complex approval processes for participating in various kinds of forums. More than any show we’ve done, this one puts you in the shoes of the regulatory agency and shows how their hands are tied by procedural prohibitions and requirements. I’d love to see someone do a study, maybe a graduate thesis, on how rules that were written in an older, slower era may now undermine the ability of regulators to keep up with exponential change in technology. We could use suggestions on updating them for the digital age. And remember, it’s an issue much broader than finance. I’ve been in and around Washington for decades and can remember the bad old days before some of these rules were created -- indeed, I remember some of the bad old practices that led to them. Still, we don’t need to straightjacket our regulators. Other countries have a much more fluid discussion between agencies and industry, and also have the ability to try things. One model is the Bank of England’s Fintech Accelerator, which explores new technology for the bank itself. And Dan and I both participated in London last month in the amazing AML Tech Sprint run by the UK Financial Conduct Authority -- which is a stunning model of innovative regulatory process. Its leaders were my guests on the last podcast we posted (which my friend Peter Renton of LendAcademy and LendIt called the “most fascinating discussion he’s ever heard on the future of financial regulation” -- if you missed it, check it out). Meanwhile, here’s some great news. Just a few days ago, Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA) introduced the CFTC Research and Development Modernization Act, H.R. 6121. Dan refers to it in our talk – it’s bipartisan legislation to address some of these hurdles at the CFTC. We’ll link to it in the show notes. The bill would permit the Commission to collaborate on projects with fintech developers. It would also allow it to receive “gifts” for R&D purposes, including software to try out, subject to common sense safeguards. The bill echoes work by Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who has sought to facilitate innovation by all the financial regulatory agencies. And the US agencies, themselves, are all moving ahead, too. The CFPB’s Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney, plans to launch a regulatory sandbox. The FDIC held a tremendously impressive technology forum. Five US agencies attended the UK tech sprint. Regulation innovation is coming, and no one is more thoughtful about it than Dan Gorfine. More links Our Podcast with Christopher Woolard of the UK Financial Conduct Authority Our Podcast with Nick Cook, the FCA’s head of regtech FinRegLab, which is leading regulatory innovation in the US Link to transcription of this episode (Note that transcripts may sometimes contain errors and that transcript timing notations do not match the posted podcast) More on Dan Gorfine Daniel Gorfine is Chief Innovation Officer and Director, LabCFTC at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. LabCFTC is dedicated to facilitating market-enhancing financial technology (FinTech) innovation, fair market competition, and proactive regulatory excellence and understanding of emerging technologies. Daniel is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches a course on ‘FinTech Law & Policy.’ Daniel was most recently Vice President, External Affairs & Associate General Counsel at OnDeck, and previously served as director of financial markets policy and legal counsel at the Milken Institute think tank where he focused on technology-driven financial innovation, capital access, and financial market policy. Earlier in his career, Gorfine worked at the international law firm Covington & Burling LLP and served a clerkship with U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake in the District of Maryland. A graduate of Brown University (A.B.), Daniel holds a J.D. from George Washington University Law School and an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. More for our listeners We have many more great podcasts in the queue. We’ll talk with another community bank CEO, Mike Butler of Radius Bank.  We’ll have two more episodes that we recorded this year at LendIt. One is a discussion of new research by LendUp and Experian, on credit reporting, and the other is with Greg Kidd, Founder of Global ID.  We also recorded two episodes at last month’s Comply 2018 conference in New York, with two regtech firms -- Compliance.ai, which offers machine-readable regulatory compliance, and Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. Speaking of LendIt, I was a guest last week on Lend Academy podcast, and Peter Renton will be on our show soon as well, so watch for those. I’m also excited we’ll have several leading members of Congress on the show in the coming weeks. So, stay tuned! The summer conference slowdown is nearly upon us, but I hope to see you at upcoming speeches and events including: American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, June 26, Nashville, TN Money 2020, October in Las Vegas. Among other things, I’ll be speaking on the Revolution Stage about the regulation revolution Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five-star rating on the show to help us build it. Also please remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going, and come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Support our Podcast And tell me what you’re thinking about digitizing regulation. Let’s widen this dialogue to more people and more and more ideas! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

