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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:

Expanding access to micro-credit and micro-incomes, with Adam Rice (AssetDirect) Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

This is not investment advice, but I’m going to put it out there: Adam Rice is one of the most exciting entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to on this show, with AssetDirect a bold embodiment of his ambitions - providing access to credit to underserved populations in Canada and now around the world. That alone is great, I love an ‘access to credit’ story on this show, but there is another layer to it, by turning existing pillars of their communities into his sales network, Adam is also creating new income streams for corner store owners, rickshaw drivers, and other micro-entrepreneurs.

And he is poised to build “the largest network of financial sales agents the world has ever seen”.

Join us in this episode to get as excited as I am.

To learn more about AssetDirect head on over to https://www.assetdirect.io/ (or to learn more about CreditLinks specifically, https://www.creditlinks.in/

While their crowdfunding campaign is at https://www.frontfundr.com/assetdirect

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Keep well,

Brendan

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

Purposeful BNPL in an emerging market, with Mark McChlery (PayJustNow) Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

My career in consumer credit started in South Africa, a little over twenty years ago, when making access to credit fairer for the lower tiers of the economic pyramid meant investing resources to build better credit scores so that we could bring our rates below the statutory maximum. We were young and idealistic, but still, by starting with a lender’s mindset we figured that the answer lay in an iteration of small improvements that might bring APRs down little by little.

And perhaps, if I was asked then where rates would be today, success would have seen average APRs down from around 60% to maybe 40%, or even 30% if I’d been feeling optimistic. But not 0%.

Of course not, that would’ve been crazy. Except, as it turns out, it wasn’t.

By re-imaging what a budgeting tool could look like, PayJustNow, a South African BNPL with a purpose, have created an interest-free three-month instalment offering for those often overlooked by the big credit ptoviders. In this episode, I speak to Mark McChlery (co-founder Chief Data and Analytics Officer) to hear about the philosophy behind the business, and how they’re building tools for consumers and the communities in which they exist.

You can find out all you need to know about PayJustNow at https://payjustnow.com/

Or to learn more about Weaver FinTech, their holding company, head over to https://www.weaverfintech.com/

And if you’d like to see the FOM x Kolisi shoes mentioned, you can check those out over here: https://freedomofmovement.co.za/product-category/men/mens-footwear/

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Keep well,

Brendan

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

Open banking is mainstream, with James Varga (DirectID) Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

No one will give you a job until you have work experience. No one will extend you credit until you have a credit history. Two absurdities that have existed long enough to become absolute cliches, and yet they somehow persist. And more than that, they’re two hurdles that are easier to overcome if you come from money - maybe you’ve got an aunt who could have a word with the bank’s CEO…

Well, that’s actually changing now. We’ve spoken about Open Banking before, quite recently actually, but in today’s discussion with James Varga of DirectID we really zoom into the impact that analysis all financial data - debit, credit, and otherwise - can have on expanding access to credit, and how it can remove the need for the self-sabotaging credit score management tactics of old.

DirectID is leveraging Open Finance and bank statement data to help lenders understand their customers throughout the credit risk lifecycle, and they’re hiring - so if you want to learn more about the product offering, head on over to www.direct.id or if you want to help build those products, it’s www.direct.id/company/careers

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Keep well,

Brendan

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

Can the blockchain solve ‘identity’, with Jonathan Camilleri Bowman (Sekuritance) Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

It’s weird: when I moved house, the world suddenly stopped while everyone waited for me to get a new utility bill, at which point we resumed normal service with me once again a verified real-life person. We've said it on this show before, but there has to be a better way to prove identities than a utility bill, a signature, and an unchangeable government-issued number of some sorts…

And of course, there is, but none of the ones we’ve discussed to date felt complete, which is why I was keen to speak to Jonathan Camilleri Bowman. Having got too-often bumped into issues when trying to verify identities for his earlier business, he founded Sekuritance as a CeFi and DeFi RegTech ecosystem that could provide a one-stop-shop on all compliance needs.

So in this episode we chat about what that means and whether the auditable nature of the blockchain might offer a solution to solving the identity problem.

You can learn more about Sekuritance on their homepage - www.sekuritance.com - and while their academy is not up yet, you can find more details on the Oxford University Blockchain course here

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Open Banking in Greece and beyond, with Dimitris Petrilis (Infin8) Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

We’ve spoken about Open Banking on this show before, often from the perspective of how to use the data, and often with a UK-centric point-of-view given the early lead we’ve seen the region take in terms of large-scale adoption.

In today’s episode, we’re moving further afield and taking a look under the hood, as it were, with Dimitris Petrilis from Infin8, and also adding a little context of the Greek fintech landscape.

You can learn more about Infin8 and their European Open Banking at www.infin8.eu

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Touch and tech in African consumer loans, with Michiel le Roux (Unifi Credit) Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Not every hot new name in consumer lending is some smartphone-native app underpinned by a quiver of machine learning algorithms. But also, not every hot new name in consumer lending is actually making a profit.

This is why Michiel le Roux, Group CEO of Unifi Credit is taking on sub-Saharan Africa with a ‘touch and tech’ approach. A good ol’ fashioned branch network provides a route into the system for consumers, but as data is generated limits grow and transactions can move fully digital - a best of both worlds approach that doesn’t leave the less tech-savvy behind.

