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When I moved to Scandinavia, Finland quickly became one of my favourite countries to work in. That much colder than my home in Copenhagen, it was where I first experienced 'proper snow'; visiting Helsinki before Moscow, meant it was where I got my first up-close experience of Russian-Byzantine architecture and a sense of being truly far from home; and thanks to its stoic people, it taught me to present to an audience with near zero interaction, a skill that served me well when Covid lockdowns meant I was suddenly doing all my webinars to a muted computer screen 🤣 So it was a delight to be returning for this episode, at least conceptually, as I speak to my old colleague Kim Ahola about his work at Creditstar and the emergence of tech-first digital lending in Finland and the broader region. You'll find Creditstar at their home page (www.creditstar.com/) or if you want to find the Finnish business directly, that's at https://www.creditstar.fi/ Kim also mentioned Monefit, that's at www.monefit.com (and coming to the UK soon at https://www.monefit.co.uk/) Kim and Creditstar are both on LinkedIn, at www.linkedin.com/in/kimahola/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/creditstar-group-as/ respectively You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on my site: https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us. Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In any property transaction, you need a willing buyer and a willing seller. What you don’t need, but almost always have, is a disinterested lender. That third wheel can be problematic, so Paul Watts is trying to get rid of it via owner financing for home builders. As Paul mentioned, Lenuity’s home page is at https://lenuity.co.uk/ but you can also find him on LinkedIn You can learn more about Barclays Eagle Labs and the Black Founder Accelerator here: https://labs.uk.barclays/ You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on this site. Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Developing markets have a reputation for being unavoidably high-risk for lenders. And sure, developing markets are associated with less stable employment which can undermine repayments but in reality, how much of the observed historical losses could be avoided by embracing local knowledge and implementing better collections? It turns out, quite a lot of it. And by better collections, mind you, I don't mean tougher collections. In fact, its almost the opposite. BFREE is a Nigerian fintech founded on a deep dissatisfaction with the available credit collection options which seemed to thrive on humiliating customers - so they set out to change the narrative by offering borrowers a clear path towards long-term financial stability through a combination of our self-servicing, messaging automation, contact centre, and machine learning solutions. I'm speaking to Moses Nmor, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of BFREE, to hear the full story. You can reach the team and learn more about their work at https://bfree.io/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bfree-global/ (you'll also find the team there, and as Moses says, they're very friendly) You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on this site. Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“AI is not something that's come around today, right? What has changed is our ability to store an enormous amount of data economically; the processing speeds; and the speed of transmission of information. Those three in combination are the most fertile ground to bring AI to life.” As we’ve heard on this show before, AI as such is not a new tool, but it is now really coming of age. And today’s guest, Sanjay Uppal, co-founder and CEO at Finbots.ai, saw an opportunity to use it to transform and democratise credit scoring. “I just said, ‘the solution has to be transformative. So we're not talking about taking a task that takes six months and do it in four months, we're talking about, 'can I bring six months down to 60 minutes? Can I bring it down to six minutes?'“ You can read more about FinBots on their homepage (https://finbots.ai/) and, as Sanjay mentioned, they aim to get back to every contact within 24 hours so if you’re wanting to know more, feel free to start a conversation right at https://finbots.ai/contact/ And due to their great content, whether you need scoring transformation or not, you should follow them on LinkedIn, too: https://www.linkedin.com/company/finbots-ai-pte-ltd/ There, you can also find and follow Sanjay or previous guest of this show from all the way back in episode 10 and now current Chief Revenue Officer at Finbots, Andre Marques You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on this site. Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm almost old enough to start voicing opinions about youngsters needing to cut their hair and get themselves some jobs. Which is convenient, because that's sort of what we're talking about today with Ethan Fraenkel from ProGrad - a UK-based fintech that's taking an objective-first approach to improving student financing. "You're not looking for car financing, you're looking to buy a car, you're not necessarily looking for credit, you're you're looking to make a purchase, you're not looking for mortgage, you're looking to buy a house. And so that's really the approach that we've taken with our algorithm as well, that allows us to predict how much money a customer will earn over the next five years." You can learn more about ProGrad at https://www.prograd.uk/ I mention Guy Kawasaki in our chat, here's his 'must see' TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtjatz9r-Vc You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect). The show has its own page there, too, and is also present, but less active, on Instagram and Twitter using the @HTLMTS handle. My action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To grow from a small island you need a dual aspect: looking inward, CIM has a relationship with about 60% of commercially active Mauritians; looking outward, CIM is expanding into East Africa and possibly beyond? You can read more about CIM's finance arm at https://cimfinance.mu/mu/en/ Or, if you'd rather visit them and the beautiful island of Mauritius in person, here's where you can start your planning https://www.mymauritius.travel/ 🤣 You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect). The show has its own page there, too, and is also present, but less active, on Instagram and Twitter using the @HTLMTS handle. My action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one way, it's slightly surprising that Mateo Infantozzi Riembau was a fintech founder. Not because there were no signs of entrepreneurial thinking, but because his early successes came from the travel industry. And yet he's done it twice, at a time were "there was little room for startups in Uruguay, and even less room for fintechs". But local innovators have changed that quickly. Now "fintech is sexy", and Mateo and his co-founders played a significant role in that change. You can find Prezzta at https://www.prezzta.com/ (or on LinkedIn) You can find Octa at https://www.octa.dev/ (or on LinkedIn) You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect). The show has its own page there, too, and is also present, but less active, on Instagram and Twitter using the @HTLMTS handle. My action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I was living in Denmark and working at Experian, my boss’s boss was a rockstar, you would never hear Burak Kilicoglu ’s name mentioned without an associated compliment. And I wasn’t the only one to notice, so he was soon snapped up by Creditinfo to be their Director of Global Markets - a perfect-sounding guest for this show, right? Unfortunately, though I tried, I never managed to get Burak on… That’s how I introduced my episode with Paul Randall, CEO of Creditinfo but I’m pleased to say, it is no longer true. Because in this episode of HTLMTS, I’m sitting down with Burak himself to chat about data as a route to improved access to credit in emerging markets, about lending to SMEs, and about what it means to react quickly in volatile markets. Creditinfo can be found at https://creditinfo.com/ or, as Burak mentioned, if you want to start a conversation with one of the team, their contact info is here https://creditinfo.com/about-us/our-group-management/ They are also on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/creditinfo-group/ (from which you’ll find links to the individual country pages) The ESG data project he mentioned is explained in more detail here: https://chronicle.creditinfo.com/2022/10/24/creditinfo-launches-esg-data-platform/ You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect). The show has its own page there, too, and is also present, but less active, on Instagram and Twitter using the @HTLMTS handle. My action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I feel an affinity for the peer-to-peer lending model. My initial interest was sparked during an MBA project 16 years ago and reinvigorated more recently by interviews on here with Monexo and Kiva. And I’m building on that today, with Anzhelika Osmanova, founder of Lendwill, a community-first P2P platform coming to us out of Norway. You can read more about Lendwill, right where you’d expect to, https://lendwill.com/ (worth the click for the design touches alone) but both Lika and Lendwill can be found on LinkedIn, too. During our chat, Lika raised issues around cross-border credit scores also covered by Misha Espiov and Ash Bhatt on this same show, so you can click those links if that’s your area of interest. You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect). The show has its own page there, too, and is also present, but less active, on Instagram and Twitter using the @HTLMTS handle. My action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on this site. And if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Keep well, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“This is not a small change, and it doesn't affect isolated groups. This is not just an IT problem. This is not just a modelling problem. This is not something the business can solve on its own. This really requires board attention to actually bring together those teams and ensure that there is really cohesion across the organisation.” - Frank Gerhard, Solution Associate Partner and CTO at Risk Dynamics, part of McKinsey & Co. Gone are the days when senior business leaders could leave the data crunching to propellor-hat-wearing quants in a back room, now there’s a seat at the Boardroom Table for data and analytics, or at least there should be. In this episode, Frank and I speak about the strategic elevation of analytics and how innovations from just a year or two ago are already mere table stakes, but in