This is the most unique, and the most consequential, show we’ve ever done. If our thousands of listeners all think about it and especially if you share it widely, it has the most potential to actually change the financial regulatory world for the better and also in turn, therefore, to improve the financial world, too. It goes right into the heart of the most important work, being done by the most innovative people, on redesigning regulation for the digital age. My guests are Chris Woolard and Nick Cook of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. We sat down to record it on the last night of their enormous, ambitious, mold-breaking tech sprint held in London a few weeks ago. This regtech sprint, the fifth one they’ve done, focused on how to use new technology to combat financial crime. The sprints -- which are hackathons -- play a dual role, both sparking new ideas on specific regulatory challenges and also innovating in regulatory process, itself. I’ll set the scene for you. It was a Thursday night, dinner time, in the London offices of EY, in the Canary Wharf section of the city on the Thames, just a few blocks from the FCA’s building. EY generously offered their beautiful training facility for the sprint, because the FCA’s building is too small to hold the 400 people who were there by the end, or even the 260 who had been there for three days, working feverishly, day and night, to invent new solutions for money laundering. Those people had arrived on Tuesday morning and had self-formed into sixteen small teams, usually with total strangers, in a format mixing organizations and most importantly, mixing knowledge and skill types. Regulatory experts and AML experts and lawyers had worked elbow-to-elbow with tech experts, brainstorming ideas together and then translating these, live, into computer code, using test data provided by the participating tech companies. We sat down for this recording in a quiet conference room, just as the main gathering began to shift into post-conference socializing and bonding and celebrating over food and drink. It was one of those special moments where everyone feels elated and excited, and at the same time, completely drained. For me, as I think I say two or three times in this show, the sprint was the most fascinating and inspiring thing I’ve ever experienced. I hope that listening to it will inspire you to take up the FCA’s challenge to build on it in your own country and with your counterparts in other countries, and perhaps to take up their offer to help. People came to the sprint from all over the world, including, I’m especially happy to say, a substantial contingent of both regulators and financial companies from the United States (and also a new nonprofit, FinRegLab, with which I’m affiliated and which is building an empirical testing environment for regtech concepts in Washington). The FCA is at the forefront of a global regulatory awakening about the need to innovate regulatory models as technology increasingly outpaces the speed at which government can change. Its most famous innovation is its Regulatory Sandbox, which enables fintech innovation to be tested in a controlled experiment under the regulator’s close scrutiny and is being emulated throughout the world. Less well-known is their equally important innovation on the regtech side, for which they invented this creative new format, the regulator’s TechSprint.   Both the sandbox and the sprints have three key elements essential for regulatory innovation. First, they make collaboration happen, especially between the regulatory and tech worlds. Second, they enable very fast learning by the regulator, through direct, hands-on experience. And third, and most crucially, they use experimentation. They provide a safe space for trying things out, testing, learning, shaping -- quickly and cheaply. They apply the techniques that technology innovators figured out years ago, about the need to start small, try something, adjust as you learn, and if some ideas are going to fail, let them “fail fast” in a controlled setting where critical lessons can be learned early, and no harm can be done. These ideas are hard for people to grasp in the abstract, especially the notion that regulators need to get comfortable with learning through trial and error because there’s no other way to learn fast enough. I’m a former bank regulator and I know this idea is completely alien to regulatory culture and tradition, which have been designed, for good reason, to be careful and thorough and deliberate. A couple of years ago, a senior U.S. bank regulator told me that her agency had figured this out by spending time on the FCA’s website, reaching this epiphany that, the regulator doesn’t need to have all the answers -- even can’t have all the answers on tech change, before moving forward. It’s really the other way around. You have to move forward, to get to the answers. Chris and Nick describe the very same process -- as Chris calls it, the light bulb turning on, suddenly realizing it was riskier NOT to move, even though you’re not sure exactly what to do and what will happen. To me, the most interesting thing you’ll hear in this show is their voice as they describe this journey, the struggle toward creating a new way to work. Again, this was the fifth tech sprint. Be sure