They say that the Americans always do it bigger and better and nothing could be more true about LendIt in San Francisco. There were over 3,500 attendees, hundreds of platforms and an exhibition hall filled with industry service providers.
The event kicked off with Renauld Laplanche, Founder & CEO of Lending Club and Peter Renton, Conference Chairman of LendIt and Co-Founder & Partner of Lend Academy, summarising the past 12 months and identifying what we should be concentrating on in 2016.
Renaud Laplanche’s presentation titled “From Sapling to Ironwood, Marketplace Lending’s Next Phase of Growth,” talked about several of the headwinds the industry is facing such as venture capital funding, interest rates, economic cycles and regulatory landscape. He highlighted three themes for Lending Club, which included prudent growth, operating efficiency and business continuity, something which all platforms should strive for. Peter Renton covered the good, the bad and the ugly side of the industry and concluded that the fundamentals remained strong.
Delegates then dispersed across nine different break-out rooms, over four different floors covering topic stemming from real estate, regulation, credit and underwriting, to digital marketing and international platforms.
Most attendees were quick to introduce themselves and discuss how and where they fit into this growing marketplace. There were a lot of intelligent people doing or proposing some clever ideas, which leaves us to believe that the future of finance is promising. Change is happening and the next generations will interact and manage their finances in very new, innovative and exciting ways and we are looking forward to being a part of the change.
