5 trends we’re watching this week

5 trends in finance this week

[alert type=yellow ]Every week at Tradestreaming, we’re tracking and analyzing the top trends impacting the finance industry. The following is a list of important things going on we think are worth paying attention to. For more in depth trendfollowing, subscribe to Tradestreaming’s newsletters .[/alert]

  1. How Payoff is shifting the conversation about consumer debt to financial wellness (Tradestreaming): Payoff seems to be genuinely interested in helping its clients find their way out of debt and start saving. Pretty weird for a company that extends credit.
  2. Banks should take fintech seriously, not panic, but make a gameplan (McKinsey): A new McKinsey report hit the wires this week – it’s a sanguine analysis meant for finance professionals. “Specifically, this means that banks should be less preoccupied with individual fintech attackers and more focused on what these attackers represent—and build or buy the capabilities that matter for a digital future.” Worth a read.
  3. J.P. Morgan acquires nearly $1 billion worth of LendingClub loans — Sources (Nasdaq): J.P. Morgan has agreed to acquire nearly $1 billion worth of personal loans arranged by LendingClub, according to people familiar.
  4. Why one of the best fintech investors, Foundation Capital’s Charles Moldow, invests only in B2C (Tradestreaming): Foundation has one of the strongest fintech portfolios and General Partner, Charles Moldow (LendingClub, OnDeck Capital, Envestnet, Motif Investing) explains why he sees so much more room to run in disrupting finance.
  5. Quicken Loans getting into personal loans (Detroit Free Press): Quicken this week launched RocketLoans, an online service offering cash loans of $2,000 to $35,000 to prospective borrowers with good credit scores and financial histories. The loans have fixed terms of three to five years and carry interest rates ranging from just over 5% to the low or mid-teens.

The Startups: Who’s shaking things up (Week ending February 7, 2016)

fintech startups shaking things up

[alert type=yellow ]Every week, Tradestreaming highlights startups in the news, making things happen. The following is just part of this week’s news roundup. You can get these updates delivered direct to your inbox by signing up for the Tradestreaming newsletters.[/alert]

Startups raising/Investors investing

TradeRocket inks deal with Hitachi Capital America to fund $2 billion for mid-market financial supply chain (PRNewswire)
Hitachi Capital intends to supply $2 billion this year for TradeRocket’s supply chain financing platform which allows buyers to attain up to $5m of funding.

Credibly secures $70 million credit facility led by SunTrust Bank (VentureBeat)
An online lending platform that delivers a broad range of short- and long-term capital to satisfy the SMB credit spectrum, Credibly has provided access to capital for more than 4,500 businesses.

Rocket Internet’s Spotcap raises €31.5m to lend to small businesses (TechCrunch)
Spotcap intends to use the funds to expand its operations globally and to finance its online business lending activities in Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.

Simplex raises $7m for credit card Bitcoin buying service (CoinDesk)
Simplex CEO Nimrod Lehavi said that the company enables faster purchases of bitcoin via credit card, while at the same time reducing the consequences of fraud for businesses, such as exchanges or brokerages, that offer the service.

Revolut passes $200m in transactions; closes $4.8m seed round (Finextra)
Revolut, the MasterCard-connected Global Money App, today announces it has closed its seed round adding Index Ventures as an investor.

Dopay, payroll for the unbanked, raises $2.5 million in pre-Series A round (PEHub)
From the PR: dopay is committed to transforming the lives of the unbanked and their employers by breaking the cash cycle through a payroll and cash management platform for companies, and by offering a full mobile banking experience for consumers

The Startups: Who’s shaking things up

How a Snapchat roboadvisor could rock the industry (Wealth Management Today)
Social media messaging service Snapchat is rumored to be building a roboadvisor service of its own. Could this be a serious option for 100 million active users?

How Payoff is shifting the conversation about consumer debt to financial wellness (Tradestreaming)
Payoff seems to be genuinely interested in helping its clients find their way out of debt and start saving. Pretty weird for a company that extends credit.

Opportunities in the risk business abound as insurance ready for disruption (TechCrunch)
From TechCrunch: “At a time when nearly every product category has been reimagined by a higher quality digital successor — the insurance industry and customer have been left in the dust.”

Navigating the fintech investment landscape (Wharton Fintech)
Nikhil Srivastava interviews Atul Joshi, a Wharton alumnus and managing partner of the family office Raga Partners, about fintech investment.

Ten reasons why fintech startups fail (CB Insights)
Pascal Bouvier, venture partner with Santander InnoVentures, lays down the law and explains who will win and who won’t.

BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor collaborating with RBC Wealth Management (Finovate)
The U.S. branch of RBC Wealth Management is launching a pilot program called RBC Investor Gateway that offers clients a digital advice option powered by FutureAdvisor

Blockstream partners with PwC for blockchain push (American Banker)
PricewaterhouseCoopers has partnered with blockchain technology company Blockstream to bring distributed-ledger and smart-contract technology to its clients

The most interesting challenger bank you’ve never heard of (Huy Nguyen Trieu)
From zero to 200,000 accounts in less than 2 years, this startup bank is trying to do what Easyjet and Ryanair did to airlines…

How Payoff is shifting the conversation about consumer debt to financial wellness

payoff healthy financial habits

Scott Saunders is CEO and Founder of Payoff

What is Payoff?

Scott Saunders, Payoff
Scott Saunders, Payoff

Payoff is a leading financial wellness and empowerment company leveraging technology, science and personalization. We are working to change the status quo in consumer finance and help people cross the chasm from borrowers to savers, investors, and givers. We’re excited to have support and significant industry leadership from our impressive Board of Directors, including: Joe Saunders (former Visa CEO), Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post Founder), Mohamed El-Erian (former Pimco CEO), Sean Park (Anthemis Group Founder) and Jim Lane (former Goldman Sachs partner).

Why do you believe it’s a “next generation financial company”?

By taking a more personal and holistic wellness approach to their finances with Payoff, our Members gain insights to connect their behaviors, feelings and aspirations to an empowered path forward. For example, at Payoff we:

  • Use science to empower our Members: Our Chief Scientist, Dr. Galen Buckwalter, helped to develop the matching algorithms at eHarmony as their Chief Scientist Officer, and  he’s bringing psychology to finance, ultimately facilitating positive behavior change and helping people make better financial decisions. Payoff has taken the hundreds of questions you might answer in a typical psychometric assessment and compressed them into a three-minute “gamified” online version that gauges your financial personality. Our assessment provides insights into “why” you spend vs. just focusing on “what” you spend (information you can already get from traditional credit reports).
  • Treat underwriting like a first date: Payoff doesn’t want to issue multiple loans to one person. Instead we want to understand people’s levels of motivation to really pay off their debt. As a result, Payoff has a significantly lower default rate than the industry average of 4%-5%. We’re also actively researching and building resources and tools to support motivated Members who don’t currently qualify for a Payoff Loan.
  • Offer Member Advocates: Based in Payoff’s Costa Mesa, Calif., headquarters, our Member Advocates provide personal support, guidance and a listening ear to our Members via a call, email or online chat. 86% of Payoff Members have opted in for 90-day check-ins following the initial welcome call from their Member Advocate.
  • Are the first marketplace lender to provide Members with free FICO® Score updates: Starting this month, Payoff will provide Members with complimentary monthly access to their FICO® Score (which are used in more than 90% of lending decisions in the U.S.). Members will see trending information impacting their score and educational resources. In a recent study, Members who paid off $5,000 in credit card balances using a Payoff Loan saw an average increase in their FICO® Score of 40 points.
  • Are a growing community: With a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 80, Payoff Members are showing their desire to join our financial wellness movement and help us continue to build an even better and growing community. Payoff has been very positively reviewed within the industry’s leading sites, such as Magnify Money (A+ Transparency Score), NerdWallet (Best Customer Experience), ekomi (4.8 out of 5 stars), CreditKarma and the Better Business Bureau.

What is the biggest challenge you’re finding growing a company in consumer finance?

Breaking the status quo. Financial wellness is a new concept. The status quo is delivering traditional financial products and services that don’t help customers achieve success. At Payoff, we put our Members first and have their best interests at heart. We meet them where they are today, take the time to listen and understand them, and develop products and services that support their needs. For example, we focus on their most costly problem today  – past credit card debt – and offer a refinance loan to help eliminate it instead of offering multiple loans to encourage new debt. We also offer our complimentary online Lift program that’s a hub of useful financial tools and tips.

How does Payoff balance the friction between “wanting users to become free of debt” vs. building a consumer credit card company that monetizes such debt?

We have a solid foundation and business model designed around the idea that when the customer wins, we win. If it were up to us, we wouldn’t call it a loan, because it’s really their goal to eliminate the credit card balances that they currently have, and we’re partnering with them to achieve that goal. The loan is really just one part of that relationship — and we issue a single loan to Members to pay off their debts, not second and third loans. Along their journey with us, our goal for our Members is to get them on their personal path from borrower to saver, investor and giver, and help them achieve their dreams.

How do you think about distribution? What does your funnel look like?

Our focus is currently on serving the U.S. market. We have an integrated marketing approach that includes direct response with supporting paid ads, social engagement, and direct mail. We’re also building a vibrant community of partners who share our values and want to introduce Payoff and our solutions to their own community members.

What’s in store for Payoff in 2016?

This will be the most exciting year ever in the journey of Payoff. Last year we helped thousands of Americans to begin their paths from borrower to saver as we refinanced credit card debt. We’ve also helped our Members improve their FICO® Scores by an average of 27 points. This year we’ll launch new solutions to help them continue that journey, understand themselves better and develop the level of peace that we should all be able to have with regard to money in our lives. We’ll also continue to innovate and explore opportunities that extend our reach and impact in support of our mission.