listen to my two earlier FCA shows, one with Chris that explains the FCA’s regulatory sandbox and one with Nick on regtech. The regtech one featured the breakthrough, two-week sprint held last November, successfully proving that regulatory reporting requirements could be updated directly, computer-to-computer, by issuing a rule change in the form of code, rather than words. That one was like a regulatory moonshot -- it could eventually change regulation, itself. This new sprint last month, by contrast, focused on the specific use case that’s most ripe for regtech transformation -- anti-money laundering. The UN estimates that there’s $1.6 - $2 trillion in annual global financial crime, and that we catch less than 1 percent -- despite spending tens of billions of dollars each year. And it’s getting worse. The criminals and terrorists today use sophisticated technology and operate as networks, while banks and governments use old technologies, with data trapped in silos. As Chris and Nick said, it will take a network, to beat a network. Chris also said that a million children are trafficked, each year. There’s a moment, in our conversation, where Nick says the sprint brings people to realizing that collectively, we can actually DO something about money laundering -- and you can hear the tone of excitement in his voice. For decades, we couldn’t really do much better, because we’ve had analog-era technology. Today we can use digitally-native tools. We can use them to fight crime and also to tackle nearly every other aspect of financial regulation -- all the areas where problems are so hard to solve. Financial inclusion. Consumer education. Preventing discrimination and predatory finance. Identity verification. Risk assessment. Financial reporting. New technology can make it all work better, and cost less, at the same time -- something that in the past was completely impossible. Believe it or not, I’m actually curbing my enthusiasm for this. This is the tamped down version. I think this is a regulatory revolution, beginning to move. Please listen to this episode, share it with everyone you know, and join in the dialogue. More on Chris Woolard Christopher Woolard is Executive Director of Strategy and Competition and an Executive Board Member of the Financial Conduct Authority. He’s responsible for policy, strategy, competition, market intelligence, consumer issues, the Chief Economist's department, communications and the Innovate initiative. He is chair of the FCA's Policy Steering Committee and a non-executive board member of the Payment Systems Regulator. Christopher joined the FCA in January 2013. Previously he was Group Director and Content Board member at Ofcom. He has spent most of his career in regulation or policy development including working at the BBC and in government as a senior civil servant. He is a Sloan Fellow of London Business School. More on Nick Cook Nick Cook leads the FCA’s RegTech activities, including the FCA’s TechSprint events - the first events of their kind convened by a financial regulator. He is responsible for creating the FCA’s Analytics Centre of Excellence to drive the organization’s use of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.  Nick is the FCA’s representative on the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Financial Innovation Standing Committee and an advisor to the RegTech for Regulators Accelerator Programme. Nick joined the Financial Services Authority (the FCA’s predecessor) in 2009, initially in its Enforcement and Market Oversight Division. Prior to joining the regulator, Nick qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG Forensic. More for our listeners Full interview transcript. We have many more great podcasts in the queue. We’ll talk with another community bank CEO, Mike Butler of Radius Bank.  We’ll have two more episodes recorded this year at LendIt. One is a discussion of new research by LendUp and Experian, on credit reporting, and the other is with my friend Greg Kidd of Global ID.  We also recorded two episodes at last month’s Comply 2018 conference in New York, with two regtech firms -- Compliance.ai, which offers machine-readable regulatory compliance, and Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. Speaking of LendIt, I’ll also be a guest on Peter Renton’s Lend Academy podcast, and he’ll be on our show soon as well, so watch for those. I’m also excited we’ll have several leading members of Congress on the show in the coming weeks. So, stay tuned! I hope to see you at upcoming speeches and events including: CFSI’s Emerge, this week in Los Angeles, CA North Dakota Bankers Convention, June 10-12, Fargo, ND American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, June 26, Nashville, TN Money 2020, October in Las Vegas. Among other things, I’ll be speaking on the Revolution Stage about the regulation revolution Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five star rating on the show to help us build it. Also please remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going, and come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter and Facebook. And tell me what you’re thinking about digitizing regulation. Let’s widen this dialogue to more people, and more and more ideas! Support our Podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