In this episode, we chat about growing a continent-wide lending business out of Zambia, and building a scalable business off the back of better data management.

The best place to find out more about Michiel and Unifi Credit is their homepage (www.unifi.credit) - and as mentioned, they’re growing, so if you’re interested in working with them that’s here.

And, hey, if you’re in South Africa and you’re looking for a multi-asset, multi-strategy manager of alternative investment funds and co-investment platforms have a look at www.westbrooke.co.za (and tell Duncan I sent you 🤣)

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Learning from our lending mistakes, with James Lambridis (DebtMD) Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

Not every loan made to a stranger is a good one, sometimes the lender suffers as a result, almost always the borrower does. On this show, we often talk about how to mitigate the pain felt by lenders, upfront or after the fact, but we’ve also scratched the surface when it comes to taking the customer’s point-of-view - in today’s episode, I want to go a level deeper.

Which is why I’m speaking to James Lambridis of DebtMD. James and his team help consumers that are in tricky debt situations, regain control. In other words, they’re well-placed to be the mouthpiece for the consumer, feeding back to us any lessons that we might be able to gather from miss-made or miss-managed loans. After all, we learn the most from our mistakes.

You can learn more about DebtMD via their website and in particular via their blog

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), while you can find my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free.

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.

Lending against assets, all assets, with James Constantinou (Prestige Pawnbrokers) Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

Where do you go next when you already have your own show on Channel 4? Well, to HTLMTS apparently 😁

In today’s episode, I speak to the founder of Prestige Pawnbrokers and star of Posh Pawn, James Constantinou. It was a slightly left-field booking for me when the idea was first floated, but then I realised that the much-maligned pawnbroking model can also be a disruptive approach to asset-backed lending. What would you do if you needed funds to start a business?

Mortgage your house?

That’s often your only option, but what if you don’t need that much or you don’t need the money for all that long? Why can’t you leverage your smaller assets? Maybe you have a nice watch or some jewellery, a painting, or a signed first-edition you inherited from your gran. Why can’t you take those into the bank to borrow against? The simple answer is because no bank manager is going to go through the trouble of valuing your stuff… but a pawnbroker will and therein lies the rub.

You can learn more about Prestige Pawnbrokers on their home page, or on their Twitter or Insta

They also have an app for Apple and Android

I watched the show Posh Pawn on YouTube, but it’s probably easiest to find it via their site here

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect while there), and if you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me at brendan@howtolendmoneytostrangers.show

A full written transcript with timestamps can be found on HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show

You can also find my pulpy action-adventure novels in all their formats on Amazon

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

Consumers and their credit data, with Kelli Fielding (TransUnion) Feb 17, 2022

Show notes

I spent several years creating industry-level research for one of the big credit bureaus, first in Asia and then in Europe. During that time, one of my defining projects was a deep dive into the value generated by consumers monitoring their own credit reports. Prior to my study, I'd only seen this addressed as a single question: do consumers who monitor their own credit data regularly, see improving credit scores?

But that’s not a specific enough question to understand the nuance… sure, if you were only going to pick one metric to track that would be the one but the fact is consumers can monitor their credit for many reasons, and those varying reasons can dilute the observable benefit.

You can read more about what I found here, but the reason I’m calling it out is that even five years ago the interaction between consumers and their own credit data was complex, and it’s only become more complex with the emergence of Open Data. So in today’s episode of HTLMTS I speak to Kelli Fielding, TransUnion UK’s Head of Consumer Interactive, to learn more.

As Kelli mentions in our chat, your best place to start learning more about TransUnion is their homepage

Or you can find Kelli Fielding herself on LinkedIn

And you can also learn more about Monevo, as you’d expect, at monevo.com

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect while there), and if you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me at brendan@howtolendmoneytostrangers.show

A full written transcript with timestamps can be found on HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show

You can also find my pulpy action-adventure novels in all their formats on Amazon

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

Could we lend against crypto assets, with Phil Blows (AQRU) Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

We owe this episode to a comment Praveen Sinha made in episode 15. Praveen was talking about the trends to watch in fintech/ lending in India and mentioned cryptocurrency as an asset he'd love to lend against, not least of all for the global scope it could add to his business.

And that stuck in my mind. So when I learned of AQRU and the fact that they were paying actual money interest on crypto deposits, I wondered if we could put two and two together - after all, wouldn't the first step in treating crypto like a real asset look at a lot like that?

But I know so little about crypto that we had to start by taking a few steps back. Join us to learn more about the current state of the crypto market and what it might take to turn it into an asset a lender might consider to be suitable security.

You can learn more about AQRU on their website: www.aqru.io

You can find - and chat to - Phil on LinkedIn

You can find Phil’s own book - The Money Triangle - and the one he mentioned - A Beautiful Constraint - both on Amazon

You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect while there), and if you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me at brendan@howtolendmoneytostrangers.show

A full written transcript with timestamps can be found on HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show

You can also find my pulpy action-adventure novels in all their formats on Amazon

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

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