Loan

Auto Loans Get Their SoFi Moment

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Social Finance Inc., the online lender that built a small empire reworking student debt, will announce a plan this week to refinance auto loans, the latest in a product push as it burnishes its own finances before anexpected public listing.

The 10-year-old company is offering the service through a partnership with MotoRefi, a startup whose digital platform connects debtors with banks and credit unions and handles the tedious paperwork of reworking auto loans with state motor vehicle departments. 

“We constantly hear from our members on what products they’d like us to offer, and

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Sunil Dewali, COO, Andromeda Loans

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

1. Why did you decide to enter the lending business?

Fortunately, accidentally! Back in the 1990s, I was looking for a job and what better place to start than the world of financial services? I am a self-made person and started my career as a sales person and continue to remain proudly hand-on involved in the day-to-day operations of the business.

2. How has Covid affected your business?

The decision to impose a lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 did bring economic activities across all sectors to a halt. The finance sector also felt an impact during the period.

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Banks Have A Long, Long Way To Go

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK

As a buzzword and management fad, digital transformation has about another 12 to 18 months before some new fad begins to take hold.

Banks, on the other hand, have a long way to go to achieve their digital transformation.

A study from Cornerstone Advisors found that only about a quarter of banks and credit unions had embarked on a digital transformation strategy prior to 2019, and that 45% hadn’t launched a strategy prior to this year.

Not surprisingly, then, few banks

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Credit Card Points: Next Up, Shrink Your Student Loans, Invest in Bitcoin

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

Credit card rewards have typically fallen into two buckets: aspirational (upgrading to a first-class flight, getting a free hotel stay) or practical (earning cash back). But what if you could cover the cost of a trip to space or pay down your student loan?

Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and big banks are revisiting their rewards programs to cater to younger customers who want to use their cards to build wealth or get out of debt—not just rack up perks. Financial-technology, or fintech, upstarts are offering niche rewards to better compete against the established players.

Companies are also re-evaluating travel rewards

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Brazil’s biggest banks battle for reinvention in digital era

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

Brazil’s big banks had it good for years.

A small club of institutions dominates the high street in Latin America’s largest economy, long notorious for its costly banking fees and borrowing rates, with their fat margins often the source of public anger.

“Profits are enormous at the banks. They are really excessive,” was the verdict in 2019 by one politician — not a leftist firebrand, but the country’s pro-market economy minister, Paulo Guedes.

But as the oligopoly faces a trifecta of low interest rates, the economic impact of Covid-19 and digital upstarts snapping at their heels, lenders are under pressure

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Will Google’s New High-Risk Permissions Policy Impact Indian Loan Apps?

Andreas Milano 1 week ago

Google’s policy that will disallow applications from accessing high-risk information from other apps

The said policy can severely impact the Indian digital lenders which rely on data from other applications to evaluate creditworthiness

Google requires developers to explicitly state the reason to acquire such high-risk permissions from May 5, 2021

Google has announced major changes to its Google Play developer policy that will disallow applications from accessing high-risk information or sensitive permissions from other apps installed on an Android device. The move also aims to stop an application’s access to installed app inventory on an Android device until it impacts

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