One of my goals for Barefoot Innovation is to amplify the voice of America’s community banks about the future of financial innovation and regulation. Today’s guest is perfect for this. He is Bob Rivers, CEO of Eastern Bank in Boston. At age 200, Eastern is the oldest and largest mutually-owned bank in the United States. At the same time, it is one of the most “young” and nimble community banks in adopting new technology. Mutual savings banks were once common, especially in New England. Most have converted to stock ownership, but Bob points to Eastern’s mutual structure as a key advantage in its strategy, which includes a strong focus on social mission. He explains the bank’s roots in Salem, Massachusetts, serving people who had no bank, and describes how it evolved to emphasize empowering marginalized customers, including women. He also tells the story of his own rise to leading Eastern, from a start 36 years ago that included cleaning bank branches at night. It’s a classic community banking story, for both Eastern and its leader. What mainly drew me to Eastern’s offices, though, on a cold day in Boston last February, was its reputation for innovation. When people talk about community banks and the technology change that’s transforming banking, Eastern’s name always comes up. In this episode, Bob describes how their innovation strategy began six years ago, when he invited Eastern’s Chief Technology Officer, Don Westermann, out for “walkabouts” in Kendall Square, a Boston neighborhood noted for innovation. Bob and Don just introduced themselves, cold, to tech firms, hoping “to understand the mindset of the disruptive innovator” -- their goals and approaches, and also how to reach their networks. Two years into that process, they met PerkStreet Financial, which Bob describes as similar to Simple (we’ve done two shows with Simple CEO Josh Reich, who just stepped down this month -- they are here and here, still great listening.)  In Boston, PerkStreet was giving up (actually as a result of regulatory changes), when Bob met its CEO Dan O’Malley, and they went into business together. The resulting Eastern Labs set out to digitize the lending application process for small businesses, including on SBA loans. Three years later, Eastern spun off that enterprise as Numerated Growth Technologies -- whose website describes it as “Built For Banks, Incubated Inside A Bank.” Now Eastern has opened a new Lab 2.0 with plans for additional tech solutions. In our conversation, Bob gives a road map for how a community bank can undertake this kind of innovation -- how to position it, structure it, staff it, fund it, and run it; how much capital it needs; how to price the services; how much to integrate the innovation team with the bank versus leave it independent; and how to use tech-world concepts like agile design and minimum viable products, or MVP’s. He also explains how an initiative like this can radically transform a small bank’s ability to attract tech talent, and how it can remake the bank’s culture, itself. Bob also has views on how regulation factors into innovation. Notably, Eastern recruited Steve Antonakes, former Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and former Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks, to lead its enterprise risk function. Bob has a range of insights into what regulators are doing right, along with suggestions. This bank has cracked the code on one of the most critical challenges facing community institutions, namely how to partner with innovators to leverage the respective strengths and weaknesses of each. As he says, fintech startups used to see themselves as replacing lumbering old banks, but most now hope instead to work with them, because these two groups need each other. Few banks of any size can innovate the way startups can. Yes, banks have always innovated, but today’s changes, coming so fast, driven by trends erupting in the wider tech world, are simply not in basic banking DNA. Few banks can build a world-class, digitally-native user experience. Few can afford and attract the data scientists for new-generation risk analytics.  Conversely, though, very few fintechs can readily get the building blocks needed to scale up, like rapid, affordable customer acquisition, or accessing stable, low-cost funding, or deeply understanding financial products, markets and regulations -- all of which are strengths every bank can bring to the table. And the good news for community banks, specifically, is that they also have natural advantages over large banks, despite having less sophisticated technology, precisely because they’re small. They can be nimble. They don’t have to turn the proverbial battleship. They can chart and follow a new course, as Eastern is doing. Smaller banks see this logic, but most struggle to know where to start. Bob Rivers has the answer. It’s simply, start where you are and just move forward. You don’t need to figure it all out first. Really, you can’t. Instead, start small. Try things. Immerse in rapid learning. Talk to people. I’ll add, go to tech conferences and read tech publications. Do the walkabout! I recently spoke at a state bankers association conference. On the hotel elevator, coming down to the event before my talk, I chatted with a former bank CEO, now a director. When he learned my speech was on technology, he laughed and said, “I’m too old to learn it!” I told him I was going to try to change his mind about that, because, here’s the reality: banks’ CEO’s must lead this. They don’t have to be techies -- Bob Rivers isn’t. He says he still balances his checkbook with a calculator. But he’s leading his bank into a new digitized financial world, by knowing it needs to change and embracing innovation with boldness and imagination. More about today’s show Link to Full Transcript of This Episode Our podcast episode with John Ryan, CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, on banks and communities. My cover story in Texas Banker, with tips for community banks on digital transformation. More about Bob Rivers Bob Rivers is Chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank, America’s oldest and largest mutual bank with two centuries of service to the communities it serves. During Bob’s tenure, Eastern has built on its long legacy of community service and philanthropy by developing a robust advocacy platform in support of various social justice and sustainability issues. In 2014, Bob co-founded Eastern’s innovation venture, Eastern Labs, which earlier this year spun out Numerated Growth Technologies, a new fintech company offering a state-of-the-art small business lending platform. Bob has also been personally recognized for his work in championing social justice and sustainability issues by organizations and outlets like The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal, The Partnership, Get Konnected!, Color Magazine, the Massachusetts Immigration & Refugee Advocacy (MIRA), Asian American Civic Association (AACA), Association for Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA), El Planeta, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, The Theater Offensive and The Ad Club. Since the podcast was recorded, Eastern Bank has opened a new branch in Roxbury Crossing, the first bank in that community to open in 20 years, reflecting the bank’s work in underserved communities. More for our listeners We have many more great shows in the queue. We’ll talk with the CEO of another community institution, Mike Butler of Radius Bank, which is much smaller than Eastern and is pursuing a fascinating innovation strategy.  We’ll have two more episodes recorded this year at LendIt. One is a discussion of new research undertaken jointly by LendUp and Experian, on credit reporting, and the other is with my friend Greg Kidd of Global ID.  We also recorded two episodes at this month’s Comply 2018 conference in New York, with two regtech firms -- Compliance.ai, which offers machine-readable regulatory compliance, and Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. Speaking of LendIt, I’m also going to be a guest on Peter Renton’s Lend Academy podcast, and he’ll be on our show as well, so watch for those. I’m also pleased to say we’ll have several leading members of Congress on the show in the coming weeks. In addition, we’ll record a very special show at the upcoming, global AML tech sprint being run by the UK Financial Conduct Authority in London this week -- which will be, in my view, the most important regtech development in memory...for reasons we’ll talk about. So, stay tuned! I hope to see you at upcoming events including: Financial Conduct Authority AML TechSprint this week -- May 22-25, London, UK (By invitation only) American Bankers Association Payments Forum, June 1, Washington, DC CFSI’s Emerge, June 6, Los Angeles, CA North Dakota Bankers Convention, June 11-12, Fargo. ND American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, June 26, Nashville, TN Money 2020, October in Las Vegas. Among other things, I’ll be speaking on the Revolution Stage about the revolution in...what else?  Regulation! Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. As always, please remember to review Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, and sign up to get emails that bring you the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts, at jsbarefoot.com. Again, follow me on twitter and facebook.   Support the Podcast And please send in your “buck a show” to keep Barefoot Innovation going! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

