How to Lend Money to Strangers

Lending in Thailand and SE Asia, with Marco Chu (TransUnion) and Phadet Charoensivakorn (NCB)

Thailand is one of my favourite markets. My main memories are of the fantastic food, the vibrant streets, and the perfect beaches but I also helped to roll out the first-ever national credit bureau score there and that’s what we’ll be talking about today. Thailand is a young country with a fast-evolving fintech scene, so I have pulled together Khun Phadet Charoensivakorn (COO of the National Credit Bureau) and Marco Chu (Business Development Director for TransUnion in SE Asia). Together we discuss the state of the Thai market, how it fared during COVID, how it is changing, and the larger regional context as we touch on working with markets with contrasting risk baselines. Phadet is on LinkedIn, if you have more questions about the Thai credit landscape, or email him at phadet@ncb.co.th (you can also read more at https://www.ncb.co.th/about-us/history-en) While you can find Marco on LinkedIn, too, and read more about my old colleague's work in the region via https://www.transunion.hk/home  Finally, if it is me you're after, you can find me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), and my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free. If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Regards, Brendan

How to Lend Money to Charities, with Holger Westphely (CAF Venturesome)

Now, here is a topic I didn’t see coming. But why lend money to a charity, isn’t that a bit mean, to ask for your money back if they’re doing work you believe in? I spoke to Holger Westphely, Acting Head of CAF Venturesome, to find out how and why loans are sometimes better than donations. It's very difficult to raise grant funding for anything that isn't directly related to a charity programme. Anything that has the word 'admin' in it is an anathema to many philanthropists. And that's where we come in, because we believe that a well run organisation needs OpEx, it needs CapEx… Secondly, from a philanthropist point of view, it can help the capital go further And you can hear more of that on today’s episode. As mentioned, you can learn more about CAF Venturesome at www.venturesome.org and more about the parent organisation at www.cafonline.org Holger also mentioned two very worthy causes in this chat, and you can learn more about both on each of their homepages - Ubuntu Pathways is at https://ubuntupathways.org/ and the Peaceful Change Initiative is at https://peacefulchange.org/ Or if it is me you're after, you can find me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), and my action-adventure novels on Amazon, some versions even for free. If you have any feedback or questions, if you would like to participate in the show, or if you'd like to find full written transcripts with timestamps head on over to HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show Regards, Brendan

Building an all-in-one credit platform, with Ash Bhatt (Pillar)

As a three-time immigrant myself, I’m always going to pay attention when I hear that’s there’s a new fintech in town building credit that moves with you, doubly so when one of the co-founders of that fintech is Ash Bhatt who I first met when he was Head of Lending at Revolut, for the US and UK markets. Ash has used that international experience, and his own experience as an immigrant in London, to build Pillar as an all-in-one credit platform for anyone who finds themselves excluded from the traditional credit marketplace. As you know, the person who has withdrawn cash on the credit card is deemed high-risk, but when the person is actually withdrawing the cash why wouldn't the credit card company give them a prompt saying, “hey, did you realise if you do this, your score may go down?” Pillar will help consumers build credit scores, maintain those scores, and access credit all in one place, and you can learn more - and join their waiting list - at https://www.hellopillar.com/ This is also my first in-person recording, and while I need to improve my mic discipline, I hope the more interactive feel outweighs the little patches of poor audio. If you’re interested in the risk-based pricing study I mentioned, you can read a summary on my LinkedIn page here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/increased-price-transparency-shake-up-hong-kong-loan-market-brendan/ And the full discussion with Misha Esipov of Nova Credit, where we cover related topics, is episode 11 - https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-11 Or if it is me you're after, you can find me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), and 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

Consumer protection in Inclusive Finance, with Jayshree Venkatesan (Center for Financial Inclusion)

