From online application to money in the customer’s account in 36 minutes


From customer service (call centres), fraud detection & prevention, credit scoring & risk assessment, personalised banking, routine task automation, loan approvals, trading, to regulatory compliance and much more, Ai is changing finance, and fast.

In this episode Glen Frost interviews Julian Fayad on how his business, LoanOptions.Ai is changing unsecured lending, including how decisioning and payment is getting faster and faster – with the record at LoanOptions.Ai being 36 minutes for a Nurse to apply online, be and approved and received the money in their account in 36 mintues.

Loan Options AI is an AI powered loan matching and application platform to find you the best offers for car loans, personal loans, business loans, equipment loans and all other types of asset finance. LoanOptions.ai uses a combination of AI and dynamic logic to provide predictive pre-approval and accurate lender rates for hundreds of financial products from over 90 different banks and lenders. You can apply in under 5 minutes with no impact to your credit score.

Julian originally started in technology and has spent his entire career in asset finance, and Loan Options.ai is the culmination of everything he knows & using technology to make lending a better, faster and more efficient experience for the customer and the lender.

The FinTech Report Podcast: Episode 55: Angelina Wu, CEO & Co-Founder, InvestmentMarkets

Investment Markets launches to sophisticated (self directed) investors with 500 products, plans for growth

Angelina Wu, CEO & Co-Founder, InvestmentMarkets

investmentmarkets.com.au is an independent, Australian investment platform. It is a two sided market place for self-directed high net worth investors and investment product issuers (from emerging companies to institutionally managed funds to fixed interest products) – essentially, anything that is ‘unitised’.

Their taglines are "Every kind of investment opportunity, all in one place " and "the Home of the Independent Investor"

Angelina’s background includes money markets, wealth advisory and media, including stints with Commonwealth Bank, UniSuper, Trustees Australian and Guangzhou TV in China, and the last 4.5 years with investment markets.

Angelina and her co-founder Chris Morton launched in March this year after years of testing and refining the service.

Learn more: www.investmentmarkets.com.au

Contact Angelina: angelina@investmentmarkets.com.au

Topics discussed include:

1. What led Angelina and her Co-Founder to create Investment Markets?

2. What problem they are solving? How does the platform work? What is the unique selling proposition?

3. Angelina describes a user journey

4. Who are the customers? Who are the product issuers?

5. What types of products/investments are available for investors?

6. How does matching work? There is no advice on financial products

7. What’s the business model? (product provider charged a flat fee)

8. Why Investment Markets have undertaken two years’ worth of research before launching

9. Future plans? New products, new markets?

10. What does success look like?

Why don’t people switch banks? ACCC Retail Deposits Inquiry shines light on banks approach to deposit accounts; insights in ACCC Report influences Upworth to create ‘Savings Account Scanner’

THE FINTECH REPORT PODCAST: EPISODE 54: Alexandre Chavotier, Co-Founder & CEO, Upworth

According to Alex, the ACCC Report key points are:

Limited competition, interest rates not shown
Entry is hard
Product complexity (active pricing strategy)
Segmentation, price discrimination (introductory rates, bonus rates; ACCC report found 70% of account holders did not achieve the bonus rate)
Household deposits matter
Comparison websites
People generally don’t switch banks – why? Can CDR help solve this?


About Alex:

· Started career in investment banking in Europe before working at McKinsey and Quantum Black in Sydney

· Was at the forefront of McKinsey´s work in AI, including the development of a trading solution that secured internal VC funding

· Consulted to all the large Australian banks on an array of strategic topics and projects

· Came back to Australia 2 years ago to start Upworth after a 3-year stint in Mexico as right-hand to the Founder and CEO of ZeBrands, a successful scale-up comparable to Koala here (mattresses sold online)

About Upworth:

· Upworth is the wealth superapp.

· A one-stop-shop for personal finances where you can connect all your accounts to track your net worth, access unique and personalized insights and apply for financial products in a few clicks

In this episode we discuss:

1. ACCC Report – top 3 issues/key chapters (and Upworth’s interpretation)

a. Deposit accounts: limited competition, interest rates not shown

b. Many banks offer retail deposit products, but the sector is concentrated with barriers to entry and expansion; There are 4 major banks and 6 mid-tier banks which supply 89% of retail deposits, and a long tail of smaller banks supplying the remainder

c. Open Banking slow – why?

d. Chapter 7: Strategic pricing strategies lead to greater complexity for consumers and, for some, poorer outcomes – why?

2. Opportunities for Upworth?

3. How does it work?

4. What do users / customers need to connect? Eg bank accounts. And how do they do this?

5. Tech behind the new product? Platform, APIs, open banking, who do you partner with?

6. Results so far?