A little more than a year ago, Goldman Sachs entered the world of online lending with Marcus by Goldman Sachs®. Today Marcus is the gateway to a growing portfolio of consumer financial products, with exciting developments to come. CCO Omer Ismail explains the strategy that is taking Marcus to the next level. Moderated by Peter Renton of LendIt Fintech.

By LendIt's Peter Renton Peter Renton, founder of Lend Academy and co-founder of LendIt, provides his global overview of marketplace lending in this video from LendIt USA 2017; in his presentation he reviews the biggest stories of 2016 across the US, UK and China; topics discussed were Lending Club's challenges, the OCC Fintech Charter, Goldman’s Marcus, the FCA’s regulatory review, Zopa’s pursuit of a banking license, the CBRC’s announcement of regulation of online lending in China and more; Peter also shares the top originators in consumer, small business and real estate in the US while sharing the major players in the UK and China; finally he shares his outlook for 2017.

This week, Brett and Breaking Banks were onstage with Antony Jenkins, CEO of 10x Future Technologies at the LendIt conference in NY! While we were at the conference, we decided to talk to some others that were making new waves in the lending space. We talked to Brock Blake, CEO of Lendio about their new “franchising” model to expand their reach in the US. We caught up with Christoph Reiche, CEO of iwoca about the affects of Brexit on the lending space for small business through the EU, and what kinds of data are proving useful to create new lending models. We chatted about the ideas of debt rehabilitation with Ohad Samet, from TrueAccord, and how machine learning and AI can help people fix their credit situations. Of course we talked with Peter Renton, who created the conference, and we wrap up by catching up with John Owens and Emmanuel Daniel! It was a full day at a great event! We want to thank the LendIt conference, Metro Multimedia, and all our guests!

