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How to Lend Money to Strangers — Business
How to Lend Money to Strangers

A podcast about lending innovation and lending leadership in all the markets in which it takes place, however diverse those markets may be. In fact, it’s a case of ‘the more diverse the better,’ with guests from New York to New Zealand discussing everything from crypto-backed mortgages to crowd-funded loans for refugees to gamified loan journeys to AI-powered credit scores.

I am the host, Brendan le Grange, and I have spent the last twenty years working in – or alongside – lenders in Africa, Asia, and Europe and I’m using that experience to find and learn from industry insiders in a series of weekly interviews. Sometimes, those interviews discuss the inspiration behind a new start-up, sometimes they look back at a career spent at the lending coal face, and sometimes they explore where the latest technologies might take us. In the end, if it shapes a lending decision, we’ll talk about how. You can join us every Thursday here, or wherever you prefer to find your podcasts.

You can find more at www.HowToLendMoneytoStrangers.show

Or follow my other projects at https://confirmu.com/, https://www.joinhumoni.com/, https://chaos-out-of-order.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Closing a mortgage faster, with Eilon Shalev (Elphi) Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

The fact that it takes 45 days to close a mortgage in America today is not just a one-time hassle for home buyers, it can be a source of ongoing compounding costs. Nobody wants that, least of all Eilon Shalev my guest today and the co-founder and CEO of Elphi, a fintech that wants to bring that down to fifteen days.

“Elphi is a technology company. We provide enterprise software as a service to mortgage lenders, to help them close loans faster. That's the gist of it.”

You can find Elphi and more on its story at https://www.elphi.io/ (or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/elphi-inc/ )

Eilon is on LinkedIn, too, though don’t forget to mention the podcast when you reach out (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eilonshalev/)

Eilon also shares his email in this podcast, so listen out for that if you prefer to make direct contact - or find it in the transcript at https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-88

We also talk a lot about Eilon’s time at MIT Sloan, if an entrepreneurial MBA is on your 2023 wishlist, learn more here (). Need to fund it, perhaps my guests from episode 22: https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-22?

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

Regards, Brendan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transforming the credit landscape in Central Asia, with Abdullo Kurbanov (Alif Bank) Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Alif Bank has grown into one of the leading fintechs in Central Asia; and with its portfolio of Sharia-compliant lending, payments, and banking products it's showing that fintech can be based on noble values.

Alif Bank and all its products can be found at www.alif.tj (click the link to jump to English) or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/alif-capital/

Abdullo himself, who you've heard is very personable, is also there at https://www.linkedin.com/in/akurbanov/

You can read about the academy and how Alif are building future tech stars at https://fintechmagazine.com/financial-services-finserv/fintech-in-tajikistan-director-of-alif-academy-on-diversity

Then, in the episode Abdullo mentions how Alif are now an AWS case study, and he means that literally, you can read more about their hybrid migration to AWS at https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/alif-bank-case-study/

Somon.tj is exactly where you'd expect it: https://somon.tj/

Tajikistan is a mountainous, rugged country - if you'd like to visit it, read more here https://wikitravel.org/en/Tajikistan or here https://advntr.cc/the-not-knowing-an-adventure-in-tajikistan/

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.

Now you can buy that boat you've always had your eye on, with Joe Dalton (Salt) Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

So you want to own a boat but you don't know how to finance it? Then we've got you covered. I'm in Venice with the family this week, a city more closely linked to boats than almost any other. That's a coincidence. We're not talking about gondolas or cruise ships, today, but we are talking about pretty much every vessel in between.

You can read more about Salt and its launch at https://www.salt-finance.com/

Joe is on LinkedIn, as is Salt itself (they're also on Instagram, where their pictures are getting me a bit too interested in buying a boat myself).

Or if you're really quick, you can find them all in person at Boat Life 2023 in Birmingham where they're sponsoring the Live Stage

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.

Turning a customer obsession into retail credit, with Regan Adams (RCS) Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

"Retailers are obsessed about consumers." And it is by leveraging the fruits of this obsession, their understanding, that retail creditors can take on the bigger, more cheaply-funded banks

RCS is found at https://rcs.co.za/ and they're on LinkedIn, too (plus Facebook and Instagram)

Mobicred is at https://mobicred.co.za/

Read more about the RCS rising star tennis academy at https://www.tennissa.co.za/w/play/rising-star-tennis (or click here to read the announcement and at see a snap of Regan's formidable forehand in action)

Forest Whitaker's Peace and Development Initiative is an important one, and can be found at https://www.wpdi.org/ (for more on RCS's role with it, click here)

Piketberg where Regan found himself as a straight-out-of-university engineer, is a small town about a hundred miles north of Cape Town. It might not have been the most exciting location for a young man to start his career, but it seems to have embraced active tourism - so if you're looking for some mountain biking within reach of the (ice cold) sea and some exciting wine producers, check out their tourism offerings. Travel a little bit further up the coast and you'll find Lambert's Bay, where I once worked at the Crayfish Festival but there's a whole different story in there 😂

I tease Sam a little for his tennis here, he is remarkably talented when it comes to brand health tracking, so look him up and tell him I sent you if that's something you need.

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.

Lending innovation in Finland, with Kim Ahola (Creditstar) Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

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.

Financing the property industry, with Paul Watts (Lenuity) Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

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.

Credit management meets innovation and ethics in Nigeria, with Moses Nmor (BFREE) Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

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.

Transformative change in credit scoring, with Sanjay Uppal (Finbots.AI) Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

“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.

Helping students to achieve their financial goals, with Ethan Fraenkel (ProGrad) Jan 05, 2023

Show notes

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.

Growth from a small island, with Mark van Beuningen (CIM Group) Dec 29, 2022

Show notes

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.

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