particular, we talk about all of this in the context of SME lending where lenders are feeling them acutely. I first found Frank via his co-authorship of this article on “How banks can reimagine lending to small and medium-size enterprises” but we also reference this article on “Designing next-generation credit-decisioning models” which is worth a read, and has more insights we had time to fully explore. Frank is on LinkedIn and available via email, or for more insights from him and his colleagues, you can head over to https://www.riskdynamicsgroup.com/our-insights or https://www.mckinsey.com/ Frank also mentions Quantam Black, AI by McKinsey’s - their work is at https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/how-we-help-clients Andrew Ng's thoughts on great data versus big data: https://spectrum.ieee.org/andrew-ng-data-centric-ai You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 Oh, and if you’re in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pawnshops are one of the oldest forms of lending, allowing people to turn assets they’d like to keep for the long-term into cash in the short-term - granny’s broch, those statues great uncle Thomas brought back from Greece, your Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. OK, one of those is not the same as the others, but our definition of ‘asset’ is changing, so where do holders of digital assets go if they want to access quick cash but they don’t want to sell? Well, maybe to Zharta, “a real-time NFT loan platform for borrowers and lenders”. Zharta allows consumers to get instant loans with their NFTs without losing ownership over them. Join me and Nuno Cortesão, their CEO and co-founder as we talk about NFT-backed lending and where digital assets might go in the future. Zharta is found at https://www.zharta.io/ Or on LinkedIn and the other social medias (Twitter, Discord, and the ones for kids cooler than me) Zharta was speaking at Web Summit earlier this month, and I expect they will be back at the event again next year - certainly, I will be. If you would also like to attend, I suggest you jump on this link for the last few 2 for 1 early bird tickets. You'll also hear that Nuno and I will both be at the Rugby World Cup in France, so let me know if you're heading to either event, and maybe we can grab a drink. We also speak about traditional pawnshops, which were featured on episode 31 of this show with James Constantinou (check it out to see how unique physical assets are evaluated and used as collateral) For my stuff, visit me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“If you look at the things we do as a company, whether it's in digital assets, renewable energy, or media and entertainment, we are always looking at how to structure financial products to push disruptive industries forward. We are banking on, and betting on the future.” Let's fund a movie. Truth be told, I don’t watch a lot of movies these days. There was a time I could use long flights to catch up, but even those days are gone for now. Maybe that’s why I’ve never spent much energy thinking about how they’re funded. I guess I always just assumed that they were exclusively funded by a small group of risk-hungry Hollywood types with incredibly deep pockets, winning big on some rolls and losing big on others. Well, as it turns out, there’s a lending model there. And more than that, it’s a lending model that connects movies to green energy to digital assets. Join me and Zachary Tarica, founder and CEO of The Forest Road Company as he talks me through tax credits and tax credit lending, and how TFRC is putting “money in the hands of people that are pushing transformative industries forward?” As Zach mentions on the show, you’re free to start a conversation by emailing them at info@forestroadco.com or by reading the extensive content on their homepage www.forestroadco.com On Twitter they’re @forestroadco and on LinkedIn they’re @theforestroadcompany For my stuff, visit me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Mexico lending market is not one I know well. It’s not one I know at all, truth be told. Luckily, Jorge Enriquez is blessed with an infectious laugh and an easy manner that immediately put me at ease. It’s something I soon learned was part of the DNA of his business: “we understand that asking for a loan is a stressful situation, so we need to create the right environment for our customers to feel 'eh, we got you, you're with Credilikeme, just chill, relax, we're going to take care of you...'” Credilikeme is a personal loan business built on experimentation and gamification, and built for borrowers - we discuss all of this and more on today's episode. If you would like to learn more about Credilikeme, head on over to their website: https://credilike.me/ But they're also big on social media. Start with YouTube, where they put out a lot of content https://www.youtube.com/c/CredilikemeOficial or click here for Instagram or Twitter For my stuff, visit me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The credit card landscape glitters with options for the consumer - different rewards earned at different rates, in different ways, sometimes with an annual fee and sometimes not, all wrapped in countless different brands and colours. Chances are, there’s a product out there that is perfect for every consumer. Chances are, it’s bloody hard to find. That’s where Chris Hutchins comes in. In, All The Hacks, Chris gets deep into the