Brett King, Marc Hochstein of American Banker, and Peter Renton, Founder of LendIt Academy, talk about the upcoming Digital Identity Crisis Webinar, The LendIt Conference at the Javits Center in NYC, and the proposed Fintech Charter and what that can mean for changes in banking in the US.   Sam Maule takes the helm in the second half, and talks to Zeina Shuhaibar from the IRC, Ashish Gadnis, Founder/CEO of BanQu Inc., and Aneesh Varma, Founder of Aire (Credit scores for humanity @AireScore) to talk about fintech solutions to help refugees regain some economic stability and contribute to the economies of their new domiciles.

After organising nearly 1,000 folks in the O2 for Europe's largest P2P conference ever I managed to grab Peter long enough to have a fascinating tour of the globe and P2P sitrep in the three major hubs. Peter Renton has perhaps has more of a broad and deep understanding of P2P worldwide than anyone. When […]

Welcome Remarks by Peter Renton at LendIt Europe 2016.

Marketplace lending (a.k.a. peer-to-peer lending) is steadilyadvancing in impact and popularity. Although it's certainly not yeta dominant form of cashflow for borrowers nor is it a dominantinvestment choice for investors, it is on the steady growth and itsimpact is being felt. My guest today is a front-seat commentator and active investorin this marketplace. Peter Renton is the founder of LendAcademy.com and the LendItconference. He's here today to bring us up to speed on the peer-to-peermarketplace! Enjoy! Joshua www.lendacademy.com Support RPF on Patreon: www.radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron 

Opening Remarks with Peter Renton & Jason Jones at LendIt USA 2016.

I am delighted to be joined by Peter Renton to discuss some key highlights from the Lendit Europe 2015 conference, especially for those of you who weren't there and even for those of you who were as in the afternoon it split into two streams. Peter was back on the show in LFP015 way back in last December wearing his Lend Academy hat relating to us the amazing story of the development of P2P in the US – something he saw from it's very origins when it was scarcely noticed. Today he is joining me wearing his Lendit Conference hat. Lendit now runs by far the world's largest P2P conferences – some 2,500 in Lendit US 2015, 500 in Lendit China 2015 and yesterday around 750 in Lendit Europe. In this episode we have an off-the-cuff conversation about what leaps out to us as the really interesting things happening in P2P in Europe right now.  It's a great way to get up the curve fast and we discuss a wide range of topics: - the story of the Lendit conference - from original idea through to global domination in just two years and the important entrepreneurial lessons and steps along the way - Lendit also have an excellent policy of allowing online viewing at the time for free and make available videos of the presentations (also for free) - highly praiseworthy! :-) - Funding Circle's landmark purchase of Zencap making them now the undisputed global leader operating in five countries worldwide - Oligopolisation - Rupert Taylor's presentation The Impact of Institutional Investors - What Does the Data Tell Us? showing, inter alia, that the top-three are pulling away in terms of increasing their market share as well as the returns at a detailed level within the industry - Who would have spotted TrustBuddy in advance? Varying standards of due diligence by institutional investors in P2P and historical precedents - Regulation in #oldFS and #newFS and associated doubletalk. The question isn't "do we need regulation?" but "what kind of regulation do we need?" - Institutional capital as being reintermediation and the new funds to be launched by P2Ps (eg zero-fee (?) ~ETF by Funding Circle and LendInvest's rumoured fund) as anti-reintermediation - diversity of funding in P2P - will institutions eventually crowd out the retail investor? - can institutions outperform given the improvement in pricing algorithms by the P2Ps? (&Rupert Taylor's presentation above contains data in re) - Cormac Leech's presentation "3hours compressed into 20minutes" - a whole host of must-know points as well as speculation (Europe to overtake the UK?) and advice for the Bank of England :-) - We discuss the Risk in Alternative Finance panel session that I chaired - whilst good on qualitative risk P2Ps still find it very hard to come up with a clear and simple quantification of what the risk to investors is. Is this related to the fact that growth in retail funds (as per Cormac's presentation) is coming in terms of more from the same people rather than a great expansion of the retail investor base - We discuss simple ways of communicating risk and I learn that Lending Club have already implemented one of my key proposals [a button whcih shows the risk of a new investment in t...

