Loans give people more financial security. If people know that they can receive a loan, they will be more willing to take intelligent risks. A loan can allow for a short-term investment that pays off enough to justify the interest rate on that loan.
For the lender, a loan can be a fantastic return on capital–as long as the lendee does not default. When banks were the rulers of the financial infrastructure, most of them would err on the side of caution when it came to lending. They would adhere strictly to credit scores, and a wanting customer would be out of luck if they did not have a credit score, or if their credit score had gotten lower than acceptable.
Newer fintech companies are taking advantage of data sources other than credit scores. They are using machine learning in conjunction with these new data sources to find viable lendees who would be overlooked by traditional institutions.
Ofer Mendelevitch is the VP of data science at LendUp. He joins the show to explain why loans are important, how LendUp functions, and the machine learning systems that power an intelligent system of lending.