weeds matching consumers to credit card offers with an understanding of the market that can benefit both sides. All The Hacks is not just a great listen, it can save you money and improve your life, so seek it out on any of the major podcast platforms, or listen on its home page here: https://www.allthehacks.com/ You can find my research on first card in wallet over here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/younger-consumers-seeking-out-credit-cards-clear-value-le-grange/ or at https://www.transunion.hk/resources/transunion-hk/doc/insights/Insights-On-Being-First-Card-In-Wallet.pdf If you want to start your own Laid Off Camp - here’s the wiki to get you going http://wiki.laidoffcamp.com/w/page/14510849/FrontPage (and it’s a great idea for this economy because if I think back to my own MBA thesis, there’s a momentary spike in entrepreneurial activity post layoff but that drops with as unemployment persists, so we really only have a narrow window to make it work). And, speaking of me, you can pop over to my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU with our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Keep well, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Would I prefer cash through debt, or cash through equity? I would always choose cash through debt - what happens in partnerships is one person always works harder, and there is always some level of resentment towards the other ones, (and) you could always find a coach, you could always find a consultant or a mentor. And typically, you're going to have a lot fewer challenges.” There's good debt and bad debt. Essentially, debt is good when it is funding the purchase, today, of an asset that will create value in the future. This is why, in the consumer lending world, mortgage debt is typically good and credit card debt is, well, less commonly so. There are so ways in which we, as consumers, can be tempted into using debt to purchase consumables. But in the business lending world, that ratio skews more towards the good debt side of the equation, because there are so many more value-generating assets to consider - does the business need a new building, or a new machine, or to hire a team to break into a new region. Unfortunately, the business lending world can also be overwhelmingly confusing for small business owners. Jonathan Fodera, president at Integrated Business Financing, is here today to help me get my head around the options. Jonathan helps businesses of all sizes grow and scale by finding the best financing solution possible, from SBA loans to equipment financing to working capital lines to invoice factoring to startup loans and more. You can find Jonathan over on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-fodera-391a98a1/ (or using jonathan.fodera on the other platforms) Integrated Business Financing is there, too, but there home page is over here: https://www.integratedbusinessfinancing.com/ for a more direct route to the info you’re after They also have a YouTube channel if videos are more your thing https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv9gp1n6t2lmyVicsTXZYeQ For my stuff, visit me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I spend a lot of time talking about how to create debt for consumers. I do it because I believe that, when done right, debt can be beneficial to all parties involved, like a mortgage that generates wealth for the middle classes through property ownership. But that doesn’t lessen the fact that debt carries a cost, a cost that is now quickly rising. We know that mortgage rates are on the up, because it’s on every other newspaper headline these days, but what’s harder to ascertain is what we can do about that - other than building a time machine to take us back to when houses were cheaper. Except, there are other ways. It’s just not in the interest of lenders to make them obvious. Which is why it sometimes takes an outsider to disrupt the status quo. Enter, Jinesh Vohra and Sprive, the app that helps you overpay your monthly mortgage, turning the power of compounding interest in your favour for once. “Being mortgage free should be achievable for everyone… it really changes your life” Jinesh posts regularly on LinkedIn and is open to DMs, so follow his account and do reach out if you have questions As mentioned in the show, your first port of call if you want to check out the app is your friendly local App Store (Apple) or (Android) If it is just information you’re after, then Sprive’s home page is where it is likely to be https://sprive.com/ And you don’t take their word for it, it seems like every week there’s a new letter in the press, or update online, from a happy customer (~40% of SpriveApp's active user growth was from customer referrals). More on annuity curves, can be found here (https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/articles/perfect-paydown-curves) and here (https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/articles/annuity-curves-for-portfolio-management) While you can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Fairness in pricing often starts with the idea of competition - if there's healthy competition, that will bring the price down. But, in the United States, if you look from the 1990s to the 2020s, credit card profits have steadily risen, and real interest rates have steadily risen and at the same time, default rates have fallen and it's just less expensive, in some ways to run a credit card