Opening Remarks by Peter Renton

Market Analysis: Global Overview by Peter Renton, Conference Chairman of LendIt and Co-Founder & Partner of Lend Academy, at LendIt USA 2015.

Explore Peer-to-Peer Lending (P2P) in Episode 29 of Accredited Investor Markets Radio with Peter Renton of Lend Academy and Accredited Investor Markets Managing Editor, Alicia Purdy. Their discussion provides a broad overview of P2P lending, including how it compares to traditional lending methods, how P2P can be a win/win for everyone and what a 'win' looks like, typical investment horizons, strategies for the best returns and how P2P lending can complement an accredited investor's portfolio.   Learn more about Peter Renton and Lend Academy here.   Or you can find them here: LinkedIn Twitter: @LendAcademy     About Peter Renton   Peter Renton is the founder of Lend Academy Media, the leading educational resource for the peer-to-peer (p2p) lending industry. His blog is the most widely read website about p2p lending and through his writing and video courses he has helped tens of thousands of people understand this new asset class. He is considered the world’s leading expert on p2p lending and often consults with companies looking to enter the space.   He is a partner and co-founder at Lend Academy Investments, an SEC registered investment adviser that offers investment solutions to individual investors. It is committed to delivering superior investment performance in the p2p and online lending lending industries.   He is also the co-founder of the LendIt Conference, the world’s first conference dedicated to the p2p and online lending industries and he is the author of The Lending Club Story, the definitive guide to the world’s largest p2p lender.   Peter Renton has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, San Francisco Business Times, NY Times, and dozens of finance blogs and smaller publications. His writing has appeared on Techcrunch, NetBanker, LearnBonds, Shareable, Investor Junkie, Free Money Finance and many more. He regularly speaks about peer to peer lending at industry conferences.     Previously, he has started and sold two companies in the label printing industry, including Lightning Labels which was the first all-digital label printer in the U.S. This company was sold to a public company in 2008.