It used to be that developing markets suffered because they didn’t have physical bank branches. And as a result, a lot of innovation sought to find workarounds that the developed markets just didn't need. But now that none of us have physical branches, the solutions built in the developing markets have the freedom to spread globally. I’ve spoken about this before in the context of fintech, but today we look at how what we learn about responsible lending and safe banking experiences in the developing world, might help us build the same in the developed world.   Join me and Jayshree Venkatesan from Center for Financial Inclusion as we chat about her latest research on the topic.   You can sign-up to the Responsible Finance Forum mailing list by clicking here and plan for Financial Inclusion Week (October 17 to 20) over at www.financialinclusionweek.org   That 99% Invisible episode on curb cuts can be found here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/curb-cuts/  Or if it is me you're after, you can find me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), and 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

Active credit building, with Sho Sugihara (Pave)

I’ve recently moved and now I have an electric stovetop, the old-fashioned type that stays hot for ages. When I inevitably place a stray hand on a still-hot plate, it’ll take my nerve impulses about 15 milliseconds to reach my brain, add a bit of processing time and allow for the return journey, and in under a fifth of a second, my hand will move away. The process is so fast because the brain wants to give my arm the instructions it needs while it is still useful to do so. Pave takes a similar approach to credit management. Allow me to quickly repurpose that hotplate scenario: if you take an action today that will unknowingly harm your credit profile, it will take the ‘credit nerve impulses’ two to three months to reach the credit bureau, another month for the impact of that action to be reflected in your credit score for the first time, another couple of months to notice the downward trend, and then more time for you to investigate the true cause - so maybe six months. That’s not fast enough to be useful, because even if you make a complete u-turn, you’ll have six months of negative impact still in the bank, as it were. So for the next sixth months, you’ll just have to trust that the compromises you’re making are paying off. That takes a lot of discipline. And it is worse than that because most of us have to follow a trial-and-error approach to credit building, so for many they’ll make the right change, see no impact, and try something else. Sho Sugihara built Pave to try and fix this, providing credit feedback fast enough to influence outcomes, supported by human credit experts that remove the guesswork, and credit products that actively stop you missing a bill payment. Join us to learn more about the hows and whys. You can learn more about Pave at https://www.paveapp.com/ (you’ll find a link for potential partners there, too, while their quite excellent blog is at https://www.paveapp.com/blog) Or if you prefer the big social media platforms, they’ll be at LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter And if you want to speak to Sho directly, you can find him on LinkedIn or email him at sho@paveapp.com If your heartstrings were tugged, you can learn about The Big Issue here, while if it was your ambition that got all riled up, you can find Entrepreneur First here Or if it is me you're after, you can find me on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), and 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

Financing smart agriculture, with Allan Tollo (MyFugo)

I know the voiceover says this is my 38th show, but a quick reshuffle means it is actually the 40th, still, my message remains the same - MyFugo is possibly the best representation I've seen to date of the benefit that credit can bring to previously underserved markets. I’ve gotten excited about mortgages as a tool for wealth creation, Ivy League student loans as a route to well-paying international careers, and SME loans as a root to economic progress, but MyFugo’s wraparound service for smallholder dairy farmers stands to benefit so many sectors of the Kenyan economy. Join me and Allan Tollo, founder and CEO, to find out how. You can find MyFugo on their homepage here - http://myfugo.com/our-team/ - but also, as Allan mentioned, on many of the big social media platforms, including Facebook where they are most active - https://www.facebook.com/myfugoApp/ You can also learn more about ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores at https://confirmu.com/ or on episode 24 of this show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24 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

The cards are alright... for now, with Liz Ruddick (FICO)

Liz Ruddick is the author of the UK Cards Report, FICO’s go-to resources for anyone working in the UK card industry. This means Liz is perfectly placed to put the latest card trends in perspective, and it’s another case of ‘it could be worse’. The cost of living is rising around the world, so things may yet turn bad, but for now, consumers are spending relatively well and reigning in their balances. But… “lenders will need to be vigilant to any further increases in missed payments in the coming months and ensure that they are offering support to customers where it’s needed”. Join us to find out more about these trends – and now covering the US and Canadian markets, too. You can find Liz Ruddick on LinkedIn and her report on the UK card market in more detail at https://www.fico.com/blogs/uk-cards-trends-good-performance-despite-rising-living-costs While you can of course learn more about FICO and their product/ services by visiting their home page at https://www.fico.com/ 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

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

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

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

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

Open banking is mainstream, with James Varga (DirectID)

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