company than it used to be - so I think that's the first clue that the pricing isn't fair". In this episode of HTLMTS, I speak to Elena Botella, a fellow CapitalOne alum who, when she realised how incentives in the modern could become misaligned in the modern lending model, decided to do something about it, something rather inspiring to a wandering soul like me - she took herself on a road trip around America to hear the human story of consumer debt. "In the credit card industry, you see the transaction, you see what some this credit enables, but you don't always see the harm side of it... I heard from consumers who had followed a similar pattern, and came to feel that credit cards had done them more harm than good". Delinquent: Inside the American Debt Machine launched this week (11 October 2022) and is now widely available in all bookstores, but the folks over at https://bookshop.org/books/delinquent-inside-america-s-debt-machine/9780520380356 probably appreciate your business more than the bigger names we might gravitate to first (I’m not pointing fingers, I have my own Amazon links down below 😅) You can find more of Elena’s writing at http://elenabotella.com/about or on Twitter as @elenabotella. While Elena’s work at Omidyar Network starts here: https://omidyar.com/omidyar_team/elena-botella/ The research of mine that looked ta price sensitivity is getting old now, but is over here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/increased-price-transparency-shake-up-hong-kong-loan-market-brendan/ You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Oh, and since you like banking podcasts, head on over to https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ to find related content that you may find interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Credit scores are near to my heart. I kinda work around them now, but still, I spent a wonderful decade rolling the things out and so I’m getting back to my roots. In today’s episode, Toni Hubbs talks to me about how the team at VantageScore is driving inclusion and transparency in credit scores at scale (a really, really big scale), and about how and why those scores are being used in securitization deals. Head on over to https://vantagescore.com/ to find all their educational material You can find The Score, VantageScore's own podcast on their website, https://vantagescore.com/lenders/tools-and-resources/the-score-podcast/ and wherever you're listening to this one. You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a special interview for me. HTLMTS doesn't pull in huge volumes of listeners, but that's OK, that's not really what I'm after. I want the right listeners, not the most listeners, and so I get excited when a guest tells me they got a business lead after their interview, or when one guest asks to be set up with another for some new project, or when, like today, I get to look inside a company that I've long admired. Kiva first came into my consciousness in 2006 as an early grad school project. I actually tried to back this up with some old PowerPoints, but although I found an old CD with 'MBA files' scribbled on it, it turns out we don't have a CD reader on any of the computers in this house, so you'll just have to take my word for it 🤣 Anyway, the point is they're a foundational fintech, and one with a social drive to boot. Today I'm chatting to Lev Plaves about the ways in which Kiva has evolved since my school project, and in particular how he and his team are lending money to refugees. The Kiva Refugee Investment Fund successfully closed with $32.5 million, and they're multiplying that impact by following an open approach, sharing their lending results as they go, so others can take heart from the fact that loan officers now say that "refugees are now the first people they look to, because of what their performance has been and how strong they've been as clients". Kiva is, of course, at https://www.kiva.org/ but then you'll want to jump straight to the refugee tab - I'm helping Ali put up solar panels and Alaa with her sewing business, for example. Or find their blog at https://www.kiva.org/blog You can reach out to Lev and the team by email via refugees@kiva.org You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In February, I spoke to Phil Blows about backing traditional loans with digital assets. The crypto markets had a rough time in the months that followed, so I wasn’t expecting much progress on that front, but I was wrong. Bull markets are a great time to build, after all. So I have Phil back today, talking about ByBrix and their new crypto-backed mortgage offering. And sure, to crypto outsiders like me, this might feel like a scary time to be building in this space, but as Phil reminds me, “a lot of these people didn't get into crypto to then move back into fiat, they go into crypto because they think they're going to stay there for the rest of their lives. So it's more that they're dabbling in the world of fiat, but living their lives in crypto.” There’s a significant demographic out there who have built wealth in crypto, and would like to keep as much of their wealth there as possible, even as they look to finance a home. You can learn more about ByBrix at their home page https://bybrix.io/ (or on their LinkedIn) While you can find more on AQRU at https://aqru.io/ (plus Phil has been on before, on episode 29, talking about crypto and AQRU) You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.