Lendit Rewind

As the retail industry has evolved, credit has remained an equally dynamic financing instrument, moving from early store layaway to today’s digital payments. But retail experiences are continuing to evolve beyond the capabilities of traditional credit and lending. Entrepreneur Max Levchin will share his thoughts on why we need to reimagine the financing ecosystem from the ground up in order to unlock the future of credit. Drawing from his experiences growing Affirm, Levchin will explain why the industry must be willing to embrace new technologies that enable personalized consumer engagement at scale. Levchin will also discuss why Affirm is committed to reinventing credit, starting with the belief that it should help improve consumers’ financial lives in addition to financing their purchases. Moderated by Alex Rampell of Andreessen Horowitz.

Panelists include: Jonathan Palan, AutoFi; Serge Vartanov, AutoGravity; Danny Martinez, Blinker; Brad Rogers, RouteOne; Sam Ellis, DriverUp; Moderator: Craig Schleicher, PwC.   Auto finance is a key asset class that is ripe for disruption, at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel on the future of car financing; the panel featured a mix of traditional players in the space and new startups that are looking to streamline the consumers experience in buying a car; panelists cover direct versus indirect financing, customers being able to use their mobile device to search for financing options and how lenders are currently competing for the dealers business; the new startups in the market talked about how to build out an experience for the correct type of customer and offering more transparency for consumer and investors; though auto financing is still done through the dealer, these companies are beginning to give the consumer more choice when looking for their next vehicle purchase.

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.

Panelists include: Mike Sha, SigFig; Rich Cancro, AdvisorEngine; Aaron Klein, Riskalayze; Moderator: Ryan Neal, Wealth Management. There are many fintech firms who are partnering with wealth managers in different ways; SigFig has built a digital wealth platform to bring a modern approach to the wealth management business and has partnered with some large firms; Riskalayze believes investors tend to sabotage their investments by investing at inopportune times; company has built a Risk Number to quantify and help advisors determine how much their clients can handle while reaching goals; also has built a robo component to the product; AdvisorEngine’s goals are to help advisors transform their growth and connect advisors to their clients, transforming the experience by digitization; panelists share why they chose to pursue the path as a technology provider, their history in wealth management and why it makes sense to partner with wealth management firms.

"AI Powered Investing" with Mike Kane of Hedgeable and Jeff Holman of Sentient Technologies. Moderated by Sinisa Babcic of Ernst & Young. Artificial intelligence has started making significant headway into financial services; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a fireside chat moderated by Ernst & Young that featured a leading AI powered hedge fund in Sentient Technologies and a private banking platform run by AI in Hedgeable; the panel discussed the current state of AI in financial services and whether or not it has become overhyped; they touched upon the uses of AI within their firms as well as within the broader market; panelists talked about ensuring you have the correct infrastructure when implementing AI, specifically since you cannot just bolt on this technology to any firm; they also discussed some of the lessons learned from the past few years like the power of APIs and high frequency trading; additionally they talked about AI as a cost saver for companies and the ability it has to transform the r

Panelists include: Robert Cortright, DriveWealth; James Waldinger, Artivest; Javier Benson, Realty Shares; Bo Brustkern, NSR Invest; Rashmi Singh, Ernst & Young; Moderator: Lex Sokolin, Autonomous Research. Panel explores what makes a next generation investment product, getting perspectives from a wide variety of firms who provide products and services; panelists talk about where we are at when it comes to the asset class and the opportunities that still lie ahead; Artivest shares that they are focused on the delivery mechanism as opposed to changing the ways they structure securities; RealtyShares’ Javier Benson noted that the underlying asset being real estate is the same but they’ve been able to make slight modifications to the structure, bringing tech and product together; others share the tech, automation and workflows they use in their business today.

Panelists include: Geoffrey Kott, Cross River Bank; Joe Toms, Freedom Financial; Dan Vetter, Money360; Glenn Goldman, Credibly; Jeff Mortara, UBS; Moderator: Jay Bernstein, Clifford Chance. Originators are beginning to look at launching their own captive funds; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel featuring Cross River Bank, Freedom Financial, Money360, Credibly, UBS and Clifford Chance to discuss this idea; the originators on the panel talked about their current funds, if they have launched one, size, structure and how they currently view the idea of this vehicle in the long term; the panelists focused on diversification of funding sources; in good times it is never hard to get loan purchasers but when markets tighten how can you make sure you are prepared; they also talked about when setting up this funding vehicle should you manage it yourself or should you find a third party fund manager; how do conflicts of interest come into play when the originating company is then investing in the loan and servicing

Panelists include: Jeff Andrews, Lending Club; Eric Thurber, Three Bridges Wealth Advisors; Moderator: Mark Fitzpatrick, Glide Capital. Wealth managers are beginning to look toward marketplace lending as an asset class; at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel focused on wealth managers with Three Bridge Wealth Advisors, Lending Club and Glide Capital; the panel focused on making wealth managers look toward marketplace lending as a fixed income alternative and removing the fear factor since it is not as well known an asset class; clients of wealth managers are beginning to see this as a high yielding, short duration and low volatility play; thus far originators have not done a great job at providing exposure and understanding to wealth managers, this is beginning to improve; ultimately the asset class is very simple and easy to understand, showing wealth managers this is the key so they can then get clients on board.