While banks are working to respond to increased consumer demand for web-enabled financial services, one young company is trying to grow its business by eliminating the need for the bank entirely.
Not that banks are likely to be replaced “” but in the case of personal lending, executives at Lending Club say investors can earn higher returns, even while consumers enjoy lower-than-normal rates on their debt, by replacing the brick-and-mortar bank with a lending platform in the cloud.
In an effort to continue the build out of its web-based platform, Lending Club recently hired John MacIlwain as its chief technology officer. MacIlwain has worked previously for Visa, Green Dot and Morgan Stanley, exposing him to both sides of the “investor/investee” market.
We talked to Lending Club’s new executive about how the platform will grow in the future, his experiences at Visa and Morgan Stanley, and the impact web-based financial players are having on the status quo.