This is a mega-episode Xmas present special for London Fintech Podcast listeners   The world of Fintech has changed forever with this month’s successful twin IPOs on the NYSE of Lending Club and On Deck – both with valuations in ten figures.  It’s certainly an epochal shift for Alternative Finance Lending & Borrowing (P2P) around the world. UK Fintech does not exist in a vacuum and it’s important to understand how other markets are evolving.  Naturally in a world of globalisation the US market and New York in particular are perhaps the most important “must knows” for anyone on the UK Fintech scene. Above and beyond that the story of the US P2P is a cracker – the more I drilled into it the more that “fact” turned out to be once again better than “fiction” – and in this case more entertaining in terms of the twists and turns on the road. I am delighted to be joined today by a man supremely able to tell that story from many angles.  As a commentator on the scene Peter Renton has been blogging for several years about the US P2P scene – long before it was hot and fashionable.  As an investor he has been an active participant and experienced its evolution first hand. From his initial personal interest has grown a range of businesses – Peter is the founder of Lend Academy, co-founder of Lend Academy Investments, and co-founder of LendIt Conference which albeit mostly active in the US, had a very successful recent conference in the UK (you can see some great videos of the UK P2P presentations here) and one this year in Shanghai.  He has written a short, free e-book on the US P2P market which is freely available for download here.  He – clearly a busy guy – also finds the time to fit in a great podcast on the US P2P scene (search for “Lend Academy” on iTunes/Android App). We have a wide-ranging conversation about the history of US P2P, the present and possible futures. We also discuss similarities and differences with the UK P2P market, what the UK market should be grateful for – and we don’t actually discuss where it’s falling behind – but how many UK multi-billion IPOs were there in December? Threading through this is one of the best stories out there about US P2P.  Superficial surfers might be tempted to think its just “the same old” US tech success story. Partially maybe.  However “Fintech is not Tech” is one of my mottos and the US P2P has trodden one of the more challenging and thorny paths to the floor of the NYSE (where Peter was as a special guest of Lending Club). As we know P2P was invented in the UK by Zopa in 2005. Prosper was the first major US player closely followed by Lending Club.  Interestingly (and rather lost to the mists of time perhaps) their origins were very social in nature – so for example on Prosper you could post a photo of yourself, have online usernames and all that jazz. Lending Club launched as a Facebook App.  Now the majority of US P2P funding is institutional in origin – quite a journey. The crash hit the US P2P scene very hard (in part due to exposures to lower rated borrowers).  There was a class action suit against Prosper.  These difficult times continued when the SEC nearly crippled the industry by insisting that every loan that passes through the platforms be registered as a security :-O [so when you hear that the UK bunch have it easy (far from hindering the government invests tax payers money in some of them…) remember that!]. This lead to a quiescent phase in 08/09 and there were fears for the future. Foundation Capital for example didn’t invest in the first round of Lending Club (they did in the second) due to fears that the industry might not survive. Fast forward and we have IPOs and in Lending Club’s case an ex-Morgan Stanley CEO and an ex-Treasury secretary onboard.  They really have become the newest entrant to the establishment. Peter and I discuss whether this is the “End of the Beginning” or “The Beginning of the End”. Either way it’s certainly an epochal shift. Anyway I won’t spoil the Xmas fun with some tedious bullet point list of the angles we discuss – it’s a rich Xmas pudding of a diet and plenty of fruit for everyone. Xmas is a time for social conscience and thinking of folks less well off than oneself. Personally I have huge reservations about the sole guiding principle of modern corporatism – “limitless greed” – aka no level of profits is ever enough (I was at one bank doing a gig – it made $15bn profits which it decided “wasn’t enough” so sacked thousands of staff :-().  If you think that is “victimless” look at this staggering Oxfam chart tweet today on the incredible correlation between a society’s wealth inequality and its social/health problems. As I touch on in the episode when I first learned investment some 30yrs ago the market used to recognise both growth stocks and value stocks.  Now everything is supposed to be a growth stock (and partly as a result of that unemployment is mega (albeit NB P2P research has shown that P2P/SME lending/funding creates employment)). Anyway all that is as it is and rather an aside … however I say it to make the point that I am no uncritical repeater of the de facto US tech mantra that (in effect) the focal point of economies should be billion dollar IPOs and yet more wealth asymmetry. Notwithstanding those personal views it seems axiomatic to me that if “Fintech” is ever to be a real threat to the #OldFS establishment then it needs size and it needs scale.  You can’t take on the battleships of #OldFS with a sleek canoe and some fit paddlers The US P2Ps have not had it easy in any way – they had a tough underwriting start; they had law suits; the “system” threw huge burdens in their way. Somehow they came through all of this and overtook the country that invented it all. I wonder why?  What do you think are the reasons? What do you think the UK P2P scene can and should take away from this fascinating story? A Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all readers and especially listeners to the London Fintech Podcast I will see you in 2015 when we will all find out what will happen to the hot and frothy cappuccino that has been UK Fintech 2014 style when the bubbles fade. Will we be left with a small weak latte? Will it be a large strong one? We shall see but I aim to keep serving up macchiatos on the LFP show Go well.

In this week’s episode, Larry Ludwig interviews Peter Renton on the topic of Peer-to-Peer investing. Resources mentioned: Is Lending Club or Prosper a Risky Investment? from Investor Junkie Lending Club Review from Investor Junkie Lend Academy NickelSteamroller The post MTI006: Peer-to-Peer Investing with Peter Renton appeared first on Money Tree Investing Podcast.

Peer to peer lending has exploded over the past few years.  Investors have been able to make more than stock market like returns and many more are jumping in.  I interview Peter Renton from Lending Academy who is an expert in peer to peer lending and ask him to share his thoughts on this hot sector.

Social lending, aka P2P lending, is one of the hottest ways to borrow money - and to invest. Social lending expert Peter Renton joins me to share how a P2P loan can be a great way to consolidate debt and save money when you borrow. He's also share his track record investing in these loans, and why you may want to consider them for your investment portfolio. This episode aired live August 4, 2012.