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Where Credit's Due Ep. 2: How PayPal and Square use data and speed to drive growth in SMB lending
In the second episode of Where Credit’s Due – Tearsheet’s lending podcast, host Iulia Ciutina, a senior reporter at Tearsheet, speaks with Luke Voiles, general manager at Square Banking, and Bernardo Martinez, vice president of Global Merchant Lending at PayPal.
The two guests talk about small business lending, given securing loans from traditional banks is tough for SMBs – it’s a long and complicated process and it’s not that likely they’ll get the cash they need. Embedded lenders are fixing that.
The latest briefing
Lending Briefing: Alternative data powering SMB lending, and the top US consumer lenders
Historically, the small business sector has been difficult to underwrite through traditional methods, but its complexities are starting to be understood through the power of alternative data.
Alternative data is the information sourced from a variety of external resources, like market economic indicators, demographic data, POS transactions, website and mobile device data, and even satellite imagery.
It has been among the major driving factors for the rising interest in SMB lending. In 2020, the US was the largest market for alternative financing. And it seems to be working - 83% of lenders who are using alternative data reported they were seeing benefits like allowing them to evaluate thin-file or no-file consumers, according to a recent TransUnion survey of 317 lenders and credit providers.
Read more (exclusive to Outlier members)
Just look at the charts
1. Banks and tech giants are losing skilled staff to fintechs
Source: Bloomberg
2. Apple opens up to open banking
Source: WhiteSight
Today's stories
Apple introduces its 'own' BNPL
Apple is launching a new feature for Apple Pay to let users pay for purchases in four installments over time without interest, called Apple Pay Later -- this is Apple’s take on a BNPL service built right into Apple Pay and comes with iOS 16 (The Verge)
SEC edges closer to new market efficiency rules
Chief Gary Gensler directed SEC staff last year to explore ways to make the stock market more efficient for small investors and public companies -- following the orders the SEC is preparing to propose major changes to the stock market as soon as this fall (FT)
CoinDesk is rebooting DESK for this year’s Consensus
When Consensus 2022 kicks off Thursday, behind the scenes, a complex choreography of wallet identity checks and payment swaps will work to keep DESK, CoinDesk’s social token, circulating through a crowd expected to top 15,000 attendees (CoinDesk)
Who’s got the best mobile banking app?
According to an analysis by Minna Technologies, a Sweden-based fintech, the provider with the most features has the best mobile banking app -- qualifying JPMorgan Chase as the winner whose app has 24 features, Citi was a close second with 23 features, followed by Capital One and Bank of America with 22 of the 30 features (Forbes)
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