How to Lend Money to Strangers

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

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  

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

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  

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

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  

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lending against crypto assets, with Phil Blows (AQRU)

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

Fixing vendor finance, with Alex Armitage (Nectarine Credit)

For the last 20 years, I've been delivering lending projects across the credit life-cycle and around the world, but always focused on the consumer. The only time I've come into contact with small business lending is on the very fringes when we've used a business owners personal credit report to estimate the risk of their new business. Or, in other words, I've only ever seen half of the picture. I started to address this in Episode 25, with Alek Koenig, but there’s so much more to learn. So today we’re back talking about lending to SMEs, with Alex Armitage. Alex is the founder and CEO of Nectarine Credit, a Canadian fintech that’s built a marketplace that brings together borrowers and lenders in the vendor finance arena, taking a process that used to take weeks down into one that can take only a few hours. You can learn more about Nectarine Credit on www.nectarinecredit.com or by clicking here You can find Alex on his LinkedIn page here You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (and while you're there, send me a connection request) 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

A global career in collections, with Chris Somervell

New Zealand might be forgotten from world maps so often that it’s become a meme, but that didn’t stop today’s guest from taking his career truly global. Chris Somervell’s has worked in eight countries while away from home, predominantly managing collections operations. And that’s what we discuss: lessons learned as technology developed and cultures changed alongside him, and a fundamental reimagining of what it could mean to work in collections. You can find Chris on his LinkedIn page (or out sailing) You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (and while you're there, send me a connection request) 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

What is an identity, with Jaime Ramirez (Preventor)

In episode 17 of this show, John Cannon said of identity that “when you really sit down and think about it, in the digital world, it is broken." On the back of that statement, we could hardly leave it to just the one discussion, so in this episode, I’m talking to Jaime Ramirez, founder and CEO of Preventor, a Miami-based fintech that’s building the next generation in ID verification and financial crime risk management. We talk about the challenges of verifying identity in an increasingly online and increasingly global marketplace. You can learn more about Preventor on their home page You can contact Jaime directly via his LinkedIn page You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page  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